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A Theological Account of Artificial Moral Agency
Abstract
This article seeks to explore the idea of artificial moral agency from a theological perspective. By drawing on the Reformed theology of archetype-ectype, it will demonstrate that computational artefacts are the ectype of human moral agents and, consequently, have a partial moral agency. In this light, human moral agents mediate and extend their moral values through computational artefacts, which are ontologically connected with humans and only related to limited particular moral issues. This moral leitmotif opens up a way to deploy carebots into Christian pastoral care while maintaining the human agent's uniqueness and responsibility in pastoral caregiving practices.
... In-person volunteering involves offering free pastoral care in a face-to-face setup between caregivers and the care seekers. This model is still practiced even during the digital age after the introduction of virtual pastoral care since some of the services require pastoral care in its conventional physical-presence form (Xu, 2023). ...
This article presents findings from the study of pastoral care as volunteerism from the perspective of Neo-Pentecostalism. The purpose of the study was to understand the volunteering models used by this Christian tradition based on the study conducted in Bushbuckridge in South Africa. Conducted within the discipline of practical theology using Osmer’s theory of theological reflection, the study followed a qualitative approach within the interpretivist paradigm. It used primary data collected from neo-Pentecostals that were purposively selected from members of neo-Pentecostal churches in Bushbuckridge in South Africa. Augmented by autoethnographic data, the findings were interpreted by concepts from academic literature with a selection of scriptures used to determine the biblical foundation pastoral care. Using a thematic analysis, the study found that neo-Pentecostal caregivers in the research site offer pastoral care voluntarily using three models, namely in-person, remote and hybrid volunteerism. Whereas this study reveals that the research participants offer pastoral care at no cost, this is not a commonly held standard as some caregivers in some established neo-Pentecostal churches charge a consultation fee. Regardless of these complexities and multiplicity of complementary models, pastoral care from the perspective of neo-Pentecostalism stems from the biblical foundations and personal convictions. While these findings are likely to contribute to existing knowledge, the findings may not be generalized to various contexts due to limitations of sample size and geographic context. Therefore, it is recommended that future similar studies be conducted in other geographical contexts and other Christian traditions to enhance these models for use by Christians.
The recent prominence of advanced chatbots that greatly mimic human intelligence and conversation appears to have set a new stage in the rapidly developing field of Artificial Intelligence. Chatbots such as ChatGTP and Bard have risen to global popularity among internet users who interface with the chatbots in a nearly humanlike manner through a question-and-answer format. But such great technological developments also give rise to questions regarding theology and spirituality. Thus, this paper asks: what does it mean to be human in an increasingly AI driven world? How can Christian communities around the globe respond to the ongoing developments in the field of AI? Basing on missional anthropology, this paper argues for an understanding of humans as embodied agents of God as central in a missional strategy to respond to the proliferation of advanced AI chatbots today.
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