Faithful Innovation: Negotiating Institutional Logics for AI Value Alignment Among Christian Churches in America

As artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are progressively integrated across life domains, religious organizations are negotiating opportunities and tensions as AI applications are incorporated into their daily practices. Given the limited and growing research on AI and religion, this study expl...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Cheong, Pauline Hope 1977- (Author)
Contributors: Liu, Liming
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Published: 2025
In: Religions
Year: 2025, Volume: 16, Issue: 3
Further subjects:B Automation
B Authority
B Artificial Intelligence
B Institutional logics
B American Christian churches
B Religious Organizations
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Description
Summary:As artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are progressively integrated across life domains, religious organizations are negotiating opportunities and tensions as AI applications are incorporated into their daily practices. Given the limited and growing research on AI and religion, this study explores how religious leaders perceive and manage emerging automation to align with institutional values. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with pastors in Christian churches in the United States, this study reveals how they understand and prioritize their mission, community solidarity, and beliefs regarding human dignity and agency in their AI adoption. This study helps shed light on the significance of faithful adherence to values in advancing responsible AI and religious human–machine communication. Findings also highlight the performance of religious authority amid the plurality of institutional logics in current church settings. This paper concludes with a call for future research to extend our understanding of the socio-cultural implications of automation and recognize efforts by key religious leadership to influence AI adoption, ethics, and governance.
ISSN:2077-1444
Contains:Enthalten in: Religions
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.3390/rel16030302