AI and The Great Emergence
How AI Could Change Christianity
Understand Physical Realities
Accept and Adapt
Live within Gaia
In her book The Great Emergence, Phyllis Tickle argued that every 500 years or so, the Church undergoes a major ‘rummage sale’ — a dramatic reformation or reconfiguration. The transitions that she cites were:
500 CE: Fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of monasticism
1054: The Great Schism (East/West split)
1517: The Protestant Reformation
2000s: The ‘Great Emergence’ — a move beyond denominationalism, toward decentralized and Spirit-led expressions of faith
Tickle saw the changes of early 20th century technology as being driven by cultural upheaval: new communication technologies (the internet), the shifting of authority from institutions to networks, and a longing for experiential and authentic spirituality.
Tickle’s book was published in the year 2008; she herself died in 2015. In other words, she was writing before the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Therefore, we can ask whether her ‘Great Emergence’ insights apply to AI, or whether the current changes are qualitatively different from the ones that she discussed.
The core elements of Tickle’s thesis are:
A major reconfiguration of Christian thought and authority
A new, dominant form of Christianity
Revitalization of older expressions
Expansion of spiritual access for previously marginalized groups
We can review the impact of AI and the Age of Limits by considering each of these points.
Reconfiguration of Thought and Authority
Regarding thought, AI is already making a difference. For example, I posted the following prompt to ChatGPT.
What are the key differences between the gospels of Mark and Matthew. 50 words.
The response was,
Mark is fast-paced, focusing on Jesus’ actions and human struggles, written for a Gentile audience. Matthew, written for Jews, emphasizes Jesus as the fulfillment of prophecy and includes more teaching, like the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew portrays Jesus as the new Moses; Mark highlights mystery and the “Messianic Secret.”
This quite superficial example shows how AI can speed up research and understanding. This accelerates the flattening of authority structures, a theme central to the Emerging Church movement. However, it may empower individuals to explore faith outside traditional channels, echoing Tickle’s theme of “every believer a theologian.”
AI challenges the authority of clergy and institutions as people turn to algorithms, chatbots, and LLMs for biblical interpretation, sermon writing, or even spiritual direction. I suggest that most clergy and church leaders don’t know it yet, but many of their activities will soon be replaced by AI. Even the one-on-one roles such as counseling will be partially supplanted.
New Form of Christianity
This has not happened yet. The obvious precedent is the manner in which the printing press enabled the Lutheran denomination.
Tickle’s emergence was anthropocentric, focused on human community and identity. AI raises deep theological questions:
What is the image of God in a machine age?
Can a machine mediate spiritual truth?
How does human uniqueness persist in a post-human world?
These discussions call for an emergent theology of the non-human — not just AI, but also ecology, animals, and the biosphere. This way of thinking is somewhat in line with out mantra of, ‘Live within Gaia’.
Revitalization of Old Expressions
When Phyllis Tickle used the phrase “revitalization of old expressions,” she was referring to:
The process of recovering and renewing ancient forms of faith expression to make them meaningful again in contemporary spiritual life.
Included in this way of thinking is:
Reclaiming tradition;
Liturgical and spiritual renewal; and
A cyclical pattern in church history.
Arguably, there is some evidence that younger people prefer traditional liturgy. But, realistically, it is too soon to say.
Expansion of Spiritual Access for the Marginalized
AI invites a new contrast: data-driven certainty vs. spiritual mystery. Once more, we will have to wait to see how this plays out.
Tickle embraced the internet as a democratizing force for faith. But AI could also commodify or hollow out religious experience — producing spiritual content at scale without spiritual depth. The Church may need to reclaim spiritual formation as embodied, communal, and slow.
Conclusions
Artificial Intelligence is creating a whole new world ― one that is well beyond Tickle’s imagining (and well beyond my imagination also). Therefore, although her ideas and insights are useful and thought-provoking, they are insufficient to define a new religious life based on AI.
A new Great Emergence is called for.
