By Efi Efthymiou
The representatives of the Patriarchate of Georgia, led by Metropolitan Gerasimos, opened the eighth session of the Second Scientific Conference of the journal Theology. The thematic unit was titled “Artificial Intelligence: A Spectrum Hovering Over Humanity.”
Metropolitan Gerasimos read the message sent by Patriarch Ilia II of Georgia to the Conference, in which he emphasized that the 100th anniversary of the journal Theology is important, as it is one of the most prestigious theological journals. He noted that the current conference addresses a highly relevant issue, since the development of new technologies has created a situation that has become one of the greatest challenges of our time. “Technology has unprecedentedly accelerated the accumulation and processing of information. The question now remains whether we will be able to take the appropriate steps and whether they will be effective. Today, the Church is called to remain a true and correct education center for the use of technologies, to become a guide for a correct and safe course for the future of humanity. For the realization of this important conference, I would like to express my warm thanks to Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece. We hope that this conference will contribute significantly to shaping the positions of the Church on the issues of ontology so that faith remains the main orientation of man.”
At the end of the reading of Patriarch Ilia’s message, Metropolitan Gerasimos presented a commemorative gift from the Patriarch to Alexandros Katsiaras, director of the journal Theology.
Next, Professor Emeritus Christodoulos Flordellis of the University of Patras delivered his lecture on “The Ontological Jeopardy of Human Nature in the Era of New Biology and Artificial Intelligence: Neurobiological Prolegomena.”
He observed that there is not only an excess of technological development but also a lack of defense for human nature. The way to address this, he proposed, is through a neuroevolutionary view of human nature. He went on to explain that in biotechnology, nature is inadequate to self-actualize and must be corrected in order to become self-sufficient. By contrast, Orthodox theology maintains that the lack of human nature is not a state of decline. Human nature is deficient because it is destined for participation in something beyond itself.
Professor Flordellis added: “Biotechnology, biology, and theology are not independent entities that are related only ex post. These entities form a whole, a complex system. Before the allure of the internet, we know as a constant threat of disruption from within, the gigantic one-sided imaginary. Neuroevolutionary thinking is a new context in which we are integrating elements for a new redefinition of nature. We are phylogenetically adapted, and we are constantly adapting.”
Archimandrite Isidoros Katsos, Assistant Professor at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, spoke on “Artificial Intelligence and the Challenge of Theology.” He explained that large cognitive models lack true intelligence; they merely mimic human thought, drawing data from the internet. “They don’t play chess, they don’t feel anything in the event of victory or defeat, they just reproduce moves that humans have made. True intelligence is completely absent from machines. It may be achieved in the future, but today, machines have no say, they just imitate it.”
He added that, even if we don’t fully realize it, artificial intelligence has been part of our lives for decades. Raising the question of whether a machine is truly thinking or merely simulating thought, he described the well-known thought experiment of the “Chinese Room”: a man who does not know Chinese is confined to a room and given notes in Chinese along with a rule book to formulate replies. His responses are flawless, yet he never actually learns Chinese; he simply follows instructions.
“It’s the same with artificial intelligence. The classical algorithm handles symbols without any understanding of what they mean. If I speak of circles without ever seeing one, I do not know what I am talking about. Knowledge without experience becomes meaningless. Relationships between human words are not accidental; they embody logic, and human texts are carriers of meaning. The machine learns how things relate to each other, like a child—not because rules are imposed, but through examples. Artificial intelligence depicts man himself. It is a picture, an image. If we are afraid of artificial intelligence, it is because we are afraid of our own mistakes, our own collective unconscious. It is time to realize that the machine has its own reason, in which an enemy is not reflected, but the most collective expression of ourselves.”
Marina Stojanovic, PhD, of the University of Belgrade, then addressed “Creativity in the Digital Age: Artificial Intelligence and the Ability to Produce New Theological Approaches and Ecclesiastical Art.”
She voiced her concern as both a mother and an educator about how digital technology affects children and young people. From the perspective of theology, she said, human beings are understood as free and creative. To say that people are made in the likeness of God is to affirm their freedom.
“When we give children today an assignment to write a report or solve a mathematical problem, we cannot know whether they have done it themselves or whether ChatGPT has done it for them. This is a problem, isn’t it? We have the concept of speech, the concept of personality, and ultimately the concept of freedom. Metropolitan Ioannis Zizioulas gave great importance to human freedom; the creative person does not produce identical works but something that is authentic.”
She further explained that when we read the Old and New Testaments, we encounter the concept of reasonableness. “Man as a word exists only through participation in one Word, the Word of God. People must acquire identity in order to draw near to the Word of God. Without communion with the Word of God, there is no reason in man. Only the Word of God contains other words, and it also gives them identity. And there is no reason without our communion with God. The goal is the individual himself; the person is the universal expression of human nature. The survival of a personal identity is possible only in God, on the basis of His triune existence. There is no personal identity without relationship—with other people and with God.”
She concluded: “The person is the universal expression of human nature.”
