Emerging Technologies (Cluster A)

Cluster A deals with the relationship between digital religion/spirituality, concepts of humanity and new technologies. Using a combination of methods from computational linguistics, practical and systematic theology and anthropology, this cluster investigates the role of new technologies in terms of what it means to be human, religious and spiritual practices, and social values, prejudices and norms.

This cluster focuses on four overarching research questions: How are religious and spiritual practices and concepts of humanity evolving with the advent of new digital technologies? What values, prejudices and social norms do they encode, and what philosophical, religious and ethical traditions do they reflect? To what extent do these changes confirm or disrupt existing empirical and theoretical debates? How can these changes be interpreted and brought into a constructive-critical dialogue with theological anthropology?

From the values and world views inherent in large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, to the sacralization of algorithms and the emergence of new religious movements related to AI, to the increasingly blurred boundary between man and machine and the implications of digital technologies for human health and well-being – all these topics are addressed in this cluster with a broad, interdisciplinary and methodologically plural approach.

Through critical research, knowledge exchange and public events, this cluster also looks at the relationship between the rapid development of new technologies and both global challenges, such as gender dynamics and climate change, and longstanding theological-hermeneutical debates.