Christians need a big dose of realism. AI is not going away any time soon, nor should it. Most of the ways that AI is deployed are immensely beneficial and non-threatening.

Ideas are not enough. Teaching in a history department these past couple years has convinced me that ideas are often not the driving force behind great changes in society and world events. Philosophers, theologians, and intellectuals of all sorts often act like the only thing that matters are ideas. You get the ideas right and then you change the world. Evangelicals are notorious for this kind of thinking.

The current nationalist fervor could actually be a sign of nation-states’ weakness, a gasp that belies a lack of confidence in it as a form of government that can adequately represent a people and govern them fairly.

Too often in our contemporary discussions about justice, Christians have turned to the idea of the “image of God” as the grounds for our social and political ethics.