Ecumenical Patriarch, in Christmas encyclical, contrasts AI technological aspirations, Incarnate Christ
December 24, 2024
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CWN Editor's Note: In his Christmas encyclical, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople said that Christ’s Incarnation is the answer to questions raised by the “titanism and prometheanism of the technological culture.”
Stating that “the Church is not technophobic,” the Ecumenical Patriarch, who holds a primacy of honor among the Orthodox churches, said that “today there is much talk about ‘the metahuman’ and praise of artificial intelligence,” which he associated with “anthropotheistic changes” and perennial “exaggerations of humankind.”
“The stunning progress of science and technology does not reach the depth of the human soul, because human beings are always more than what science can comprehend or to which the advancement of technology aspires,” he continued, adding:
“Clearly, without Him, without Christ,” as the late Fr. Georges Florovsky writes, “man cannot do anything. But there is something that only man can do—namely, respond to God’s call and welcome Christ.” By saying “Yes” to this calling from above, Christ is revealed as “the true light” (Jn 1.9), “the way, the truth and the life” (Jn 14.6), the answer to the ultimate questions and pursuits of the intellect, to the desires of the heart and the hopes of humankind, but also to the “whence” and “whereto” of creation.
Bartholomew, 84, has led the Ecumenical Patriarchate since 1991.
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