2022 Weter Lecture, Spring Quarter
Artificial Intelligence and the Apocalyptic Imagination: The Ends of Artificial Agency
Dr. Michael J. Paulus, Jr.
Dean of the Library, Assistant Provost for Educational Technology, and Associate Professor of Information Studies
April 12, 2022
7 p.m. in Upper Gwinn Commons
Lecture livestream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR3ROz12C98
The increasing role and power of artificial intelligence in our lives and world requires us to imagine and shape a desirable future with this technology. Since visions of AI often draw from Christian apocalyptic narratives, current discussions about technological hopes and fears present an opportunity for a deeper engagement with Christian eschatological resources. Dr. Paulus argues that the Christian apocalyptic imagination can transform how we think about and use AI, helping us discover ways artificial agency may participate in new creation.
2022 Weter Lecture, Winter Quarter
Priests of a Fallen Creation: The Temple, Natural Theology, and Ecology in Dialogue
Dr. Eric S. Long, Professor of Biology
February 22, 2022
7 p.m. in Upper Gwinn Commons
Lecture livestream:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42oSch38IxY
As we try to make sense of both creation’s goodness and decay, Dr. Long proposes that a fruitful path forward involves synthesizing recent advances in the three fields: natural sciences (with an emphasis on ecology), natural theology (with an emphasis on Christian natural theology), and Biblical theology (with an emphasis on reading creation as God’s earthly temple). In the lecture, Dr. Long will first develop this three-pronged, interdisciplinary approach. Then, he will demonstrate how this approach may prove fruitful in addressing five, roughly chronological, questions ranging from creation to eschatology:
- Why does creation exist?
- How can we interpret the “goodness” of creation?
- What did (and didn’t) happen to creation at the Fall?
- Why is the earth groaning?
- Where is the earth headed (and what is our role)?
To listen to past Weter Lectures, visit SPU Digital Commons here.