“AI, Theology, and Liberation: Re-imagining Technology and Theological Education”
Contemporary society has crossed a threshold of massive upheavals due to the advancement and proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies. Rapid developments in AI raise significant concerns and deep questions about traditional ways of understanding human persons, consciousness, God and other metaphysical and ethical religious and theological considerations. At the same time, the promises and pitfalls of AI indicate the ever increasing need for scrutiny of its use in light of religious social teachings.
This year’s Faculties Convocation of the Washington Theological Consortium addressed these concerns with an expert in the field – John P. Slattery, PhD, the Executive Director of the Carl G. Grefenstette Center for Ethics in Science, Technology, and Law at Duquesne University. Read more about Dr. Slattery below.
The event took place Monday, September 29, 2025 at the Dominican House of Studies, hosted by our member, the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception.
About John P. Slattery, PhD
John P. Slattery is the Executive Director of the Carl G. Grefenstette Center for Ethics in Science, Technology, and Law at Duquesne University. An ethicist, theologian, and historian of science, Slattery works at the many intersections of technology, science, theology, and racism.
Slattery earned a B.S. in computer science from Georgetown University, a Master’s Degree in theology from Saint Paul School of Theology, and an interdisciplinary PhD in the history and philosophy of science and systematic theology from the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of a wide range of essays in print and online as well as the monograph Faith and Science at Notre Dame (2019), an award-winning book on the history of debates about evolution in the Catholic Church. He is also the editor of the T&T Clark Handbook of Christian Theology and the Modern Sciences (2020), and a producer of many short films, including ” Humans and Race: Exploring the Intersections of Science and Racism.”
Slattery currently serves both as an expert advisor for the nonprofit AI & Faith, as well as on the AI Research Group at the Vatican Dicastery on Culture and Education, through which he a co-author for the volume Encountering Artificial Intelligence (2024). Previous to his work at Duquesne, Slattery directed a “Science for Seminaries” grant program, where he helped to bring science and technology conversations to dozens of Christian seminaries throughout the US and Canada between 2018 and 2022.