We are pleased and privileged to welcome Dr. Hanna Reichel from Princeton Theological Seminary for the eighth annual Berkeley Palmer Lecture. Join us for a rich evening of fellowship and insightful biblical scholarship for modern times.
Seeing Like a God | Faith, Tech, and Power in Such a Time as This
The 20th century saw totalitarian states make unprecedented grabs for superhuman power. Such developments called for a political theology and a critique of omnipotence. As the 21st century’s power grabs route increasingly through technologies of knowledge - platform corporations, AI systems, and tech oligarchies - it demands a political theology and, this time, a critique of omniscience.
As Christians, we have spent millennia pondering and debating how to live as faithful followers of an omnipotent, omniscient God. In this moment, these questions have reappeared, supercharged by technological development - in immigration raids, health systems, electoral politics, and the selves we inhabit online. But the object of these questions is not God but, rather, AI. The systems that build AI and the powers it sustains are far from divine. But the dynamics it generates resonate enough with the theological tradition that our thoughts about God might offer illumination and insight to navigate the AI age in which we find ourselves.
About the Speaker
Hanna Reichel is the Charles Hodge Professor of Systematic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. Reichel works as a theological theorist between doctrine and political theology, engaging pressing questions in digital theology, queer and trans theology, theological epistemology, and the figure of the human while drawing on Christology, doctrine of God, eschatology, and other loci. Reichel’s recent book, For Such a Time as This: An Emergency Devotional offers a timely resource for ordinary Christians seeking to live faithfully in extraordinary times of societal upheaval and political erosion. Their current project, tentatively titled Political Theology of Omniscience brings historical debates on divine omniscience to bear on aspirations to superhuman power and knowledge in the age of AI.
Event Details
This Berkeley Palmer Lecture evening will include lecture, small group discussion, Q&A and light refreshments.
Free Admission. Please register. Free parking also available with registration.
Co-sponsored by New College Berkeley and First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley. The annual Berkeley Palmer Lecture, established in honor of the Reverend Earl F. Palmer, brings the lens of biblical scholarship to issues of concern to the university, the seminary, and the church. All are welcome.
Related Event
Faith & Film offers a special screening of "The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist," on Saturday afternoon before the Berkeley Palmer Lecture. Come for the movie, enjoy a dinner break, and stay for the Berkeley Palmer Lecture!
More information here.