THE BIBLE: A Literary Overview

 

The Bible is an anthology – a collection of sixty-six books. It was written by no fewer than forty authors over a 1,500-year period. It is the best-selling book of all time with more than fifty billion copies sold and distributed. In its entirety, the Bible has been translated into at least 683 languages.

 The writers of the Bible drew their information from a variety of sources. Some of these sources include personal experiences, historical accounts, oral sources and revelation/divine inspiration (direct disclosure from a non-human source). Hence, it would be correct to say that the Bible is a collection of texts composed over centuries by different authors, from diverse backgrounds, cultures and time periods.

The uniqueness of the Bible extends beyond its wide distribution. In many ways, the Bible is more than just another book. It is unique in its authorship in that the forty different writers came from different time periods, backgrounds, occupations and geographical locations. The writers include kings, prophets, fishermen, shepherds, servants, priests and a medical doctor. This broad authorship explains the variety of writing styles.

There is also a plethora of genres in the Bible, including poetry, prose, narrative, prophecy, apocalyptic and letter-style writing. Viewing the Bible as literature involves analysing its literary elements, themes and storytelling techniques.

Interestingly, to view the Bible as an anthology, results in a remarkable range of forms and styles. In his volume, Words of Delight – A Literary Introduction to the Bible, Leland Ryken contends that “the Bible has a style for every temperament. Every aspect of human experience is covered in some form within the pages of the Bible”. As literature, the Bible preserves the complexities of human experience to an unusual degree. According to Ryken, “the paradoxes of human life are held in tension in what can be called the most balanced book ever written”.

Although a collection of diverse works, the Bible must also be regarded as a unified whole. There is unity of national authorship, with only two books (Luke and Acts) not having been written by Jews. There is unity of subject matter, consisting most broadly of God’s dealings with people and the relationships of people to God and fellow humans. The unifying purpose of the Bible is to reveal God to people so they might know how to order their lives. There is also a unity of literary texture in that various biblical writers alluded to earlier works without contradiction. Dr Ryken says it best, “No other anthology of literature possesses the unified texture of allusions that biblical literature displays.”

The Bible as Literature assumes two levels of reality – the physical world, perceived through the senses, and the supernatural world, invisible to the senses. Within the physical world, reality is measured empirically (utilizing the senses). Within the supernatural world, reality is usually accepted by faith or trust in a reliable source. The constant appeal made by biblical writers is for people to order their lives by the unseen realities, even though doing so usually contradicts natural or human standards.

It is natural to expect a role of unseen realities in analysing the Bible as literature. How else can one account for unity in material written over a 1,500-year span? Or, who was responsible for coordinating such a wide variety of writers and styles from such varied backgrounds? In addition, how does one account for the preservation of the content from oral to written sources? Then, after converting to written form, how could the written word be so accurately preserved  and transmitted through the centuries, without having access to original documents?

In other words, considering the numerous paths through which the original message travelled, it would not be unreasonable to conclude, that the Bible, with its divinely inspired content, was supernaturally collated and transmitted through the centuries. That understanding enables us to fully appreciate Paul’s words to young Timothy – “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right” (2 Timothy 3:16 [New Living Translation]).

 

AN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CHURCH SERVICE

 

 

On Friday, June 09, 2023, about 300 persons attended an unusual church service at St Paul’s Church in Fürth, Germany. Ninety-Eight percent of the service was generated by artificial intelligence. The entire service was displayed on a giant screen, above the altar. According to the Associated Press, “the entire service was led by four different avatars” (images of real people).

 

The idea for this AI service was conceived by a twenty-nine-year-old theologian and philosopher from the University of Vienna. “I conceived this service – rather accompanied it, because I would say about 98% came from the machine,” Jonas Simmerlein told the Associated Press.

 

Simmerlein said that he instructed ChatGPT to include psalms, prayers and blessings in its sermon by asking the chatbot: “We are at the church congress, you are a preacher… what would a church service look like?” In the forty-minute service, a bearded man (avatar) welcomed the audience by proclaiming, “Dear friends, it is an honour for me to stand here and preach to you as the first artificial intelligence at this year’s convention of Protestants in Germany.”

 

During the service, congregants were instructed by the machine to stand, to sing, to be reverent for prayer and then to listen to the sermon which focused on topics of leaving the past behind, overcoming fear of death and never losing faith. As ChatGPT parroted the church doctrine, there were a few in the congregation who were impressed, and even took videos of the event.

 

However, the avid churchgoer was not so impressed. One worshiper concluded, “there was no heart and no soul in the sermon. The avatars showed no emotions at all, had no body language, and were talking so fast and monotonously that it was very hard to concentrate on what they said.”

 

Simmerlein, who generated the service was apprehensive. He expressed that “a human pastor is part of a congregation in the sense that the pastor lives with the people, buries the people, and knows them from the beginning. Artificial Intelligence can’t do that.” That AI church service was like outsourcing a spiritual responsibility.

 

If you were to attend an AI generated service, would you obey the machine instructions to stand or to sing? Would you say Amen to an AI generated prayer? What if the avatar preacher invites you to respond? Honestly, the only thing that moves my emotions with this exercise is the ingenuity of the creators of Artificial Intelligence. I am blown-away by the human brilliance of being able to devise equipment that can learn and apply principles of reasoning and problem-solving.

 

However, there are things that AI cannot do. Interestingly, I asked AI the question, “Is there anything you cannot do?” Here is a summary of the answers I got…

1. Common Sense Reasoning – understanding and applying knowledge;

2. Creativity and Originality – the ability to produce original works;

3. Emotional Intelligence – cannot experience emotions;

4. Morality and Ethics – lacks inherent moral reasoning and ethical judgment;

5. Intuition and Gut Feeling – instincts and subconscious processing;

6. Physical Dexterity and Perception – lacks fine motor skills and real-time perception;

7. Understanding Context and Ambiguity – forms of sarcasm, irony and ambiguity;

8. True Consciousness – does not possess awareness or consciousness;

9. Adapting to Unexpected situations – lacks ability to adapt to new circumstances; and

10. Human Curiosity – inability to be curious and to learn like humans.

 

In light of these shortcomings, then why should I submit my spiritual life to Artificial Intelligence? My spiritual life requires me to “love the Lord with all my heart, and all my soul, and with all my mind and with all my strength” (Mark 12:30). I will be compromising my understanding of that text if I were to say Amen to any mechanical device, even if it were inside a church building.

WOULD I PREACH AN AI SERMON?

 

I just read a sermon generated by AI (Artificial Intelligence). I instructed AI (ChatGPT) to “write a sermon based on John 4:1-42”. The result was a 572-word sermon, including a closing prayer, written in ten seconds.

AI entitled the sermon – The Thirst of the Soul - A Journey from Desolation to Living Water. Honestly, I was impressed. The AI sermon was biblically focused and clearly articulated the key ideas of the text. The title of the sermon captured the spirit of the preaching text and bridged to the contemporary listener – it was accurate and very appealing. The sermon was also easy to follow, and the message was clear. The sermon also explained the history between Jews and Samaritans, so the listener could recognize the tension of the story and better appreciate why Jesus’ offer of living water was considered adequate for someone in need.

Agreed, the sermon was too short for a typical Sunday Worship Service. However, the structure was strong enough to accommodate elaboration. If my AI inquiry were a serious quest for a sermon, I would have saved myself many hours of study – I got the information in about ten seconds.  

However, this AI sermon has left us with a few serious questions. Among them is this, could AI generated sermons replace human preparation? That is very likely. The preacher can easily become a mere technician and an orator. But would that make a difference? The AI sermon sounded much better than many of the sermons I have heard on the same text.

However, I must say at this point, that preaching is much more than the delivery of content. Preparing the content is also a part of the process. There is an encounter in preparation that enables the preacher to connect with the content. The process requires research, conflict, conviction, struggle, prayer, and the birthing of passion for delivery. If AI replaces this process, the authenticity of the sermon will be compromised. 

After more than 55 years of preaching, I still encounter struggle in my preparation. As a matter of fact, the struggle is even more intense now, than earlier, when I was unaware of the many nuances involved in exegeting the text and the audience. For instance, I struggle to ensure that what I am preparing is what I was asked to deliver. I struggle with the awesome awareness of speaking on God’s behalf. I struggle with locating biblical texts that best reflect the expectations of my audience. I struggle with finding appropriate words to communicate what the text meant to the original recipients and how to communicate that understanding to my contemporary audience. Preparing sermons entail a healthy and necessary struggle.

The process builds passion, reminds of the need for divine assistance, nurtures compassion and strengthens confidence. The process impacts me intellectually, emotionally, physically and spiritually. The process of preparing content must challenge the preacher to respond to the sermon, before expecting others to do the same. In other words, through preparation, the preacher must have an encounter with God that results in transformation and renewal.

Then, should the preacher use AI in preparing sermons? Certainly. AI can be useful in preparing sermons. A colleague of mine mentioned that he uses AI in his sermon preparation. The exercise saves him as much as 40% of his preparation time. AI can assist with referencing sermon topics and finding appropriate illustrations.

Always remember, AI is a type of technology, based on the concept of machines being able to learn and apply principles of reasoning and problem-solving, without being explicitly programmed to do so. Interestingly, when AI does not know, it sometimes fabricates answers. Most discussions of AI acknowledge that until its accuracy improves, it cannot be relied upon, without significant editing.

The truth is, AI synthesizes material gathered from data bases across the Internet. It is an amalgamation of innumerable, public-domain sources. In the process, AI can produce the very best of what the Internet offers, as well as the very worst. With time, AI is becoming more reliable in that additional information is input into data bases every minute.

Despite these promising signs of improvement, I contend that preparing a sermon is more than reciting well-researched content. The preacher is both a researcher and an orator. And, the process of researching should not be compromised by more efficient means of data collection and composition. AI sermons may even invite and get positive audience responses. However, this would be achieved at the expense of undermining authentic preaching. Authentic preaching requires the preacher’s initiative, creativity, vulnerability and conviction. Artificial Intelligence cannot manufacture those for the preacher.