It’s worth noting that Christians across traditions are reaching for the same biblical image. Readers here won’t share Rome’s view of papal authority, but it is significant that the Vatican has made Babel the centerpiece of its response to AI.
In May 2026, Pope Leo XIV released his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, devoted entirely to AI. It frames humanity’s choice using two biblical images: the construction of the Tower of Babel and the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Its opening line says humanity must choose between building “a new Tower of Babel” or building a city where God and humanity dwell together. And in a speech in Paris that September, he warned against losing our humanity amid aạẠparadise of machines” invading and conditioning daily life.
Evangelicals have spoken too. In 2019, the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission released “Artificial Intelligence: An Evangelical Statement of Principlesiạiaffirming that technology can be used for good while insisting that Al must never be treated as bearing the image of God, or as a replacement for human moral responsibility.

Read More The New Babel: Artificial Intelligence, Human Thoughts, and the Oldest Temptation in the World