This is a recording of a recent presentation I gave titled "Creative Processes in a World with Artificial Intelligence (AI), or Why and How God Uses The Work of Artists." Normally, Personalist Manifesto(s) features dialogues throughout, but this one is a little bit different. It starts with a presentation and ends with a Q&A dialogue. Because I only had one mic, and the mic was my phone, the audio quality isn’t great and the questions are quiet. But I did what I could to boost the sound and clean it up so you can hear everything.

This presentation is delivered and this dialogue is engaged with Ellul’s work on art and technology looming in the background. Ellul teaches artists to be attentive to the world around them, and to be careful about the techniques and processes they do and don’t engage to represent that world. So, in a world with AI, where technologies are producing ‘art’ for us, we would do well to listen to Ellul.

And so with that, here is a presentation and dialogue inspired by some of my learnings from Ellul and others in this fraught and wondrous terrain of art and technology.

Bio

Michael Morelli is the Associate Professor of Theology & Ethics at Northwest College & Seminary and ACTS Seminaries. Both are affiliates of Trinity Western University. He’s also an adjunct professor of theology of at Trinity’s Religious Studies and Nursing Schools.

He has a PhD in Theological Ethics from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland and is the author of Theology, Ethics, and Technology in the Work of Jacques Ellul and Paul Virilio: A Nascent Theological Tradition (Lexington Books) and editor of Desert, Wilderness, Wasteland, and Word: A New Essay By Jacques Ellul and Five Critical Engagements (Pickwick).

Links

Theology Beer Camp 2025: https://www.theologybeercamp2025.com

Michael Morelli, Theology, Ethics, and Technology in the Work of Jacques Ellul and Paul Virilio: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/theology-ethics-and-technology-in-the-work-of-jacques-ellul-and-paul-virilio-9781793625434/

T.S. Eliot, The Wasteland: Facsimile Edition: https://www.amazon.ca/Waste-Land-Facsimile-Transcript-Annotations/dp/0156948702

Gustav Janouch, Conversations with Kafka: https://www.ndbooks.com/book/conversations-with-kafka/

Madeline L’Engle, Walking on Water: https://www.madeleinelengle.com/books/non-fiction/walking-on-water-reflections-on-faith-and-art/

James H. Cone, The Spirituals and The Blues: https://en.novalis.ca/products/the-spirituals-and-the-blues

David Lynch, Catching the Big Fish: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/546656/catching-the-big-fish-by-david-lynch/9780143130147

Jacques Ellul, Empire of Non-Sense: Art in the Technological Society: https://papadakis.net/books/the-empire-of-non-sense/