TikTok Theology: The Promises and Perils of Digitally Mediated Theology

Dr. Trevor Sutton, Senior Pastor, St. Luke Lutheran Church Haslett, Mich.

Much of today's theological discourse occurs in digitally mediated environments. What happens when TikTok, Instagram and X become locations for catechesis, evangelism and theological conversation? Does it matter if we get our theology from podcasts and YouTube videos? This session will discuss how insights from the field of digital rhetoric can help pastors and theologians navigate the promises and perils of digitally mediated theology.

Werner Auditorium

Digital Technology and Manuscript Research: An Abscrift Hidden in Plain Sight

Rev. Alec Fisher, Senior Pastor, Christ Lutheran Church Hickory, N.C.

For centuries scholars have been aware of the close relationship between two ninth-century Greek Latin bilingual manuscripts, Codex Boernerianus (GA 012, VL 77) and Codex Augiensis (GA 010, VL 78) with very few satisfactory conclusions regarding the nature of that relationship. Recent advancements in digital technology have breathed new life into this question as more detailed analyses are now possible. This presentation seeks to demonstrate how these new digital tools have been used to shed light on the nature of this relationship, which has eluded scholars for centuries. Based on an analysis of full electronic transcriptions of the Greek texts of these manuscripts in Romans, Galatians, Ephesians and 1 Timothy, it can now be shown that the Greek text of Codex Augiensis was copied directly from Codex Boernerianus and has thus stood as an Abschrift (a direct copy) in plain sight. These findings indicate that, as a copy of an existing manuscript, Codex Augiensis should no longer be cited in critical editions of the Greek New Testament.

Presidents Room

You Shall Be Like God: Technology from Sub-creation to Displacing the Creator

Rev. John Hellwege, Salem Lutheran Church/Zion Lutheran Church, Farrar, Mo.

Is the development of technology a means of extending our God-given dominion over the earth or is it an attempt to displace the creator? Where is the line? When do we cross it? Recent technological developments and priorities are aiming more and more at trying to be like God and displacing His role as creator. While the tower of Babel shows that mankind’s misuse of technology to displace God is not new, it seems that the pace and attempts to do this have only increased in recent years. From transhumanism and transgenderism to artificial intelligence and bioengineering, it seems that mankind is seeking to move from being sub-creators under God to displacing God as the ultimate creator. This session will look at how and why these shifts have happened and wrestle with some of the challenges that the church faces in the 21st century to make sense of which uses of technology are God-pleasing and which are dangerous.

Sieck Hall 101

The Peril of AI Art

Rev. Miguel Gonzalez Feliciano, Pastor, Immanuel Lutheran Church/St. Paul Lutheran Church Readlyn, Iowa

Artificial Intelligence (AI) art isn’t harmless. With AI as a mechanism for creation, numerous people and institutions have urged caution in the generation of articles, papers or sermons. Yet, when it comes to images, many have readily accepted the use of AI. Art that has been created by AI is treated as a harmless way to craft images that suit the design of the user in an expedient way with little mastery or time. As an image generator, AI may appear to produce novel images, but these works are formulated from the styles and creativity of actual artists. AI art plagiarizes styles from human creators and circumvents opportunities to interact with human expressions of the transcendent and warrants a high degree of caution. This sectional examines the risks of AI art considering Makoto Fujimura’s assertion that humans are fundamentally “co-creators” with God. Taken alongside the work of George Steiner who argues every piece of art from images to music, is a wager on the transcendent, one can see how art is necessarily a human endeavor. Human creators produce works reflecting God’s creation highlighting unique aspects of the transcendent. Works crafted by artists within a community communicate a message wrought through time and toil. Utilizing the Isenheim Altarpiece crafted by Nikolaus of Haguenau and Matthias Grünewald, this presentation will show how art formulated by human hands in their role as co-creators is a necessary expression of the transcendent while exhibiting the potential perils of AI art.

Wyneken Hall 205

Evaluating the Use of Technology in Worship Through the Lens of Discipleship

Steven Zank, Director of Center for Worship Leadership, Concordia University Irvine, Calif.

The application of Luther’s treatment of the abuse and abolishment of the bronze serpent in the Deutsche Messe as a kind of evaluation of early technology reveals that, despite the frenzied pace of technologically development in the 21st-century and its ability to rapidly degrade the continuity of society and culture, the misuse or misapplication of technology in the worship/the Divine Service is not a new challenge. The church is therefore free to draw upon the resources of its past in addressing this urgent problem for our present. Furthermore, the ability to identify and understand the technologies we employ in the Divine Service, as such, equips the church to answer Hermann Sasse’s call to primarily shape the Divine Service through the lens of dogma rather than history.

Wyneken Hall 206

Contemplation, Subcreation, Mission . . . and Video Games

Dr. Mark Wolf, Professor, Communication Department, Concordia University Wisconsin, Mequon

This sectional will explore how religion and theological ideas might be made manifest in video games and particularly the creation of video games as a religious activity. The presentation will look at contemplative experiences in video games nand the creation and world-building of game worlds as a form of Tolkienian subcreation, which itself leads to contemplation regarding the creation of worlds, and how the mission of the church might possibly be supported in such experiences.

Presidents Room

Print Bible and Digital Bible: Friends or Foes?

Dr. Vilson Scholz, Visiting Professor of Exegetical Theology, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis

Printed Bibles in the hands of millions of people is a recent development, something that gained impetus at the beginning of the 19th century with the Bible Society movement. The digital Bible is a new addition at only 40 years old. Are these two formats of the Bible friends or foes? What are the advantages of a digital Bible? Will the digital Bible ever replace the print version of the Bible? Is a digital Bible on a smartphone a ‘real Bible?’

Loeber Hall II

Signifying Nothing: Ancient Magic, AI Confessionals and Spiritual Care in the Church

Rev. David Nieman, Associate Pastor, St. Johns Lutheran Church West Bend, Wis.

Over the years, studies have shown that people are very comfortable disclosing personal secrets and worries to programmed chatbots, even before the recent advent of more realistic AI chatbots. This may seem like a symptom of our new era, but this practice has ancient roots: sharing our fears and worries with facsimiles that appear to listen parallels the ancient practice of magical curse tablets where troubled people would petition the gods for help with love, success and competition, completing the incantation by hiding their requests where no one could see them. Today, troubled people continue to seek to conceal their emotional burdens and settle for what only feels like relief. This presents both a challenge and opportunity for the church, which is grounded in Confession and Absolution, as well as prayer, as God’s real answer and balm to our human brokenness and the burdens of our hearts.

Sieck Hall 101

Technology and Creatureliness: How Can One Support the Other?

Rev. David Edwards, Chaplain, LCMS Office of International Mission, St. Louis, Mo.

In Rev. 21:3, the closeness and intimacy that was once experienced by the Creator and His human creatures in the Garden and was embodied for a time by the incarnate work of Jesus, is depicted as becoming the experience of all God’s people forever. “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself with them as their God.” While this reality is what Christians have been led to long after for generations, we also have been distracted from it by sin. The present age is no different in that way. However, there is one feature of our time that stands out as unique in comparison to previous generations, namely, the rapid advancement of technology. Worryingly technology, while beneficial in many ways, also can lead us away from longing for that fulfillment. This happens when it diminishes our identity as creatures of God. So, what do we do? This presentation will chart a path forward to identify how we can develop a relationship with technology that supports our creatureliness rather than diminishing it. In pursuit of that goal, the presentation will explore what is at stake when we get this relationship wrong and what that looks like. Then we will look at what we gain when we get this relationship right and what that looks like.

Wyneken Hall 205

In Praise of Paper: Insights from the Classroom

Rev. Alex Smith, Teacher, Lutheran High School South, St. Louis, Mo.

While various forms of technology have become ubiquitous in classrooms, screens do represent a potential threat to student learning, focus and mental health. This session will offer reflections, questions and ideas revolving around why, when and how to limit the use of technology, especially when teaching theology in a classroom setting (such as confirmation or in a school).

Wyneken Hall 206

Humanity and Technology: Sin and Salvation in a Technological Age

Dr. Jeffrey Bishop, Professor of Philosophy, Saint Louis University

Humans are not merely historical creatures, but also technical creatures who produce tools and are produced by tools. For that reason, humans believe that tools will save. For Christians, the chief activity of identity production is the Eucharist.

Werner Auditorium

Finding Gender Online: TikTok, Tumblr and the Adolescent Search for Identity, Community and Transcendence [Sold Out]

Caitlin Dinger, Ph.D. student and Administrative Assistant of Distance Programs, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis

This sectional will explore the role that social media platforms such as TikTok and Tumblr have played in shaping adolescents' understanding and experience of gender identity. These platforms have allowed young people first to discover this ideology and then explore new gender identities beyond parental oversight and away from peer groups. Tumblr has been a hub for creative expression among transgender and gender non-conforming users, declaring itself “the queerest place on the internet” and claiming a user base 193% more likely to be LGBTQIA+ compared with other social networks. Increased online engagement with gender ideology encourages adolescents to prioritize an internal sense of self over their physical sex. This sectional seeks to understand the underlying desires that draw adolescents to online spaces for gender exploration — a yearning for connection, purpose and authentic identity. A confessional Christian perspective is offered that affirms the goodness of God's creation, male and female, and the importance of living in accordance with God's design for humankind. By exploring this intersection of technology and faith, this presentation will provide a framework for understanding gender identity ideology and will offer encouragement for pastors, parents and church workers as they guide their youth through an age of immense peril and promise.

Presidents Room

A Politics of Place: God's People and Civil Affairs in a Digital and Virtual Age [Sold Out]

Rev. William Fredstrom, Associate Pastor, Immanuel Lutheran Church and School, Seymour, Ind.; Ph.D. candidate, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis

Digital and virtual technologies have fundamentally reshaped how we understand social connectivity, economics and politics in the West. In the West, the dominant political ideology is liberalism, which assumes a nonrelational, atomized and autonomous view of the self, detached from traditions, customs and places once believed to be integral to personal and public flourishing. The rise of virtual and digital technologies fundamentally intensifies and reinforces liberalism's view of the self and its detachment from concrete places and persons to the detriment of our shared political responsibility. By drawing on various agrarian thinkers and the recent turn toward postliberal politics, this presentation will argue for the recovery of our embeddedness and attachment to concrete places and persons as a political good and necessity. The presentation will explore how Luther's theology of creatureliness is uniquely poised to help articulate and describe a politics of place for God’s people as they continue their holy responsibility and calling to engage in civil affairs.

Loeber Hall II

You Shall be as Gods: Modern Technology and the De-naturing of Human Creatureliness

Rev. Jackson Watts, Pastor, Grace Free Will Baptist Church, Arnold, Mo.

Increasingly Christian theologians and cultural critics have observed and documented the many ways in which modern technologies have had and continue to have deleterious effects on interpersonal relationships, mental health and Christian community and sanctification more broadly. Fewer accounts have diagnosed the ways our technological engagement tends to reorient and erode other features of creaturely life. Particularly, modern technology diminishes our sense of human contingency and finitude, especially as they concern our dependence upon and embeddedness within the natural world. This claim has profound implications for spiritual formation and cultural life, including proper respect for creation and creaturehood.

Wyneken Hall 205

More Dimensions in the Forma and Materia of the Word

Dr. Craig Meissner, Sole Pastor, Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Kansas City, Mo.

In this time of a vast change and multiplication of communications media, many pastors and Christians are asking what forms thereof are best for their God-given tasks and objectives. Those broaching these questions have assumed answers based on scientific data, subjective feeling, intuition and cultural norms. These are not to be discounted and indeed warrant further probing. However, a theologian’s task, properly speaking, is to discern what is inherent to the Lord’s command to write, speak or teach. Does this simply mean to communicate via whatever medium one chooses? Why is one form or material preferred to another? Why does the Lord engrave by His finger into stone on one occasion or command a prophet to write on a scroll? Why marks on human flesh? Indeed, before media existed, He spoke everything into being, and before establishing or employing an alphabet, He marked and erected physical objects to reveal, signify, or create various realities. How is material media inherent to the doctrinal content and its impact on the human psyche, as humans imitate, replicate and assert His word? And how is today's culture collectively best attuned for reception and use of God’s Word? Considering certain philosophers and modern communications scholars, this presentation will make observations from Holy Scripture regarding such questions.


Wyneken Hall 206

Look But Don't Touch: Excarnation and Sexuality in the Digital Age

Dr. Joel Oesch, Professor of Theology, Concordia University Irvine, Calif.

As our communities continue their migration from face-to-face interactions to digital gathering spaces, many of us are left behind, wondering, "Where did everybody go?" The cultural turn toward the virtual marks a radical shift away from the incarnational life and forces the Christian to defend what was formerly assumed: the value of the human body. This session will use theological insights to think critically about technological innovations that impact our Christian understanding of embodiment, community and sexuality.

Werner Auditorium

Being a Pre-Modern Parent: A Quick Guide to Protecting and Blessing Our Homes

Rev. Chris Heaton, Sole Pastor, St. Pauls Lutheran Church Fulton, Mo.

We live in an age where we are bombarded with technology. Most everyone uses mobile devices and is connected to the internet. We are being formed and shaped by what both the hardware and software do to our minds and bodies. Most parents adopt a permit and then restrict approach to technology. Unfortunately, we collectively are making poor decisions regarding our technology use, and even worse, poor decisions with respect to our children’s use. What if there was a faithful way to use technology but not become its slave? What if we made better choices and adopted better practices? By being a pre-modern parent, we seek to go back to a time when our homes were places of common spaces, open communication, quality time together and places of beauty and wonder. The center of the home is the family centered on Christ, His Word and the worship of Him. This presentation will explore the problems and dangers of technology but also will offer practical solutions and resources to parents. It also equips pastors to catechize families into a God-pleasing use of technology.

Presidents Room

AI: Where It is Now and Where it is Going

Andy Hammes, Concordia University Nebraska, Seward

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a buzzword that is moving from science fiction to a real part of our everyday lives. We encounter big data and AI everywhere now. Whether advertising, summarizing internet searches or generating art, there's an AI for that! As the abilities of AI grow at a rapid rate, there will be broad impacts to Christians and the church. The exponential increase in computing power and abilities will bring about rapid societal changes. Instead of waiting for these changes, the church needs to address them proactively. If the church is not prepared, these changes will outpace any response we may have. In this sectional, we will explore the realities of current and future AI. We will learn what exactly AI is, how it is made and what the future of the technology holds. We also will discover practical uses of AI in everyday life and church work. We will ask and discuss the tough questions about AI, seeking answers in God's revelation to us in His Word.

Loeber Hall II

With Eyes Wide Open: Modern/Technological vs. Sacramental/Realist Epistemology

Troy Dahlke, Philosophy Teacher, St. Andrews Episcopal School, Potomac, Md.

What kind of epistemic habits does the late-modern world of technology produce? One telling answer to this question is that it teaches users that appearances deceive; that they should, in the end, be skeptics. But there is more to the rise of epistemic skepticism than deep-fakes, highly curated social media profiles and virtual reality. Behind it is the deeply rooted epistemology of high modern philosophy, especially that of Rene Descartes and David Hume, both of whom, in their own way, insist that our senses cannot be trusted. It is the user, then, (in)formed by modern epistemic doubt, that mimetically reproduces the skepticism induced by technology. For a church that promises that “faith comes by hearing” and that the body and blood of Christ can be seen, touched, tasted and smelled in, with and under the bread and wine, the idea that appearance deceive offers a unique challenge to (and opportunity for) its witness. While exploring the influence of modern/technological epistemology, this presentation will draw on the realist epistemology of Thomas Aquinas as a corrective to aspects of contemporary skepticism. Daunting though the challenge may be, the faith that comes by hearing (and seeing, tasting, etc.), when taken up by a realist epistemology, engenders knowledge of Christ that not only challenges the skepticism of modern/technological age, but also offers something much better than it can produce of its own – something real.

Sieck Hall 101

Everyone, Everywhere, All at Once: The Challenge of Connecting the Church to a Constantly Connected Society

Matthew Bergholt, Continuous Improvement Specialist, Lutheran Church Extension Fund, St. Louis, Mo.

The church today has an amazing opportunity to engage with a society that is more engaged and connected with the world around them than ever before. However, this inherently presents a challenge of discerning when, how, with whom, using what and ultimately asking why in leveraging technology to connect with a population increasingly connected but further apart than ever. Church workers serving at every level are faced with the dilemma of determining where to invest shrinking organizational resources to generate the maximum impact in spreading the Gospel. Thus, it is essential for leaders throughout the church to appreciate the challenges and opportunities of emerging technologies and develop a framework by which they can evaluate their potential impact on their current and future ministries.

Wyneken Hall 205