From Imago Dei to Imago Digitalis: How AI and theology cohere in dialogue

Critical traditionalists often consider artificial intelligence (AI) and theology rival paradigms, arguing that AI poses a threat to the conventional theological theory of intelligence, which reduces our cognition to that of machines. This article explores the possibility of a coherent dialogue between the two discourses, examining how they articulate a coherent understanding of intelligence through metaphorical frameworks. Three pairs of AI and theological metaphors were selected and comparatively analysed in the light of the seven principles of Paul Thagard’s model of explanatory coherence to examine the interrelationship of the metaphors in a systematic explanatory structure. The results show that these metaphors satisfy the Thagardian principles, forming a unified explanatory network in which AI and theology converge to illuminate the nature of intelligence. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The article concludes that a new theo-tech anthropology can emerge when intelligence is interpreted as both structured rationality and objective teleology that operates entirely within divine wisdom and artificial reasoning.