This is the fourth in a four-part series by Dr. Dave Mulder titled, A Better Imagination for AI. In “Rethinking Our Tech Stories,” Dave challenged the narratives we have crafted around AI. The post “Boring Robots” suggested a framework for stewarding the tool of AI. In “Where the Rubber Hits the Road,” Dave proposed principles for ethical AI implementation. This fourth post offers a restoration-oriented theology for educational technology.
Will there be AI in the New Jerusalem?
It sounds like a playful question—and it is—but it’s also a surprisingly helpful one. Because underneath is a deeper question: How should Christian educators think about artificial intelligence in light of God’s story?
Right now, AI pressure is everywhere. Schools are scrambling to write policies. Students are experimenting. Administrators are asking what AI means for curriculum, assessment, equity, and the future of work. EdTech companies are making big promises. Meanwhile, teachers feel both the excitement and the exhaustion of trying to keep up.
In moments like this, Christian educators need something deeper than tech tips and tool lists. We need a theology of educational technology—a way of thinking that roots our decisions in Scripture, centers students as image-bearers, and helps us navigate this moment with wisdom and hope.
So, let’s sketch three pieces of that theology.
1. Education is formation, not just information.
AI turbo-charges access to information. It writes passable essays, summarizes texts, solves math problems, plans lessons, drafts emails, and generates images with the click of a button. It feels like magic sometimes. It feels dangerous sometimes. Let’s be honest—it can feel pretty tempting a lot of the time … and not just for students.
But Christians have always known something the tech world tends to forget: education is not merely about information transfer—it’s about formation.
Students are not brains on sticks. They are not productivity units, content-absorbing sponges, “users,” or future workers in the AI economy. They are image-bearers of the living God!
Because of that status, learning is not just what they know but who they become. It is curiosity and courage. Wisdom and wonder. Integrity and humility and compassion and responsibility. And joy in work well done!
So yes—AI can generate words … but it cannot generate wisdom. It cannot produce virtue. It cannot shape character. It cannot teach us to love God and neighbor. AI might accelerate tasks, but it cannot accelerate formation.
As Christian educators, our calling is not to make students more efficient processors. Our calling is to help them become more fully human. The work we get to do as Christian educators must take seriously both who our students are, as well as who they are becoming.
2. We need a humble, skeptical hopefulness.
Christian imagination refuses two extremes:
- Technological despair: “Everything is broken. AI is going to destroy education.”
- Technological utopianism: “AI will solve every problem! The future is friction-free!”
Neither of these responses capture the truth. Rather, a more hopeful frame for a Christian educator is this: “Technology is powerful, but not ultimate.” It can be used for good, but it can also be twisted. Let’s balance curiosity with discernment!
We must remain humble about what we don’t understand—and honest about what is at stake. I think of this posture as “humble skepticism,” and balancing humility with healthy skepticism can protect us from being swept up in both hype as well as fear.
AI can amplify wisdom or foolishness. It can strengthen human teaching or tempt us to replace it. It can support student learning or rob students of the struggle that shapes their souls.
Let’s remember that God is not worried about AI. He is not threatened by algorithms. Christ reigns over quantum processors and chatbot prompts and, yes, even plagiarism detectors. We are free to explore wisely, critique bravely, and use technology without being owned by it.
3. The Bible doesn’t end in a garden—It ends in a city.
If Christian imagination stopped at Eden, we might think the goal is to escape complex technology and live a simple, unplugged life forever. But Scripture doesn’t end by returning humanity to a garden. No, the Big Story ends in a city—a redeemed, vibrant city, the New Jerusalem!
Cities include human creativity, culture-making, and, yes, technology. But in the New Jerusalem, what will these forces look like? I can imagine digital technology—purified, redeemed, and rightly ordered under the reign of Christ—being part of this New Creation because scripture describes foundations, roads, and gates of this city … and it takes technologies to create and develop all of these!
My take: technology isn’t a detour from God’s plan. God created humans to create, and whereas sin affects our creations on this side of Glory, I wonder what a fully restored sense of innovation will look like. Technology is part of how we cultivate creation, build communities, and steward the world … and perhaps the world to come as well!
So, will there be AI in the New Jerusalem?
We don’t know. But we do know this:
- Anything shaped by sin will be purified or discarded.
- Anything that expresses God’s creativity and goodness can be redeemed.
- Human creation will not be abolished—it will be perfected.
The city of God reminds us that we are not longing for escape. We are longing for restoration. We’re not going backward. We’re going forward, under Christ’s kingship, toward a future where every good human endeavor finds its place in the kingdom.
This restoration-oriented perspective changes how we teach, right now, because the work we are doing today will echo through eternity
What does a restoration-oriented approach mean for us?
Christian educators don’t merely survive technological change; we have an opportunity to shepherd our students through it.
We help students think critically, love deeply, create boldly, and discern wisely. We help them embrace tools without becoming tools. We teach them that real intelligence is more than information—it is wisdom lived out in love.
We trust that Christ is Lord over history, over culture, over technology, and over every classroom where His people serve. And we get to do this work with joy!
Will there be AI in the New Jerusalem? Maybe. Maybe not. But there will be Jesus—and there will be His people, fully alive, fully human, fully whole. And right now, friends, right now in this moment, we get to practice for that future.
We get to teach in a way that honors the image of God in our students.
We get to form students for wisdom, wonder, and worship.
We get to navigate technology with courage and with grace.
Thanks be to God—we GET to do this!
