REA2025 Schedule

The rapid advancement of digital technology and AI has created new inequalities, particularly for resource-limited nations and marginalized groups, a phenomenon known as Digital Colonialism. The military misuse of AI and the perpetuation of colonial ideologies threaten humanity. A postcolonial approach analyzes the colonial ideologies behind AI’s growth, promoting respect for life, dignity, and creation. This paper explores how a postcolonial approach can foster ethical discernment to address digital colonialism’s challenges and confront the harmful consequences of technological advancement.

In this paper, we examine how Christian ministers and laity use AI tools, including ChatGPT, to enrich spiritual growth, deepen biblical knowledge, and support pastoral care. Drawing on qualitative research, this study explores ethical considerations, best practices, and the communal impact of AI usage. Findings provide guidance for religious educators seeking to integrate technological innovation with faith-based discernment. By highlighting human dignity and the importance of genuine connection, the research underscores AI’s potential to transform—and challenge—contemporary ministry.

In the age of AI and automation, religious education must balance human-centered learning with digital advancements. This study explores how Wesleyan theological concepts—prevenient grace, social holiness, and connectionalism—offer a framework for engaging AI in faith formation. It examines whether AI-driven education enhances learner-centered pedagogy or diminishes human agency and community, while also redefining religious intelligence (RQ) in a digital context. By integrating theology, education, and technology, this study reimagines religious education to sustain both human formation and s

As educators and faith leaders integrate generative AI into teaching, understanding human-to-AI conversations is crucial. Religious discussions, rich with existential and factual inquiries, offer a unique lens to study AI dialogue. This paper examines conversation logs from “Ask Cathy,” a chatbot answering questions about the Episcopal Church. With over 10,000 conversations and 85,000 messages, this study used multiple established and novel empirical methods to examine conversational AI’s role in pedagogy, analyzing its impact on teaching strategies, chatbot design, and faith-based education.

The act of creating is the human response to the creative force of God. Experiences of awe, wonder and beauty offer an expanded sense of awareness that lies beyond the self. Inspiration and sacred imagining illustrate the presence of God in human existence. Incorporating the aesthetic experience into religious education nurtures engagement with the divine cognitively, emotionally, and spiritually. Neuroaesthetics offers the religious educator a pathway to explore the transformative effects of the artistic encounter through comprehension of the brain’s response to the aesthetic experience.

Biblical notions of personhood require community. Practices of “oikonomia” refer to households rather than individuals. Yet in the US explicitly oppressive economic formulations of identity linked to individual achievement are nearly universal, widely distributed and amplified through digital technologies. What does it mean to be human in a world whose imagination has been so severely narrowed? Religious communities offer alternatives to these distorting and destructive stories when we foreground narratives of religious identity and resistance rooted in economies of solidarity.

As AI and automation displace human labor, a deeper crisis emerges—not just economic, but existential. What does it mean to be human when machines do the work that once defined us? Beyond productivity, humanity’s defining trait is meaning-making—our unique ability to perceive, interpret, and construct reality. Yet, dominant epistemologies erode self-trust, conditioning people to seek validation outside themselves. This paper explores the recovery of intuitive knowledge and spiritual imagination through hush harbor wisdom, digital epistemology, and the radical notion that God, like the internet

New generation media is fundamentally transforming the ways in which individuals access information and is fostering innovative pedagogical approaches, particularly within the realm of religious education. In this context, the practices implemented by the Media and Digital Content Unit (DOGM) of the General Directorate of Religious Education exemplify the potential of integrating digital tools into traditional religious

Facing the challenges posed by artificial intelligence, religious pedagogy needs to help students make ethical decisions and take responsibility for their actions by spiritual principles. Using a literature-based review and qualitative research, this paper analyses the importance of cultivating moral agency and a caring person in a cyber society through cultural-based religious education. Through the Indonesian Indigenous culture of Gotong Royong, religious education will promote collaborative learning, active participation, and social responsibility. Gotong Royong pedagogy is a holistic educational approach that nurtures not just academic knowledge but also social, emotional, spiritual, and ethical growth. Employing this pedagogy in religious education helps us to reimagine the human person, ethical agency, and community in the digital era.

This research explores the transitional phase of innovative technology driven by artificial intelligence, analyzing its fundamental differences from human intelligence. While a social structure dominated by robotics and automation underscores the precarious vulnerability of human beings, this study proposes a new approach to religious education. From the perspective of the younger generation, it reinterprets human limitations not as weaknesses but as foundations for interrelatedness and mutual reliance, fostering deeper connections in an increasingly technological world.

Thousands of “sacred spaces” will soon close in the United States. Religious community members face a disorienting dilemma between missional fidelity and practical reality. The paper describes a geospatially-informed learning process, whereby “sacred spaces” can be repurposed in ways that remain faithful to a community’s foundational mission. Companies employing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) offer religious leaders a decisive information management tool that will allow fidelity to the religious mission while helping the community navigate demographic, economic, and social realities.

Religious communities’ use of digital media has increased exponentially in recent years. To address how religious educators can faithfully and effectively use digital media, this paper begins by examining the historical use of visual media for formation. It then discusses current possibilities in light of past praxis, leading to recommendations for the fruitful incorporation of digital media into contemporary faith formation. The results highlight the benefit of multisensory media, as well as the value of digital media in facilitating experiences of otherwise inaccessible places and times.

This demonstration will use common, accessible technology to support spiritual friendship. Participants will experiment with the shared spiritual practice model of Be-Friend, Tufts University’s interfaith friendship program for students, faculty, and staff. This program spans four campuses, bridging real geographic gaps and providing a container for folks to get beneath the surface and talk about the things that matter, like values, sense of purpose, and questions about life.

How can a pilgrimage to a site of social significance impact meaning-making among Christian young people when virtual reality is the primary medium for travel and encounter? Our research is in progress and is part of a longer multi-year research endeavor. However, preliminary findings suggest important questions, possibilities, and limitations for employing virtual reality in pilgrimage endeavors.

This research project aims to construe an ethos of Christian Religious Education that attends to the forming the People of God for missionary activity in a digital culture. To do so, this project will engage in a correlation between P’s theology of creation, the post Vatican II theology of evangelization, and digital culture, particularly AI and social media, to consider how conceiving Christian religious education in a missionary key can give insight to how religious education’s instructional activities and assessments to form the People of God for mission in a digital society.

How does a technologically advanced society define intelligence and religious intelligence in the age of artificial intelligence? The research analyzes the algorithmic logic AI produces, contrasting wisdom and reason found in wisdom literature, which allows a contemporary audience to glean spiritual discernment as a fear of the Lord and humility. The research explores the theological implications of AI’s limitations for describing spiritual matters. This study will show how religious intelligence cannot be reduced to algorithmic or data definitions of intelligence that AI relies on.

The use of literature in ministerial formation has been promoted by Pope Francis in a 2024 Letter on the Role of Literature in Formation. This letter holds up literature as a medium that calls for substantial engagement, and one that is especially impactful toward personal maturity. In a digital age, we might qualify literature as slow media. This presentation explores how slow media engagement in with literature helps to foster attentiveness, listening and sensitivity to context, all essential dispositions for pastoral ministry in a digital age, where these are otherwise challenged.

Mentimeter is a user-friendly, free tool that presents information in ways that appeal to multiple intelligences. It has proven to be a useful tool in mediating the multiple modalities used in online theological education. This presentation highlights its use in synchronous and asynchronous learning experiences, addressing a wide range of topics from educating Christians for social change, the political implications of Eucharist, and trauma-informed community healing. In this demonstration, the audience will reflect on their experiences with online learning.

Structured on the philosophy of constructionism, this demonstration will provide a brief introduction to digital game-based learning by having participants construct a simple digital game design workflow using generative artificial intelligence (AI). Learning outcomes from this demonstration include: awareness of how digital games function as learning environments, awareness of how to use AI in building prototypes, and awareness of how to leverage digital game design as a learning exercise through constructionism.

Handout for Demonstration (Google Drive):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/153Vz-Fj0HFLyrbqhn_9r38fMd__ZDOz2oFPjHIGULaM/copy

Handout for Demonstration (Word - Direct Download):

https://docs.google.com/document/d/153Vz-Fj0HFLyrbqhn_9r38fMd__ZDOz2oFPjHIGULaM/export?format=docx

Participants will work with the following websites during this demonstration, and are encouraged to watch them prior to the demonstration:

• Craiyon
• Introduction to Digital Game-Based Learning
• Demonstration of the REA 2025 DGBL Exercise
• Gameplay Concept Map

The digitization of faith communities has opened new avenues for activism and marginalized individuals to engage in spirituality, build community, and experience belonging beyond the constraints of traditional religious institutions. Online platforms provide an alternative space for faith formation, amplifying unheard voices and fostering spiritual discourse and leadership. Drawing on recent research, this paper examines digital online faith engagement from an educational psychology perspective, highlighting its transformative potential in redefining the conceptual boundaries of church.

Since ancient Greece, logos and tekhne have been distinguished, leading to the instrumentalization of technology and its separation from human formation. In my paper, I argue that digital technology functions as an ecosystem rather than merely a tool for pedagogical discourse. This perspective enables us to transcend the dichotomy and foster a dynamic engagement with it. I endorse three concepts to establish a digital pedagogical environment: logomathia (the substance of a course), praxamathia (practical aspect), and pathamathia (affective dimension).

The negative effects of cancel culture reflect social distress in the digital age, shaping how individuals and communities engage with suffering. This study argues that empathy is both a moral awareness and a behavioral response essential for ethically engaging with cancel culture. Specifically, it examines Jeong, a Korean concept of emotion, as a framework for cultivating empathy within a Christian and communal context. By integrating the relational and embodied dimensions of Jeong into empathetic dialogue through embodied pedagogy, Christian education can foster ethical empathy.

In an era defined by rapid technological advancement, the landscape of education, including religious education, is undergoing profound transformation. This paper, titled “The Community of Truth in a Digital Age,” seeks to engage with these pressing issues by examining the impact of digital modalities on religious proclamation. It will explore how digital technologies have not only altered the reception of information but also transformed the epistemological foundations of truth. Drawing on Parker Palmer’s concept of the “Community of Truth,” this paper will argue that truth no longer resides

Research shows that young people are the most vulnerable age group engaging with social media. This article explores how Vietnamese youth interact with social media and analyzes the negative impacts of misusing these platforms. While social media can foster online relationships, it is important to use these tools appropriately. The key question is how religious educators can guide young Vietnamese in engaging with these platforms in a healthy manner that benefits both themselves and others. The article suggests that communication should be rooted in love and kindness towards online neighbors.

This article proposes a theological and pedagogical framework for digital citizenship grounded in decolonial praxis. In response to the persistent legacies of coloniality embedded in digital infrastructures—such as algorithmic bias, platform imperialism, and epistemic erasure — the study calls for a reimagining of digital citizenship as a Christian vocation that addresses the ethical, cultural, and theological challenges of digital life. In this context, the article proposes three interrelated pillars of digital citizenship to become a just Christian in digital society: authentic inclusivity, transformative creativity, and critical accountability.

In the context of advancing technology, particularly AI, this paper investigates the redefinition of humanity suggested by this development and its implications for formative theological education. Focusing on the formation of Catholic priests in Nigeria, the paper questions how the goal of becoming an alter Christus, rooted in imago Dei anthropology, can be maintained amid an AI-influenced imago hominis. The paper argues for a balanced pedagogical approach that integrates AI perspectives with theological principles, essential for upholding the ‘alter Christus’ goal.