Creativity, artificial intelligence, and God

Journal article

This article offers a theological account of creativity in light of recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI), especially large language models. Drawing on scripture and the philosophical work of Margaret Boden, it argues that creativity—whether divine, human, or computational—is best understood as a moral category. After introducing theologically appropriate forms of analogy, the essay distinguishes between two kinds of divine creativity: creativity ex nihilo (creating from nothing) and creativity in imago (creating in the image of God). These serve as interpretive lenses for assessing human and computational creativity. While AI systems like ChatGPT can produce outputs that are novel, surprising, and valuable, they cannot create ex nihilo or bear the divine image. Their creativity is real but limited, acquiring moral significance only when guided by human agents acting in imago. The final section explores how morally responsible creativity involves accountability, self-formation, and questioning—traits exemplified (in varying degrees of success) in scripture by figures such as Adam, Eve, and Mary, the mother of Jesus. The article concludes that divine creativity is not only the origin but also the ethical standard by which all creativity, including our engagement with AI, should be measured.

Authors: David, EA

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Journal: Studies in Christian Ethics
• Publication date: 2025-06-12
• Acceptance date: 2025-05-01
• DOI: 10.1177/09539468251347501
• EISSN: 1745-5235
• ISSN: 0953-9468
• Language: English
• Keywords: generative AI; Margaret Boden; computational creativity; Christian ethics; artificial intelligence