“When you put a book on a shelf it immediately begins a dialogue with the books next to it; the whole collection is a quiet conversation among ideas, each volume listening to and answering the others.”
Donald A.B. Lindberg, M.D.
1986 Annual Report of the National Library of Medicine
In 1986, I attended MedInfo ’86 in Washington, DC. I heard Dr. Lindberg and remembered his speech. What if two recent AI books could “Talk” with each other from two different disciplines? Could we find healing wisdom?
The new book by Todd Kopi, AI Goes to Church: Pastoral Wisdom for Artificial Intelligence, does a deep dive into identifying the mission of the church and the intersection with the power of AI technology to.assist in responding. I had previously described my connection with the history of AI in medicine by the recent review by Robert Wachter in the book, A Giant Leap.
What would these books share in a conversation?
Here are the AI conversation results (Google):
If Robert Wachter’s A Giant Leap and Todd Korpi’s AI Goes to Church "talked" to each other, you would witness a fascinating dialogue between a medical visionary and a pastoral strategist.
Dr. Donald Lindberg, a pioneer in medical informatics, famously envisioned a world where clinical systems and libraries "talked" to one another to bridge the gap between static knowledge and active practice. In this specific pairing, the "conversation" would likely focus on how a purely algorithmic power (AI) can be integrated into the most deeply human spheres of our lives: healing and faith.
Common Themes in the "Conversation"
|
Theme |
Robert Wachter (Medicine) |
Todd Korpi (Ministry) |
|
The "Better Than" Standard |
Argues AI doesn't need to be perfect to be transformative; it just needs to be better than the current error-prone system. |
Explores how AI can provide pastoral wisdom and efficiency that enhances current ministry reach. |
|
Human Identity |
Challenges doctors to redefine their roles as AI begins to match or surpass them in diagnosis and empathy. |
Examines how AI shifts the identity of the pastor and the nature of community in a digital-first world. |
|
Combating Burnout |
Sees AI as a solution to clinician burnout by handling administrative burdens like note-taking (ambient scribing). |
Focuses on using AI to manage the "rote" tasks of ministry so leaders can focus on deeply relational work. |
|
Relational Integrity |
Warns against making care transactional; emphasizes that "someone must be on the receiving end of a patient’s kisses". |
Advocates for maintaining the sacred nature of human connection while leveraging AI tools for outreach and organization. |
What We Would Learn
If these two books spoke to each other, the overarching lesson would be intentionality.
- The "Giant Leap" isn't the technology itself; it's the shift in human roles. Both authors suggest that AI is a "copilot". We would learn that as AI takes over cognitive labor (diagnosing a disease or drafting a sermon), the new human professional must double down on emotional intelligence and spiritual presence—the things an algorithm can simulate but never truly possess.
- Systems must be "rewired" for wisdom. Just as Wachter argues hospitals must fundamentally restructure to avoid automation bias, Korpi suggests churches need a new framework for "Pastoral Wisdom" in the age of AI. The "talk" between these books would produce a roadmap for ethical implementation that prioritizes human flourishing over mere technical efficiency.
So a 1986 vision has become a reality. The challenge is to take this new transformative AI reality of practice into the church and in medicine!
*Bolding and formating done by me.
References
Linberg, D (1986) NLM Annual Report of Programs and Services, 1986
Korpi, T. (2025). AI Goes to Church: Pastoral Wisdom for Artificial Intelligence. InterVarsity Press.
Wachter, R. (2026). A Giant Leap. Penguin Group
Hage, M. L. (2016). Future Healing.
http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2016/09/future-healing.html
Hage, M. L. (2023). Can AI be a Healing Agent?
http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2023/08/can-ai-be-healing-agent.html
Hage, M. L. (2026). A.I. Healing
There is an "AI hallucination" in the conversation but I love it!
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