REGISTER FOR OUR OCTOBER 1ST LECTURE, “WHAT WAS MEANT FOR EVIL: MAKING AI & RELIGION WORK FOR US,” HERE
The rise of Christian Nationalism in the U.S., along with other forms of religious nationalisms around the world, threaten to turn back the clock on hard fought progress on issues of equality, diversity, and justice. At the same time, the speed at which AI is developing raises serious concerns about its largely unregulated impact on everything from the way we work to the way we govern. Together, these profound challenges raise significant questions for both democracy and civil society today.
PSR’s 2024 Earl Lecture Series, Disruptive AI, Christian Nationalism, and Democracy seeks to speak to the intersection of these forces.
The lecture series will be led by John Robichaux, Executive Director for U.C. Berkeley’s Coleman Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership, and PSR’s Dean Susan Abraham, with responses by Leonard McMahon, Assistant Professor of Pastoral Care, Spirituality & Political Theology at PSR, and PSR President, David Vásquez-Levy. Their much-needed conversation will go beyond acknowledging inherent challenges to outline the possibilities religion and technology offer for leveraging human capacity to create a world where all can thrive.
1 Hour of CEU credit available for those who participate in all four sessions. If you’re interested in receiving credits, please reach out to the Office of Development at development@psr.edu for more information.
Schedule
September 17th: AI and Religion at the Dawn of a New Era
September 24th: AI and Religion as Technologies of Communal Meaning Making
September 26th: In-Person Screening: Bad Faith at the Elmwood Theater in Berkeley
October 1st: What Was Meant for Evil: Making AI and Religion Work for Us
Use the links above to register to attend online or in person at PSR’s Bade Museum in Berkeley, CA. The series is open to the public at no cost. No previous knowledge of AI or religion are required for this series, and people across a wide range of experience will benefit from the insights at the intersection of these two major aspects of our society and democracy.
PSR’s Earl Lectures and Leadership Conference address theological, pastoral, and social issues of the day. Founded in 1901, the Earl Lectures is one of the longest lecture series in the State. Over the years, the content of the Lectures has reflected the important theological, political, economic, and social trends of their times, with a uniformly high standard of scholarship and boldness.
Lecturers have been Biblical scholars, educators, historians, authors, activists, church leaders, and scholars of literature, among others; some of the featured Lecturers were well-known within their field but little-known outside of it, while others were household names. Some of the names we recognize today include such international figures as Theodore Roosevelt, Elie Wiesel, Howard Thurman, Maya Angelou, Paul Tillich, Alice Walker, and Robert Reich.
John Robichaux is Executive Director of the Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership at the University of California, Berkeley’s College of Engineering. He is an award-winning executive, educator, and consultant. For more than 25 years, he has advised, trained, and consulted for hundreds of leading organizations in industry, government, and civil society– including The United Nations, The White House, US Congress, European Parliament, The World Health Organization, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, IBM, Nike, LinkedIn, PBS, NPR, NASA, National Geographic, The United Way, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, The Brookings Institution, among others.
John has spent over 15 years addressing AI and AI’s impact on democracy, human rights, and leadership. Prior to joining Berkeley, John helped Stanford University launch its flagship Institute for Human-Centered AI.
Notably for this lecture series, John also taught Religious Studies and Political Science at Harvard and Stanford in the aftermath of 9/11, focusing on topics related to democracy, leadership, and ethics— themes that ultimately led him to the impacts of AI and related technologies. Over his career, John has taught and held senior leadership positions at Harvard, Stanford, and Columbia Universities.
In these roles, John has trained Nobel laurates, Fortune 100 CEOs, nonprofit and religious leaders, and policymakers and government officials from more than 40 countries. Today, he speaks widely on topics of critical interest to leadership audiences and the public— most notably on the implications of AI and related technologies and the changing landscape of leadership.
John is also a former NGO co-founder and holds a Master of Divinity degree from Harvard. Today, he lives with his wife and daughter in California.
Susan Abraham is Professor of Theology and Postcolonial Cultures, VP of Academic Affairs, and Dean of Faculty at Pacific School of Religion. She is the author of Identity, Ethics, and Nonviolence in Postcolonial Theory: A Rahnerian Theological Assessment (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), co-editor of Shoulder to Shoulder: Frontiers in Catholic Feminist Theology (Fortress, 2009), Blessed are Those Who Mourn: Depression, Anxiety, and Pain on the Path of an Incarnational Spirituality (Marymount Press, 2020) and numerous essays and articles in anthologies of contemporary theology and peer-reviewed journals. She is also the President of the Board of Editors of Concilium: An International Journal of Theology. In 2023 she was elected to the presidential line of the Catholic Theological Society of America and will serve as president of the CTSA in 2025.
Dr. Abraham brings wide experience and knowledge of higher education and institutional practices through her past affiliations with St. Bonaventure University, Harvard Divinity School, and Loyola Marymount University. Her publications, courses, and presentations weave practical theological insights from her experience of working as a youth minister in Mumbai, India, with theoretical perspectives from postcolonial theory, cultural studies, political theory and feminist theory.
Leonard McMahon is Assistant Professor of Pastoral Care, Spirituality, and Political Theology at Pacific School of Religion. With his interest in improving the common good through political theology, spirituality, and pastoral care, Leonard works through his consultancy, Common Ground Dialogue, to bring divergent citizens into deeper conversation for the sake of our democracy. He is deeply concerned about political polarization and draws upon classical spirituality and modern political theory to craft a pastoral approach that attends to both the macrosocial and microsocial aspects of our common life.
Seminary students are entering a world where the increasing media presence of marginalized communities has resulted in a cultural clash between margin and center and the intense political struggle over the direction of our society and the world. In such a world, spirituality and pastoral care are integral to forming leaders who can prioritize the margins while keeping track of those at the center. Leonard agrees with Pacific School of Religion that the future belongs to marginalized communities; he sought a faculty position here because his progressive Christian faith demands he play a role in its mission to create a world where all can thrive.
A longtime member of Glide Memorial Church, Leonard has also ministered in the United Church of Christ and the Unitarian Universalist Church. In addition to his academic studies, he has worked on Capitol Hill and taught English and History in the Cheongdam-dong area of Seoul, South Korea. He is a big fan of the WNBA and enjoys seeing games live whenever possible.
Rev. Dr. David Vásquez-Levy serves as President of Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California –a progressive, interdenominational seminary and center for social justice that prepares theologically and spiritually rooted leaders to work for the well-being of all. A committed pastor, a nationally recognized higher education and immigration leader, and a sought-after speaker, Vásquez-Levy leads at the intersection of faith, higher education, and social change.
President Vásquez-Levy is committed to innovation and access in theological education and leadership formation. He serves on the GTU Consortial Council, is co-founder and convener for La Colectiva, a group of Latinx executive leaders at ATS schools, and is a member of the executive leaders group of AshokaU campus network and the Asociación para La Educación Teológica Hispana (AETH). He also serves as Vice-Chair on the board of Church World Service, one of the largest ecumenical development agencies in the world, and the Advisory Council for Encore.org.
He regularly contributes a faith perspective to the national conversation on immigration, including speaking at a congressional briefing, immigration consultations with both the Obama and the Biden White House, engaging in a series of public conversations with various State Attorneys across the country in an effort to reframe our national conversation about immigration. He has worked on consulted on a number of documentaries on immigration, labor, and human rights and is the author of various publications that explore migration stories in sacred texts and in people’s lives.