'The Holy Trinity, AI and the future of the human race' - Weekly Reflection 31st May 2026

This weeks Reflection is an edited version of the sermon I presented this morning, Trinity Sunday, to St Oswald’s Church, Rugby.

In 1970, Canadian journalist turned futurologist, Alvin Toffler, wrote a seminal book called ‘Future Shock.’ He followed this up with ‘Third Wave’ in 1980 and then followed this up with ‘Previews and Premises’ in 1984.  

I never read ‘Future Shock’ but did read ‘Third Wave’ and then ‘Previews and Premises’ which is an update on ‘Third Wave.

(In "The Third Wave," Alvin Toffler explores the evolution of human civilization through three distinct waves: the Agrarian Society, the Industrial Society, and the emerging Information Age, highlighting the profound societal changes each wave brings.)

I was and continue to be deeply impacted by both books.  One of the things Toffler spoke of was the advent of the computer. He said that everyone would have one and that this would change the world of work and communication. The other key point I remember was the breakdown of community and the changing nature of families.  Toffler spoke of the ‘electronic cottage’ with people working from home.

And last night I watched a lecture from the charity, ‘Towards the Common Good.’

Staying Human Series EP#05 - AI, the Future of Work and Christian Discernment - with Matthew Sanders

What are the most common questions we ask someone upon meeting them for the first time, something you often see on Games Shows on TV. What is your name, where do you come and what do you do. That latter question most often relating to the ‘work role.’ Because, truth be told, we all do a lot of things in any given day. We have got used to being defined by our work.

The ‘technological revolution’ that Toffler mentioned has developed exponentially with the coming of A1. There are some who argue that we are fast heading towards a world and a society where any work as we have commonly known will become redundant as AI develops first from software, removing the need for humans, or at least many humans, from information services. Eventually moving into hard AI (robots as already present in many warehouses and manufacturing) and replacing virtually everything currently done by humans.

Recently published Pope Leo XIV presents "Magnifica Humanitas" as the Church’s response to the challenges posed by artificial intelligence, calling for AI to be “disarmed” from logics of domination, exclusion and war. Drawing parallels with Rerum Novarum, the Pope urges the global community to place technological progress at the service of human dignity, solidarity and the common good.

Pope Leo presents 'Magnifica humanitas’ calling for disarmament of AI - Vatican News

I would argue that the Church, the people of God, is in the right place, with the right tools, to be the salvation of society.  

However, we need to do some very serious rethinking of what it means to be the people of God locally placed, small-scale and with the smell and taste of the local, its history, its present and offering a hopeful future.

Today we celebrate Trinity Sunday. And the Trinity is not some obscure doctrine but rather the experiential reality for those who knew God as Father but then encountered Jesus and then experienced the infilling and indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

A deep and profound and unfathomable mystery, but let’s not be afraid to embrace mystery.

Einstein said, “logic will get you from A to B, but imagination can take your everywhere.”

Logic, imagination and mystery – all these help us to encounter God.

And the Trinity is about a big of a mystery as we could get and yet a mystery we can embrace and step into albeit we may not have all the answers.

Consider this statement, one which I think most, if not all Christians would agree.

‘God is love.’

However, can there be love without the beloved – someone or something that is the object of that love. And isn’t it the case that if that love be genuine, in the best of circumstances that love will be reciprocated if the object of love has agency as a sentient being.  

Therefore, isn’t it plain logic that for love to be active there must be something or someone to love?

A further question then – If God is a single entity and if God is love, whom or what does God love?

We do have John 3.16 – ‘for God so loved the world…’

So, we have God loving the world…

But whom or what did God love before the world began – if God was a single entity?

The logical and satisfactory answer comes in the idea of God as three persons, what we know as the Trinity.

And this is exactly what we find in the opening pages of the Bible in the creation narrative of Gensis.

We have God calling out the Word, and we have the Spirit hovering over the chaos waters.

A picture that John picks up in the opening prologue to his Gospel. 

‘In the beginning was the Word, and the was with God and the Word was God.’

And in the ordinary course of things and in the best of all circumstances what is it that love does?   It creates, it gives new life, and it promotes flourishing.

Again, that is exactly what we read in Genesis and the creation story.

‘Let us create humankind in our own image.’

Think of it this way. When a human couple come together in love then in the best of all circumstances and in the ordinary course of things they will create new life.

That is what true love does, it creates, it brings new life, it produces a flourishing of the other, the beloved other.

In his book,‘The Divine Dance’ Father Richard Rhor focusses largely around Rublev’s famous Icon, ‘The Hospitality of Abraham’ with its popular alternative title of ‘The Holy Trinity.’

Rhor emphasises the Holy Community of the Trinity into which we are invited to participate in the lifegiving and outpouring love.

God is a community of equals operating out of reciprocal love.

One is lonely, two can become oppositional but three gives an opportunity for a dynamic symbiosis.  And this Holy Community as it operates out of reciprocal love births new life and creates flourishing.

And it here that we begin to grasp both the joy and the challenge of being God’s image bearers.

Remember, ‘let us create humankind in our image.’

Not in physical likeness, but in attributes, in our lives, in the way we live and love and foster flourishing.

Chapters 13-17 of John’s Gospel, known as Jesus’ final discourses, if they teach us anything, it is about the mutual abiding and dwelling of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

But moreover, that we are invited into that very same abiding presence.

As imagers bearers, as witnesses to the world, we are called to operate in like manner.

To be a community of equals operating out of reciprocal love. A community that births life, has an outpouring of love which produces a flourishing.

Paul writing to the Galatians emphasises that we are equal, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Gal 3.28.

Therefore, a question for us to answer as Communities of Faith locally placed and called to be image bearers is, does everything we do seek to do birth new life, demonstrate love and seeks the flourishing of the other.

Does it seek to bear witness to the Holy Trinity as a Community of reciprocal love?

How can we become more of a Faith Community, a Faith Community that is committed at the core, open at the edges, evangelized and naturally evangelizing.

Returning to Rublev’s Icon.

You notice the three figures, and you will notice a space.

There is always space for the other to come and be part of the Faith Community.  That’s what it means to have ‘open edges’ – making room for ‘the other.’  Offering a place for them to find love, a community, somewhere we they are defined first and foremost as a ‘human being’ not a ‘human doing,’  and as someone made in the image of God.   

God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit is a community of equals operating out of reciprocal love bringing new life and flourishing.

The salvation of society that has been obsessively focused on defining people by their work could be found in the life of the local Church, if we are bold enough to develop Faith Communities.

Faith Communities where everyone is treated as equals, that operates out of reciprocal love and brings new life and flourishing reflecting the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.