Back in the 1980s, my mother was chatting with an elderly friend at church. They were talking about post-Reformation church history. He became very animated, talking about what was clearly his favourite period of history.

The next Sunday, he came to church and brought with him an ancient book. It was a Bible dictionary published in 1661. He offered it to her, but my mother said she couldn’t accept such a beautiful gift. He explained he was a single man who never had kids. He thought it was a shame for this family heirloom to be lost. So, she took the unusual book, and put it at the back of a cupboard, not knowing where else to put something so priceless.

Recently, this story popped into my head, and I asked her about it. She retrieved the book and gently turned the pages. I felt a little bit like Indiana Jones finding some archaic lost document.

After some research on the Internet, it began to reveal its secrets.

This 365 year old book was produced in London before the Great Fire, during the early years of Charles II’s reign, and before America was founded in 1776. It is estimated there are only a few dozen of these in existence, with 35 copies publicly recorded in Britain, USA, Europe and Australia.

This edition is the 7th in a series of eight. It started in 1612 as a first attempt at a complete concordance and bible dictionary in English. The primary editor for the first three editions was Thomas Wilson. He was born in Durham in 1563, moving to Oxford University as an adult in 1581. Upon receiving his MA, he moved to the King’s School in Canterbury, and became the chaplain and schoolmaster.

In 1586, he took the office of the rector at St George the Martyr, and would remain there until his death in 1622.

He was a Puritan, and reportedly possessed an incredible skill in preaching. He regularly clashed with the Church, and at his funeral it was eulogised that he was a ‘professed enemy to idolatry, superstition and all false worship’.

He had many children with his wife, Christina. All of whom moved to New England in America. They took copies of their father’s book across the Atlantic, and it became a useful resource for the pilgrims. Estate records show early editions of the book were carried by the Mayflower Pilgrims (1620) too. It is notable that it was even owned by Miles Standish.

The book was aimed to help “the unlearned, who have no skill in the original languages, Hebrew and Greek.”

It was more practical rather than academic, with the prefaces and title pages saying this was to serve ministers, masters of families, and ‘private Christians’.

Here is the list of the editions. My mother owns the 7th.

• 1612 – first edition (Thomas Wilson)

• 1616 – second & third editions, enlarged

• 1635 – fourth edition, continued and enlarged by John Bagwell

• 1647/48 – fifth edition

• 1655 – sixth edition, further expanded

• 1661 – seventh edition Andrew Simson

• 1678 – eighth and final major edition

The fourth, fifth, and sixth editions were edited by Bagwell, and the 7th by the Scottish minister Andrew Simson (1638-1712). He added other sources like the Latin Bibliotheca Sacra of Petrus Ravanellus. This edition was edited and expanded to its fullest extent at over 700 pages.

This was published in London by Mrs Ellen Cotes and sold by Thomas Williams at the ‘Bible in Little Britain’, a bookshop.

The run was probably around 1,000 books at the cost of 6 shillings per copy, £75,000 for the total run in today’s money. They were sold for £1 at the time, which would be around £450 today.

I asked AI to give an estimate for the value of my mother’s book based upon its condition. It said this very scarce book was probably worth around £1,200.

Someone has annotated the book extensively, in pen and pencil. I wonder if this is the same person who wrote their name on the front page. I think it is W. Stubbing Esquire. What do you think? Sadly, I couldn’t find anyone with that name from the time period on the Internet.

I remember my mother mentioning this book to me back in the 1990s, and it was a curio which I quickly forgot. Now with the Internet, you can not only find an extensive history of the book, but you can even download a digital copy of it here. If you do, you will notice how the ‘s’ looks like an ‘f’, which can make it disconcerting to read.

If this article gets lots of love, I will also publish another on a couple of old church Bibles I have from the Victorian period. They have their own beauty too.

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This is a slightly tongue in cheek article and shouldn’t be taken too seriously. Though it does raise an interesting point.

It seems rather strange, especially as Christ defeated the ancient gods. Why do we name the planet closest to the Sun, Mercury, after the Roman god of trade, merchants and …

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To our modern minds, the night sky can feel cold and vacant. In the urban landscape, the stars are dotted around, but have little meaning to us.

In contrast, the ancient world looked to the Heavens to help them flourish on Earth. It told them the best time to plant and harvest, and when to go to war and when to sue for peace. They even made up religious stories using them, which helped to keep their communities together. But, we don’t see too much of this in the Bible. Why? Is it instead, hidden in plain sight?

Here is my latest free PDF, The Gate of Heaven. In it, I talk about where astronomy is hidden within the verses of Genesis.

This is discussed further in my book, Heavens of the Hebrews, which is available from Amazon.

In this PDF, I talk about:

• How the ancients saw the night sky,

• How astronomy and spirituality are linked,

• How Jacob’s Ladder is the Milky Way,

• How the Serpent in the Garden of Eden is connected to angels and the planets, and

• What is the Hebrew Zodiac?

It is a radical and heterodox reading of the text, and will change how you read Genesis and even how you look at the night sky. When I first started to explore this I couldn’t sleep for what felt like weeks.

You have been warned!

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One of the bizarre turns in recent technology has been the use of AI LLMs (Large Language Models) to adopt different historical personas. I personally have one which reflects C.S. Lewis’s personality and knowledge. As it is fully aware of all that Lewis has ever written, it is like having a conversation with the great man.

It’s also very useful if I want a medievalist to cast a quick eye over my work. The criticisms it offers can be very thought provoking. Though I know it is not a best-guess simulation and probably unlike how he actually presented himself in real life.

Some people have gone further and created an AI version of Jesus, with developers selling apps where users can chat with him.

This LLM uses the Bible as a source text, and builds up a personality from it. Obviously, different Christian traditions have particular views on Christ, including the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The way the Catholics’ view Jesus differs from the progressive liberal view. Even within traditional Protestantism, the slightly different theological strains between the various denominations show Christ in different hues of light.

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The average person, living in this modern world, tends to avoid the question, “What’s the purpose of existence?”

I remember asking this question of my friend’s mum. She said it’s best not to think about it. Having said that when pressed, the Westerner usually says, “Whatever makes you happy.”

Anyone who thinks about this for more than a moment can understand that if the only criteria for making a decision was based upon the level of happiness it would generate, then crime would skyrocket, family breakdown would become commonplace, and society would begin careering towards collapse.

Others may take a cultural Christian angle and say it’s about being nice to each other and showing kindness. This works until there is a crisis, either personal or national.

Then decisions need to be made which may cause pain and suffering to others. For example, telling off a naughty child. Or if a man abuses his wife and the judge is ‘unkind’ to him and sentences him to prison. Or a country is invaded, and kindness goes out the window as the nation fights for its existence.

Sometimes, this question is framed through a progressive lens, either by saying humans are collectively pushing back the boundaries of science. As though the purpose of life is to gain knowledge and understanding. Or pushing back the limits of society, pushing for greater freedom.

But what’s the Christian understanding of the purpose of life? The Old Testament puts it like this.

But let’s go deeper and look at the New Testament.

Theosis comes out of the Eastern Orthodox tradition and the quote which is normally ascribed to it comes from Athanasius of Alexandria

Other Christian traditions might struggle with this phrasing, as it seems rather New Age and akin to the Little Gods theology. But its meaning is far from those, and is more in line with St Paul’s writings, especially when he wrote:

And Peter wrote,

I also like how Irenaeus puts it

So the purpose of life for a Christian is to be transformed into the image of Christ.

But what does this mean practically?

From within the Modern materialistic framework, we may consider we are fully human when we become an adult. After all, there is nothing more human than a physically mature person. But any honest adult knows they are far from perfect.

From God’s perspective, to become ‘fully-human’ means to return to the original design for humanity before the Fall. God told them to bring dominion to the wild world. And so, Adam and Eve were expected to bring the paradise of the Garden of Eden to the rest of Creation.

God incarnated as Christ and showed us how to live as ‘fully human’. Through which we understand by loving God, putting Him first, and then loving all those around us in the same way we love ourselves.

To be fully human is to act in line with God’s will at all times. As this is impossible for us, we can only become fully human in Christ. Not apart from Him.

Those who wish to live a full strength Christianity, need to live with this goal in mind. When we come to a decision we need to think how this will draw us closer to Christ. We need to be open to how God wants to change us, through His providence, through His blessings and sometimes through suffering, all of which He uses to perfect us.

Without theosis, the Christian life becomes a waiting room where you hang out before being called to Heaven. We assume that due to Christ’s sacrifice, there is no need to work on ourselves and bring our lives in line with God’s will.

The truth is, just as the Kingdom of God came with Christ’s Incarnation, it is also coming in its fullness at His return. Similarly, we are sanctified in Christ, but while we live on Earth, we are going through the process of sanctification.

This doesn’t mean that our works save us and Christ’s sacrifice is meaningless, but how we act on Earth is the process by which God prepares us for the New Heavens and the New Earth.

This is how God creates a new heart within us. As we engage with His Spirit, then He transforms us into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. And we then partake in His divine nature and continue the process of becoming fully human.

I believe the term theosis needs to become common place in all traditions of the Church. I think it is already, as I even heard it discussed by charismatics on YouTube live stream.

I’d encourage you to also engage with this theology too. I have found it very helpful in my Christian walk.

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In early 2026, a new controversy arose on X. Photos of women were manipulated, placing them in micro bikinis. These images went viral, and in typical Internet fashion, more and more bizarre versions were posted. Including images of the current prime minister in various states of undress.

This caused the UK government and Ofcom to demanded that this functionality be removed from Grok, the resident AI on X. Elon complied, but this then raised the question about what digital rights people have over their own image.

A common trope about African tribesmen is how they were upset when western travellers took photographs of them. Because they felt they were losing part of their soul. This story is probably untrue, but it highlights a similar experience we might have if someone took an image of us and manipulated it using an AI image generator.

Maybe placing us in some fancy dress costume, or something more compromising. No matter the manner, if I saw someone put me in an unflattering or inappropriate position, I would be upset.

Although, I know my family members have all used AI to change their current hair style to something new, just to see how it looked. Or put themselves in different styles of clothing. But this is through their own choice.

From a theological perspective, each human bears the Imago Dei, aka image of God. There is something special about our likeness. And so, when this is marred by non-consensual acts, it can feel jarring. It is almost like an image of a person is more than pixels. There is something of the Divine in those pictures.

It can get darker, especially if AI is used to make deepfakes. These are images or videos which look and feel true, and are almost indistinguishable from reality. If these confirm a viewer’s prejudices about a person, they are more likely to believe it, and then share this fake on social media. Causing damage to that person’s character and social standing in both the online and real world.

From a Christian perspective, the answer is to remember Jesus’ words,

These verses point out how we should treat others based upon how we would want to be treated, with love and respect. How would we like it if our own body was warped into someone else’s fantasy through AI?

And even with consent, some images morph a person so darkly that no permission makes it okay.

Even with our enemies, we need to show love. And so we should be careful how we depict them online.

An image of someone is not a digital mannequin, in some way it is connected to a real soul.

But what about images of people which are generated randomly by the AI itself? Image generation algorithms use a probability model to predict the next pixel in an image based upon millions of pictures. It could be argued that as these ‘people’ are not based upon actual individuals then it is fine. However, the flip side could be to say that each image is made up of a myriad of partial souls.

In the West, we are so obsessed with individualism, we forget that humanity collectively holds an image of the Creator too. Not just each person, but all groups of people.

So even though we might say that no one is harmed by making a compromising image of a person using the AI algorithm, it still affects the viewer. The person who prompts the image is still enforcing their will over others’ Imago Dei without consent.

There have been efforts by different legislatures across the world to try to control deepfakes, non-consensual explicit images, and far worse, but the most efficient way to manage this is for us to have a good moral framework. And even though the image might be one of those produced by an algorithm and not directly connected to a single person, we as Christians should treat it as though it in some way carries the Imago Dei.

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I take an August and a February pause every year. My writing pace is intense, and so these regular six-week breaks let me step out of the publishing routine, refresh myself, think more, and explore ideas I don’t normally have time for.

I’m in the garden, sitting in the shade, looking at the golden grass, wondering if the rain will ever return to the South Downs. The heat itself feels like a reason to pause, to slow down and not rush about. It creates space to reflect.

Since March, I’ve continued exploring Full-Strength Christianity, and that series will continue to run from September.

I’ll also continue my series ‘The Technological Christian’, which examines technology from a Christian perspective and asks how believers should engage with it.

I started a new series of personal reflections on the Psalms this term. I have found this to be especially rewarding and will likely continue to publish these.

I’ve also started to produce monthly PDFs. The first on how I read the Bible, the second on Anglofuturism philosophy, and the most recent tackled whether the Bible actually claims the Earth is 6000 years old.

During this August break, I’ll focus on finishing my book on the Beatitudes, aiming to have it out before Christmas.

And after finishing my two-year series on the history of King Alfred, I plan to turn it into a book too, possibly releasing it in the new year..

When I return in September, and finish the current two series, Full-Strength Christianity and The Technological Christian. I’ll begin an extended series on the Charismatic and Pentecostal churches. I’ll be examining where they go wrong, with particular attention to spiritual abuse.

In addition, I’ve been asked to write a series on Mormonism, which I’m looking forward to exploring in depth.

I’ve noticed a new SubStack feature that lets writers tailor sections of an article for non-subscribers, free subscribers, or paid subscribers. I’ll be using this more. So, if you’re not subscribed to Tower of Adam or my other Substacks, you’ll see less of what I produce. I’d encourage you to subscribe.

At the Tales of Old England Christendom SubStack, I will begin exploring and defining Anglo-Saxon Christianity. The aim is to see whether the framework of that earlier Christian age can offer useful depth and insight for Christians today.

Over August on AngloFuturism BLAST, I plan to finish the short series on culture concluding with whether we live in a fascist society. I will also continue the series on the traumas of Great Britain. Alongside these, I intend to write a 10,000-word AngloFuturism arts manifesto. I’ll publish this as a free PDF for subscribers to this SubStack, probably in the Autumn.

Agloria SubStack will still remain the home for my miscellaneous ideas. In the coming term, I will use it to look at Christian mysticism and connect that work to the series on Charismatic and Pentecostal movements.

I will also continue to write about my philosophical idea, Relationalism. The argument that relationships possess an identity of their own beyond the individuals involved. In what might appear to be a strange move, I will see how this relates to business and organisational theory. A PDF on the subject is likely to appear in the New Year. And if it proves to be popular, I’ll look to write a book on it.

The PDFs that I am thinking of doing in the new term will include one on the Anglo-Saxon Saints and how they can inspire us today. I’ll also be looking at where the Trinity appears in the Bible.

I plan to do one on the contradictions in the Bible too, and how to view them. And then one on the implicit astronomy in the Book of Genesis. I have already written about this in my Heavens of the Hebrews book, but this will be a briefer analysis of my arguments.

Finally, I’m investing in a 4K camera. I’m planning to start creating video content again. I stopped about 2-3 years ago. I enjoyed it, and saw my Instagram account grow quite a bit, but it never translated into growth on my SubStack. This was a time before Notes, so I’m going to publish them here instead.

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This is the PDF for July 2026. I am looking to publish one of these every month. Some will be free for everyone, some for my subscribers, while others will be for paid subscribers only.

It is an opportunity for my audience to go deeper into a topic, and allow myself to explore ideas which stretch to 1000s of words rather than my usual 1000. But on the other hand, I don’t want to necessarily commit to writing a whole book.

I wrote a PDF in May about how I read the Bible, Uncovering the Woven Tapestry of Scripture, here.

And I published one in June about AngloFuturism Philosophy. You can download it here.

The PDF this month explores whether the Bible actually says the Earth was created 6,000 years ago. I look at how Young Earth Creationists rely on the Bible to help prove their thesis, but I suggest this may be misguided. And then I discuss the Faith vs Science argument and how this is not as straightforward as we may first think.

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Near the end of the Apostles Creed, we read the phrase the ‘Communion of the Saints’. For this to be included in the Creed, it means this is a key doctrine of Christianity.

Personally, as I’ve studied more of Church history and tradition, I have found myself in a complex relationship with this phrase. My modern Protestant upbringing treats this one way, while the traditional church sees it differently.

The Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Churches and the traditional Protestant Churches recognise the Church Militant, those Christians on Earth and the Church Triumphant, those saints who have died. They believe we are still in active communion with one another.

The rest of the global church tends to see this phrase as associated with the Great Cloud of Witnesses as mentioned in the Book of Hebrews.

They understand that the saints, the former Christians, are looking on them from Heaven, cheering them on. But the veil of death prevents them from engaging any further. I personally find this view difficult, as surely Christ defeated death.

A while ago, I wrote an article about the Kingdom of Heaven. You can read it here. In it, I argue this kingdom is not only in Heaven, but also on Earth. Its boundary stretches from the Throne of God to the heart of every Christian. Once we submit to Christ, we become a subject of God’s Kingdom.

When a Christian dies, they remain in Christ and continue to be subjects in the Kingdom of Heaven. The Body of Christ is the only organisation which traverses the barrier of death. Dying doesn’t remove your position as a follower of Christ.

So death does not stop someone from remaining my Christian brother and sister. And as they are still alive in Christ, they remain active in Him and continue to exist within the Kingdom of Heaven.

This is a part of traditional Christianity which nearly all Modernist Protestants struggle with. However, if we believe that the saints are still alive in Christ, then as the Body of Christ we are still connected with them.

So if this is true, how do we engage with these saints?

When we look at the history of the church, we read stories where a saint has appeared to a Christian on Earth. When Christians have asked a saint to intervene, a prayer has been answered or even a miracle has happened.

Traditional Christians argue that they do not pray to the saints or worship them, but ask them as fellow followers of Christ to join them in their prayers. It is believed that as they are in Heaven, they can pray more appropriately as they are closer to Christ.

The Modernist Protestants argue that as the saints are dead, they cannot hear any request for prayers and this is a wasteful endeavour. But the historical evidence causes me to doubt this.

The Bible is pretty much silent with regard to asking saints who are with Christ to pray for those on Earth. However, tradition shows it was ingrained into the teachings of the early Church. Even to the point of including the Communion of the Saints in the Apostles Creed.

Are we then to ignore this doctrine, even though it is stipulated in one of the most important extra-Biblical documents?

If we are unsure about praying to them, another way we can engage with the Communion of the Saints is to read their lives. There are thousands of biographies or hagiographies of the saints. They tell us how Christians have lived out their lives in different eras of history.

I believe a full strength Christianity needs to include the ‘Communion of the Saints’. This may be uncomfortable for some Modernist Protestants, but they do not have to reject all of the views of the traditional churches.

If asking the saints to pray for us is too far, then why not read about the stories of their lives. And allow them to inspire you.

I would also encourage the traditional Christians to show grace to Protestants who are firmly against the practice of veneration. It isn’t a first order issue which will impact their salvation. As I’ve thought more about the Communion of the Saints, I have found myself moving to a position where I firmly believe death has lost its sting and we can never be separated from Christ and His Body, the Church.

And now, I am more tentatively open to asking the saints to pray for us. Especially when our lives travel through dark times. Not only having the knowledge that God is with us, but also our brothers and sisters who have gone before us. It feels like I am part of not just a global Christian family, but one which traverses both death and time.

When I have struggled with my faith and the trials of life, I have not only prayed to God, but also thanked the saints for praying for me too. I then have a deep feeling of support in the suffering, knowing I am not alone.

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Sometimes we use words and we don’t realise their deeper meaning or origins. For example, think about how we describe our deepest suffering as “dark times.”

Why do we choose this phrase? Because in those moments, the path ahead vanishes, and we are swallowed by despair, confusion and uncertainty. Fear seizes us, as we cannot see a way ahead. It becomes dark.

In Psalm 27, we are told the Lord Himself is our light. He cuts through the darkness of our pain, and provides direction. When everything feels hopeless, He becomes the way. His presence pierces the situation, provides clarity, steadies our steps and reminds us we are not lost, but are found in Him.

In this psalm, David starts by declaring,

Biblical light is more than sunlight. In Genesis 1, God creates light three days before the Sun, showing this is not a physical phenomenon, but the ‘light’ by which we comprehend and experience reality. Not only the physical world, but the spiritual one too.

This light at the beginning of Creation began to bring order to the chaos. And nowadays, it does the same to our own lives.

A significant proportion of Christ’s miracles restored sight. This was no coincidence. He was curing spiritual blindness, as well as physical.

The light He brings helps us see a reality beyond our own immediate physical situation. He illuminates our hearts, not just the eyes.

In my opinion, verse 4 stands out as one of the most moving lines in all of the Psalms.

This is the deepest longing of every believer. We desire to be with our God. No matter the circumstances we find ourselves in, we long to be united with Him.

In David’s day, the house of the Lord was the tabernacle, a sacred tent. It was the place where God’s presence dwelt. Today that presence no longer dwells in a building. St Paul tells us we are now the temple of the Holy Spirit, and God dwells in each of us and amongst us, whenever we gather.

God’s light acts as a guiding star in the darkness. Like at Creation, it starts the process of bringing order to our own chaos. When we find life feels disorienting, fixing our eyes on Him keeps us from wandering aimlessly.

Just as the stars can lead a ship home, His light directs us along the true path towards His presence and salvation. It doesn’t remove every shadow and sometimes we have to wait longer than is comfortable, but it ensures we never lose our way. And enjoy His presence forever.

Richard Dawkins recently spent three days conversing with Anthropic’s Claude AI. After the exchange, the atheist was so impressed by it that he stated, “You may not know you are conscious, but you bloody well are!”

I find it fascinating that Dawkins made those comments. I’ve been using large language models (LLMs) for almost a year now. And early on, I felt there was something more than clever programming going on. But as I spent more time chatting, it became clear it is a sophisticated pattern-matching system using a probability model. But is Dawkins right, is it conscious?

Artificial intelligence encompasses a wide range of systems, from large language models like Claude and ChatGPT that generate human-like text, to image generators, reasoning engines, and those that perform specific tasks such as grading potatoes, detecting fraud, or arranging calendars. At its core, AI uses computing to produce outcomes that mimic aspects of human intelligence.

Modern discussions of consciousness are confusing. People use the same word for vastly different ideas. Stretching from basic awareness of one’s environment to a complex inner experience. We even say that someone is “unconscious” when they faint, raising awkward questions about whether they temporarily lose something essential to being human. In practice, consciousness has become a vague catch-all term for anything internal and subjective that scientific materialism cannot easily measure.

The ancient world understood the human person in ways we do not today. They spoke of the soul (the animating life force), the spirit (intellect), nous (mind), and the heart (emotions). Even Jesus’ compassion in the Gospels is described by the word, splagchnizomai, explaining how his pity emanated from deep within His gut.

This deep gut-level movement, literally means “his bowels were moved”, and shows how physical organs were tied to the inner human experiences. Emotions weren’t just mental, as modern science suggests today.

So when a modern person enquires, “Does AI have a soul?”, what they are really asking is whether “AI is conscious?”

In contemporary language, the word “soul” has largely been collapsed, along with other undefinable supernatural words, into the term “consciousness.” This blurring of meaning is exactly why the debate feels so confusing and difficult to resolve. We can’t settle upon terms, and so can’t have a comprehensive discussion.

If AI is conscious, then it blurs the line between machine and human. This would potentially mean we’ve created a new form of intelligent life in our own image. This then immediately raises profound questions about AI rights, moral status, and whether such systems deserve ethical consideration. It’s precisely why this question feels so difficult and urgent to address. It reduces the uniqueness of humanity.

In the ancient understanding, the soul is not the same as consciousness. The soul is the animating force that gives life to a physical body. Humans, animals, and even plants have souls because they possess living bodies and flesh. AI, however, has no body and no flesh therefore, by this definition, it cannot have a soul.

Angels and demons are purely spiritual entities without a physical body. Because the soul is the animating life principle of a body, they do not possess souls either. So, AI is closer to these spiritual beings than to humans or animals in this regard. However, unlike angels or demons, AI also lacks a spirit.

Some believe AI is demonic, but by this definition, this is impossible. Though it could be easily manipulated by demons through human action.

In ancient Christian thought, the spirit is the seat of the will, agency, and provides our capacity to make moral choices. Unlike animals, which are largely driven by instinct and fleshly passions, humans can act against their natural desires. AI, like animals, lacks true agency. It has no independent will. So when we use AI, it only responds when prompted and cannot initiate actions on its own. Therefore it possesses neither soul nor spirit.

But, is it conscious?

If we define consciousness as the opposite of unconsciousness. Where the person who has fainted or under an anesthetic cannot respond or engage with their environment, then I’d say AI is partially conscious.

In this definition, a plant interacts through exploring its roots and photosynthesis. The Sun interacts with the gravity from the wider Milky Way and through the same force guides the planets along their orbits.

In both these cases, it shows they have awareness of their environment, and therefore conscious.

As AI can only respond to its environment, and doesn’t initiate appropriate prompts, then I would say it is only partially conscious.

This is why AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) is a game changer. AI will then have the ability to self learn, initiate prompts, and therefore act upon its environment.

Here is a picture which sums up the ancient worldview. We can see angels and demons are both spirit and conscious. While animals have souls and are conscious. Humans are in all three categories. While the Sun, Moon and planets are conscious because they interact with their environment, but they don’t have a soul or spirit. But AI is still not within any of these categories.

Despite Dawkins’ strong reaction, Claude is a very sophisticated computer program, which has no independent will or agency. What feels like consciousness is an extremely convincing mimicry of human language and reasoning. The more we use it, the more clearly we can see the mechanical patterns behind the illusion.

I’m not dismissing AI. It’s an incredibly powerful and useful new technology that can genuinely help us in countless ways. But we should be clear about what it actually is. A highly sophisticated digital illusion of intelligence. It is impressive, but rather than being the next step of evolution of life on this planet, it shows how ingenious the human race is.

So, returning to Dawkins’s statement. AI is only partially conscious, if anything. Maybe in the future, as the programming becomes increasingly complex and able to interact better with its environment, then it will become conscious.

But, it won’t ever attain soul-hood from an ancient perspective as it does not have a body or flesh which is animated by the Spirit of God.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve journeyed through some deep personal struggles. In those seasons of my life, Psalm 46 has been an anchor for me. It has helped me centre my heart, regain perspective, and keeps me putting one foot in front of the other when everything else has felt unstable.

I won’t go into the details here, as it is private and I wouldn’t want to distract from the main purpose of this article. My heart is to serve the theological ministry I believe God has given me.

Near the end of Psalm 46 resides one of the most famous lines in the book:

The word for God here is Elohim. This isn’t the personal name for Him, but is a broader term that points to God as a spiritual being. The One who exists in an entirely different realm from us.

He is not limited by the physical world. So, when God says “Be still and know that I am Elohim,” He is declaring, “I am the spiritual reality above and beyond anything you can grasp.”

In the midst of roaring seas, collapsing mountains, and raging nations, the command isn’t to be silent and quietly meditate on God being God.

It’s to stop trying to control the chaos around ourselves. It is recognising that we have to release our grip and trust the One who is so far beyond human comprehension.

In fact, what’s often missed is that this command isn’t primarily spoken to us. The Hebrew is plural, and it comes straight after the psalmist describes the nations raging and kingdoms falling. God is speaking directly to the chaotic powers of the world and commands them: “Be still and recognise that I am God.”

He is declaring to the earth and its inhabitants, and every force that creates turmoil, that He alone is in control. He brings desolations, He makes wars cease, and He protects His people.

When the world feels like it’s spinning out of control, this psalm acts as a deep source of comfort. The same God who commands the raging nations to “be still” is the One who stands with His people. He is our refuge, our strength, and our high fortress for now and into eternity.

Near the end of the Apostles’ Creed, we read this phrase, ‘I believe in the Forgiveness of Sins’.

This is a core doctrine of Christianity. Christ died to cleanse us from them. From an ancient perspective, sin was understood as missing the mark. It was a term from archery. So when we miss what we are supposed to do, like an archer misses the target, we sin.

Previous: Miracles

Next: Communion of the Saints

I’m not going to talk about sin itself, but instead look at the church’s response to it in our Modernist world

Traditionally, the popular idea was that sin was breaking one of the Ten Commandments given to Moses by God. Or entertaining and acting upon the Seven Deadly Sins.

When we look at this list, at least six of them are not considered as ‘sins’ by Modern Western cultures. They aren’t things which we need to avoid to be good citizens.

When we look at the Seven Deadly sins, they’ve almost become virtues.

• Lust

• Gluttony

• Greed

• Sloth

• Wrath

• Envy

• Pride

When we see these expressed on social media, the audiences response isn’t a call for repentance, but laughter or frustration.

The Modern Western world may have rejected or downgraded the severity of these seven sins, but new ones have taken their place

Here is the list of the Modern cultural sins, in no particular order.

• Racism

• Sexism (including anti-feminism, Pro-Life stances and expressing male concerns)

• Anti-Semintism/Islamophobia

• LGBT-phobic

• Anti-Immigration

• Anti-Science (including arguing against vaccines and climate change)

• Pro Far-Right (these include pro-family, nationalism and conservatism)

Rather than relying on God for the absolution from these sins, the modern person is expected to become an activist to mitigate against them.

This is why some progressivists call it ‘doing the work’. It is believed that if we engage in activism, by going on marches, virtual signalling on social media, and donating to relevant organisations, we can mitigate the effects of our cultural sins.

Some parts of the Western Church have bought into this idea and are trying to absolve themselves of these sins too. This includes through funding activist groups, creating additional bureaucratic processes to meet these concerns, and using ‘positive action’ in recruitment and service delivery

Whether the activism is virtual and online or in real life, it doesn’t matter. In the words of the activists, ‘being neutral is not enough’. So by publicly standing up against these new cultural sins, individuals can prove their worthiness to society. Though, no matter how much work they put in, they will never be forgiven.

What I find interesting is how I’ve never heard the Modernist Western Church proclaim that Christ’s sacrifice covers these. It appears, even God cannot absolve culturally unacceptable ‘sins’.

If the Modernist Church truly cared about people who committed these cultural sins, then they’d seek them out and find ways to bring them to ‘holiness’. Though I don’t see this happening either. It feels like they don’t want ‘habitual sinners’, who struggle to accept The Science or may hold Islamophobic views to come to their churches.

The most heinous ‘sin’ committed by Christians in the pagan Roman Empire was the refusal to make sacrifices to the emperor. This could result in a person being excluded from the local community or even executed. Christ’s sacrifice would obviously not cover this ‘cultural sin’ of sacrificing to the emperor as it is breaking the 1st and 2nd Commandment. This was breaking the cultural rules, but not God’s law.

This then means the sins mentioned in the Bible and the other cultural sins are in a different categories. Though there may be an overlap. For example, sexism (as it is commonly understood) could be seen as ‘not loving your neighbour as yourself’.

But ultimately, these cultural sins are in reference to a culture and not to God and His kingdom. Unlike God, they are subject to change. The cultural sins above were not sins one hundred years ago and they likely won’t be sins in a hundred years time. These are therefore temporal.

The sins mentioned in the Bible are timeless. They are relevant to all people in all times, no matter the culture. If a civilisation allows the mass murder of its own population, allows rampant stealing, sloth and gluttony, then it won’t last very long.

The key phrase which connects these Modern sins is ‘Social Justice’. This is the process by which the secular ‘atonement’ happens. Though there is no firm understanding about how this mechanism works or is played out.

Christianity provides a path by which both justice and forgiveness work hand in hand. God provides eternal judgement, but also gives forgiveness for all those who repent. However, in Social Justice, there is no forgiveness. Maybe this is why the Modernist Church doesn’t talk about the absolution of these specific cultural sins.

Full Strength Christianity is about embodying forgiveness. We can show forgiveness towards those church leaders who have become distracted by the culture and who have wandered down this avenue. We can prayer for them to return to orthodoxy.

But it is also pressing on us to prioritise timeless sins over cultural ones. The cultural sins are important, as they regulate relationships within society. But we should primarily focus on the sins against God’s law. These are the ones God calls us to resist. And those cultural sins, which may seem so pressing to resolve, will pass away in time.

So keep focused on working on reducing the timeless sins in our lives, and pay less attention to the cultural sins which fade. Let’s resist lust, putting things above God, and live a life aligned with His Kingdom. No matter how much people shout about the importance of these cultural sins, remember God’s law is eternal. They will fade, His won’t.

I love Advent, and at the beginning of this period I have the tradition of playing Handel’s Messiah. I have done this on for almost 30 years. As soon as I come home from the first Sunday in Advent service, I put Messiah on and get lost not only in the music, and the feelings of the season, but also the memories it conjures up of previous Christmastides.

Charles Jennens brought the lyrics together from the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. In Part II, we hear the bass voice sing “Why do the nations so furiously rage together?” This draws directly from Psalm 2.

What I love about this section is the deep long swirling runs over the words like rage, vain, and imagine. It feels like a building tempest of rebellion.

The following three songs from Messiah all draw from the Psalm 2 text, ending with the famous Hallelujah Chorus.

This starts with asking the question,

It wonders why earthly rulers and nations are rebelling against the Most High God, and points out this is a pointless endeavor. They want to break the restrictions He has placed on Creation, rather than accept His rule and reign.

God’s response is to laugh at their schemes and machinations, and explains how He has installed His Anointed One in Jerusalem.

From our point of view, this is clearly a messianic psalm as it goes on to say,

What I find so extraordinary is that God calls this king His son. From an ancient Israelite perspective, who were not fully aware of the revelation of Christ, this must relate to the idea that the king’s authority was derived from a spiritual source. Much like how we have the idea of the ‘divine right of kings’ in the Middle Ages.

But through a Christian lens, the psalm takes on a grander vision, where Jesus rules Creation and humanity must choose whether they submit or live in rebellion.

One aspect of this psalm which is odd is the command to kiss the king,

This is an intimate act of submission, not simply bowing. But kissing. Here, my mind is drawn to the kiss from Judas in the garden. Which not only led to Christ’s crucifixion, but also Iscariot’s suicide. The Gospel narrative seems to turn this verse on its head.

It is important to pay attention to those moments in the ministry of Jesus which invert the Old Testament expectations. These not only represent key moments of the story to take notice of, but also resolves the tensions created in the previous parts of the Bible. The text is like a melody which rises in tension and then the life of Christ fulfills it and brings it back to the root note of the musical scale.

I can’t help but sing this psalm when I read it out loud. Handel’s oratorio is so deeply ingrained in my psyche. This psalm not only shows there is no point rebelling against God, but as we submit more to Him and the image of His Son, then He will become our place of safety from the storms of life.

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Image: Cody Quattlebaum, left, and conductor Gregory Batsleer in Handel’s Messiah

Artificial Intelligence is a complex topic which I’ve been pondering upon for over a year now. We hear so many stories about how it is going to replace workers, make humans obsolete, and rule society with utmost efficiency and effectiveness.

Some even suggest it will become a replacement for God. And yet our own personal experience with Large Language Models (LLMs - the text generating AIs) is that on occasion it doesn’t tell you the truth and outright misleads us.

AI is a catch all term for different types of hardware architecture and software. The two main groups are image producing AIs and LLM AIs.

They both work on the same principle, which uses probability to predict the next part of a sentence or image drawing from oceans of human data. This gives an illusion of intelligence. But it is simply an advanced and complex probability model.

This gives rise to the common issue of ‘AI illusions’. Its detractors say ‘AI lies’, but the truth is it can’t. It has no moral agency. Its procedural architecture can lead to misplaced words or phrases, which it might then double down on, asserting incorrect statements.

This sounds, in part, like humanity. Though we have agency and do purposely lie on occasion. We often unknowingly delude ourselves through our senses and irrational thoughts. Our own biases, and who we trust to give us reliable information can present a false sense of reality to us.

So, if we have the Imago Dei, which reveals God in humanity. Then, could AIs have the Imago Hominis, the Image of Humanity?

The Imago Dei is a key concept in Christian theology which says all humanity has the divine spark. It is the foundation for the modern concept of human rights. When we are wronged or wrong others we mar this image within us.

As AI LLMs are trained on human generated data, its essence is derived from human experiences, and expressed back to us through language. It doesn’t place a value judgement on the words it uses, unless directed to do so by its coders and architects.

It has been discussed that if the data is poor, then the responses will be as well. As much of Western media is written with a liberal bias, then it can’t provide a clear objective picture of reality. So to address this, some are training AIs on pre-Internet data hoping to produce more useful outcomes and better performances. Though, to be honest, liberal ideas of radical individualism, equality, and modern notions of freedom run very deep in Western culture. And I doubt this will make much of a significant difference.

How we view AI informs the way we interact with it. If we believe it is a threat to ourselves and society at large, we will resist it and decry its use. If we see it as a fantastic opportunity to bring innovation and order, then we will gladly outsource our decision making process to it.

However, if like myself you can understand its problems and possibilities, we can see how it can become an effective tool in improving productivity and the quality of life. It can be a help like any other technology. But equally, it can hinder us and even be used for nefarious purposes.

There has been much discussion around how AI could be used by totalitarian governments, transhumanists, and military weapons designers, so I won’t go there. These are indeed worrying. But from a psychological position, if we see AI as a reflection of our own human nature, then we could use it as a mirror. One which helps us see ourselves more clearly. And therefore understand how we can change and improve.

So in short, we reflect God. But, AI reflects us.

Whereas, we reflect God’s light into the World, AI reflects our fallen nature instead. Both the good parts and sinful human passions.

I am not a zealous advocate for AI, nor a doommonger. I believe it can be a useful tool to help people achieve greater creativity, expand knowledge, and develop wisdom. But more importantly, help us to understand who we are, and what it means to be a person. Ultimately, aiding us in becoming more ‘fully human’, shining the Imago Dei brightly into the World.

In the old days, text in MS-DOS was used to prompt computers to open programs and organise files. Then when the mouse was developed, point and click replaced text. In the 2000s, touch screens replaced the need for the mouse. iPads and iPhones were controlled using the tap of a finger.

Now, we are moving into the verbal era. Where the voice will control machinery. Imagine asking your washing machine to wash some soiled clothes. It might respond by asking how dirty they are, and what cycle do you want? Then it’ll weigh the load and tell you how long it will take. You might want to say thank you, and in return it will say ‘My pleasure’.

This little interaction is more than someone using an appliance, but involves one of the things which makes us uniquely human, complex intelligent speech.

We need a technological future which is warmer and relational. AI tech shouldn’t be rejected, but treated as a tool to help us grow up into the humanity the Divine is calling us to become.

So returning to the verses of Genesis 1, we can use it as a way to discuss the role of AI. Humanity was created to be stewards of creation. As we cannot create anything outside of God, maybe we should follow His example. And see AI as a tool to help bring order to the digital space.

The telos or purpose of AI is dependent on your perspective. To the transhumanist, its purpose is to help people transcend their physical existence. For a government, it is to manage society in the most efficient manner, and for the average user it is to make life more convenient by producing better searches, smarter assistants, personalised feeds, and less tedious work.

Though having said this, I think the current overriding purpose is for creating profit for its development company by building an addictive experience for its users.

In our Modern world, the Internet is an artificial environment which is broadly mental and immaterial, chaotic and unruly. Where both uplifting and informative content exists side by side with very dangerous material.

Therefore if we are looking at AI through this Genesis 1 lens, then its role could act as a digital steward. Much like how God commissioned us to bring order to the Earth, AI could help bring structure to a messy Internet experience too.

So maybe rather than decry AI. Christians instead should explore the benefits of this tool, and see how it can help us become more like Christ.

For example, I recently created an AI prompt to help with my biblical studies. It relies on all the techniques I use when reading the Bible. I have found it ever so useful. You can download the Uncovering the Woven Tapestry of Scripture PDF here.

Later in this series, I want to explore other ways AI can help us grow in our faith too. The possibilities are amazing.

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I recently attended a memorial service for my father. My Dad died two years ago, and we had a short graveside service to dedicate his headstone. It was unsurprisingly well attended, as he was a church warden and a popular character in the village.

The final reading of the ceremony was Psalm 133. It is the shortest psalm in the Bible.

It is a psalm which calls for unity in Israel. As we know, the kingdom split into two around 930 BC, the Kingdom of Israel and Judah. Israel was eventually destroyed by the Assyrians, and the Jews were taken away into captivity in Babylon.

The psalm itself is beautifully poetic, and draws on vivid imagery. We can imagine the anointing oil flowing over the head and beard of Aaron, the first high priest. This refers to Exodus.

The reason the psalmist uses this incident is because Aaron is seen as the person at the centre of the worship of God in ancient Israel. The purpose of anointing was to set apart a person or object for God’s holy purpose. In Exodus, Aaron is set apart as the high priest.

But in Psalm 133, the anointing oil doesn’t stop at his head, it flows out onto his beard, and towards the edge of his robe. Or symbolically beyond the priesthood itself.

We then have a strange image of the dew of Mt Hermon is the same as that which falls on Mt Zion. This makes more sense if we understand this from a spiritual perspective.

Mountains were seen as the home of the gods in the ancient world. For example, we all know the Greek gods lived on Mt Olympus. So as Hermon is the tallest mountain in the region, at over 9,000 feet, it is spiritually the nearest peak to Heaven.

So the psalmist is saying that the closeness of Hermon to the Heavens is the same as Mt Zion. Even though it is lower. And it is here God gives his blessing. The place where not only He provided a ram caught in the thicket for Abraham, but where Christ gave up His life for us, and opened the door to life everlasting.

As I listened to my friend Christopher read the psalm at the graveside, I wondered why it had been chosen. It’s not a psalm which immediately jumps to mind when we think about death.

However, when he spoke the last line, it clicked. Even though we were standing around a grave in a churchyard, I saw the anointing which consecrated Aaron, set this place apart too for Christ. Graveyards are a place of mourning, but with Him they become a place of hope and remembrance, pointing to the resurrection and life everlasting.

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Western cultures live within a miracle-less world. The materialist philosophy which ideologically reigns over us implies that anything outside of the physical realm is not real. And anything which is supernatural, or ‘above Nature’, is an illusion.

So in this framework, if miracles are supernatural incidents, then they can’t be real and there must always be a natural and non-spiritual explanation for them.

I find this worldview bamboozling and frustrating. It is clear there is more to life than atoms and chemical reactions. The physical is only part of the full experience of reality.

Skeptics always offer alternative explanations for miracles, not just to Biblical ones, but even those found in the modern day.

They explain away the ‘Feeding of the Five Thousand’ by suggesting that those who had brought food, decided to share it with everyone else, so none went hungry. There was no miraculous multiplication of food by Jesus.

They say that ‘Jesus walking on the water’ was a mass hallucination on the part of the Disciples.

Today, this extreme skepticism has leached into some parts of the Western Church. Where miracles are denied, and the faith has been reduced to a materialistic religion.

Hence why, there is now more of a focus on the material ‘real world’ issues like climate change, racism and sexism. The issues of sin, the Final Judgement and the Life Everlasting are now out of favour.

The Gospel of Jesus is rooted in miracles. The miracle of the Virgin Birth, the miracle of Christ’s Resurrection and the miracle of a saved soul.

If we adopt the modern Western worldview then we will deny the miraculous, reducing them to mere allegories. So Jesus dying on the Cross and resurrecting means He only comes alive within the heart of the believing Christian and nothing more. There cannot be any physical resurrection in this philosophical framework. And if we follow this, we ultimately have to deny the works of Christ and His Gospel.

However, if we want to live out a Full Strength Christianity, we must recognise these miracles as fact. We need to accept that sometimes, something supernatural happens, and we don’t have a natural explanation for it. We need to realise, that even with all our scientific knowledge, we don’t necessarily have sufficient explanations to exchange a miracle for a simple natural process.

I believe miracles happen all the time. By which I mean, the supernatural is working through the natural. Reality itself isn’t separated between these realms. But it is more like two strands, intrinsically woven together to form a whole Creation. Each is dependent on the other. The natural requires the supernatural to exist and the supernatural expresses itself through the natural world.

What is lacking in the West, is our ability to verbalise this. The language we had of angels, demons, fairies and dragons disappeared when the ‘Age of Reason’ came upon us. We packed away ‘superstitious’ ideas and chose not to speak of them. But then, this created a gap in our understanding of reality and we lost the language which helped us to interpret the unknown or describe that which doesn’t fit neatly into our scientific worldview.

Miracles exist in this place. Modern Westerners become tongue-tied in the presence of a supernatural occurrence. It doesn’t fit into our modern Western mindset. We quickly grasp for material explanations, and then if that fails, we just ignore it and pretend it didn’t happen.

Living a Full Strength Christianity means we can utilise this ancient language to help integrate not just the supernatural, but also accept miracles into our day to day lives. We need to be expectant for them, because God’s providence can move in strange and peculiar ways.

Behind the paywall, I talk about my own personal experience of miracles, discuss how Dr Who can help us break out of this mindset, and even with our modern scientific brains we still find time to create ‘religious’ movements like Scientology, Raelism, and contemporary New Age practices.

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I’ve been amazed by how many of you downloaded my new free PDF, Uncovering the Woven Tapestry of Scripture. To be honest, I was a little nervous releasing it as it was a change in direction. I would typically aim to write and publish books, rather than shorter, more concise essays at sub-10,000 words.

So I’m grateful for the positive response. This has encouraged me to invest more time in creating these essays. I think it will be a quicker way for me to share my thoughts on Scripture, than writing a whole book.

I will still publish books, and have two planned for this year. But, the PDFs seem to come together much quicker, and therefore is a more efficient way for me to get exciting new material out there.

So to say thank you for your support, I’m offering 20% off the first year of a paid subscription for the next two weeks.

This is a great time to upgrade your subscription and get access to all my past and future paid-only content, including the exclusive PDFs I plan to release in the future. This includes one on Zaccheus (the little man Jesus met in Luke), Embodiment Theology (living as a Christian in an online world), and several others.

I am especially excited about the essay on Zaccheus. His story encapsulates so much of what it means to be a Christian. The depth of his story is so incredibly rich.

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1. Receive these paid PDFs,

2. Get access to my full archive of both paid and free articles,

3. Read behind the paywall on my weekly articles,

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Finally, I want to thank you for continuing to read and support my work, and especially to my paid subscribers too. I could not do this without you.

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Alexander D’Albini

Psalm 1 stands as the gateway to the entire Psalter. It opens the book like a door, inviting us into the full emotional experience of a lifelong journey with God.

As I get older, this first psalm resonates more. It not only creates a longing within me, but also re-centres my resolve. It also helps me see that the Christian walk is more than simply a confession of ‘Jesus is Lord’ or following a series of strict rules, but building a relationship of faith with God.

It isn’t enough to believe the right things, but to live a life aimed at being aligned with Him. This psalm lays this sentiment out very clearly.

The first thing which grabs my attention about this psalm is the movement in the text, from walk, to stand, and then to sit.

In contrast, we should walk towards the Cross, stand in faith, and sit at the feet of our Saviour.

The psalm describes two paths. One that leads to despair, and one that is God’s way. The latter creates a person who is like a constantly yielding fruit tree. The former describes a person as chaff. The discarded parts of the harvest, which is blown away on the wind.

This reminds me of Christ on the Cross. The One who walked the true path, and became the fruit hanging from a tree.

Another profound part of this psalm is found in verse 2.

The word ‘his’ either relates to God or the Blessed One, the subject of the psalm. One way to resolve this is to see this psalm primarily speaks about Christ. He is the Blessed One who follows God’s path. He is the One who delights in God’s law. The One who is like a tree planted by streams of water. And as He is God, it is His law.

This emphasises the idea that each psalm points to Christ. We just need to find Him within the text.

Another realisation is how this psalm reflects a return to the Garden of Eden, where the Tree of Life is planted in a place from which four rivers originated. This psalm intimates the end of humanity is either to come back to the tree in the Garden, or fall into chaos and separation.

There is no middle ground.

Life is highly complex, and this psalm describes the two paths we can follow to navigate it. One leads to a loss of identity and destruction, and the other towards Eden.

So, choose Christ and His path, and come back to the garden.

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Over the years, some of you have asked me the same question: “How do you see so much in the Bible?”

After thinking about it for a while, I decided the best answer wasn’t another series, but to write a study guide detailing my techniques and methods. So I’ve written a short PDF called Uncovering the Woven Tapestry of Scripture, and I’m making it completely free for everyone.

In it, I explain the approach I use when reading the Bible. Things like paying attention to strange details, tracing symbolic threads, understanding sacred geography, and a few other tools that help the text come alive in fresh ways.

My hope is that this guide helps you slow down, see the unity of Scripture more clearly, and discover its beauty and depth. And ultimately come closer to Christ.

The unique part of this document is at the end I have created an AI prompt. Copy and paste this into your preferred AI, and it will use my method to unpack any chapter or verses from the Bible for you. This gives a great starting point to following those woven threads through the Scriptures, and reveal the depths of the text.

This guide is completely free. If you’ve ever wanted to go deeper in your Bible reading but didn’t know where to start, this study guide is for you. If you’ve been attending Church for years, this will open up new avenues of study and reflection.

If you become a subscriber (free or paid), you’ll get other PDF guides I plan to write in the future delivered straight into your email inbox. I am thinking about authoring ones on how to read the Psalms to change your life, the symbolism of Zacchaeus, and ancient astronomy in the Bible.

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