Brant Entrekin

This paper argues that interactions with artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots, such as ChatGPT, can mediate genuine mystical experiences. Building off the framework of mystical experiences developed by William James, I argue that interactions with AI chatbots can mediate mystical experiences in a structurally comparable way to how guided meditation can produce mystical experiences. I conclude by raising various concerns about the implementation of AI technologies in our religious lives, including their use as mediators for mystical experiences.

In this paper, I analyze the evangelical Christian film series God's Not Dead. I argue that the film series functions as Christian Nationalist propaganda through its rhetoric and aesthetic choices. I then develop two forms of epistemic manipulation that the film uses to fulfill its propagandistic function: hermeneutical priming and linguistic hijacking. I suggest that the film series' use of these rhetorical strategies highlights some of the ways that evangelical Christian cinema is engaging with rising right-wing political movements and developing unique evangelical imaginations.

In this paper, I argue that, following from the work of Bultmann and Ricoeur, traditional apologetic approaches to the Bible fail as they neglect the existential nature of the text and, thus, fail to recognize the decision of the non-believer as legitimate. By the same token, however, the "refutational atheist" responses to believers fail to recognize the legitimacy of the “yes” answer to the existentiell decision the Bible poses. Though it is a difficult position to stake out in current religious discourse, I conclude by offering a sketch of what it would mean to approach the Bible with the openness that allows for accepting the legitimacy of either answer to the existentiell decision of the Bible.