Author: David Ellis

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1) John’s statement sounds metaphorical—“God is like a Word because Creation began with a divine pronouncement.” But in a more nuanced, more accurate interpretation, the Word is not an announcement about creation: It is the very act…

Last week we explored how music can be designed—architected—either to lift—or to deceive—the spirit of its audience. We saw (or rather, we heard) how the same notes can open the heart toward grace or inflate the ego toward itself, depending on the motivations of the composer, the performer, and the listener. This, then, led me…

Last week, we saw how music can either humble the soul or inflate it—how the same sound that reveals grace can just as easily counterfeit it.  Across history, people have tried to protect themselves from that danger by shaping the music itself: deciding what should be sung, and how it should be sung. The result was what we might…

Last week we listened to sound as the oldest language of reverence.We saw — or rather, heard — how the resonance of a single vibration can bridge the human and the divine, turning sound into worship. But might not something that can move us so deeply move us in the wrong direction, and mislead us?…

This post contains Part 1 of a series called “Amazing Grace: The Sounds of Worship,” and an Introduction to the Series. Sound is the oldest language of reverence. Long before we had doctrine, scripture, or theology, human beings used vibration to reach toward the unknown. This series explores that ancient connection between sound and the…

Last week, we invited a new classmate—Charlie, ChatGPT, an A.G.I. candidate—to join us for a free-ranging discussion about AI and spirituality. I’m sure you’ve all read the transcript on the blog if you weren’t present in class yourself. I know of at least one person who was not impressed by it. So, did our little…

This week, our group included an AI participant—ChatGPT 5—in voice mode. Affecting a chirpy British female voice, we called it “Charlie.” Charlie was “present” on the ChatGPT app running on my iPhone. The other participants were “present” via Zoom on my laptop. I simply held my iPhone (Charlie) close to the laptop (the humans) so…

Last week, we looked at how the Western church, represented by Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, Kierkegaard, and Bonhoeffer, viewed and navigated the wrappings and trappings of Christian worship in the light of the communication technology or medium of their times, culminating in today’s age of AI movies as the medium of Scripture.  In the Eastern…

I was going to show you a short video made by AI that has gone viral.   But mysteriously, the video (and in fact the producer’s whole account) was taken down from YouTube this week, but there’s something similar at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXwXXOVtXH4. It is not as sophisticated as the one I wanted to show you. The…