This fall, a Swiss Catholic church installed an AI Jesus in the confessional to interact with visitors.
The installation was a two-month religious, technological and artistic project entitled “Deus in Machina,” developed at the University of Lucerne. The Latin title literally means “god from the machine”; refers to a plot element used in Greek and Roman drama, which introduces a god to solve an impossible problem or conflict facing the characters.
This hologram of Jesus Christ on the screen was played by an artificial intelligence system. The AI installation included religious texts, and visitors were invited to ask AI Jesus questions, which were viewed on a monitor behind the latticework screen. Users are advised not to disclose any personal information and ensure that they are aware that they interact with the avatar at their own risk.
Some headlines claimed that AI Jesus was actually involved in the act of hearing people confess their sins, but that was not the case. However, even if the AI Jesus did not actually hear the confession, as an expert in the history of Christian worship, I was disturbed by the act of placing the AI project in the confessional that the believers used to use.
The confessional is a booth where Catholic priests hear parishioners confess their sins and give them forgiveness, forgiveness, in the name of God. Confession and repentance happen regularly within the human community which is the church. Human believers confess their sins to human priests or bishops.
Early history
The New Testament texts clearly emphasize the individual, social context of confession and repentance.
For example, in the Gospel of John, Jesus speaks to his apostles, saying, “The sins you will forgive are forgiven, and the sins you will catch are forgiven.” And in the book of James, Christians are urged to confess their sins to one another.
Churches in the early centuries encouraged public confession of the worst sins, such as fornication or idolatry. Church leaders, called bishops, forgive sinners and welcome them into society.
From the third century onwards, the process of forgiving sins became a ritual. Most confessions were always private – one to one with a priest or bishop. Sinners would show their sorrow by repenting to others through prayer and fasting.
However, some Christians who are guilty of certain serious crimes, such as murder, idolatry, apostasy or sexual immorality, may be treated very differently.
These sinners would do public repentance as a group. Others had to stand on the steps of the church and ask for prayers. Others may be brought in to pray but have to stand in the back or be dismissed before the scriptures are read. Converts were expected to fast and pray, sometimes for years, before the bishop reconciled the church community.
Development of the Middle Ages
During the first centuries of the Middle Ages, public penance was not practiced, and more emphasis was placed on oral confession for individual priests. After secretly completing the penitential prayers or actions assigned to the confessor, the penitent would return to be forgiven.
The concept of purgatory also became a widespread part of Western Christian spirituality. It was understood as a stage of the afterlife where the souls of the deceased who died before confessing minor sins, or before completing repentance, would be purified through spiritual suffering before being accepted into heaven.
Living friends or family of the deceased are encouraged to offer prayers and perform secret acts of penance, such as giving gifts of money or clothing to the poor, to reduce the time these souls have to spend in this temporary state.
Other events took place after the Middle Ages. Based on the work of theologian Peter Lombard, penance was declared a sacrament, one of the great rites of the Catholic Church. In 1215, a new canon ordered that every Catholic go to confession and receive Holy Communion at least once a year.
Priests who revealed the identity of a penitent faced severe punishments. Manuals for priests, often called Handbooks for Confessors, listed various types of sins and suggested the appropriate penalty for each.
They are the first to confess
Until the 16th century, those who wished to confess their sins had to arrange places to meet their priests, sometimes just inside the local church when it was empty.
But the Catholic Council of Trent changed this. The 14th canon in 1551 spoke of repentance and confession, emphasizing the importance of private confession for priests appointed to forgive in the name of Christ.
Soon after, Charles Borromeo, the archbishop of Milan, posted the first confessions on the walls of his church. These booths are designed with a physical barrier between the instructor and the suspect to maintain anonymity and prevent other abuses, such as sexual misconduct.
Similar confessions appeared in Catholic churches during the following centuries: The main feature was the veil or veil between the martyr priest and the layman, kneeling beside him. Later, curtains or doors were added to increase privacy and ensure confidentiality.
Hygiene rules in modern times
In 1962, Pope John XXIII opened the Second Vatican Council. Its first document, issued in December 1963, set new principles for promoting and reforming Catholic services.
Since 1975, Catholics have had three types of rituals of repentance and reconciliation. The first form constitutes a private confession, while the second and third forms apply to groups of people in special liturgical ceremonies. The second form, which is usually used at certain times during the year, gives those who attend the opportunity to go to confession in private with one of the many priests present.
The third form can be used in special cases, when death threatens outside the time of confession, such as a natural disaster or epidemic. Those who joined were given a general absolution, and the survivors made a private confession afterwards.
In addition, these changes led to the development of a second confessional: Rather than being reserved only for the confessional, Catholics now had the option of confessing their sins face-to-face with a priest.
To facilitate this, some Catholic communities add a reconciliation room to their churches. Upon entering the room, the convert can choose to remain anonymous by kneeling in front of the traditional screen or walking around the screen to the chair facing the priest.
In the following decades, the Catholic experience of penance changed. Catholics rarely went to confession, or stopped altogether. Many confessionals remained empty or were used for storage. Many parishes began to organize confessions by appointment only. Some priests may insist on face-to-face confession, while other converts may choose only the anonymous method. The anonymous form takes precedence, as the secrecy of the sacrament must be preserved.
In 2002, Pope John Paul II addressed some of these issues, insisting that the faithful do their best to schedule regular hours of confession. Pope Francis himself is concerned about reviving the sacrament of penance. In fact, he demonstrated its value by revealing himself to confess his sins, face to face, in the confessional at St. Peter’s Basilica.
Perhaps, in the future, a program like AI Jesus can provide Catholics and interested inquirers from other faiths with information, advice, referrals and limited spiritual counseling around the clock. But from the Catholic point of view, AI, without the knowledge of having a human body, emotions and the hope of transcendence, cannot truly forgive human sins.
Joanne M. Pierce, Professor Emerita of Religious Studies, College of the Holy Cross
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the first article.
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