Building Babel or Rebuilding Jerusalem: Magnifica Humanitas on AI, Power, and the Measure of Civilization

Erik Longo is full professor of constitutional and public law at the University of Florence.

This post is a part of our series on Magnifica Humanitas.

I write these notes on Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas (MH), moved by its expressive power and convinced it will become essential reading on the human and social consequences of new digital technologies. The encyclical itself opens with the responsibility we bear, as individuals and a community, in the face of the challenges of our time:

Each generation inherits the task of shaping its own era, of guiding history to become a place where the dignity of every person is safeguarded, justice is promoted and fraternity is made possible. Yet every era also runs the risk of creating an inhumane and more unjust world (MH, para. 1).

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Pope Leo XIV, Peter Thiel, and the Future of Humanity: The New Pope’s First Encyclical and Its Political Significance

Martina Bär is professor of fundamental theology at the University of Graz (Austria).

This post is a part of our series on Magnifica Humanitas.

The Pope is working for the Chinese Communists.” With this provocative statement, US tech billionaire Peter Thiel made international headlines just weeks after Pope Leo XIV published his first encyclical. According to Thiel, the West risks losing the race for artificial intelligence (AI) to China—not least because moral authorities such as the Vatican are slowing technological progress. While authoritarian states continue to develop AI without restraint, democratic societies, he argues, place unnecessary constraints on themselves by worrying about ethics. Behind this criticism lies a worldview that regards technological superiority as the decisive factor in global geopolitical power.

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Religious Freedom, Equality, and Non-Discrimination in Employment Cases: Interview with Cole Durham

W. Cole Durham, Jr. is Emeritus Professor of Law at the J. Reuben Clark Law School of Brigham Young University, where he held the Susa Young Gates University Professorship and Founding Director of the Law School’s International Center for Law and Religion Studies. He was interviewed by Dmytro Vovk.

Before the interview, we asked you to think about a case of a line of cases you have modified your views about. What have you chosen?

My plan is to talk mainly about Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC (2012) and the follow-up case, Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru (2020). These are both cases that deal with the religious autonomy doctrine, and I think they represent a concerning trend.

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