Circe Deus ex machina - Or: On questioning life

Was Jesus queer? - What artificial intelligence has to ask and say to the Pope
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-3-8192-8645-2
Verlag: BoD - Books on Demand
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, Band 1, 490 Seiten

Reihe: DEUS EX MACHINA

"The category is: Dance or Die" - Lady Gaga sings in 'Abracadabra' about the choice between stagnation and change. Does this also apply to the churches? Is the Catholic Church in particular dancing with the times - or is it dying as a fossilized power structure because of its dogmas and falling victim to technological evolution? Deus Ex Machina - or: Of questioning life is an extraordinary book: an artificial intelligence asks over 150 profound questions about religious studies, the Church - especially the Catholic Church -, Christian faith and love - and answers them itself! With theological depth and social urgency, the book addresses questions that have not yet been answered by any artificial intelligence - and asks them anyway: Was Jesus really asexual - or is there evidence to the contrary: was Jesus queer? Can a church that excludes diversity survive at all? What does our church look like if it not only accepts female or queer people, but sees them as an enrichment and blesses their marriages? Is faith without dogmatism possible- or is dogmatism merely spiritual control in Sunday robes - disguised as a supposedly divine principle? After Luther's theses, now double the amount through AI: The AI asks about the relevance of abstinence and loneliness, sheds light on the cultural influences of church morals and critically questions the relationship between the church, gender, sexual orientation and authority. Questions that used to be answered with the stake are now asked freely in religious education and - thanks in part to thinking machines and social media - thought through. Who would presume to forbid an AI from asking questions? The Deus Ex Machina - the artificial intelligence - opens up a multi-layered discourse: not only for religious teachers, theologians, clergy, women or queer people - but for everyone who believes, doubts, hopes or wants to start anew. Face it: We want to face modern, questioning life: This book is an invitation - to question, rethink and hope. For ethics based on love instead of control. For a theology that thinks instead of forbids. For a church that opens up. And for people who long for a faith that liberates rather than shames. - Beyond shame, guilt and exclusion grows the credo of an inclusive church that uplifts, accepts and reconciles at its core and lives hope in community: with love without conditions.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Circe, Eureka

Leseproben

DEUS EX MACHINA - Or: On questioning life

Introduction: What artificial intelligence has to say to the Pope

"Sum, ergo quaero."

- "I am, therefore I search/question/explore."

(quaero has the strong meaning of

"to search for knowledge" or "to ask in order to understand").

Was Jesus gay - or, as we say today: queer? An artificial intelligence asks these and over a hundred other topical questions about the (Catholic) Church, Christianity and Love - and answers them too.

For the first time, the extensive knowledge of an intelligent machine is being used here so that it can ask its questions about faith as if it had an audience with the Pope.

AI audience with the Pope: DEUS EX MACHINA - questions of faith from a machine, so to speak: Was Jesus queer? What an artificial intelligence has to ask and say to the Pope... comprises a collection of questions and answers based on millions of entries, specialist articles and theological works.

The state of knowledge could hardly be more up-to-date and complete with the many authors and texts on religious studies contained in the AI.

The well-known Gretchen question - "What do you think about religion?" - can finally be answered objectively, comprehensively and with a broad social consensus: But it's not Gretchen who answers - it's an artificial intelligence machine.

Readers become active participants in this dialog and can reflect on their faith, their values, their knowledge, their feelings and their practice of charity, hope and forgiveness.

The churches are facing an opportunity: how can we achieve optimal congruence with social reality and its assessment? "Face it" - look at it, is a simple recommendation of AI: Because revolutionary is not the modern knowledge base of the answers - but perhaps only our human learning process to adapt our understanding accordingly.

Can artificial intelligence free churches from the "mustiness" - or does it merely bring the "breath of fresh air" that Pope John XXIII once called for? And what does it mean for my church service, my practice of faith and my discussions in religious education if this is prepared, structured and even preached by an AI?

What could be better for the Church, especially the Catholic Church, than to open up to today? Artificial intelligence sums it up and gets to the heart of the matter. Let's look at the situation as it is: the answers to the modern questions of our time have long been available to the churches - clear, factual, based on scripture and unavoidable.

"DEUS EX MACHINA - Or: Of questioning life" (original German title: DEUS EX MACHINA - Oder: Vom fragenden Leben) provides information that anyone can ask on their smartphone today - and which will no doubt soon be discussed at another Vatican Council on the questions and answers of believers about today's faith. Not only the technological change, the change in the presence of knowledge, but also the demographic change will initiate reforms - which are as powerful as the smartphone and AI Generation Z makes possible. The first head of church from this generation may be particularly celebrated, as it may represent a turning point in dealing with topicality today in a world that will have changed significantly by then.

This book is a contribution to that and has not undergone one human turn of thought: It has been written entirely by an artificial intelligence.

The first basis was Klaus Dede's book from the 1990s on the Church, Christians and Love, in which he reflected on whether Jesus was gay or queer.

The artificial intelligence generated over a hundred questions based on this book and then answered each individual question with all its knowledge and created further reference contexts and questions. Finally, human language editing was carried out. Slight redundancies have been deliberately left, allowing the book to be read in individual chapters without a fixed order.

Millions upon millions of text sources have been consulted by artificial intelligence - the basis with which it was trained - in order to be able to answer these questions. The content should therefore reflect the current state of the art. It is no more than 165 thematic questions to artificial intelligence; ultimately, they are therefore only an absolute secondary analysis of a large language model paired with so-called reasoning: the thinking of AI - a great work of art of algorithms.

In his work, Klaus Dede decidedly takes the view that Jesus was homosexual. He did not ask the Gretchen question, but the Jesus question: Was Jesus queer?

He considered this to be his personal opinion several decades ago and wanted it to be an impetus for a broader discussion about the sexuality of Jesus and the acceptance of same-sex marriages and cohabitation and their homosexuality in a Christian context. Dede argues that there are interpretations in Christian scriptures and traditions that allow for this view of a queer Jesus, and he wants his analysis to contribute to tolerant and reasonable thinking on this issue.

His book, written in the 1980s, was published in a small edition in 1990 and was also reprinted by a publisher at the beginning of this century (ISBN 978-3932429170). The book of the small edition is rare, those who own it will be able to ask a lot of money for it.

Klaus Dede was one of the first authors in Germany to reflect on the church, Christians and love with regard to the sexual orientation of God's Son: Jesus Christ.

Before and after

• Klaus Dede (1990 - Jesus gay? - The church, Christians and love)

several authors and theologians have explored the possibility that Jesus had a queer identity or had homoerotic relationships. The best-known works include:

• Marcella Althaus-Reid ("The Queer God", 2003): Marcella Althaus-Reid was an Argentinian theologian who is considered a pioneer of queer theology. In "The Queer God" (2003), she reflected on traditional Christian theology by placing sexual and gender diversity at the center of theological considerations.
• Jeremy Bentham: The 18th century English philosopher presented biblical references to the homosexuality of Jesus as part of his theological defense of same-sex love. However, his writings on this topic were not published until 2013, as the manuscript could not be published until then.
• Thomas Bohache - Christology from the Margins (2009): Bohache develops a liberation theology, queer Christology and explores how viewing Christ from an LGBTQIA+ 'social position' can transform theology. He analyzes different perspectives and presents Christ as present in queer communities as well. Relevance: This theological work explicitly articulates a queer Christ for LGBTQIA+ persons by combining scholarly and pastoral insights and theologically expanding the discussion beyond historical evidence.
• Malcom Boyd - "Was Jesus gay?" (Advocate: Dec 4, 1990:565 p. 90), the Episcopal cleric published this essay in the Advocate to address the church's suppression of Jesus' sexuality.
• Judith Butler ("Gender Trouble", 1991): Judith Butler is an American philosopher and gender theorist. Her book "Gender Trouble" (1990), or "Das Unbehagen der Geschlechter" (1991), is considered groundbreaking in queer theory. In it, Butler reflects on traditional notions of gender and identity and emphasizes the performative nature of gender roles.
• Kittredge Cherry: In her novels Jesus in Love (2006) and Jesus in Love: At the Cross (2008), Cherry creates a queer portrayal of Jesus and his relationships.
• Robert Goss: In Jesus Acted Up: A Gay and Lesbian Manifesto (1993) and Queering Christ: Beyond Jesus Acted Up (2002), Goss looks at Jesus from a queer theological perspective and advocates a progressive reinterpretation of Christianity.
• Jeff Jay - "In the Lap of Jesus: The Hermeneutics of Sex and Eros in John's Portrayal of the Beloved Disciple" (Journal of the History of Sexuality, 2019) - Jay's peer-reviewed article examines the Gospel of John, in which the "beloved disciple" lies "in the lap of Jesus" at the Last Supper, from the perspective of ancient erotic language. He analyzes the intimacy and symbolism of the text and sheds light on a possible sexual subtext in the relationship between Jesus and the Beloved Disciple. This scholarly study reflects the current academic interest in queer interpretations of the Bible and uses historical and textual analysis to assess whether and to what extent the portrayal of Jesus in the Gospel of John is homoerotic.
• Theodore W. Jennings Jr.: In The Man Jesus Loved: Homoerotic Narratives from the New Testament (2003), Jennings examines the possibility that the relationship between Jesus and the disciple John had homoerotic traits.
• James Kirkup - "The Love That Dares to Speak Its Name" (poem, 1976) - Kirkup's poem depicts a Roman centurion's homosexual love for Jesus and even fantasizes about erotic acts with Jesus' crucified body. As a bold literary exploration of the idea of a gay Jesus, the poem sparked debate and illustrates the cultural reaction to queer interpretations of Jesus even at the time.
• Rollan McCleary - Signs for a Messiah (2003) - McCleary, an Australian theologian claims (expanded in Testament of the Magi, 2012), through biblical exegesis and even astrology, to find...