In classrooms across the country, AI is permeating both student academic and personal life. But the question of artificial intelligence and the Christian school remains: How do schools evolve with the rapidity of AI? What are the ethical and theological implications of integrating technology that seems to mimic, and sometimes challenge, distinctly human traits? How can AI work symbiotically with faith-based learning, and how can it be used to uphold and bastion student Christian values?
When thinking about the potential use cases of AI in Christian schools, seeing it solely for its technical utilities—for example, AI grading or essay editing—perhaps limits the opportunity of integrating AI into personalized, faith-based learning.
AI can create space for students to reflect on enduring questions about identity, creativity, and the nature of truth through the lens of faith. It can also support differentiated learning, helping students connect biblical principles to real-world applications in more interactive and individualized ways. Both bring to light the exciting possibility of using AI could help enrich student faith education.
AI as a Tool for Personalization and Theological Engagement
In many classrooms, AI is already being used to tailor instruction to individual student needs, adapting reading levels with text levelers, offering instant feedback, and generating practice problems based on skill gaps. Within Christian schools, this same capability can begin to serve a more distinct purpose: helping students engage with spiritual content in ways that feel relevant, personal, and intellectually active.
Within the classroom, teachers may ask AI to generate personalized devotionals, tailored to a student’s age, reading ability, or current area of study. Students will be able to positively engage with the material that is personalized to their needs, allowing for more focused and intentional interactions with daily faith practice.
Teachers may also create AI-generated activities on the ethics of using AI in education. AI can “chat” with students, asking questions about justice, honesty, and compassion through the lens of theological practice. Students can then write responses that reference Scripture, and be challenged to think critically about Christian doctrine and its application to contemporary life.
Using AI for personalized learning invites students to explore theological ideas through interactive, age-appropriate formats, and gives teachers new ways to connect biblical principles to each student’s developmental stage and academic journey. When grounded in Christian values, AI-powered personalization encourages deeper engagement with both faith and learning, supporting academic excellence and critical thinking founded on spiritual formation.
Bringing AI into the Christian Classroom Thoughtfully
On an administrator level, schools can utilize AI education platforms to specify educational values and goals that AI should align its responses with before replying to any message. In a faith-based learning environment, this could mean that AI can be customized to respond according to specific Christian values, or ensure that certain pedagogical practices are enforced by AI when helping teachers with tasks like lesson planning.
As administrators and leaders begin to integrate AI school-wide, thoughtful professional development and AI literacy is key to helping teachers incorporate the technology meaningfully. Whether that is providing an AI literacy course, developing a overarching AI policy, or slowly introducing teachers to AI teacher tools to support their responsibilities, providing comprehensive education on a teacher-level can result in impactful, faith-conscious AI applications such as designing assignments focused on scriptural reflection.
Finally, interdisciplinary collaboration for AI usage can aid both student learning and teacher lesson planning. A science teacher, for example, could use AI to help students analyze the ethical implications of emerging technologies, while a Bible teacher frames the same conversation around stewardship and responsibility. In English classes, students might use AI to explore different writing styles in the Bible.
This tertiary model creates a safer, community-forward, and intentional AI integration strategy, without losing the core faith-based values vital to the school’s mission and education.
Helping Students Articulate Christian Faith with AI
It would be simplistic to suggest that the relationship between artificial intelligence and faith is seamless. As the technology continues to evolve at an unprecedented rate, Christian schools are tasked with thoughtfully, promoting academic excellence and nurturing spiritual growth.
Sun Paik is the head of marketing at Flint, a K-12 AI education platform that provides personalized learning solutions for the classroom, www.flintk12.com.
