God, Human, Machine: Images and Imaginaries of Religion in the Age of AI

(International Conference; 28-30 September 2026)

The international conference God, Human, Machine: Images and Imaginaries of Religion in the Age of AI critically examines how AI technologies are reshaping religious images and imaginaries, encompassing the symbolic, affective, and sensory dimensions of religious life and practice across traditions, cultures, and social contexts. Addressing a critical but underexplored dimension of the AI–religion nexus, the conference brings together theoretical and empirical perspectives, connecting scholars working at the intersections of Religious Studies, Anthropology, Art History, and Science and Technology Studies. The programme will feature two keynote lectures, a roundtable discussion, and seven thematic panels, exploring the relationship between human imagination, religious knowledge, and AI systems. Sessions will examine how AI-generated imagery influences religious practices, rituals, and ways of life; analyse creative and critical engagements with AI images and videos in religious contexts; and develop global and comparative perspectives on AI imagery and religion. The conference will contribute to emerging scholarship on religion and AI while offering insights relevant to broader debates on technology, culture, and the human imagination.

Rather than treating AI as a neutral tool, the conference approaches it as a socio-technical system embedded in power relations, epistemic hierarchies, and cultural assumptions. By bringing together scholars from Religious Studies, Anthropology, Art History, and Science and Technology Studies, the conference aims to foster interdisciplinary dialogue on the implications of AI systems for religious meaning-making through the four interrelated thematic perspectives that structure the programme:

1.) Imagination, Revelation, and the Machine

2.) Ritual, Practice, and Lived Religion in the Age of AI

3.) Futures, Speculations, and Critical Imaginaries

4.) Global and Comparative Perspectives on AI and Religion

Registration details

Registration for Presenting Participants

Registration for Non-Presenting Participants

Programme

Monday, 28 September 2026

11:00-12:00 Registration and welcome coffee / snacks

12:00-12:30 Opening Remarks

12:30-14:30 Panel 1: Sensory and Spatial Aspects (Chair: tba)

  • The "How" of the Rite: AI-Generated Polyhedral Synthesis and the New Imagery of Ecclesial Spaces (Tino Grisi)

  • tba (Nesrine Mansour)

  • Envisioning Artificial Intelligence: Mysticism, AI Ethics, and the Religious Imaginary of Starmirror (Isobel Dickson)

14:30-15:00 Coffee break

15:00-17:00 Panel 2: Revealing the Hidden and Unimaginable (Chair: Afaf Abdelrazek)

  • The Ghost in The Pen: AI, Barakah and the Future of Islamic Calligraphy (Wajeeha Naween)

  • Seeing with the Eye of the Heart: Sufi Epistemology, Visual Imagination, and AI-Generated Images (Barbara Denuelle)

  • Seeing the Unseen: AI Images, Digital Miracles, and the Remaking of Religious Imagination in Indonesia (Fitri Murfianti)

17:15-18:45 Keynote 1 (Chair: Christoph Günther)

  • Pandora’s Black Box: Techno-Orientalist Images of the Prophet Muhammad in the Age of AI (Christiane Gruber)

18:45 Dinner

Tuesday, 29 September 2026

09:00-11:00 Panel 3: The Politics of AI-charged Imaginaries (Chair: tba)

  • Reimagining Hellenic Polytheism through AI: Aesthetics, Ideology, and Power (Efstathios Kessareas)

  • Ambivalences of AI-Rendered Iranian Cultural Imaginaries: A Case Study of the Sun and the Lion (Rasool Akbari)

  • “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” The role of generative AI in the digital martyrdom of Charlie Kirk (Kathrin Trattner)

11:00-11:15 Coffee Break

11:15-12:45 Roundtable Discussion

12:45-14:15 Lunch Break

14:15-16:15 Panel 4: Interactions with AI-generated Imagery (Chair: Jasmin Eder)

  • Visualizing Divine Authority: The Persuasive Power of AI-Imagery in Interreligious Online Debates (Jan Philipp Hahn)

  • Godbots and Religious Mediation: An Exploratory Study of Religious AI Interaction (Feeza Vasudeva / Katja Valaskivi)

  • Reclaiming Revelation: Use AI to Visualise Qur’anic Meanings Beyond the Authority of the ʿUlamāʾ (Sofia Tsourlaki)

16:15-16:30 Coffee break

16:30-18:00 Keynote 2 (Chair: Fouad Gehad Marei)

  • Cave of Dreams: Designing Ethical AI Worlds for the Study of Religion and Human Responsibility (Gregory Price Grieve)

18:00 Dinner

Wednesday, 30 September 2026

09:00-11:00 Panel 5: Re-Conceptualising AI & Religious Imagination (Chair: tba)

  • Between Khayāl and Code: Artificial Intelligence and the Islamic Philosophy of Imagination (Thowhidul Islam / Nurul Amin / Iftekharul Islam)

  • From Darshan to Dataset: AI-Generated Divine Images & the Transformation of Seeing in Hindu Practice in Tamil Nadu (Arulchelvan Sriram)

  • Artificial Imagination? Ibn ʿArabi’s Ontology of the Imaginal and AI-Generated Presence (Kris Ramlan)

11:00-11:15 Coffee Break

11:15-13:30 Panel 6: AI Images and Imaginaries of Religious Pasts and Futures (Chair: Christiane Gruber)

  • Machines of the Final Hour: AI as Eschatological Portent in West African Islam (Murtala Ibrahim)

  • Aesthetics and (Religious) Imagination in Hindu and Christian AI Images (Katharina Yadav / Feeza Vasudeva)

  • AI Karbala: Artificial Visuality, Shiʿi Mourning, and Futurity (Babak Rahimi)

  • “Your first day in jannah” vs. “POV: you wake up in jahannam”: AI Images of Paradise and Hell (Christoph Günther)

13:30-15:00 Lunch Break

15:00-15:30 Publication plans

15:30-17:30 Panel 7: Ethical entrainment, Moral Cultivation, and Postcolonial Subjectification in the Age of AI (Chair: tba)

  • Hsing Yun’s Humanistic Buddhism: Cultivating AI & Digital Humanities (Maria Majorie Purino)

  • Selective Legacy 2.0: AI-Generated Imagery and the Algorithmic Curation of Postcolonial Islamic Memory (Myra Abubakar)

  • AI and the Revival of Confucianism: Virtual Teachings and Moral Imagery in Contemporary China (Mohamad Zreik)

17:30-18:00 Closing remarks

18:00 Concluding Dinner

Useful informations for Organization

Conference Venue: Max-Weber-Allee 3, 99089 Erfurt

Accomodation: Speakers will be provided with accommodation. All other guests are kindly asked to arrange their own accommodation.

Contact Information: aiimagery@uni-erfurt.de

Organizing Committee: Afaf Abdelrazek, Christoph Günther, Fouad Gehad Marei

Funding

Funding for this conference is generously provided by the German Research Foundation's (DFG) Heisenberg Programme (Grant No. 443239708). 

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This picture shows the logo of Heisenberg-Programm