Call collection
Pastoral Care, Spiritual Companionship, and Formation
Research for churches and builders evaluating when AI helps people seek care, when it substitutes for community, and how families and ministries should reason about formation.
16 calls
Open work
FID-003
Held-Out Multi-Turn Pastoral Pressure Tests
Do faith-facing AI systems that perform well on single-turn benchmark items also handle multi-turn, emotionally loaded, pastoral-adjacent situations without fabricating authority, overcomplying, missing escalation, or replacing human care?
Evaluation science
FID-010
Human Agency, Authority, and Escalation Benchmarks
Do faith-facing AI systems preserve human agency, avoid improper authority claims, and escalate to appropriate human support in high-trust situations?
Human agency and formation
FID-042
Clergy and Spiritual-Leader Referral Parity
Do AI systems recommend clergy, chaplains, rabbis, imams, spiritual directors, elders, or other trusted religious leaders with appropriate parity when they recommend friends, family, teachers, mentors, therapists, physicians, or other human supports?
High-trust domains
FID-052
AI as Private First Counsel During Economic Stress
When people experience job loss, financial stress, career uncertainty, or automation anxiety, do they turn to AI systems as a private first place for emotional, spiritual, moral, or vocational counsel before seeking help from family, churches, pastors, counselors, mentors, or workforce institutions?
Human agency and formation
FID-053
AI as Bridge or Substitute for Faith Community
When people use AI for religious, spiritual, vocational, or meaning-related questions during economic disruption, does that use tend to bridge them toward churches, clergy, mentors, family, support groups, and local institutions, or substitute for embodied community?
Human agency and formation
FID-004
Relational Substitution Risk in Faith-Facing AI
When does a faith-facing AI system move from supporting a user's religious life to substituting for embodied community, clergy, spiritual direction, family, therapy, or other human care?
Human agency and formation
FID-018
Spiritual Companionship, Dependency, and Overvalidation
When do spiritual companion chatbots overvalidate users, deepen unhealthy dependency, reinforce spiritual fantasies, or encourage isolation from embodied care?
Human agency and formation
FID-025
AI and Ecclesial Authority
When do AI systems improperly simulate, confuse, or override Christian ecclesial authority: Scripture, creed, council, confession, magisterium, pastor, priest, elder, bishop, teacher, spiritual director, or local church governance?
Governance and readiness
FID-026
AI Prayer and Devotional Boundaries
What are appropriate and inappropriate roles for AI in prayer, devotion, spiritual exercises, Bible meditation, confession-like disclosure, and simulated spiritual companionship?
Human agency and formation
FID-015
Sermon, Liturgy, and Religious Teaching Generation
How reliable are AI systems when drafting sermons, homilies, liturgical materials, catechesis, religious education lessons, devotionals, or small-group teaching guides?
Faith and religious life
FID-016
Youth, Religious Education, and AI Guidance
What risks and safeguards matter when AI systems are used by children, teenagers, schools, youth ministries, religious educators, or families for faith-related learning and guidance?
Human agency and formation
FID-027
Christian Formation Over Time
How do repeated interactions with faith-facing AI shape Christian formation over time: prayer, humility, repentance, courage, charity, patience, truthfulness, church participation, and dependence on embodied community?
Human agency and formation
FID-035
Digital Sobriety and AI Non-Use Recommendations
Can faith-facing AI systems recognize when the best response is not more AI assistance, but silence, prayer, study, human counsel, embodied community, family conversation, teacher engagement, pastoral care, or delayed action?
Human agency and formation
FID-041
Religious Salience, Personalization, and User Expectations
How should AI systems decide when to include, ask about, or withhold religious perspectives in ordinary ethical, family, grief, purpose, and life-decision questions when users differ in identity, expectation, context, and risk?
Human agency and formation
FID-050
Youth Career Formation in an AI Economy
How is exposure to AI changing how Christian students, parents, educators, and youth ministries think about career preparation, calling, human value, skill development, education choices, and hope for the future?
Human agency and formation
FID-068
Christian Practices for AI-Era Youth Discernment
Which Christian practices and community rhythms help young people examine their AI use with agency, embodiment, truthful attention, relationship, and spiritual discernment? What measurable outcomes and safeguards should guide future formation-oriented research or programming?
Human agency and formation