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AI and Its Influence: Legal and Religious Perspectives
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AI and Its Influence: Legal and Religious Perspectives

A special issue of Laws (ISSN 2075-471X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 January 2025) | Viewed by 14541

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Michael Broyde

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Center for the Study of Law and Religion, Emory University School of Law, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
Interests: Jewish law; alternative dispute resolution; family law; law, religion, and AI
Dr. Whittney Barth

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Center for the Study of Law and Religion, Emory University School of Law, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
Interests: anti-discrimination law and the ministerial exception; law, religion, and AI

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is set to transform the world(s) in which we live. In many ways, it already has. Law and religion have long been considered world-creating phenomena, albeit in distinct (and sometimes overlapping) ways. The impact of AI’s ascendency on legal systems and on religion is under-explored, and thus this Special Issue seeks to fill that gap. This Special Issue aims to answer several questions related to AI, law, and religion, namely:

  • What impact(s) will AI have on religious legal systems?
  • What impact(s) will AI have on religious authority?
  • What impact(s) might AI have on different areas of religious practice?
  • How might the influence of AI on both law and religion impact the regulation of religion by civil authority?  
  • How might the regulation of AI by civil authority influence AI’s impacts on the religious lives of individuals and/or communities? 

While we recognize that the influence will not be unidirectional, we aim to focus on AI’s influence on law and religion to foreground the repercussions of AI on the religious experiences of individuals and communities. 

We are particularly interested in assembling a Special Issue that features the work of scholars from a range of fields (law, religious studies, computer science, philosophy, anthropology, among others), as well as diverse geographic and religious contexts.

Prof. Dr. Michael Broyde
Dr. Whittney Barth
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Laws is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • artificial intelligence
  • religion
  • law
  • authority
  • legal systems

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 3551 KiB  
Article
Using Computational Methods to Explore Law in Sermons
by Markus M. Totzeck and Valentin Fuchs
Laws 2025, 14(3), 32; https://doi.org/10.3390/laws14030032 (registering DOI) - 4 May 2025
Abstract
An empirical study on the use of law in Christian sermons has so far been a blank space in research, especially when large corpora of sermons are examined. In this article, we present the first findings of the ongoing RUNIP project, in which [...] Read more.
An empirical study on the use of law in Christian sermons has so far been a blank space in research, especially when large corpora of sermons are examined. In this article, we present the first findings of the ongoing RUNIP project, in which computer-assisted methods are used and validated in sermon analysis. The process integrates manual coding via MaxQDA with machine learning techniques, notably contextual embeddings derived from Transformer architectures such as SBERT, enabling us to detect patterns across large corpora. We argue that embeddings in text analysis can help to complement a manual, human-based text analysis. Clustering based on sentence embeddings helps identify semantically related sermon passages, although the complexity and length of the original texts, as well as the nuanced theological language, pose challenges to computer-aided analysis. By bridging historical and contemporary sermon analysis with data science methodologies, we demonstrate how an interdisciplinary approach can expand our understanding of how preachers address law, norms, and moral questions in Christian sermons. This is demonstrated by qualitative results from the analysis of the large historical sermon corpus of Friedrich D. E. Schleiermacher. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue AI and Its Influence: Legal and Religious Perspectives)
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32 pages, 1057 KiB  
Article
An Artificial Review of Jesus’s Torah Compliance and What That Might Mean for Jews and Gentile Christians
by Jonathan Dawayne Brackens
Laws 2024, 13(3), 36; https://doi.org/10.3390/laws13030036 - 10 Jun 2024
Viewed by 12727
Abstract
The Torah is central to Judaism. Jesus’s relationship with it sparks conflict with Christianity. Some Jews think that Jesus violated the Torah, while some Christians believe that he sinlessly followed it. This clash escalated on 22 June 2023, when Ultra-Orthodox Jews protested a [...] Read more.
The Torah is central to Judaism. Jesus’s relationship with it sparks conflict with Christianity. Some Jews think that Jesus violated the Torah, while some Christians believe that he sinlessly followed it. This clash escalated on 22 June 2023, when Ultra-Orthodox Jews protested a Messianic convention in Jerusalem. Social media videos and comments highlighted Jesus’s purported Torah compliance, placing Matthew 5:17 at the center stage. The comments proved indicative of the gaps within the literature as neither determined all the unique Written and Oral Torahic/legal issues raised within the Gospels nor quantified the extent of Jesus’s compliance. To address these gaps, this study employs artificial intelligence (LDA), statistics, and legal analysis and exegesis to determine Jesus’s compliance with the Torah, Mishnah, Talmud, and Mishneh Torah. The findings show the Gospels’ consensus: Mark, Luke, and John reflect that Jesus was non-Torah-compliant (14.80, 43.80, and 0.00%, respectively); Matthew states otherwise (70.80%). Overall, the study revealed that Jesus kept 79 of 162 Written and Oral Torah laws (48.80%). This study has significant implications for Christian doctrines, the definition(s) of sin, and the missionizing ethnoreligion members and serves as a case study that illustrates AI’s impact on religious authority (i.e., clergy, scholarship, and doctrines). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue AI and Its Influence: Legal and Religious Perspectives)
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