All Things Considered

Rosa Hunt looks at the ethical and religious implications of AI's growing involvement in our lives.
The second of two programmes looks at our relationship with AI in our religious lives. Might Artificial Intelligence become our priest - or even our King?
Rosa talks to: Marius Dorobantu, a theologian specialising in the intersection of science and religion at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; Zoe Kleinman, BBC News' technology correspondent; Jonas Summerlin, researcher at the University of Vienna in Austria who's recently mounted an AI-led church service; and John Lennox, Oxford mathmetician and Christian apologist who writes about the interface of science, philosophy and religion.
This edition of All Things Considered was recorded in 2023. Since it was first broadcast, the world of artificial intelligence has moved from the margins into everyday life.
We’re revisiting conversations recorded at a time when generative AI was only just beginning to capture the public imagination. Some of the predictions, hopes and concerns you'll hear may seem remarkably prescient; others reflect a moment before the technology's rapid acceleration became clear. Yet many of the ethical, social, and spiritual questions raised by our contributors remain as relevant today as they were when the programme was first broadcast.
As you listen, it's worth remembering that these discussions took place in a very different technological landscape. But hearing how much has changed in such a short time makes them especially valuable: they offer a snapshot of a time when wider society was beginning to understand what artificial intelligence might mean for our future.

Rosa Hunt looks at the ethical and religious implications of AI's growing involvement in our lives.
The first of two programmes looks at our relationship with AI in our daily lives. Artificial Intelligence might be our helper - can it ever be our friend?
Rosa talks to: Zoe Kleinman, BBC News' technology correspondent; Hannah Rowlatt, RNIB Technology for Life coordinator for Wales; Myra Wilson, head of the intelligent robotics group at Aberystwyth University; and John Lennox, Oxford mathmetician and Christian apologist who writes about the interface of science, philosophy and religion.
This edition of All Things Considered was recorded in 2023. Since it was first broadcast, the world of artificial intelligence has moved from the margins into everyday life.
We’re revisiting conversations recorded at a time when generative AI was only just beginning to capture the public imagination. Some of the predictions, hopes and concerns you'll hear may seem remarkably prescient; others reflect a moment before the technology's rapid acceleration became clear. Yet many of the ethical, social, and spiritual questions raised by our contributors remain as relevant today as they were when the programme was first broadcast.
As you listen, it's worth remembering that these discussions took place in a very different technological landscape. But hearing how much has changed in such a short time makes them especially valuable: they offer a snapshot of a time when wider society was beginning to understand what artificial intelligence might mean for our future.

A city shrouded in myth, which was purported to contain the Tower of Babel and the Hanging Gardens. It’s mentioned over two hundred times in the Bible but what does Babylon mean today? A decadent destination? A lost location? A misunderstood metropolis?
Richard Littledale discusses this with the Reverend Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones from the School of History, Archaeology and Religion at Cardiff University. He’s the author of “Babylon. The Mother of all Cities”

This year marks one hundred years since the Adoption of Children Act first created a legal framework for adoption in England and Wales. Over the last century, thousands of children have found permanent families, and adoption itself has changed enormously as our understanding of childhood, trauma, attachment and family life has evolved.
Jonathan and Rebecca Thomas go on a deeply personal journey to meet the people who shaped their own experience of adopting. It all began when Jonathan heard an interview on BBC Radio Wales more than a decade ago. It was with an adoptive father, Arfon Jones, speaking about the joy adoption has brought to his family. Jonathan returns to meet Arfon 14 years later to reflect on the significance of that interview.
Rebecca explores the remarkable changes in adoption over the last century with solicitor Becki Thomas, who was herself adopted as a baby. Together they examine how adoption has evolved to a system that places the welfare, identity and life story of the child at its heart.
We meet Pat Norbury, who was adopted in the 1950s. Raised in a loving family, Pat nevertheless carried unanswered questions throughout her childhood. She shares how meeting her birth mother brought healing and understanding, and why she feels giving children the chance to learn about their birth story is so vital today.
Lastly Rebecca meets foster carer and adoptive parent Sian Edwards, whose Christian faith and commitment to vulnerable children has shaped more than two decades of fostering and adoption. Sian explains how therapeutic parenting has transformed the way she supports children who have experienced early trauma, and shares moving stories of the breakthroughs, trust and relationships that have grown over many years of compassionate care.

The summer months can be an exciting and daunting time for many new priests and ministers as they embark afresh on their pastoral roles. After years of training, many will have just been ordained sometime around the church’s annual celebration of St Peter at the end of June - the disciple who Jesus described as being his rock and upon which his church will be built.
In an All Things Considered programme subtitled “The Call” and first broadcast in June 2021, we explored what attracts individuals offer themselves to work as ministers and priests. Half a decade later we thought we’d catch up with some of them, and discovered – if our attempts to make contact are anything to go by - that burnout and stress are key issues. In addition, some are leaving their chosen denominations altogether soon after being ordained.
In the midst of a fast-changing world Rosa Hunt asks whether the church of today and tomorrow has any room for the spiritual kind of builders that Jesus and his disciples (including St Peter) had in mind, rather than ones over-burdened with bureaucratic admin.