The Indifferent Things: Orthodox Asceticism Meets the AI Age

In a world dazzled by the promise of artificial intelligence, a new encyclical from Pope Leo XIV, Magnifica Humanitas, calls believers to behold the grandeur of humanity in the face of Christ. For Orthodox Christians, this is not merely a summons to social ethics—it is a profound invitation to recover the ancient ascetic discipline of discernment.

As St. Basil the Great taught, health and sickness, riches and poverty, even the marvels of technology, are “indifferent things.” They are not good or evil in themselves; only righteousness and virtue are good, only sin is evil. The encyclical echoes this wisdom, observing that “technology in and of itself is not a solution to humanity’s problems, just as it is not inherently evil.”

What, then, is the spiritual task of the Christian in an era of AI? It is to refuse the Babel-like project of a world built “without reference to God,” a uniformity that destroys diversity for the sake of homogenization. Instead, like Nehemiah rebuilding Jerusalem, each believer is called to contribute unique talents for the glory of God and the sake of the poor.

The Orthodox tradition offers a distinct lens: asceticism as a social practice. To live virtuously amid indifferent things is to reclaim human grandeur—not through technological mastery, but through communion with the face of Christ.