Paul Hoffman is a Christian pastor, academic and co-author of “Preaching to a Divided Nation; A Seven-Step Model for Promoting Reconciliation and Unity” and “AI Shepherds and Electric Sheep.” The books are timely guides to society’s current cultural circumstances. A Gallup poll from 2024 showed a record 80% of Americans saw the nation divided, up from roughly 62% some 20 years ago. As for artificial intelligence, in two years, more than half of Americans have used some form of AI compared to a span of five years for smartphones to hit 50% penetration in the country.
Our conversation was intended to focus largely on AI and how to navigate in a world of both fear and awe of its supremacy. But the discussion took a surprising twist when we started down the path of the role of women in society. Specifically, whether there is a need to address their identity as much as we’ve started to raise awareness about men, specifically white men, who’ve been browbeaten into submitting to a false narrative about their identity. They’ve been taught to think of themselves as a privileged, power-hungry species in need of self-degradation and absolution until some unforeseen date, or forever. This is changing as society realizes this confusion has created a lost generation of men.
But we seem to have ignored women, despite more than half of them ages 18 to 40 identifying as single, up from 42% in 2000, according to the Aspen Economic Strategy Group. And according to NBER, women’s happiness has declined more than men since the 70’s even though they’re supposedly more liberated, and equipped to pursue high-ranking jobs.
When I asked Paul how he’d direct young women to live their lives: strive to become CEO or get married, he had the perfect answer. “Do they know Christ?”
It doesn’t matter if you encourage your daughters or children to get married if they don’t know Christ, they’ll pursue idols, he said. They’ll pursue sex, affection and pleasure. It’s also important for young women to realize their limitations and gifts, such as bearing children and the conflicts and challenges they will face when they set aside this blessing in their lives. (You can listen to this part of the discussion, as well as the Bible’s view on the role of men and women and marriage around 18 minutes in).
We also talked about the importance of embodiment as part of human nature because Christ was embodied for 33 years, and why AI can never be human.
We then touch on Paul’s book “Preaching to a Divided Nation” - which outlines the four “isms” that are an important framing element to diagnose the divisions in our society. They are: ethnocentrism, classism, sexism and partisan-political polarization.
“Ethnocentrism is an idolatrous form of social sin” where one person or group based on ethnicity or culture is suspicious of another. Classism is another social sin where one person or group based on socioeconomic status feels superiority to another. Sexism is feeling superior based on gender. All these isms existed in the Bible and ancient times and have always led to divisions. Partisan polarization, while not mentioned explicitly in Scriptures, refers to political parties feeling superior over others.
While we didn’t take a deep dive into those differences that have hardened into divisions, importantly, Paul said the relevance to knowing these differences is realizing they’re the ones that the devil always uses to exploit and separate people. In other words, these battles are not new. For instance in the Bible, the conflict between Jews and Gentiles is a prominent example of ethnocentrism - feeling superior to others based on religious markers, such as circumcision. Apostle Paul reminds people circumcision doesn’t matter, what matters is what unites us: faith in Christ.
In like vein, Paul Hoffman says the key to healing division is to find a common value that unites us - our identity in Christ - otherwise everything is just opinion.
You can learn more about Paul on his academic page: Paul Hoffman. Or you can buy his books - AI Shepherds and/or Preaching to a Divided Nation.
Interview coverage:
:42 - From leading an evangelical church in Rhode Island to getting a PhD in practical theology to running a pre-ministerial scholar program in Birmingham, Alabama.
6:15 - Practical theology and different theological domains.
8:40 - The evangelical church and its Quaker and Baptist characteristics.
11:50 - Women should be allowed to have teaching roles and pastoral roles in the church.
14:20 - The problem with women being more educated than men.
18:50 - The husband is Christ. The wife is the church who submits to the husband’s authority. Men bear the greater burden of sacrifice.
20:50 – Should women pursue careers or marriage?
25:00 – “AI Shepherds and Electric Sheep” and its relevance to today’s discussion around AI and faith.
28:13 - How might AI help or hinder human flourishing?
29:00 – The "Image of God" (Imago Dei) - relational, rational and having free will or the three R’s - reason, role and relationship.
35:19 - The significance of the incarnation of God and Christ’s bodily resurrection.
42:00 - A relation is not bits and data transfer.
43: - Studies show steps to be hopeful. If society believes this is how to train AI to be hopeful, then humanity has won.
48:00 - Ecclesiastes has set eternity in the heart of humans.
49:17-49:30 – Warning! screen freezes please skip this section!
49:55 - Humans are not a collection of molecules.
52:20 - Even though humans are built to create, they cannot replicate the soul or the Holy Spirit.
56:00 - “Preaching to a Divided Nation” - We are at a moment of moral decay. But the Gospel provides a paradigm through which we can find things that unite us.
59:00 - The Bible’s four isms that are a major source of division in society. The devil is taking our differences and exploiting them.
1:01 - How to create unity without glossing over social justice. In order to have justice, we need common values otherwise all ethics is just opinion.
