Not Human Enough? Rethinking AI’s Place in Pastoral Care

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly entering pastoral care contexts. Despite its genuine promise, it has drawn substantial criticism—chief among them the charge that AI “lacks the human” and therefore should not be used in pastoral care. Yet what “the human” means here is rarely specified. This article interrogates that claim. Drawing on current debates, we reconstruct four candidate interpretations of “the human”: (1) emotional capacity and empathy, (2) corporeality and embodiment, (3) authenticity and spontaneity, and (4) soul and likeness to God. We examine each in context and show that, rather than establishing that AI is incapable of pastoral care, these notions are better read as reflections of users’ needs. By disentangling these meanings and proposing a new interpretive framework, the article sharpens the key terms at stake and provides a clearer basis for advancing the debate about AI’s role in pastoral care.