The Mirror of Knowledge

The Mirror of Knowledge

Moral and Theological Responsibility in AI-Based Warfare: A Theological Critique of Wolfgang Engelhardt approach

Document Type : Scientific-research

Author
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Theology and Ahl Al-Bayt Studies, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
10.48308/jipt.2026.242951.1727
Abstract
Artificial intelligence has fundamentally transformed the nature of contemporary warfare by increasingly replacing or mediating human judgment in military decision-making. Unlike earlier military technologies, AI systems are capable of participating in surveillance, target identification, threat assessment, and, in some cases, lethal operations themselves. This development has generated profound ethical and theological challenges, particularly concerning moral agency, responsibility, and human dignity in warfare. This article critically examines Wolfgang Engelhardt’s theological analysis of AI-based warfare and autonomous weapon systems (AWS), focusing on his account of moral responsibility and the crisis of human agency in algorithmic warfare. The study argues that Engelhardt correctly identifies the theological dangers posed by autonomous systems, especially the erosion of moral intention, the diffusion of accountability, and the reduction of human beings to computational objects. However, his framework remains primarily diagnostic and insufficiently developed regarding distributed forms of responsibility in technologically mediated warfare. The article therefore proposes a constructive theological approach grounded in meaningful human control, identifiable moral accountability, and the preservation of human dignity. Ultimately, the article argues that the central theological challenge of AI warfare is not technology itself, but the displacement of human moral responsibility within increasingly automated systems of violence.
Keywords


Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 21 June 2026