Book

The Friction that Forms Us

Engaging AI with Biblical Wisdom

John D. Delano and Alina Leo Coming soon

TF Cover coming Soon

About the book

Christians do not have to choose between rejecting artificial intelligence and accepting whatever it makes possible.

Engaging AI with Biblical Wisdom offers a third path. Drawing on the virtues of Philippians 4:8, the ENGAGE framework translates six biblical characteristics into six questions for the age of AI:

  • Exact — Am I whole before God, or does my work present a version of myself that outruns reality?
  • Noble — Am I trustworthy toward my neighbor in what I deliver and disclose?
  • Genuine — Am I handling truth with care, verifying before I believe and believing before I repeat?
  • Admirable — Are my relationships remaining human, or is simulation satisfying a hunger that belongs to people?
  • Gracious — Are my words true, loving, and genuinely mine?
  • Exemplary — Is my pattern of AI use worth imitating by those watching me?

The book begins by explaining what makes contemporary AI different from earlier technologies and places it within the biblical story of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. It then develops each virtue and carries the full framework into the three places readers live it out, the household, the workplace, and the church, closing with a rule of life for keeping technology in its proper place.

Written for ordinary believers rather than specialists, the book equips readers to receive AI's help with gratitude, limit it with wisdom, refuse it with conviction, and wait with patience, whatever the tools become.

The ENGAGE framework received Best Paper Awards at the 2024 and 2025 Christian Business Faculty Association conferences and was featured in Cedarville Magazine.

  • A biblical third path between rejecting AI and adopting it uncritically
  • Six questions drawn from the virtues of Philippians 4:8
  • Four faithful responses to any AI tool: receive, limit, refuse, or wait
  • Realistic scenarios featuring temptations you will recognize
  • A concluding guide for applying the framework to any situation you face
  • Written for ordinary believers, no technical background needed
  • Award-recognized framework, honored at the 2025 CBFA conference

What's inside

A Third Path

Christians do not have to choose between rejecting AI and accepting whatever it makes possible. Rooted in the gospel and guided by Philippians 4:8, ENGAGE forms people who can discern what to receive, limit, refuse, or wait on.

Six Questions That Travel

Exact, Noble, Genuine, Admirable, Gracious, Exemplary. Six virtues become six questions about self-representation, responsibility, truth, relationship, speech, and example, questions that go with you into rooms no policy can reach.

A Guide You Can Carry

Rather than pre-answering every scenario, the book equips you to walk any AI decision through the six questions yourself, and closes with a practical guide for applying the framework wherever it finds you.

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