Pastoral AI ethics for chatbots in religious education

Abstract Religious Education faces new ethical challenges as AI-powered chatbots become capable of offering scriptural explanations, moral guidance, and personalized learning support. This theoretical article proposes a Pastoral AI Ethics framework for the responsible use of AI chatbots in Religious Education. The framework integrates AI ethics principles, including privacy, transparency, fairness, and accountability, with pastoral values such as confidentiality, doctrinal fidelity, human dignity, and communal trust. The article also presents a conceptual design for a religious learning chatbot composed of a Theological Knowledge Base, a constrained reasoning and retrieval engine, and a Moodle Integration Layer. The proposed model includes privacy-by-design, citation transparency, theological review, and human-in-the-loop escalation for sensitive questions. The article argues that AI chatbots may support Religious Education by improving access to learning resources and feedback, but they must not replace teachers, clergy, or human pastoral care. Further empirical research is required before classroom implementation.