10 Jun 2026
"Magnificent Humanity": A Conversation About Artificial Intelligence and Faith
On Thursday, June 4, 2026, Executive Director, Mike Sacasas, moderated a panel discussion inspired by the most recent encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence. Mike was joined by an ecumenical panel consisting of Ana Siljak (PhD), Lily Abadal (PhD), and Christoper Hampson (JD, MTS). This audio includes the discussion and the Q&A afterward.
About the Panel
Mike Sacasas (Moderator)
Executive Director, Christian Study Center of Gainesville
Mike Sacasas earned his MA in Theological Studies from Reformed Theological Seminary in 2002. He was later a doctoral candidate at the University of Central Florida studying the relationship between technology and society with a focus on the work of Hannah Arendt. He currently serves as a Senior Fellow with the Trinity Forum, an Associate Fellow in Ethics and Culture at the Greystone Theological Institute and is a contributing editor for Comment Magazine. His writing on technology and the moral life has appeared in The New Atlantis, Comment, The Point Magazine, and Plough.
Ana Siljak, PhD
Associate Professor of Humanities, University of Florida Hamilton School
Dr. Ana Siljak received her PhD in History from Harvard University and was a professor of history at Queen’s University until 2023. Her most recent publications include her edited volume entitled Religion and Secular Modernity in Russian Christianity, Judaism, and Atheism (Cornell University Press, 2024) and her edition of the translation of the correspondence of Nikolai Berdyaev and Jacques Maritain entitled An Exceptional Dialogue, 1925–1948: Nikolai Berdyaev and Jacques Maritain (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2025). She is currently a co-author of the textbook, Visions of the West, to be published by Oxford University Press in 2026. She is currently completing her book on the personalist philosophy of Nikolai Berdiaev.
Lillian King Abadal, PhD
Visiting Assistant Professor of Instruction, University of South Florida
Dr. Lily Abadal completed her doctorate under the mentorship of Thomas Williams at the University of South Florida, focusing on the history of medieval philosophy and virtue ethics. Lily has presented original research at the American Academy of Religion’s annual conference, The New College Conference for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Notre Dame’s Center for Ethics and Culture, and numerous other academic conferences. She maintains an interest in history of medieval philosophy but has also begun developing several ideas in applied virtue ethics, particularly in healthcare and medicine.
Christopher Hampson, JD, MTS
Associate Professor of Law, University of Florida Levin College of Law
Professor Hampson is an award-winning scholar of bankruptcy, insolvency, and the ethics of debt. His research focuses on how legal institutions can best serve our shared values during times of financial distress. Professor Hampson earned an A.B. from Harvard College in the comparative study of religion, magna cum laude with highest honors, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, magna cum laude, and an M.T.S. from Harvard Divinity School, where he was a Dean’s Fellow. During his time at Harvard Law School, he served as Articles Co-Chair of the Harvard Law Review. He has written on a wide range of topics, from social enterprises and small businesses to debtors’ prisons and harsh debt collection practices. His scholarship has appeared or is forthcoming in prominent law reviews across the country, including the Harvard Law Review, the Iowa Law Review, the Boston University Law Review, the Fordham Law Review, the American Bankruptcy Law Journal, and the Journal of Free Speech Law.
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