The Saint Benedict Institute will host speaker Dr. Jared Ortiz on “The Monk and the Machine: How St. Benedict Can Help Us Preserve Our Humanity in the Digital Age,” on Wednesday, January 28, 2026, at 7 p.m. in Winants Auditorium at Hope College.

We have an increasingly uncomfortable relationship with our digital technology. While relishing the remarkable powers and convenience it provides, we worry about the negative effects it has on our minds, habits, social interactions, and mental health. Especially with the rapid onset of AI technology, we sense we are living in the middle of a revolution, one that will have dramatic consequences for what it means to be human. How did we get here? How should we understand this technology? What does it do to us? Is it changing our humanity? Should we embrace or resist it? In this talk, Dr. Ortiz will address these questions by exploring the roots of the modern scientific project and the aspirations of the makers of AI and by drawing on the perennial wisdom of St. Benedict.

The public is invited. Admission is free.

Jared Ortiz is the Lavern ’39 and Betty DePree ’41 Van Kley Professor of Religion at Hope College. He is also the founder and executive director of the Saint Benedict Institute. Dr. Ortiz is the author and editor of numerous books on early Christianity and is currently writing a commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict.

The talk is supported by a grant from the Lumen Christi Institute with funding from the John Templeton Foundation and is co-sponsored by the Character Forward Grant and the Religion Department.

Winants Auditorium in Graves Hall is located at 263 College Avenue, between 10th and 13th Streets.

For inquiries, please contact the Saint Benedict Institute at info@saintbenedictinstitute.org.