January 29, 2026

Tim Keller was fond of saying that we should strive to be like trees with a lot of rings. Each ring represents a voice of wisdom, an influence that adds depth and strength to us as individuals. Tim encouraged us to surround ourselves with the knowledge of those who have gone before us because he knew people with deep roots and thick trunks would endure the winds of our turbulent culture. It is a slow but necessary process.

Today, as the temptation to off-load our thinking to AI grows, we need to count the cost of getting information quickly and effortlessly. This concern applies in all fields of knowledge, but perhaps this cost is felt most acutely in the humanities when we settle for the slop of AI summaries.

In his latest essay for The Keller Center, fellow Alan Noble explains why we need the humanities. We don’t just need the wisdom these great books contain. We also need their formative power to shape us into deep, resilient, and godly people.

The rise of AI, the ubiquity of cheap and accessible entertainment, the power of social media, and the progressive, secular biases of many educators have caused some Christians to question whether there’s any good in studying the humanities today.

That question has grown louder in part because of our bespoke information ecosystems. Whatever knowledge we can gain from literature can (presumably) be gleaned through ChatGPT summaries of novels and poetry. Whatever writing we need to develop through taking courses can be avoided by writing through an AI platform. Whatever political context we need to know how to vote can be found in a TikTok video or Instagram reel. Whatever historical reality makes sense of our moment can be explained better by the influencer I follow on X (who shares my worldview) than by a PhD or other expert in that area of knowledge.

Whether you’re seeking to learn through personal study or pursue a college degree, there seems to be little reason to pick up a novel, history book, or work of philosophy or poetry today when the benefits of those works can be delivered to you in neatly packaged form through AI. And if in obtaining that summary you can avoid all the biases of secular liberals, even better.

While this line of thinking is wildly persuasive to many right now––so persuasive that reading is in decline and AI cheating is rampant in high schools and college campuses––it’s profoundly mistaken. We need the humanities today to remind us how to be fully human as God designed us, to exercise the gifts God has given us, and to love our neighbor.

READ ABOUT 3 WAYS THE HUMANITIES FORM US