Title: Religion and AI Romance in Popular Media: Wired for Love

Edited by: Amanda Furiasse, Nova Southeastern University

As AI-driven love stories become increasingly central to cultural narratives, they provoke fundamental questions about love, intimacy, and human connection, challenging conventional understandings of personhood, the soul, and the nature of relationships. In light of these challenges, we invite chapter proposals for an edited volume, Religion and AI Romance in Popular Media: Wired for Love, which will explore the religious and theological dimensions of AI-human romances as depicted in movies, TV shows, and literature. This book will be an addition to the Theology, Religion, and Pop Culture Series (Bloomsbury) and will examine how these portrayals of AI romances reconfigure theological and ethical debates while interrogating the assumed boundaries between the artificial and the real.

We welcome contributions that engage with religious, theological, philosophical, and ethical perspectives on AI romance in popular media. Possible topics include but are not limited to:

Love beyond humanity: Theological implications of AI-human romance in films such as Her and Ex Machina.
Digital souls in silicon bodies: Religious interpretations of the soul in AI-driven love stories, including Blade Runner 2049.
When AIs become persons: Religious and ethical questions of AI personhood in media, such as Detroit: Become Human.
Ethical dilemmas of loving machines: Examining moral concerns in narratives like Black Mirror.
Free will in a programmed heart: Exploring religious concepts of choice and destiny in AI romance, as in Humans.
"I, Robot" I do?: How AI-human relationships challenge religious views on marriage and partnership.
Artificial wombs and digital offspring: AI procreation themes in works like Raised by Wolves and their religious implications.
Maternal instincts in code: AI motherhood in I Am Mother and its theological impact.
Can AIs have faith?: AI spirituality in works like The Wild Robot and its implications for religious understandings of love.
Interfaith perspectives on inhuman love: Comparative religious analyses of AI-human intimacy.
Touch without bodies: Religious interpretations of virtual romance in films such as Her.
Challenging the “made in God's image” concept: AI-human relationships and their impact on religious perspectives of human uniqueness.

Submission Guidelines
Please submit an abstract of 300-500 words along with a brief bio (150 words max) by April 15, 2025. Abstracts should clearly outline the chapter’s argument, methodology, and engagement with religious and theological themes.

Timeline
Abstract Submission Deadline: April 15, 2025
Proposal Review and Selection: June 1, 2025
First Draft Due: August 1, 2025
Major Revisions Due: October 1, 2025
Final Revisions Due: November 15, 2025
Final Manuscript Submission to Publisher: December 1, 2025
Projected Publication Date: Early 2026

Please send submissions and inquiries to afuriass@nova.edu with the subject line:
“CFP Submission – Wired for Love”

For more info: https://popularcultureandtheology.com/2025/02/05/call-for-papers-religion-and-ai-romance-in-popular-media/