Simon Werrett

How can discipleship be practiced in the metaverse, where individuals are represented by avatar?  An analysis through the lens of Karl Barth's four criteria for authentic relationships?

​

​This paper will examine whether we can build authentic relationships in the metaverse. The individual uses a headset and is represented by their avatar when attending church (and other activities) but with who is the relationship being built, the person behind the headset or the avatar. It will examine two theories of relationship. Firstly Aristotle’s three types of friendships: pleasure, utility, and virtue (Nyholm, 2023). The second will focus on Karl Barth’s four criteria for an authentic relationship namely visibility (“looking the other in the eye”), communication (“speak and hear to one another”), activity (“rendering mutual assistance”) and finally emotions (“doing gladly”) (Barth, 1960). Herzfeld (2023) has examined these four criteria’s in relation to artificial intelligence, which provides a foundation, but as I will suggest the avatar relationship is different, it is human to human as opposed to human to device. This raises the question what is it to be human? The Christian position is humanity was created in the image of God, the two main interpretations of this term ‘image’ being representation (von Rad) and relationship (Barth). The avatar meets both these criteria, it is a visual representation of the user (who is present) and the medium through which relationships are built. I will suggest this is similar to our human activities like work, sports, home life social and religious activities, where we put on an avatar that reflects that environment. It is the ‘me-ness ‘(Gooder) or ‘thatness, whatness, Imyselfness’ (Heidegger) that builds the relationship, not the persona portrayed.