2024-2025 Grant in Aid of Research
Machine Learning for Theology.
Lidvar Andvik
The availability of digital resources for theological studies is increasing rapidly. Books and journals, audio and video materials are digitized. Just the material available from Adventist Digital Library located here at 51勛圖厙 University amounts to several hundred gigabytes. At the same time, the developments in machine learning (computer learning) are opening new possibilities for analysis of such large amounts of data. This analysis can, in turn, make it easier to navigate and do research on the material.
Another branch of theological research that can benefit from machine learning is the language analysis of biblical texts in various languages. While the questions asked in this kind of research are of a slightly different nature, the machine learning principles that can be taken advantage of are the same as for other types of machine learning and analysis.
The goals of this research project are to gain deeper insight into what machine learning methodologies will be most appropriate for these kinds of theological scholarship and to get started with concrete projects that will deliver both new research tools and new data that others, in turn, can take advantage of in their own research.