The World in the Trinity

Open-Ended Systems in Science and Religion

Joseph A. Bracken, S.J.

Fortress Press

Minneapolis

THE WORLD IN THE TRINITY

Open-Ended Systems in Science and Religion

Copyright © 2014 Fortress Press. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Visit http://www.augsburgfortress.org/copyrights/ or write to Permissions, Augsburg Fortress, Box 1209, Minneapolis, MN 55440.

Cover image: MarcelC/153685168/iStock/Thinkstock

Cover design: Alisha Lofgren

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Print ISBN: 978-1-4514-8205-8

eBook ISBN: 978-1-4514-8755-8

This book was produced using PressBooks.com, and PDF rendering was done by PrinceXML.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I

1. Language and Reality

2. The “Inside” and the “Outside” of Everything

3. Panentheism

Hierarchically Ordered Systems of Existence and Activity

4. Other Approaches to Panentheism in the Current Religion-and-Science Debate

Part II

5. “Incarnation” as Key to the Argument for Panentheism

6. A Systems-Oriented Approach to the Trinity

7. Tradition and Traditioning

Church as Both System and Institutional Entity?

8. Miracles and the Problem of Evil

9. Resurrection and Eternal Life

Conclusion

Index

Acknowledgments

As a self-declared systems thinker with its strong emphasis on the dynamic interconnection of component parts or members to produce a new objective reality, I certainly should acknowledge with gratitude the significant participation of key people besides myself in the production of this book. Michael Gibson, Acquisitions Editor for Fortress Press, showed keen interest in my hypothesis at an early stage in the composition of the book and offered me a contract to publish it upon completion. I am very grateful to him for his support and encouragement at a key stage of the process. Other members of the Fortress Press management to whom I owe much would be in the first place Development Editor Lisa Gruenisen who kept me moving to stay on schedule in the pre-publication process, and Amy Sleper who secured some very flattering endorsements for my book from colleagues in systematic theology. Two brother Jesuits should be singled out for their involvement in bringing this book to completion. My Provincial Superior, Rev. Walter C. Deye, S.J., moved with dispatch in granting official approval of the Society of Jesus for publication of my book. But in the actual composition of the book I owe very much to William R. Stoeger, S.J., astrophysicist at the Vatican Observatory and longtime participant in the ongoing international religion and science discussion. Bill was trying to recover from a recurrence of prostate cancer when he agreed to read and comment at length on the natural science material in Part One of the book. He died earlier this year (March 24, 2014). To him this book is fondly dedicated. In the highly competitive ...