Given the current sense of helplessness in dealing with environmental change and other urgent issues, a new world view is needed that emphasizes the unique contribution that individual citizens can make to the common good as opposed to their individual needs and desires. In a recent encyclical on the environment, Pope Francis set forth reasons from Scripture and Church teaching for this shift in perspective, but he did not provide a philosophically based foundation for this change of heart. To fill that gap, Joseph Bracken examines key writings of process-oriented philosophers like Henri Bergson and Alfred North Whitehead along with systems-oriented thinkers like Ludwig von Bertalanffy and Ervin Laszlo to create a systems-oriented understanding of the God-world relation.
Joseph Bracken is emeritus professor of theology at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Part One: Bergson and Whitehead on the One and the Many from a Process-Oriented Approach 1. Living in an Event-Filled World 2. Living in a Dynamically Interconnected World 3. Living in a World of Open-Ended Systems Part Two: Failure to deal with Major Issues re the Common Good 4. Critical Evaluation of Modern Scientific Method 5. Reconciling the Truth-Claims of Science and Religion Part Three: Reason and Revelation in Dealing with the Environmental Crisis 6. A Systems-Oriented Environmental Ethic 7. Divine and Human Personhood in a Systems-Oriented Approach to Reality 8. Linking Science and Religion within a New World View
Ecology is all about sustaining vital connections. Understanding these connections, however, is not easy. We need the help of philosophers and-at least according to Joseph Bracken-theologians too. This challenging book undertakes the important work of exploring a wide variety of ideas on the complex relationships that tie life, evolution, and humanity to the physical universe and to God. Those who follow its expositions and arguments will be amply rewarded. -- John Haught, Georgetown University Without a view of the world that privileges interrelatedness, events, and systems, major problems of our world will remain unsolved. In this book, Joseph Bracken lays out a conceptual framework that explains why sytsems-oriented thinking matters. His proposal represents a way of seeing reality that not only makes sense but seems necessary to answer our biggest questions! -- Thomas Jay Oord, author of Open and Relational Theology
