The One in the Many: A Contemporary Reconstruction of the God-World Relationship

by Bracken, Joseph A.

• ISBN13: 9780802848925
• ISBN10: 0802848923
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-10-01
• Publisher: Lightning Source Inc

Summary

Classical notions of truth and objectivity have steadily eroded in the face of postmodernism. Meeting this challenge head-on, Joseph Bracken here reconstructs the metaphysical tradition of the West on solid new foundations. Drawing on the thought of Alfred North Whitehead, Ervin Laszlo, and Jurgen Habermas, Bracken presents a new philosophical perspective that roots the relationship between God and the world in community.

Bracken first answers objections to the possibility of developing a new metaphysics in our postmodern age. He then lays out the "vertical" and "horizontal" dimensions of his new metaphysical scheme, a constructive perspective that results in a consciously communitarian understanding of the God-world relationship. Bracken's unique position advocates a strictly "social ontology" in which the classical relationship of the One and the Many is reversed -- not the transcendence of the One over the Many but its emergence out of the Many in dynamic relationship.

Author Biography

Joseph A. Bracken is professor of theology at Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Table of Contents

Foreword	viii
Philip Clayton
Acknowledgments	xii
Introduction	1	(14)
PART ONE
The Shift to Intersubjectivity within Catholic Theology	15	(34)
Language and Objectivity in an Intersubjective Context	49	(28)
The One and the Many Revisited	77	(32)
PART TWO
Intersubjectivity: The Vertical Dimension	109	(22)
Intersubjectivity: The Horizontal Dimension	131	(26)
The Need for Common Ground in the Religion and Science Debate	157	(22)
Appendix: A Research Program for the Future	179	(39)
Glossary of Technical Terms	218	(4)
Bibliography	222	(8)
Index	230