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

by Joseph A. Bracken (Author)

Michael H. Barnes
"This book is a neo-Whiteheadian gem, an insightful and exciting development of Whitehead's notion of society, placing intersubjectivity at the core of reality. Like Aquinas using Aristotle, Joseph Bracken continues his project of extending and reinterpreting Whitehead's philosophy to address major theological issues. Bracken reworks the notion of causality to produce a 'metaphysics of universal intersubjectivity, ' which he then uses to resolve tough issues about God and the world, the Trinity, body and mind, and subjective immortality. Bracken offers critical but wonderfully clear reflections on the ideas of over twenty other philosophers, including even Derrida and Levinas, showing that many of them are not far from his own position. This is essential reading for philosophical theology today."

Anne Clifford
"One of the world's leading process theologians, Bracken adds to the ongoing conversation about the God-world relationship a carefully crafted metaphysical conception of 'intersubjectivity, ' addressed from both vertical and horizontal perspectives. Readers interested in the relationship of science and theology will find Bracken's proposal for a neo-Whiteheadian common ground that attends to supervenience in the mind-brain relationship thought provoking. Helpful summaries at the end of chapters, an appendix proposing a research program for the future, a carefully crafted glossary, and an extensive bibliography make The One in the Many an impressive work. "

Back Jacket

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 J]rgen 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. The uniqueness of Bracken's position is its advocacy of 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, S.J., is professor emeritus of theology at Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio. He is also the author of The One in the Many: A Contemporary Reconstruction of the God-World Relationship (Eerdmans).