The first in a series of symposia on "Relational Ontology in Science
and Theology," the conversation taking place at The Academy
of Athens will focus on the scientific domains of physics and
mathematics. Its purpose is to begin a process of exploring the
potentially wide-scale significance of developing relationality as an
ontological concept. The long-term aim of the overall project is
to stimulate progress in several areas of scientific research, as well
as in theological research, by focusing intently on the task of
generating new ideas for modeling reality with rigorous, nuanced,
nonreductive descriptions of ways in which objects exist in their
relations to or, indeed, in "communion" with one another. In our
view, intellectual journeys must be undertaken in a number of
discrete areas in any attempt to gain knowledge of the
intrinsically paradoxical, "deep" aspects of reality in which rigorous
description takes seriously the dynamics of relation, relativity/invariance, and entanglement. Within the domain of physics and
mathematics, they include but are not necessarily limited to:
- Understanding quantum collective "emergent" phenomena;
- Probing the deep mystery of the physical nature of time;
- Advancing the quest for unification in physics, especially in
quantum gravity/cosmology;
- Evaluating Machian-relational theories of gravity and inertia;
- Grasping the logic of the relativistic invariance structure of
events in space and time;
- Understanding non-local quantum reality, especially
entanglement; and
- Exploring complexity theory and the behavior of
holistic systems.
In theology, two locus classicii for efforts to develop lessons from
relational ontology involve:
- Conceptualizing the relation of God and the world, including
how that relationship may be articulated within the
framework of "panentheism" in which the world is described
as being emergent within the ground of being of the Divine
Reality; and
- Articulating a theology of the Trinity in which God is
described as a community of love unifi ed in interrelation.
Under the aegis of the John Templeton Foundation in partnership
with The Academy of Athens, twelve scholars and scientists have come
together in Greece to wrestle with the need of both acknowledging
the substantial
degree of relationality and interconnectedness in
the conceptual world of modern physics while at the same time
doing justice to our everyday experience of a significant degree
of separability between objects in the macroscopic universe. As in
theology, the challenge is to find some way of combining
unity with
difference since it is only to the extent that one can recognize a
distinction between entities that one can also speak of their
being
in communion.
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