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

In this work, Bracken articulates Whitehead's process-relational metaphysics and/or Hartshorne's dipolar theism in trinitarian terms. He analyzes the works of numerous academicians and weaves their thought into what he calls a "social ontology" and a "metaphysics of intersubjectivity." In particular, he intends to "reconstruct" the Thomistic metaphysics of "being" with the Whiteheadian metaphysics of "becoming." He is also intent on ensuring that some basic Catholic doctrines remain intact - namely, "creation ex nihilo," and "subjective immortality" (Hartshorne rejected subjective immortality, something that I always felt was religiously inadequate). The bottom line is that this a wonderful read. I really enjoyed it! I was amazed with Bracken's ability to distill the thought of so many eminent intellectuals and present the essence of their thinking in a nutshell. He covers a lot of ground here. Along the way, you will encounter Karl Rahner, Jon-Luc Marion, Louis-Marie Chauvet, Catherine LaCugna, Elizabeth Johnson, Jurgen Habermas, Bernard Lonergan, Hans-George Gadamer, Jacque Derrida, Alfred N. Whitehead, Kitaro Nishida, Ervin Laslo, Colin Gunton, Nancey Murphy, Calvin Shrag, David Ray Griffin, Robert Neville, and William Desmond. This is highly recommeded to those who are interested how process-relational metaphysics may be reconciled with trinitarian theology.