Excited to see where this leads next. Restoring the teleological and participatory understanding seems to be graspable enough, but actually living out this understanding seems to be another thing entirely. Maybe I'm just too in the grips of modernity that I have become pessimistic of my own ability to see differently.
The post does an excellent job tracing Aristotle to Neoplatonism and showing what modernity lost. It’s as good a treatment of participatory metaphysics as one could hope for conceptually. But the argument remains incomplete: it doesn’t provide the experiential or cumulative support that could make the metaphysical case compelling. In that sense, the argument limps—and that is where all metaphysical claims end up.
Eastern Orthodoxy, by preserving so much of their practice and beliefs, at least theologically held onto some of the Formal and Final Cause. That said, I recently visited an EO church, and if you were to make a Word Cloud of everything I heard, Theotokos would be the central giant word, and all other words small and illegible. Regardless of church or denomination, religion seems mainly about comfort and reassurance.
I like the focus on teleology. It fits with my understanding of N T Wright's focus on inaugurated eschatology, that God's new creation already has begun through the Incarnation, is moving toward final fulfillment in a new heaven and new earth, and that the mission of believers is to "build toward the Kingdom" that God shall bring by doing God's will on earth as it is now (in however partial and flawed ways) as it is being done in heaven already and ultimately shall be done completely on the new earth.
The discussion of "form" reminds me of how systems theory takes function seriously. What something does and the possibilities that it serves often are extremely useful to consider, rather than overemphasize "intention" and "cause" (which still have their place).
Overall, I've been finding this series to be informative and useful.
Might there be an advantage in shifting from a Journey to a Destination (Home) motif to an Opening of Eyes to a Dimension (Already Home) motif. Or, in your mind, is the second already captured in the first?
Excited to see where this leads next. Restoring the teleological and participatory understanding seems to be graspable enough, but actually living out this understanding seems to be another thing entirely. Maybe I'm just too in the grips of modernity that I have become pessimistic of my own ability to see differently.
The post does an excellent job tracing Aristotle to Neoplatonism and showing what modernity lost. It’s as good a treatment of participatory metaphysics as one could hope for conceptually. But the argument remains incomplete: it doesn’t provide the experiential or cumulative support that could make the metaphysical case compelling. In that sense, the argument limps—and that is where all metaphysical claims end up.
Eastern Orthodoxy, by preserving so much of their practice and beliefs, at least theologically held onto some of the Formal and Final Cause. That said, I recently visited an EO church, and if you were to make a Word Cloud of everything I heard, Theotokos would be the central giant word, and all other words small and illegible. Regardless of church or denomination, religion seems mainly about comfort and reassurance.
I like the focus on teleology. It fits with my understanding of N T Wright's focus on inaugurated eschatology, that God's new creation already has begun through the Incarnation, is moving toward final fulfillment in a new heaven and new earth, and that the mission of believers is to "build toward the Kingdom" that God shall bring by doing God's will on earth as it is now (in however partial and flawed ways) as it is being done in heaven already and ultimately shall be done completely on the new earth.
The discussion of "form" reminds me of how systems theory takes function seriously. What something does and the possibilities that it serves often are extremely useful to consider, rather than overemphasize "intention" and "cause" (which still have their place).
Overall, I've been finding this series to be informative and useful.
Might there be an advantage in shifting from a Journey to a Destination (Home) motif to an Opening of Eyes to a Dimension (Already Home) motif. Or, in your mind, is the second already captured in the first?
Very interesting.