RELIGION IN AN AGE OF SCIENCE; METAPHYSICS IN AN ERA OF HISTORY

Abstract. Ian Barbour's Religion in an Age of Science is a welcome systematic, theoretical overview of the relations between science and religion, culminating his long career with a balanced and insightful appraisal. The hallmarks of his synthesis are critical realism, holism, and process thought. Barbour makes even more investment in process philosophy and theology than in his previous works. This invites further inquiry about the adequacy of a highly general process metaphysics in dealing with our particular, deeply historical world; also further inquiry about the adequacy of its panexperientialism and incrementalism.     

对一名受虐男孩的箱庭治疗

本研究采用个案研究法,对一名13岁受虐男孩（小N）实施了25次的箱庭治疗,研究了该儿童箱庭治疗过程的特点及箱庭疗法的治疗效果。结果发现：个案的箱庭治疗经历了问题呈现、自我调适、对抗斗争和问题解决四个阶段;箱庭治疗过程中,个案所使用的玩具数量及种类从贫乏单一转向丰富多样;经过箱庭治疗,个案的抑郁、焦虑情绪得以较大缓解,自我意识得到提高,同伴关系显著改善,学业成绩也得到较大提高。     

SEEKING COMFORT IN AN UNCOMFORTABLE CHAIR

The author explores the concept of comfort in relation to the setting. The concept of comfort, an unusual word in the psychoanalytic lexicon, describes the intuitive and complex experience of patient and analyst being together in the analytic office. The couch and the chair are not the only tools of the setting, but they are potential instruments with which to study the therapeutic process, both in high‐frequency therapy and in lower‐frequency treatments. To describe the transformations that an alternative experience of comfort can promote, the author looks at the intersection of this concept with the body–mind relationship and with the Bionian concept of binocular vision.     

RESPONSE TO CRITIQUES OF RELIGION IN AN AGE OF SCIENCE

Abstract. In replying to the four thoughtful critiques of my first Gifford volume I try to clarify the differences among us. I defend my use of Kuhn's concept of paradigms against Nancey Murphy's use of Lakatos's concept of research programs and then compare both of us with advocates of the “strong program” in the social construction of science. Sallie McFague identifies me with the empiricist, objectivist, “modernist” tradition and contrasts it to her own “postmodernist” acceptance of cultural relativism and the social construction of science, but I argue that I am seeking an intermediate position that redefines objectivity rather than rejecting it. Some themes common to feminist and process theology are also examin ed. In dialogue with Bob Russell I discuss the metaphysical and theological implications of the unity of space and time in relativity, the beginning of time in recent cosmology, and the thesis that God acts by determining events in indeterminate quantum systems. Finally I compare John Cobb's indebtedness to Whitehead with my own and suggest that I am more willing to adapt or modify process thought in the interpretation of scientific theories and religious experience.     

RESPONSE TO CRITIQUES OF ETHICS IN AN AGE OF TECHNOLOGY

Abstract. Both Roger Shinn and Robert Stivers ask whether technology has a momentum of its own that is difficult if not impossible to control (“autonomous technology” or “technological inevitability”). I reply that the difficulty in controlling technology is a product of economic and political institutions (such as corporate lobbying and campaign contributions) rather than of any inherent characteristics of technology. Against Stivers's assertion that the ecosystem should be the center of value in environmental ethics, I defend the process view that all beings are valuable, but they are not equally valuable in their richness of experience or their contribution to the experience of others. I also consider his caveats about ambiguities in the concept of sustainability. Two questions raised by Mary Gerhart are taken up: the difficulties of interdisciplinary writing and the role of theological ethics in discussions of public policy. In dialogue with Frederick Ferre I explore the role of alternative visions of the good life as a source of social change. In the face of diminished concern about social justice and environmental sustainability among citizens and in Congress since the book was written, I express long-range hope, but not optimism about the short-term prospects for change.     

NATURE, HISTORY, AND GOD: TOWARD AN INTEGRATED CONCEPTUALIZATION

Abstract. In this paper I attempt to bring the ancient symbol God into a meaningful and illuminating conceptual relationship with modern understandings of the development of the cosmos, the evolution of life, and the movements of human history. The term "God" is taken to designate that reality (whatever it may be) which grounds and undergirds all that exists, including us humans; that reality which provides us humans with such fulfillment or salvation as we may find; that reality toward which we must turn, therefore, if we would flourish. I suggest that the cosmos can quite properly be interpreted today in terms of two fundamental ideas: (1) a notion of "cosmic serendipitous creativity," (2) the expression of which is through "directional movements" or "trajectories" of various sorts that work themselves out in longer and shorter stretches of time. In a universe understood in these terms, the symbol "God" may be taken to designate the underlying creativity working in and through all things, and in particular working in and through the evolutionary-historical trajectory on which human existence has appeared and by which it is sustained. The symbol "God" can thus perform once again its important function of helping to focus human consciousness, devotion, and work in a way appropriate to the actual world and the enormous problems with which men and women today must come to terms; but the ancient dualistic pattern of religious piety and thinking in which God is regarded as a supernatural Creator and governor of the world—so hard to integrate with modern conceptions of nature and history—is thoroughly overcome.     

AN INQUIRY INTO THE ORIGINS OF LIFE ON EARTH— A SYNTHESIS OF PROCESS THOUGHT IN SCIENCE AND THEOLOGY

An initiating event in the development of life on earth is thought to have been the generation of self‐replicating catalytic molecules (SRCMs). Despite decades of work to reveal how SRCMs could have formed, a chemically detailed hypothesis remains elusive. I maintain that this is due, in part, to a failure of metaphysics and question this research program's ontologic foundation of materialism. In this essay I suggest another worldview that may provide more adequate ontologic underpinnings: Whitehead's process philosophy of dynamic, relational becoming. Here we come to see molecules not as unchanging objects but rather as processes that possess the capacity for subjective experience. Molecular transformation is driven by experience, both internal and external. Process thought accounts for the world's creative impulse by positing a God who lures the becoming of all entities toward greater complexity and value. Chemical evolution is now seen as divine motivation of molecular becoming and, as such, possesses the potential for introducing true novelty into the world. The “causal joint” between God and world is hypothesized to be an energy transduction at the molecular level that allows divine action without violation of chemical principles or physical laws.     

AN INTRODUCTION

Global civilization is undergoing great change. This process of rethinking and rebirth, driven by the bankruptcy of modern culture, will eventually recast every endeavor from business, education, and politics to health, spirituality, and science. Yet, although the reforms needed to make this transition are already being developed all over the world and in every field imaginable, its magnitude is invisible because the solutions that could save us are disjoint. Integral science creates a rigorous, yet commonsense framework capable of uniting Integral Civilization. The key to this synthesis lies in its more harmonious alignment of head, heart, and hands.     

DISCIPLINED DECISION MAKING IN AN INTERDISCIPLINARY ENVIRONMENT: SOME IMPLICATIONS FOR CLINICAL APPLICATIONS OF STATISTICAL PROCESS CONTROL

This paper explores some of the implications the statistical process control (SPC) methodology described by Pfadt and Wheeler (1995) may have for analyzing more complex performances and contingencies in human services or health care environments at an organizational level. Service delivery usually occurs in an organizational system that is characterized by functional structures, high levels of professionalism, subunit optimization, and organizational suboptimization. By providing a standard set of criteria and decision rules, SPC may provide a common interface for data-based decision making, may bring decision making under the control of the contingencies that are established by these rules rather than the immediate contingencies of data fluctuation, and may attenuate escalation of failing treatments. SPC is culturally consistent with behavior analysis, sharing an emphasis on data-based decisions, measurement over time, and graphic analysis of data, as well as a systemic view of organizations.     

AN INTRODUCTION TO PANSPIRITISM: AN ALTERNATIVE TO MATERIALISM AND PANPSYCHISM

This article is an introduction to a philosophical approach termed “panspiritism.” The fundamental principles of this approach are summarized, with discussion of how it links to earlier (mainly Eastern) philosophical perspectives, how it differs from panpsychism and its relationship to idealism and theism. Issues such as the relationship between mind and matter, the relationship between the mind and the brain, and the emergence of mind are discussed from a “panspiritist” perspective. There is a discussion of how panspiritism relates to mystical experiences. The article concludes by suggesting that this approach can help to elucidate a wide range of phenomena that appear anomalous or problematic from a materialist point of view.