Two Divided by Love

Again, organisms are open systems that exchange matter, information, or energy with the environment. Our argument is that man is also a vertically open system, open to... let's just call it (↓) for now; (↓) is not matter, nor is it exactly information, but many authorities -- especially in the east -- regard it as a kind of energy.

I was referring to the Christian Orthodox east, but he may have a point. A later chapter of Pneumatology is devoted to cross-cultural conceptions of this mysterious energy, but for now let's stick with Christendom.

Here's something:

If the church is founded by the sovereign action of the Spirit, then the church is an "open system" (emphasis mine).

Analogously, consider the structure of, say, an ocean current, or the jet stream, both of which exist only because of the matter and energy flowing through them. Being that these process structures can persist for hundreds and thousands of years, they are characterized by a kind of "stable instability" on the border between order and chaos.

Come to think of it, this must be why, on the human level, life and anxiety are such cussin' cousins. No matter how stable things appear, we're no more than a damn banana peel from catastrophe. Some of us are more constitutionally sensitive to these perturbations, while others are haunted by the feeling that something good is about to happen.

That was originally a joke, but consider the martyrs, who in the face of the worst possible circumstances, were convinced of a happy ending. This must be the inverse of anxiety -- call it existential unxiety.

Which, they say, is a gift -- a gift of the (↓). For, what exactly are the gifts of the Holy Spirit, Mr. Google? "The Holy Spirit works in each person in one way or another for the good of all," e.g., faith, fortitude, or serenity now! 

 (↓) also seems to exert a teleological pull; again, it is the strangest of strange attractors:

"God's gracious self-communication in the Spirit has become manifest in history," writes Kärkkäine, and the "world is drawn to its spiritual fulfillment by the Spirit of God, who directs the whole history of the world in all its length and breadth toward its proper goal" (Rahner).

Unless you're the anxious type, in which case the world seems to be spinning off its axis. It was fun watching MSNBC last night.

Kärkkäine cites another theologian who conceives the Spirit "as the efficacy of the energy of God." Moreover, it is God's "vitality," i.e., his "inspiring breath by which he grants life in creation and re-creation." 

Another fellow regards it as "the personal presence of God," or his "personal outreach," and you know how we feel about Presence --again, Schuon says something to the effect that God manifests as truth and presence.

And maybe freedom too, in that "The Holy Spirit is the one who establishes and guarantees freedom." Which makes perfect nonsense, since truth can only be present if it is freely accepted, so these three are intimately related. Come to think of it, where the Spirit of the Lord is, [boom] there is freedom.

Now to say telos is to say meaning, and "the Spirit of God is the life-giving principle that makes human life and the life of the whole creation meaningful." 

Kärkkäine next discusses the theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg, who it seems is very much in our attractor. The following passage caught my attention, for he claims

the relationship between science and theology is essential. They are not two fields but have the same object of study, namely, creation. What theology claims has to be consonant with what other fields of inquiry claim. There can be only one truth.

Correct: one God, one Cosmos, one Truth, and one human nature in potential conformity to that Truth, the latter being communicated to us via some sort of subtle energy, as per the above: "the Spirit is the divine energy and 'bond of love' between Father and Son."

In modern physics, any bond is a function of energy. In fact, if the movie Oppenheimer is correct, you can release an awful lot of energy by messing about with such nuclear bonds. I am become death, destroyer of worlds. Then again, Oppenheimer was a tad highly strung, i.e., anxious. I don’t want to see that crybaby scientist in this post again.

For quantum physics, everything comes down to fields of energy:

Regarding the engagement of science and theology, Pannenberg was drawn to a concept of "force-field" as a potential common theme between the two. He borrows it from modern physics. He notes that in the Bible, the Spirit is depicted as the life-giving principle to which all creatures owe life, movement, and activity.

Furthermore, he wonders -- as do I -- whether "this view of life can be reconciled with modern biology," and why not? One Cosmos One Life One Truth.

Except to say that (O)therness or alterity are are built into this One, for "The Son is the model of an 'otherness" different from the Father." Again, different in relation but not in substance. Nevertheless, I agree that "the Son's self-differentiation from the Father" must be "the basis for the independence of the world."

Thus, perhaps a better word is interdependence, since the relationship abides. This interdependence "facilitates participation of creation in the divine life," so we definitely have that going for us. The Holy Spirit 

is none other than the Creator of all life in the whole range of natural occurrence and also in the new creation of the resurrection of the dead. 

Which must be the first and last Word in unxiety.