Person in Cosmos: Metaphors of Meaning from Physics, Philosophy, and Theology

The intention of this study, writes Father Kevin O'Shea, is to facilitate the dialogue between physics and theology, by presenting a philosophy that can hear both sides. It will try to do so by standing in the critical, moderate realist tradition of Aquinas, that is, of those who have retrieved his historical positions and as a result are open to new questions in contemporary culture, especially questions about participation, process, and relationship. It will in particular stand in the footsteps of Father Norris Clarke of Fordham University and Father David Burrell of the University of Notre Dame. To enter into dialogue with the physicists, it will attempt to write a minor footnote to the metaphysical text they have given us.I am happy and privileged to introduce this remarkable book, writes Father Norris Clarke, SJ, a distinguished Jesuit of Fordham University, not the least because it has made such creative use of my own philosophical explorations in creative retrieval of Thomistic metaphysics. Person in Cosmos takes on the daring project of bringing together for mutual illumination the world vision of modern science (in its larger lines, of course) and that of traditional Christian theology, mediated by a realistic, streamlined, Thomistically-inspired philosophy. Except for a small number of creative Christian thinkers, Christian theology in the past has gone along its own way, with its own internal dialogue, quite independent of and unconcerned with the vast developments of modern science, in particular, physics and biology. But this is not a satisfactory situation...and Father O'Shea attempts to set things aright.