Vector fields as the empirical correlate of the spirit(s)

a meta-pannenbergian approach to pneumatological pluralism

Erwin T. Morales

pp. 227-242

in: Amos Yong, Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Kirsteen Kim (eds), Interdisciplinary and religio-cultural discourses on a spirit-filled world, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013

Abstract

Wolfhart Pannenbergs pneumatology is unique in the use of the concept of a field of force in modern physics to conceptualize the Spirit of God.² Objections from other theologians, especially those most knowledgeable in physics, were swift to come.³ This chapter proposes a revision of Pannenberg's use of the field metaphor to overcome these objections. My thesis is that instead of looking at fields of forces in physics as the locus of the activity and description of the Spirit, it is not only more scientifically accurate but also more theologically fruitful to correlate the Spirit with the vector fields that guide the dynamics of all physical, biological, social, and historical phenomena. Such revision is significant because unlike fields of forces, vector fields can be posited at every level of organization in the cosmos. Similar to David Ray Griffin's proposal but without recourse to process philosophy, the payoff "is that there may be many spirits or spiritual realities in the world, but rather than being transcendental, disembodied, and self-conscious entities they are naturally embedded in the dynamic processes of the world."⁴

Cited authors

Pannenberg Wolfhart

Ray Griffin David