"The God with Clay": The Idea of Deep Incarnation and the Informational Universe

This article explores the relations between the idea of deep incarnation and scientific ideas of an informational universe, in which mass, energy, and information belong together. It is argued that the cosmic Christologies developed in the vein of Cappadocian theology (fourth century) and the Franci...

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Bibliographic Details
Subtitles:"Information and Reality: Contributions from the Science and Religion Forum"
Main Author: Gregersen, Niels Henrik 1956- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: Wiley-Blackwell 2023
In: Zygon
Year: 2023, Volume: 58, Issue: 3, Pages: 683-713
Further subjects:B Transformation
B Gregory of Nyssa
B Bonaventure
B cosmic Christology
B Causality
B Information
B Organicism
B Deep Incarnation
B Stoicism
B Communication
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Summary:This article explores the relations between the idea of deep incarnation and scientific ideas of an informational universe, in which mass, energy, and information belong together. It is argued that the cosmic Christologies developed in the vein of Cappadocian theology (fourth century) and the Franciscan theologian Bonaventure (thirteenth century) can be interpreted as precursors of an informational worldview by consistently blending "formative" and "material" aspects of creativity. Reversely, contemporary sciences of information can enlarge the scope of the contemporary view of deep incarnation. I propose three hypotheses for showing how and why. First, mass, energy, and information have an equal causal importance for explaining reality. Second, just as transformation presupposes communication, so communication presupposes information. Third, contemporary science can elucidate seminal concerns of the idea of deep incarnation, insofar as informational structures pave the way for information capture, communication, and transformation. At the level of organismic life, new features of embodied cognition and emotion come up, important for understanding the organismic depth of the concrete incarnation in Jesus of Nazareth.
Information and Reality: Contributions fromthe Science and Religion Forum with Finley I. Lawson, "The Science and Religion Forum Discuss Information and Reality: Questions for Religions and Science"; Niels Henrik Gregersen, '"The God with Clay': The Idea of Deep Incarnation and the Informational Universe", Michael Burdett and King-Ho Leung, "The Machine in the Ghost: Transhumanism and the Ontology ofInformation"; Marius Dorobantu and Fraser Watts, "Spiritual Intelligence: Processing Different Information or Processing Information Differently?";Matthew Kuan Johnson and Rachel Siow Robertson, "A Co-Liberatory Framework for Big Data"; Peter M. Phillips, "Digital Theology and a Potential Theological Approach to a Metaphysics ofInformation"; and Andrew Jackson, "Peacocke Prize Essay - Towards an Eastern Orthodox Contemplation of Evolution: Maximus the Confessor's Vision of the Phylogenetic Logoi".
ISSN:1467-9744
Contains:Enthalten in: Zygon
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1111/zygo.12881