(ET) Item 10: Dialogic Evolution

The Aboriginal Mechanisms of PROPHETIC DIALOGUE

In evolutionary nature’s quantum-electric paradigm (i.e., plus/ minus charged electrical energy), the dynamics of divergence, convergence and emergence are at play. Like-electrical charges (plus/ plus, minus/ minus) repel and cause energy divergence (chaos); opposite-electrical charges (plus/ minus) bond (transform); convergent (bonding) transformations set in motion ongoing diversifications and complexly emergent transformations (evolution).

Staticism, centrism and sexism are repellant religious/ cultural fixations (like-charged) that diverge into chaotic dead-ends. Centrism is mono-polar, as is sexism. Diverse life on Earth and the “Trinitarian” nature of the human person witness the com-munity and com-unity of individual life from female/ male originality, emergent plus/ minus energies. Antithetical trinity (staticism-centrism-sexism) negates aboriginal quantum-electricity. Cultural/ religious fixation in centrism and sexism takes religions and cultures to chaotic dead ends. The mass wasting of nature and global internecine violence, now so evident, document the chaotic trajectory of religions and cultures.

ET Item 9: COSMIC SACRAMENT

Experience and self-reflection tell us we have an “inside” and an “outside.” The (sacred) remembrance of experience and self-reflection inform us that Cosmic Sacrament (sacred remembrance) is about “insideness” (soul, energy) and “outsideness” (matter, form) — we can’t have one without the other! Together, insideness and outsideness are the “selfness” of divine/ human understanding, the work and consciousness of Evolution Theology.

We arrive at understanding only gradually, as individuals and society. The process of gradual understanding is the process of evolution, of entering into the graced Wisdom of Divine Intelligence in the Order of Sacred Remembrance, otherwise called SACRAMENT. Intelligent design is the unfolding Word/ Work of evolution, of theological consciousness.

ET Item 8: Public Domain Theology

Theological thinking/ writing belong not just to individual thinkers/ writers, but to the intuitional well of cosmic insights inspired and transmitted from generation to generation.

All humanity, all life subsists in the common Amniotic Waters of Cosmic Authenticity. While there are conventional claims of copyright, they should work to stimulate creativity, not stifle it, and redound to common wellbeing. For this reason, the godtalkonline writings here are meant to be open, for general discussion and use, in religious/ civil circles.

The natural avenues of grace belong to all and should have the respect of all.

ET Item7: Equality of Persons

Human beings in common are agents and outcomes of evolution. This is true also in terms of being “religious” agents and outcomes.

As a distinction of interpersonal relationship, religion pertains to moral sense and responsibility. Just as the word religion roots in two (Latin) words, religere (to read, study) and religare (to bind, oblige), and supposes intelligence and obligation, so the distinction of interpersonal relationship supposes intelligence and obligation, gift and task.

“Doing” religion like “doing” theology is equally the prerogative and obligation of every person. Institutions (churches) “do” religion and theology “secondarily;” individual persons do them “primarily.”

Evolution Theology is about owning religious intelligence and obligating moral relationship, not letting them be subsumed by institutions but authenticating institutions by maintaining personal ownership of them.

ET Item 6: To Evolutionize Theology, not Revolutionize

Better to evolutionize faith and reason than to revolutionize. Evolution preserves prior grounding in faith and reason, revolution may destroy prior grounding. Non-violence and gradual growth into change are associated with evolution; revolution implies the failure of evolution and forced change.

What results from failed evolution is maladjustment, for example, when consciousness is fixated in cultural dogma that has lost its credibility. The correction of failed evolution and cultural maladjustment causes upheavals and violent revolution. Eucharistic Altruism, as exemplified by Jesus, the Cosmic Christ, is the spiritual insight that renews the symbiotic purpose of every generation.

ET Item 5: Process Theology

Evolution Theology (ET) has two aspects. The first: like any other field of intelligent inquiry, new insights enter the field and enlarge it in breadth and depth. The second aspect is the fact that Evolution Theology is now developed to the point that it is a field of intelligence and discourse in its own right, because it contains proven self-enlightenment in Divinity Consciousness.

Divinity consciousness is the cumulative body of human insight concerning the “outsideness” of human existence and knowledge, whose content continues to enlarge based on changing contexts and experience. The concept of Trinity, for example, is found in the experience of advanced life forms and basic social structures, including human, that exist as the “thirdness” continuity of parental twoness — father/ mother/ child — family, social unit.

Except for openness of theology to ongoing enlargement, culture loses meaning and effectiveness. For example, Trinity, the threesome consciousness of God, has become dogma-fixated in a way that imprisons divinity in static categories. If however, Trinity is understood more as process than fixed category, human insights can continue to enlarge on Divinity Consciousness in context of open experience.

Godtalkonline keeps open the process of evolving theology by way of enlarging the experience of open WORD-LIGHT-LOVE, categories of Divinity Consciousness, and integrating open experience in the relatedness of the Godly, the natural and the human. Process Theology is inclusive, not exclusive. Everyone participates in the process, in the act of knowledge integration.

ET Item 4: Evolving from MYTHeology to EARTHeology

Whence comes divinity consciousness, from myth or from earth? Myth is an unfolding story of human imagination; conscious Earth-life consciousness is the source of myth and divinity consciousness. But Old Testament myth has been made dogma by closed theological thinking, and evolution is denied by excluding it from theological consideration.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that mythology has no theological truth in it, only that theology should remain open to Earth-science insights. Abrahamic religion and culture root in Old Testament mythology/theology. Literal mytheology is fantasy theology. Belief in God is no myth, but is a consensus consciousness from time immemorial, even though regional history and experience construe different creation myths.

Cultural experience knows that writers use different techniques of writing for specific reasons, e.g., poetry, history, biography, mythologies, novels, etc. Personal prejudices and political purposes condition a writer’s thinking and objective. These human prejudices apply also in sacred writings of all times.

Credit post-Reformation Scripture scholars (other than Roman Catholic) for leading the way to applying scientific methods to Scripture interpretation. Not until Pope Pius XII (Encyclical, Divino Afflante Spiritu) was scientific methodology in interpreting Scripture given the blessing of Roman Catholicism. The Second Vatican Council went a step further and declared that the analysis and synthesis of new theological understanding in the light of evolutionary sense is a “matter as important as can be.” (Constitution IV, Gaudium et spes, Introduction, No 4).

The Genesis Creation Myth should be appreciated for what it is — the insight of another time, of another worldview. The Old Testament Creation Myth of Genesis isn’t adequate for every time because it doesn’t credibly inform evolving consciousness. A theme of cultural belief and political purpose persists in all genres of Old Testament writings, what is the presumption of patriarchal primacy and dominion culture. Women and nature together suffer common exploitation under the burden of this blighted male prejudice. Enlightened divinity consciousness opens to the equal-minded roles of females and males in evolving life. To ignore scientific consensus is to imperil ourselves in the closed culture of dogmatic fantasy, arrogant idolatry, and calculated alienation.