Marc Pugliese

Joseph A. Bracken, S.J,. is one of the more significant North American theologians of the past 40 years. With 12 monographs, two edited or co-edited volumes, over 150 articles, numerous professional and popular conference presentations and media appearances, he is one of the foremost interlocutors in contemporary theological discourse. Having developed and consistently defended a comprehensive and intellectually rigorous worldview that combines the modern and classical Christian worldviews, Bracken has accomplished an invaluable service to the academy, the church, and the world. He has not favored a particular theological or philosophical system, past or present. Instead, he culls what he judges to be true and good in a myriad of seemingly prima facie noncompossible thinkers and systems with divergent programs. Synthesizing the Catholic intellectual tradition and process-relational metaphysics, Bracken also incorporates aspects of German and Anglo-American Idealism, Pragmatism, recent philosophy of science, and a litany of past and present theologians and philosophers. The present volume is a Festschrift to honor Bracken’s career and accomplishments. It differs from the standard Festschrift genre in that the contributors, while certainly explicating and reflecting upon various aspects of his comprehensive worldview, offer their original contributions n a variety of topics. They do in dialogue with Bracken’s positions, simply as starting points, not as end points. The common theme of the Festschrift, then, is serious reflection on and in some cases critique of Bracken’s comprehensive process-relational, Catholic, and Trinitarian worldview and its pertinence for work in contemporary theology from a given perspective. Yet there is a certain richness coming from the diverse perspectives of the contributors whose work intersects with Bracken’s, and not always in terms of process thought per se. The contributors come from diverse backgrounds, not only in process and Roman Catholic theology but also including even other academic disciplines. They represent a balance of senior and junior scholars, and of genders.

Process metaphysics is frequently minimized or dismissed as a result of a failure to grasp its genuine significance. Developments of the last several centuries in philosophy, science, and physics fostered a revolution in metaphysics. This book surveys the reasons for process philosophy and theology, its genesis and historical development. It considers Alfred Whitehead's metaphysics and Charles Hartshorne's and others' treatment of process theology. The One, the Many, and the Trinity analyzes perhaps the most ambitious and robust system of process thought developed from a Roman Catholic perspective, that of Joseph A. Bracken, S. J. Bracken brings together traditional Christian Trinitarian theism with process thought, while integrating into a fundamentally Whiteheadian metaphysics a litany of diverse sources, including Aristotelianism, Thomism, German Idealism, Anglo-American Idealism, social theory, existentialism, postmodern thought, and contemporary philosophy of science. The book goes on to examine Bracken's process response to the problem of the one and many from a more traditional Catholic philosophical and theological perspective.