Mind, Value, and Cosmos: On the Relational Nature of Ultimacy is an investigation into the nature of ultimacy and explanation, particularly as it relates to the status of, and relationship among Mind, Value, and the Cosmos. It draws its stimulus from longstanding “axianoetic” convictions as to the ultimate status of Mind and Value in the western tradition of philosophical theology, and chiefly from the influential modern proposals of A.N. Whitehead, Keith Ward, and John Leslie. What emerges is a relational theory of ultimacy wherein Mind and Value, Possibility and Actuality, God and the World are revealed as “ultimate” only in virtue of their relationality. The ultimacy of relationality—what Whitehead calls “mutual immanence”—uniquely illuminates enduring mysteries surrounding: any and all existence, necessary divine existence, the nature of the possible, and the world as actual. As such, it casts fresh light upon the whence and why of God, the World, and their ultimate presuppositions.
Andrew M. Davis is program director for the Center for Process Studies at Claremont School of Theology at Willamette University.
Introduction: The Relational Nature of UltimacyPart I: Any and All ExistenceChapter 1: Mysteries of ExistenceChapter 2: Ways of Explaining the MysteryPart II: Divine Necessity and the Axianoetic TraditionChapter 3: Axiarchism: The Creative Supremacy of ValueChapter 4: Idealism: The Primordiality of MindChapter 5: The Mutual Immanence of Mind and ValuePart III: God and the PossibleChapter 6: Riddles of the PossibleChapter 7: Ridding the PossibleChapter 8: The Mutual Immanence of the Possible and the ActualPart IV: The World and Its ActualizationChapter 9: Mind and the Making of ActualityChapter 10: The Mutual Immanence of God and the WorldConclusion: The Ultimacy of Relationality
As a work of philosophical theology and process metaphysics, Mind, Value, and Cosmos deserves serious engagement from specialists in these areas of study. Interested general readers will also find much to consider in this intellectually stimulating book.