Directed toward Relationship: William Stoeger’s Immanent Directionality and Edward Schillebeeckx’s Mystical Eschatology

Abstract

Astrophysicist and theologian, William Stoeger, SJ argued that evolutionary processes manifest an immanent directionality toward increasing complexification and diversification. Though he did not explicitly prioritize full relationship to God as the end of all creation, a priority on relationality does permeate his analysis of the natural order. A more explicit emphasis upon relationality would bring Stoeger’s arguments more in line with recent developments in evolutionary theory, viz., the “extended evolutionary synthesis” as well as mystical strains of the eschatological Christian tradition, namely Edward Schillebeeckx’s claim that “God is the future of man.”