Abstract
The Metaverse is a pervasive expression of technological culture whose impact will be global. First, through knowledge, then through social, and now through geo-spatial, AI (the foundation of the Metaverse) will connect all entities on Earth through digital means thereby creating a three-dimensional informational and experiential layer across the world dubbed the Metaverse. The Metaverse has four characteristics: augmented reality, lifelogging, mirror worlds, and virtual reality. From the standpoint of Christian cultural engagement, a contextual theology has yet to be developed. In the work that follows, the Metaverse is engaged through a combination of contextualization and wholemaking from the standpoint of posthumanism and mysticism. The study focuses on evolutionary wholemaking as identified by Teilhard/Delio, while being guided by Bevans’ five (early) models of contextualization. The method of contextual wholemaking enables new ways of seeing, embracing, communing, complexifying, and creating within the four spheres of the Metaverse. After exploring the nature of the Metaverse in the first half of the paper, insights were gathered from the dialogue between contextual theology and culture and discussed in the second half of the paper.
Highlights
The Metaverse is a pervasive expression of technological culture whose impact will be global (Hermann and Browning 2021)
In the work that follows, the Metaverse is engaged through a combination of contextualization and wholemaking from the standpoint of posthumanism and mysticism
Her work is compelling in this particular instance of dialogue, as she currently pioneers a stream of the Christian tradition that pays close attention to evolution, technology, posthumanism, and spirituality, all key tools for engaging the Metaverse
Summary
The Metaverse is a pervasive expression of technological culture whose impact will be global (Hermann and Browning 2021). Contextualization (or inculturation, local theology, or contextual theology) puts these two experiences in dialogue. These dialogues are the means through which Christian faith has renewed itself in its repeated novel expressions in cultures throughout history. For our study here, what streams of the Christian tradition might be most closely aligned with the culture of the Metaverse? For reasons I will make clear below, I will engage the Metaverse with the evolutionary wholemaking tools the Christian Teilhardian tradition provides, as represented in the work of Ilia Delio.. Her work is compelling in this particular instance of dialogue, as she currently pioneers a stream of the Christian tradition that pays close attention to evolution, technology, posthumanism, and spirituality, all key tools for engaging the Metaverse. When approached with the sensibilities of the posthuman mystic, the method of evolutionary contextualization enables new ways of seeing, embracing, communing, complexifying, and creating within the Metaverse
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