SPOOKINESS, SEA SPONGES, STARDUST, AND THE SACRED

Abstract

AbstractDevelopments in twentieth‐century science upended the classical Newtonian paradigm that posited a mechanistic universe of atomized entities, regular forces, and natural laws. Trajectories in quantum, biological and cosmic sciences began to indicate instead a paradigm of entanglement and relativity. Religious ethicists and theologians, especially feminists, have interpreted the new model by adopting “interdependence” as a relational‐ontological symbol. What are the implications of this move for religious ethics? I consider a selection of representative works that ascribe normative value to quanto‐bio‐cosmic ontological interdependence. The contemporary scientific paradigm affirms feminist and liberationist relational ontologies, but the attempt to synthesize an “ethico‐onto‐epistemology” from natural processes inevitably runs up against the fact/value distinction as well as ethical ambiguities intrinsic to natural interdependence. These issues must be addressed if interdependence is to survive as a theological ethical symbol.