"The Not-Yet God" by Ilia Delio: A Reflection and Review

"The Not-Yet God" by Ilia Delio

A Reflection and Review by Jay McDaniel

Introduction

I am a Christian deeply involved in interfaith communities. I look for books that Jews, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, and others might explore together as springboards for thought and conduits for friendship. "The Not-Yet God" by Ilia Delio is such a book. I am also a member of an adult Sunday School class in a local Methodist Church. I am on the lookout for books that might be helpful for my Sunday School class. Here, too, "The Not-Yet God" is such a book.

Let me explain. On the one hand, with its emphasis on Christian theologians and teachings, "The Not-Yet God" is relevant to Christians with its novel understanding of Christ and the birth of Christ in the human heart. It offers new ways of thinking about Christ, God, Church, and Christian spirituality.

On the other hand, with its focus on a religion of tomorrow that understands God as the sacred Whole of the universe and spirituality as respect and care for the planet, "The Not-Yet God" is relevant to people of all faiths. She speaks of a church of the planet, but she could as easily have said a sangha of the planet, or an umma of the planet, or a temple of the planet. Her hope, and mine as well, is that people of many faiths, and people without any faith, might find some of the ideas she proposes important, helpful, and inspiring.

I am also a process theologian, as is she, although she is much more influential and talented than I. I am chair of the Board of Directors of the Center for Process Studies, on the advisory board of Process and Faith, and active in the Cobb Institute for Process and Practice - all of which seek to introduce process ways of thinking to the general public. I am always on the lookout for books that I might share with people in study groups who want to learn about the process tradition. "The Not-Yet God" is such a book.

Delio is a unique kind of process thinker: weaving together insights from Teilhard de Chardin, Whitehead, Hartshorne, Carl Jung, David Bohm, Marshall McLuhan, Cynthia Bourgeault, and many others. The subjects she addresses, too, are unique, especially computer technology and artificial intelligence. She is one of the very few who have developed theologically sensitive and appreciative approaches to AI as a potential partner in helping bring about a better world. As part of the process family, she is among our pioneers in charting new ground - a very Whiteheadian and Teilhardian thing to do.

I offer below two pieces that may also be relevant to such groups: a short essay called "Process and Christogenesis" and a review of "The Not-Yet God."

This is not the first time I've written on her remarkable work. You might also be interested in:

- Jay McDaniel

Reflection: Process and Christogenesis

The universe is a conscious Mind with its own goals, as proposed by process theologians influenced by the philosopher Whitehead. This Mind is not above or outside the universe; it is not supernatural in an esoteric sense, something alien to the natural unfolding of the universe. It is as natural as gravity and as nurturing as a mother. This Mind is the living whole of the universe, understood as Consciousness, a subjectivity inside of which all things unfold. It is God.

The Mind has three sides. One aspect feels the presence of the infinite potentialities that can be actualized by self-creative entities in different timeframes in the evolving and multitudinous universe. Process theologians speak of this as the primordial nature of God. It is a reservoir of pure potentialities: states-of-affairs that can be actual in some possible world, even if never actualized.

The second side feels and is affected by everything that happens in the evolving universe. It feels the feelings of each and every actuality that comes into being and remembers all that have ever come into being, with tender care. Process theologians speak of this as the consequent nature of God. It is consequent because it comes after things have happened in the universe. This is God as many as well as one. Once the entities are felt, they become part of Mind's own ongoing life. The actual universe is inside the cosmic Mind - inside God's life - not unlike the way in which an embryo is inside a womb. The cosmic Mind is the living Whole of the universe.

The third side of the Mind is how it responds to what is felt, relative to each new situation. The Mind responds by providing possibilities for creative transformation that can be actualized by the world. Process theologians speak of this as the omni-adaptive "lure" of God in the world, as present in each entity in the world. Thus, there is a kind of cosmic recycling: the world becomes part of God as God feels what is happening, and God becomes part of the world as God lures it into further creativity. This luring is part of God's nurturance, rooted in divine empathy: an understanding of what is going on in the world. Whitehead puts it this way: "What is done in the world is transformed into a reality in heaven, and the reality in heaven passes back into the world. By reason of this reciprocal relation, the love in the world passes into the love in heaven and floods back again into the world. In this sense, God is the great companion—the fellow-sufferer who understands."

Imagine, then, the things that are inside God's life; the things that make up the ongoing life of the cosmic mind. They include the very large and the very small: stars and galaxies, quantum events within the depths of atoms. They also include the many forms of life on our planet and other planets. The entities in the universe, small and large, visible and invisible, are not merely objects among objects; they are also subjects of their own lives. Like Teilhard de Chardin, process theologians believe that entities have "insides" as well as "outsides," and that something like inwardness pervades the cosmos. We human beings dwell within the network of living beings of countless forms and sizes, all bound together in journeys of mutual becoming, and all within the Consciousness of the cosmic mind.

How might we experience this Mind, this Consciousness? How might we experience God? There are many ways, three of which I will note. One way is by sensing or intuiting that we live and move and have our being within a larger and nurturing whole that embraces each and all: an embracing Love. This love is, in the words of Teilhard de Chardin, the divine milieu in which we journey through life. A second is by sensing that there is something in the universe that cares for each being in its uniqueness and particularity: a companion to the joys and sufferings of each and all. A third is through a sense of being lured or called to realize our creative potential inwardly and outwardly, through personal integration and service to the world, helping to create just, sustainable, and joyful communities. In each of these ways, and many more, we experience the cosmic Whole of which we are a part. As we experience and respond to the Whole, we are creatively transformed, again and again. Just as we are always in process, on our way toward futures not yet actualized, so the Consciousness of the universe is in process, in a journey toward futures not yet actualized.

This cosmic Mind, this living Whole, resembles the not-yet God of whom Ilia Delio speaks in "The Not-Yet God: Carl Jung, Teilhard de Chardin, and the Relational Whole." For her, as for process theologians, God is the cosmic Whole of the universe, understood as having a life of its own, inside of whom we live and move and have our being. And we ourselves, along with all other entities, are holons within this mind: that is, wholes made of parts who are also parts of other wholes. The Consciousness of the universe is the living Whole of wholes, the Whole in whose life the holons unfold.

Skeptics might rightly wonder if this not-yet God has a personality worthy of our trust. It is possible that its goals are merely for self-realization and that its essence is curiosity and that alone. Given the amount of tragedy and suffering we have on Earth, among humans and also other animals, it can easily seem that the Mind of the universe is indifferent to the fate of individual sentient beings.

But drawing from her Christian heritage and the revelation of God in Jesus, Delio suggests that the essence of the cosmic Whole – the essence of God – is relational love. The Consciousness in which the universe unfolds is trinitarian in spirit: creative, relational love. This does not mean that the three sides of God mentioned above are what she has in mind by the Trinity. It is possible to think of the primordial nature of God as something like "God the Father" and the revelation of God in Jesus as an incarnation of God's tenderness, and the lure of the cosmic Mind in the world as God's Spirit. Thus we have a threesome: God, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But this kind of specificity is not so important. What is important is the relational love itself. The goals of conscious mind of the universe are that the universe itself grow into an incarnation of relational love, such that love in heaven becomes more fully complete on earth, which will itself enrich the love in heaven.

We humans on our small planet provide a place where these goals can be realized. The mission of Jesus, as understood in the Christian tradition, is to help inaugurate and embody this possibility. Jesus is an incarnation of the cosmic Christ, understood as God's tenderness (the consequent nature) and God's calling (the nurturant lure); but the cosmic Christ is more than Jesus. The cosmic Christ is the loving side of the cosmic Whole, the Christic side of God, and this side of God is within our own psyches as a possibility that pulls us forward. Jesus is not the only person in whom love becomes incarnate; we, too, can incarnate divine love in our relations to one another, other animals, and the Earth itself. To whatever degree we incarnate this love, the spirit of Christ becomes ever more concretized in the world. and we become the Christ-persons, indeed the God-persons, we are meant to be. The world becomes trinitarianized through us.

Some of us, perhaps most of us, become Christs only in moments of our lives. We are Christs-for-the-moment. But the calling is for this to happen consistently, as a habit of the heart, such that, in our daily lives and relations to others, we become Christ to them. As this happens, Christ becomes more fully incarnate in the world: Christogenesis.
There is no need to be arrogant about this. Christogenesis may well occur in other forms of life on other planets, and there may be moments of Christogenesis in other forms of life on earth. Wherever there is love in any form in any way, there is a degree of Christogenesis. The goals of the cosmic Mind, the dreams of God, are better realized, and the very evolution of the cosmic Mind itself, the ongoing life of God, is deepened and enriched. God is not finished becoming God, and we are not finished becoming ourselves. When we fall in love, we fall forward into the depths of the Christic side of God, who is the source of fresh possibilities for healing and hope, and who falls forward in us and with us.

Our troubles and sorrows, our disillusions and regrets, our anxieties and distrusts all speak to the frustration of divine life within. God is suffocating under the weight of our own dead matter. Divine reality is our root reality. The Self is potentially an explosive self in love, the love that can bring about a new world of justice, a new world of life for all, a new world that looks to the future. Love alone, Teilhard said, can bring us to another universe. That is why the words of the late Jesuit Pedro Arrupe could easily have been spoken by Jung and Teilhard, for they are words that vitalize the whole: “Fall in Love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.” (Delio, Ilia. The Not-Yet God: Carl Jung, Teilhard de Chardin, and the Relational Whole).

- Jay McDaniel

Review: Galaxies without and Within

Where to begin? Let's start with the James Webb telescope and its profound impact on our sense of community. The telescope has unveiled parts of the universe that were once hidden from our eyes, revealing stars amidst clouds of dust, water in the atmospheres of distant worlds, and the faint light from the first galaxies that ever formed. With its advanced instruments and a larger primary mirror, it is exploring the origins of galaxies, stars, and black holes, investigating the properties of planetary systems, and unlocking the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy. The James Webb telescope is transforming our understanding of ourselves as beings within a vast and awe-inspiring cosmic community.

Ilia Delio's book, "The Not-Yet God: Carl Jung, Teilhard de Chardin, and the Relational Whole," offers us a glimpse of the religion of the future, one that embraces these transformative changes. She invites us into a way of thinking that includes galactic spirituality and depth psychology, all in service to a world more alive, vital, and compassionate.

A New Sense of Transcendence

Galactic spirituality begins with wonder and humility. We find ourselves awestruck by the beauty of our galactic neighbors, marveling at their autonomy, intricacy, diverse forms, timelines, vastness, and the radiant splendor of their stars. Simultaneously, this awe humbles us and shatters any illusions of human centrality. While this humility might disquiet those who prefer to see themselves as the focal point of the universe, it also offers healing. It reminds us that the burdens and suffering on Earth, while significant, do not define the entirety of existence. We are participants in an extraordinarily vast whole—the exploring universe.

It's not surprising that for some individuals, a sense of transcendence arises not from envisioning a human-like deity residing in the heavens or beyond the cosmos but from feeling small yet intimately connected to a greater whole, of which we are an infinitesimal part. The concept of divine transcendence begins with an appreciation of the immense galactic context of life on Earth. If we conceive of God in personal terms, we must reimagine the very notion of personhood. God is not a "person" in the traditional sense, dwelling in a specific location beyond the galaxies, reigning as a celestial monarch. Instead, God resembles a nurturing Consciousness within which galaxies explore. The relationship between God and the universe mirrors that of a whole to its parts, not object to object. Furthermore, this whole is not static; it continually explores alongside its constituent parts.

For those who awaken to this new form of transcendence, a profound shift in consciousness is unfolding, driven in part by our evolving understanding of the cosmos. This transformation is at the heart of Ilia Delio's book. She characterizes this revolution as an "axial revolution," akin to the transformative changes witnessed in ancient times.

Jung and Teilhard

Delio, a Franciscan sister, explores the evolving concept of God within the context of modern science and psychology. She challenges conventional notions of divinity and proposes a fresh understanding of God as an unfolding mystery—a "not-yet God" perpetually becoming through the dynamic interplay of matter, mind, and spirit. Drawing upon the insights of Carl Jung and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Delio articulates her vision of "relational holism." Jung's depth psychology, centered on archetypes and the collective unconscious, provides a framework for comprehending the intricate connection between the human psyche and the divine. With Jung's guidance, she encourages us to recognize that there exist galaxies within us, just as there are galaxies beyond us—energies and archetypes representing who we are and who we can become. One of these archetypes, she underscores, is that of Christ, understood as our True Self, brimming with love, and one that we ourselves can embody in our lives. Teilhard's evolutionary theology envisions a universe progressing towards greater unity, offering a dynamic perspective on God's continuous involvement in the unfolding cosmos. Here, Christ serves as a goal for the ongoing process. Love takes center stage, and Christ also resides within our innermost selves. Christ is both the Omega of evolution and the call of the deep, understood as the primordial archetype of individualized integration toward which each person is inevitably drawn.

Delio's work extends beyond intellectual exploration; it serves as a call to action, urging readers to embrace the implications of her vision for their personal and spiritual lives. She invites us to recognize our own role in the divine unfolding, to engage in a reciprocal relationship with the "not-yet God," to undergo internal transformations that help us become spiritually awakened agents of change, and to collaborate in constructing a more just, compassionate, and interconnected world.
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Relational Holism

At the core of her philosophy lies what she terms "relational holism." Relational holism entails viewing the world in terms of wholes and parts rather than mere cause and effect relationships. For example, a living cell within a human body is a part of a greater whole—the body itself. However, that cell is also a whole with its own organelles as parts. Organelles, in turn, are parts of the cellular whole and yet wholes themselves composed of molecular parts.

Relational holism emphasizes recognizing that all "parts" are interconnected with wholes and potentially possess their own wholeness. Delio suggests that God is not a supernatural entity separate from the world but rather the living Whole of the universe, continuously evolving. All entities in the universe are parts of this evolving cosmic whole, which encompasses and transcends its many constituent parts. This perspective, akin to process theology, underscores that God, as the cosmic Whole, exemplifies the relational nature inherent in everything in the universe. The universe encompasses both material and mental dimensions, with every entity possessing a degree of subjectivity. God, as the Whole, acts as a transformative force within the evolving cosmos—a 'lure' toward creative becoming. In human life, Delio believes that this creative becoming involves human capacities to grow in love. She also considers the possibility that, with the support of a healthy spiritual framework, artificial intelligence can serve loving ends.

Theohology

Delio introduces the term "theohology" to describe her approach. Theohology involves experiential discussions of the God-whole, drawing inspiration from quantum physics and renewed mysticism. Elevated states of consciousness play a pivotal role in one's experience of the whole. Essentially, theohology centers around experiencing the divine within the ordinary world and responding by expanding the energies of love. Delio suggests that individuals who engage in this practice become contemplative energetics or mystics. These individuals, whether explorers, artists, teachers, or others, delve into the depths of the psyche, embrace the unknown, and touch the divine. They become contemplative energetics who, in Delio's words, "ignite the fire" and create something new by challenging conventional norms. By exploring the endless depths of reality, they contemplate God, shape their own selves, and influence the course of evolution. As they become more individuated as God-persons, they engage with the world through the energies of love, contributing to the deepening of cosmic personalization.

The Not-Yet God as Already-Here, Too

For process theologians and, perhaps, for Delio as well, the cosmic Whole of the universe, God, is not only a lure toward creative transformation within the universe and each human heart, but also a Deep Listening who "feels the feelings" with a "tender care" as described by Whitehead. Here, the cosmic Whole is not solely a call to adventure or a catalyst for zestful living but rather a companion to every life—a "fellow sufferer who understands."

Towards the end, Delio emphasizes the importance of compassion, defining it as "feeling with" or empathy. Process theologians resonate with this concept. They believe that the living Whole of the universe is not only a lure toward creative transformation and a catalyst for adventurous living, but also a deep listening, an empathetic receptivity, an eternal companion who appreciates and is moved by every living being in the universe. The Not-Yet God is not only a God of the future but also an Already-Here God—and one filled with love.

Growing in Spiritual Intelligence

The primary focus of Delio's work, however, is not on the Deep Listening. It is on what Whitehead would call the Eros of God, the cosmic lure for creative universe that is found within each particular being and within the universe as a whole. She feels, as do most process theologians, that today this lure is toward a radically new way of living in which respect and care for the community of life on Earth is vivified on Earth, and in which people feel and experience a zest for life, a sense of vibrant adventure, as they understand themselves as part of a larger tribe: citizens of the Earth community. This sense of belonging to the Earth community is part of what it means to be a human holon. It is to be and feel connected to larger wholes, in this instance the Earth community. It can also include a sense of being connected to more localized wholes: a family, a local community, an ethnic tradition, a religious tradition, a nation. These wholes are not mutually exclusive, but any and all can become idolatrous if turned into gods of absolute allegiance. This is why, for Delio as for process theologians, it helps to imagine a still more inclusive whole, devoid of boundaries separating "us" from "them." This larger whole is the cosmic Mind, both tender and luring.

What might it mean, then, to be inwardly inspired by this more inclusive and divine whole, and then to live from the creative energies of its nurturant love? Borrowing from the work of Danah Zohor in Spiritual Intelligence: The Ultimate Intelligence, Delio offers an image of the qualities that might inform a person who lives from the Whole:

Self-Awareness: Knowing what I believe in and value, and what deeply motivates me.
Spontaneity: Living in and being responsive to the moment.
Being Vision and Value-led: Acting from principles and deep beliefs and living accordingly.
Holism: Seeing larger patterns, relationships, and connections; having a sense of belonging.
Compassion: Having the quality of “feeling-with” and deep empathy.
Celebration of Diversity: Valuing other people for their differences, not despite them.
Field Independence: Standing against the crowd and having one’s own convictions.
Humility: Having the sense of being a player in a larger drama, of one’s true place in the world.
Ability to Reframe: Standing back from a situation/problem and seeing the bigger picture; seeing problems in a wider context.
Positive Use of Adversity: Learning and growing from mistakes, setbacks, and suffering.
Sense of Vocation: Listening to the inner call to serve. To know that each person has a special role in the formation of the world.

If we consider the lure of God at work in people's lives today, we can rightly imagine that many people around the world are inwardly lured toward these dispositions of heart and soul. What role might technology play?

Extending Love through Digital Technologies

A unique and important feature of Delio's work is her treatment of technology in general, and computer technology in particular, as one way that, in principle, human beings might extend their incarnation of divine tenderness and divine calling. Might we humans be called to extend our own psychic capacities through such technologies and, more specifically, through artificial intelligence? Her answer is Yes.

She well knows that such technologies can be dangerous. They can foment disinformation (and already do), they can replace jobs, they can create forms of warfare (robot soldiers) that kill in still deadlier ways, and they threaten to replace human intellection with more powerful forms of intelligence which colonize human life.
And yet they can also, if developed in the spirit of the God of love, God the cosmic whole, help extend human experience in positive ways and surpass human experience in religiously important ways. In short, they can advance the cause of Christogenesis: the incarnation of divine love in the world. In making her case, Delio draws upon the pioneering work of Marshall McCluhan as well as Teilhard de Chardin, and ends up with a striking note of optimism about the possibilities of technology, including artificial intelligence. She quotes McCluhan with approval:

"This is the real use of the computer, not to expedite marketing or solve technical problems but to speed the process of discovery and orchestrate terrestrial—and eventually galactic—environments and energies. Psychic communal integration, made possible at last by the electronic media, could create the universality of consciousness foreseen by Dante when he predicted that men would continue as no more than broken fragments until they were unified into an inclusive consciousness. In a Christian sense, this is merely a new interpretation of the mystical body of Christ; and Christ, after all, is the ultimate extension of man." Delio, Ilia. The Not-Yet God: Carl Jung, Teilhard de Chardin, and the Relational Whole (p. 322). Orbis Books. Kindle Edition.

Omega, Evil, and the Depths

For Delio, the potency of Omega lies in its ceaseless and nurturing beckoning of the Whole, a beckoning that resides within each present moment. This concept aligns with the perspective of process theologians, who describe it as the divine lure present in the human heart, in all earthly creatures, and throughout the cosmos. Importantly, this lure emerges existentially from the future, not from the past. We experience God, among other ways, as a summons from the future itself, from the realm of the not-yet, requiring our active cooperation for its fulfillment and realization. It is in our response to this call that the aspirations of Omega find their fulfillment.

It is evident to Delio, as well as to many others, that humans do not consistently heed these aspirations. At times, our responses align with allurements other than the divine one, such as the allure of greed, hatred, and violence. This darker side of human existence raises the question: whence does it originate?

Delio frequently references "the depths" of both matter and human life, sometimes equating these depths with the Whole, almost as if everything unfolding in the world and the universe is an expression of the divine in action. Process theologians disagree and speak of different kinds of depth, not all of which are divine. One encompasses the collective unconscious within humanity and all living beings, harboring energies, memories, and intelligences from the entire evolutionary history. This collective unconscious includes but is more than God. It is the past history of the universe. Another is the depth within matter itself: the energy inherent in each actual entity, encompassing aspects of the entire universe within its immediate presence. Still another is the depth of the cosmic Whole, characterized by divine tenderness, guidance, and creativity. Finally, there is the depth of Creativity, which Whitehead distinguishes from God. This Creativity is neither inherently good nor evil but is manifest in every instance of self-creativity observed in the world and the universe. There is as much of this Creativity in an act of rape as an act of love, an act of violence as an act of kindness, in injustice as well as in justice.

Creativity is the depth of agency itself, of the self-creativity of matter and of life. This self-creativity may be influenced by Omega, but it also possesses a degree of independence from Omega and does not solely derive from it. This nuanced perspective helps process theologians address the problem of evil in a unique way. According to this view, evil is not caused by God, nor is it a manifestation of evolution working itself out for ultimately good purposes; instead, it is the self-creativity inherent to the universe itself as transcending God, but potentially inspired and animated by God.

Delio tends to think of evil primarily in human and psychological terms. She draws upon insight from Jung to wrestle with the possibility that God has a dark side as well as a light side, and they seek reconciliation in the psyche and in life. Process theologians are inclined to recognize that evil includes natural evil as well as moral evil: that is, the terrible suffering that comes from disease, natural disasters, and violence, including predator-prey relations. And it is less inclined to see the violence as statistically inevitable, or to find consolation in this idea. Of Teilhard's perspective, Delio writes:

"Like Jung, Teilhard did not think we are born into sin because of some aboriginal sin of a primitive Adam. Rather, sin is the law of the universe, the cosmic condition of a world in evolution. In a universe this large, evil is statistically inevitable at every level of evolving life. The work of the unification of all things in Christ inevitably involves the pain of reconciliation. Teilhard called this the “creative pain” of unification, a necessary pain if we are to evolve and not regress to a lower state of existence that returns us to multiplicity or dissipated existence." (Delio, Ilia. The Not-Yet God: Carl Jung, Teilhard de Chardin, and the Relational Whole (p. 246) Kindle Edition.

Process theologians are not inclined to say that sin is the law of the universe. To them, sin is better understood as a tragic dimension of the world and universe, resulting from the fact that God, the Sacred Whole, does not and cannot control everything that happens, due to the transcendent self-creativity of the universe itself. In process theology, there is much that happens in the universe that lacks the tenderness of divine love, the tenderness of the fellow-sufferer who understands. If there is beauty in the violence, it is a tragic beauty, not a statistically inevitable beauty.

Galaxies without and Within

For some process theologians, addressing the problem of evil often hinges the belief in the potential for life after death in the human journey on Earth, and perhaps in the journeys of all living beings. One life does not seem to be enough. Following Whitehead, they propos that the psyche or soul (the dominant series of concrescing subjects) is not identical with the brain and may continue to evolve after death. This progression takes place in various dimensions, distinct from the traditional three-dimensional space, where the journey continues. in those dimensions, too, Omega would be at work.

Ilia Delio also explores the concept of multiple dimensions in her work.

"A genuine religion of evolution necessitates the integration of faith in the development of the world with faith in God as the driving force of attraction that enables this development. This new Earth-centered religion challenges us to merge the spiritual and material dimensions, as well as sacred and secular energies, into a unified global human energy. Only by harnessing the energies of both sacred and secular realms can we create this new holistic perspective." (Delio, Ilia. The Not-Yet God: Carl Jung, Teilhard de Chardin, and the Relational Whole, p. 299).

So, what are these spiritual dimensions of life? Delio hesitates to view them as entirely separate from the material world. And yet she recognizes that matter exists in various states and phases, many of which are imperceptible to the human eye—solids, liquids, gases, plasmas, Bose-Einstein condensates, fermionic condensates, and more. Matter, therefore, encompasses not just solid objects but also gases, liquids, and plasmas, all of which are manifestations of some kind inwardness or, as Whitehead describes it, subjectivity. Moreover, all of these states are occur through dynamics as a quantum mechanics, transcending conventional sensory perception. When we view matter through the lens of quantum theory, it becomes increasingly mysterious, enchanting, and interconnected - and by no means visible. It thus opens the door for the idea that the whole universe, including its invisible dimensions, is in some way spiritual. Or at least pan-subjective and pan-experiential: hence here appreciation of panpsychism.

Nevertheless, the question remains: What, in addition to the spiritual dimension of matter itself, is spirituality? Delio believes that any dimension of life that leads us toward more unified forms of consciousness, awakening us to the interconnectedness of all things in a spirit of love, can be considered spiritual. These awakenings can occur as we discover the spiritual dimensions inherent in matter and also as we awaken to the archetypes and energies residing within us, our inner galaxies.

This is where Jung's significance becomes apparent. Delio writes:

"For Jung, the experience of the immanent archetypal dimension of the psyche is the experience that brings God into focus. Archetypes are potentials, existing in the realm of the ineffable and unknowable, the mystical realm."

A discovery of the archetypes within our individual and collective consciousness reawakens our symbolic life. We become aware that myths and stories, no less than prosaic accounts from science, are needed for the life well-lived. They function, in Whitehead's words, as lures for feeling.

The process perspective is itself quite receptive to the wisdom of Jung. In process thought every moment of experience includes within its very essence the energies and archetypes of the entire history of the universe. The idea of becoming consciously aware of them, and of integrating the ego with the unconscious, makes very good sense. We can well imagine the lure of the cosmic Whole as saying to us, and in us: Look within as well as without. Take heed of all the galaxies, inner and outer.

The genius of Delio's book is that it brings these galaxies together. Delio emphasizes that Jung's exploration of inner transformation also connects us with the world outside our bodies, emphasizing the unity of nature that encompasses both our inner selves and the external world:

"Jung makes us aware of the unity in nature that extends from objects to perceiving minds. Thus, our individual consciousnesses also have the capacity to merge beyond time and space into 'a single continuous stream of life,' something which Teilhard also realized... Transcendence is no longer something separate from us or beyond us in ontology; instead, it is the inherent openness of evolving matter, the orientation of matter toward the absolute wholeness of life, toward God Omega" (Delio, Ilia. The Not-Yet God: Carl Jung, Teilhard de Chardin, and the Relational Whole, pp. 112-113. Orbis Books. Kindle Edition).

Conclusion

From a process perspective we human beings are not single holons, but rather a series of holons, extending from birth (and perhaps before) to death (and perhaps after). Moment by moment we are slightly new selves, new concrescing subjects, and at each moment the many of the universe becomes one in our experience. How we respond adds another "many" to the ongoing history of the universe. "The many become one and are increased by one."

Since the axial age, a certain kind of individuality has emerged whereby, at any given moment, we identify more with the personal pasts of our holonic series, and the personal futures, than the the larger world. And we likewise identify more with our personal future. We distinguish "the world" from "ourselves."

This is especially the case in societies where individualism reigns. Delios' book is a radical invitation to break out of this kind of individuality and begin to think more communally, with a sense of belonging to others and to the earth, and not simply ourselves. She believes that we can grow in this way and that combinations of prayer, meditation, service, and the constructive use of technology can be part of a healing and whole-making mix. And she hopes that this more communal way of thinking, whereby we recognize the world as part of ourselves, and ourselves as part of the world, can be balanced with an understanding that we are also individuals, with personal integrity, and that others are individuals, too. Relational wholeness seeks this kind of integration. The integration itself is an ongoing process, coming by degree. And it occurs in community, not alone. As she points out, we need "church" of one sort or another.

The axial age also gave rise to the notion of a hyper-individualized deity who was concerned primarily with the salvation of individuals not communities. This emphasis on individual salvation has been especially important among western Christians. The importance of this book is its hope that we can grow into a more generous, less individualistic approach to life, inspired by the image of God as a Whole whose very nature includes and in some ways depends on the plurality of the world, as do we ourselves. Delios encourages us to recognize that we are made in the image of God, and that God is a boundless and nurturant Holon, embracing the whole of things. Not an absolute, not a king, and not simply an abstract principle. A Holon who is more than us and within us, and whose essence and energy are love. Such an image, such a vision, is indeed post-axial, and yet her hope is that axial religions can find their home in what she calls the religion of tomorrow:

"Axial religions have run their course and will eventually mutate into a new type of religious expression. Second axial religion is emerging as the religion of tomorrow, a multiplicity multiplicity of spiritual paths and rituals that expand consciousness and create wholeness. The Church of the planet will include all those committed to healing and wholeness, that is, all who are committed to shaping their God-lives toward unity, goodness, truth, and beauty. Focal communities will form around shared values and desires. The axial religions will be helpful to the religion of tomorrow by sharing from their wisdom and spiritual treasures, but they can no longer claim finality of revelation in an unfolding universe, where God is open to completion."

I, too, yearn for a church of the planet. And yet I know that this new type of religious expression can only emerge in focal groups that honor the wisdom and spiritual treasures of existing traditions and communities. The hope of The Not-Yet God is that the already religions, too, can find their place in the religion of tomorrow.

- Jay McDaniel