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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 September 2014
One of the primary concerns of feminist theology is to promote the full humanity of women and men by questioning forms of thought that demean human persons. The Christian doctrine of a triune God is open to such critique, because it has traditionally been presented in terms that are exclusive and even oppressive to some. Joseph A. Bracken, S.J. proposes a process model of the Trinity that is significant for contemporary feminist theology, because it potentially promotes human flourishing. It does this in at least two ways. First, because this model does not rely on relationships of origin to distinguish the divine persons, it invites the development of inclusive metaphors that embrace human diversity. Secondly, it proposes a nonhierarchical, interrelational view of the Trinity that is arguably compatible with the faith experience of persons who are subject to any sort of oppression. Further, this model illustrates the participation of human persons in the dynamic interrelationship shared by the divine persons.
1 LaCugna, Catherine Mowry, God For Us: The Trinity and Christian Life (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1991), 268.Google Scholar
2 Ibid.
3 Suchocki, Marjorie, “Introduction” in Bracken, Joseph A. and Suchoki, Marjorie Hewitt, eds., Trinity in Process: A Relational Theology of God (New York: Continuum, 1997), x.Google Scholar
4 Bracken, Joseph A., The Triune Symbol: Persons, Process and Community (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1985).Google Scholar
5 Bracken, Joseph A., The Divine Matrix: Creativity As Link Between East and West (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1988), 11.Google Scholar
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid., 24.
9 Ibid.
10 Ibid.
11 Ibid., 30.
12 Ibid.
13 Ibid.
14 Ibid.
15 Ibid., 37.
16 Ibid.
17 Bracken, , The Triune Symbol, 191.Google ScholarAn actual entity (also referred to as an actual occasion) is the smallest unit of subjective experience. Gathered together, actual entities make up subsocieties and societies, which are subȷects of experience in the larger world. The human body, for example, is a society constituted by subsocieties of organs and systems. Each of the subsocieties of the human body is ultimately made up of actual entities.
18 Bracken, , The Divine Matrix, 3.Google Scholar
19 Ibid.
20 Ibid.
21 Ibid., 59.
22 Bracken, Joseph A., Society and Spirit: A Trinitarian Cosmology (Selinsgrove, PA: Susquehanna University Press, 1991), 129.Google Scholar A concrescing actual entity is an actual entity in the process of becoming. While retaining its subjective identity, in each present moment it selectively grasps previous physical and conceptual data, in order to become what it is in the new moment.
23 Ibid. In Whiteheadian terms, a society can be further described as a selective grouping of actual entities (or actual occasions) that perdures through time and is governed by a common element of form. A common element of form is a clear and objective trait that is simultaneously present in each actual entity of a given society, distinguishing it as the particular reality that it is (see Bracken, , The Triune Symbol, 193).Google Scholar
24 Bracken, , Society and Spirit, 127–28.Google Scholar
25 Decision: The meaning in the context of process philosophy is more basic than the usual understanding of decision as a conscious human (or divine) choice. The meaning of decision here is derived from the etymological source, L. de-cisio, meaning literally “to cut away from.” At any particular moment, a given actual entity (whether a divine person or a finite created entity) “cuts away from” irrelevant possibilities for its self-constitution, so it continues to become this unique entity (see Bracken, , The Triune Symbol, 191–92).Google Scholar
26 Bracken, , The Triune Symbol, 191.Google Scholar
27 Whitehead, Alfred North, Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology, ed. Griffin, David Ray and Sherburne, Donald W. (New York:Free Press, 1978), 34.Google Scholar
28 Bracken, , Society and Spirit, 129.Google Scholar
29 Ibid., 149.
30 Ibid., 135.
31 See Ibid., 140-52.
32 Ibid., 135.
33 Ibid., 136.
34 Ibid, 159.
35 See note 14 above.
36 Bracken, , Society and Spirit, 146.Google Scholar Here, Bracken discusses Suchocki's view of the God-world relationship.
37 Ibid., 147-48.
38 Bracken, , “Panentheism From a Process Perspective” in Trinity in Process: A Relational Theology of God, 100.Google Scholar
39 Prehend: The act by which a developing actual entity selectively grasps physical and conceptual data outside its present self for the purpose of its continued becoming (see Bracken, , The Triune Symbol, 192Google Scholar).
40 Bracken, , “Panentheism,” 111, note 14.Google Scholar
41 See note 22 above.
42 Divine consequent nature: God's prehension of everything that has just happened in the world process, and God's integration of all this into God's vision of future possibilities. This aspect of God's nature is called consequent because it follows both from the divine persons' vision of objective possibilities, and the decision of the three divine persons and of each finite actual entity at any particular moment (see Bracken, , The Triune Symbol, 43–44: and 191Google Scholar).
43 Divine superjective nature: The principle of activity by which God continually offers the full actuality of Godself as the pulse of energy sustaining the community of divine persons and the whole created universe (see Bracken, , Society and Spirit, 102Google Scholar, and Bracken, , “Panentheism,” 101–2Google Scholar).
44 “Panentheism,” 101.
45 Ibid., 102.
46 Ibid., 103.
47 Ibid., 104.
48 Ibid.
49 Ibid., 105.
50 Ibid.
51 Ibid., 112, note 27.
52 Superject: An entity that has completed its individual process of becoming. It is now a principle of change for other developing entities, as an object of their respective subjective experiences and decisions (see Bracken, , Society and Spirit, 103, 143Google Scholar).
53 See note 39 above.
54 Bracken, , Society and Spirit, 143.Google Scholar
55 Ibid., 147. Concrescence: The process of development by which an actual entity increasingly actualizes its potential for becoming (see Society and Spirit, 143-44; and The Triune Symbol, 192).
56 Bracken, , The Triune Symbol, 15.Google Scholar
57 Ibid., 16-17.
58 Ibid.
59 Ibid., 20.
60 Ibid.
61 Ibid.
62 Ibid., 21.
63 Ibid.
64 Ibid., 24.
65 Ibid., 25.
66 Ibid.
67 Ibid., 26.
68 Ibid.
69 Ibid.
70 See Faricy, Robert, review of The Triune Symbol: Persons, Process and Community, by Bracken, Joseph, Gregorianum 68/1 (Spring 1986): 413.Google Scholar
71 LaCugna, Catherine Mowry, “Current Trends in Trinitarian Theology,” Religious Studies Review 13 (April 1987): 144.Google Scholar
72 See Donnell, John O', review of Society and Spirit: A Trinitarian Cosmology, by Bracken, Joseph, Gregorianum, 74/1 (1993): 162.Google Scholar
73 Bracken, , The Triune Symbol, 4.Google Scholar
74 Ibid.
75 See O'Jonnell, 161.
76 LaCugna, , “Current Trends in Trinitarian Theology,” 144.Google Scholar
77 Casey, David J., review of The Triune symbol: Persons, Process and Community, by Bracken, Joseph, Theological Studies 47/1 (March 1986): 151.Google Scholar
78 LaCugna, , “Current Trends in Trinitarian Theology,” 144.Google Scholar
79 Hill, Wiliarn J., review of The Triune Symbol: Persons, Process and Community, by Bracken, Joseph, Thomist 51/1 (January 1987): 175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
80 Bracken, , The Triune Symbol, 59, note 24.Google Scholar
81 Gebara, Ivone, “La Mujer Hace Teologia: Ensayo para la Reflexion,” trans. from Portuguese to Spanish by Villagrán, Lucia and Gonzalez, Lila, in Aquino, Maria Pilar, ed., Aportes para una Teologia desde la Mujer (Madrid: Escuela Biblica, 1988), 10: “una mujer que vive en condiciones privilegiadas, condiciones que me dan espacio suficiente para reflexionar, hablar y hasta escribir.Google Scholar”
82 Ibid.: “moldea mi ser y mi actuar, mi mirar y mi sentir, mi hablary mi callar.”
83 See Ps 139: 13-16.
84 Bracken, Joseph A., What Are They Saying About the Trinity? (New York: Paulist, 1979), 78.Google Scholar
85 Ibid.
86 Johnson, Elizabeth A., She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse (New York: Crossroad, 1992), 33.Google Scholar
87 Bracken, , The Divine Matrix, 68.Google Scholar
88 Ibid.
89 Ibid., 69.
90 Ibid., 68.
91 Ibid.
92 Ibid., 69.
93 Gilligan, Carol, In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982), 63.Google Scholar
94 Ibid., 62.
95 Ibid., 173.
96 LaCugna, , God For Us, 310–11, note 80.Google Scholar
97 Hill, 175.
98 Johnson, 253.
99 Ibid., 254.