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It Was Just Lunch

Recently I had a chance to visit my daughter who lives in a different city.  Luckily for me, where she lives is where one of my newer friends lives, namely, Ilia Delio.  Delio is a Franciscan Sister and Professor of Religion at Villanova.  She is a fascinating woman in many respects.  I always find Franciscans interesting.  She is also an intriguing person.  She almost vibrates with energy---which both of us would be fine calling the spirit.  She is better educated in the world of science than most of us and also has an advanced degree in theology.  She is very capable of working at the intersection of religion and science.  

A few years ago, I had the pleasure of hosting her on our campus for a couple days.  Her presentations were a fresh challenge to all who were present.  While seeing herself within the Christian tradition, she also realizes she is a pioneer of sorts.  She demonstrates how one can be part of a tradition without being hampered by an old-fashioned traditionalism.  One is alive; the other is dormant or dead.  She and I both want to be involved with the living Spirit of God.  

To be with her feels like being part of that venture to know that living Spirit and connect with it.  And so it was we made a date for lunch.  There was no agenda and no expectations.  But I am sure neither of us was worried.  Boring is not a word one would ever use to describe Delio.  I was going to be good with whatever we decided to talk about.  All you need is to begin.  Once a conversation gets started, the energy comes and the pace of ideas increase.  With her the weather can turn into global climate change and that topic morphs quickly into christogenesis and away we go!

Obviously, I cannot report on every facet of the conversation, but one piece of it provoked me to think about things in a new way.  Delio and I agreed that contemporary forms of Christian gatherings were less and less attractive to more and more people.  It is easy to find various polls indicating the church going habits of American people continues to decrease.  Of course, this does not mean everybody is going to quit going to church---or synagogue or temple.  But the times are a-changin, as the old song of Bob Dylan attests.

It is easy for me to imagine that Delio has an opinion or idea on nearly everything.  I was intrigued to know how she thought about this issue.  I like how she is able to frame so much of her thinking in an evolutionary context.  She agrees with her old teacher Ewert Cousins and Thomas Berry that we are entering a new era of consciousness, one they call “the second axial consciousness.”  Delio comments, “This shift in consciousness has sped up in the last fifty years due to computer technology and the internet and we see signs of it all around us: gender plurality, interspirituality, ecological awareness, socially just communities.”  It is easy to see in this one sentence how many themes are available for so many more lunches.

I am aware from her books that Delio thinks humans are evolving into what she calls “cyborgs.”  I admit I am not sure how I feel about that.  I think I may simply finish my time on earth as a human being.  I am a user of technology, but am not sure I am ready for a chip implant, as she thinks will soon be on the horizon for our kids.  But then I laugh, because so many folks I know have pacemakers.  Is a computer chip all that different?

There is no doubt, our world is quickly rethinking how to understand and talk about gender difference, our ecology and the like.  On these and so many other current issues, it seems easy and sad to watch the church choose traditionalism.  I am convinced folks will continue to vote with their feet as they leave---perhaps looking for meaning and community in new ways and in new places.

When we ponder what it means to be human, I was instructed by Delio’s quoting from spirituality writer, Beatrice Bruteau who talks about a person as “the creative activity of life as it projects itself to the next instant.”  Delio also quotes from Katherine Hayles who writes about posthuman beings.  As Delio shared, from Hayle’s view, “a new humanism is developing directly at the borderline of simulation and materiality.  In her perspective, the scientific language of complexity theory — dissipative structures, fluidities, porous boundaries, and bifurcations — forms the constitutive principles of a new humanism enabled by the regime of computation.”

Whew!  This is how lunch goes.  I came for a simple Mexican meal only to encounter a new humanism!  We are developing at the borderline of simulation and materiality.  I think I know what both of those words mean, but I am going to have to ready Hayles and become more educated.  I have heard of complexity theory.  Complexity is more mysterious than complicated.  We can figure out complicated things.  They can be solved.  Complexity, on the other hand, is too random---it cannot be figured out.  

I find all this very exciting.  And then, Delio adds, “Posthuman life is giving rise to a new sense of community.”  I am drawn to more of this conversation, but the check has come.  The good news is there will be another good conversation about a new community.  I want to be part of that---not just discussing new community, but being part of one---maybe helping create one.  

I pay and promise to call her again when I am back in town.  I may just create another trip soon so I can go to lunch! 



https://www.globalsistersreport.org/news/global-sisters-report/way-posthuman-life-could-revitalize-religious-communities




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