Weekly Digest: Process and Relational Edition
What caught my attention this week
The Mirror Without a Face: AI, the Conflicted Psyche, and the Question of Wholeness
Author: Ilia Delio
Date: May 07, 2026
Summary: Delio uses Jungian psychology to analyze Artificial Intelligence, describing it as the “apotheosis of ego-consciousness” that lacks an unconscious or interiority. She warns that mistaking AI’s simulated empathy for genuine encounter risks further severing our connection to the “spirit of the depths”. True individuation—the integration of the conscious and unconscious—cannot be automated, as it requires “suffering,” “vulnerability,” and a direct encounter with the numinous.
Against Physicalism’s Misplaced Concreteness
Author: Matthew David Segall
Date: May 10, 2026
Summary: Segall critiques physicalism, arguing it is a “bad metaphysics” that mistakes mathematical abstractions for concrete reality. Drawing on Whitehead’s process-relational panexperientialism, he suggests that nature is not composed of “dead matter” but is a field of experiential activity where feeling and value are fundamental rather than accidental. He contends that a coherent cosmology must account for the conscious scientists who create physical models, rather than explaining away experience as an “illusion”.
Author: Chris Hanson
Date: May 11, 2026
Summary: Hanson uses the pediatric phenomenon of breath-holding spells to illustrate a theology of parenting and God. He argues that just as a parent must learn the unique triggers and needs of a specific child, God’s love is not generic or mechanical. Instead, God’s love is a “dynamic presence” that is attentive and responsive, meeting each individual in their particular history and capacity to guide them toward flourishing.
Author: Dr. Sheri Kling
Date: May 12, 2026
Summary: Writing from her dual perspective as a stepdaughter and interim minister, Kling reflects on the life of her stepfather, Richard Arnold Bayne. She explores the complexity of human stories, noting that people are often a “mixture of love and limitation”. Kling argues that the “sacred work” of grace and compassion involves looking beyond a person’s woundedness or “rough edges” to see their deeper humanity, ultimately commending his life to the “ever-widening mercy of God”.
Author: Matthew David Segall
Date: May 12, 2026
Summary: As a response article, Segall explores “pan-pathism,” the idea that a conscious cosmos is one that can truly suffer and die. He argues that “all flesh is grass” and that life is an expression of “erotic excessiveness” fueled by the Sun’s “primordial generosity”. He advocates for a “cosmic Christology” that avoids sentimentality by acknowledging the tragic and sacrificial nature of existence, suggesting that “to die is different from what any one supposed”.
Whitehead for Dummies (Like Me!): A Chat w/ Matthew David Segall
Author: Matthew David Segall and Ishmael Hodges
Date: May 14, 2026
Summary: This transcript recap provides a primer on process philosophy, contrasting it with traditional “substance ontology”. Key concepts include “prehension” (the way the present inherits the past through feeling) and the idea that the “subject emerges from the world” rather than vice versa. The discussion emphasizes that reality is a “perspective on perspective” and that ethics should be viewed as a form of “belonging within a basically undivided kosmos”.
Why Natural Science Would Be Better Off Without Physicalist Metaphysics
Author: Matthew David Segall
Date: May 15, 2026
Summary: Segall argues that science is not equivalent to physicalism; rather, physicalism is a metaphysical interpretation that often treats the mind as a “powerless glow”. He calls for a “biologically realistic onto-epistemology” where knowing is seen as participatory and mind is embodied. By historicizing physics and viewing “laws” as emergent habits, we can recover a sense of belonging in a living world and address the modern “meaning crisis”.
Johan Tredoux Reviews A Systematic Theology of Love
Author: Thomas Jay Oord (Review by Johan Tredoux)
Date: May 15, 2026
Summary: Johan Tredoux reviews Oord’s work, contrasting it with the “legalistic morality” and “fear-based” theology of their shared conservative upbringing. Tredoux, a hospice chaplain, praises Oord’s definition of love as promoting well-being through relational response, noting it holds up at the bedside of the dying. The review highlights key process concepts like “Amipotence” (God’s power as uncontrolling love) and “essential kenosis,” arguing that God works through persuasion and consent rather than coercion. This theology is presented as a “hospitable metaphysics” that integrates science, suffering, and the lived experience of ordinary people.
Author: J. Aaron Simmons
Date: May 15, 2026
Summary: Simmons responds to a former student’s critique that his writing is too personal and not “real philosophy”. While defending the necessity of technical expertise, Simmons argues that philosophy’s unique strength is that “almost everything... can be philosophically interesting”. Using family photos as a springboard, he illustrates complex concepts such as the temporal nature of selfhood and the idea that existence is fundamentally relational and a matter of responsibility. Ultimately, he defines philosophy as the effort to “find the sublime in the pedestrian” and living life “on purpose”.
What If Love Is Deeper Than Despair?
Author: Michael Rose
Date: May 15, 2026
Summary: Rose reflects on the “problem of good,” asking why beauty, compassion, and tenderness exist in a world often defined by anxiety and “machinery of despair”. Drawing on Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and process philosophy, he suggests that evolution is a movement toward deeper communion, driven by a divine presence that acts as a “lure” or “élan vital” rather than a coercive manager. Rose argues that wonder is not escapism but a way to recover our participation in reality. He contends that beauty and sacrificial love are “excessive” qualities that nourish the soul deeper than mere survival utility.
AI disclosure: NotebookLM helped create the summaries.