Moon, Young Bin Rethinking Theology in an Age of Information. A Constructive Appropriation of Niklas Luhmann's Systems Theory |
Young Bin MoonRethinking Theology in an Age of InformationA Constructive Appropriation of Niklas Luhmann's Systems TheoryYoung Bin Moon offers a comprehensive theoretical framework of theology for the information age and constructively draws on Niklas Luhmann's systems theory. He argues that theological discourse is a complex communicative quasi-system dedicated to optimizing religion's observation of divine manifestation, and its interpenetration with society, via recursive feedback interactions with diverse social systems. Coherent conceptualizations of relevant theological doctrines are proposed. God is conceived as a communicative system sui generis marked by perfect divine media, Word and Spirit; this view provides an alternative to the psychological, social, process models of the Trinity. Creation is viewed as divine mediatization ad extra, a view that highlights the communicative function of the world systems; humanity as Homo medialis or the codified co-codifier, which signifies that humans are both the culmination of, and active participants in, divine mediatization through the evolutionary process. Revelation is conceptualized as the religious systems' observation of the intersystemic interpenetration between God and the world systems. A socio-ethical perspective is also offered: theology can contribute to the societal process of optimizing global justice by furnishing holistic visions of justice in the public arena via interactions with other social systems.
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