Review
"An emerging scientific paradigm, known as the paradigm of emergence, is radically changing our understanding of nature and our relationship to it. Rather than being an 'accident' in a meaningless universe, life appears to be a mechanism for complexity growth in a cosmos that is becoming increasingly organized, intelligent, and aware. Brendan Graham Dempsey's new book is one of the best on the subject, offering up a cosmic religion for a metamodern age that has the power to transform society and unify us in these divided times."
— Bobby Azarian, author of The Romance of Reality: How the Universe Organizes Itself to Create Life, Consciousness, and Cosmic Complexity
"Given the brevity and simplicity of the text, I started out as a skeptical reader: Could the writer truly produce a cohesive, pedagogical, and compelling account of the emerging worldview at today's crossroads between intellectual and spiritual elites? I was proven wrong and prejudiced! Dempsey swiftly and easily guides us through the wonder and awe of being on the cusp of a new perspective. The insights you find here are not the usual ones: Rage against Descartes, contempt for Western modernity, and romanticizing the indigenous (whatever such a broad category would signify). No, we are guided into a kind of faith that endures in the face of technological and scientific development—and in the face of crisis and decay."
— Hanzi Freinacht, metamodern philosopher and author of The Listening Society
"Modern culture is adrift in a meaning crisis that emerged in the wake of the way early scientific worldviews (anchored as they were to reductionism and materialism) undercut the philosophically unworkable dual worldview espoused by many traditional religious systems. Although successful in their critique of the split between Heaven and Earth, these incomplete mechanistic perspectives resulted in little nourishment for the human soul. In response to this void in modern culture, Emergentism offers a powerful vision of religion in the 21st century that effectively bridges human spirituality with a modern scientific worldview grounded in an emergent energy information ontology characterized by increasing levels of complexification and conscious awareness. It is a metamodern vision that I believe is up to the task of addressing the current wisdom famine and orienting us toward more adaptive and fulfilling lives."
— Dr. Gregg Henriques, Professor of Graduate Psychology at James Madison University and author of A New Unified Theory of Psychology
"I'm skeptical of the utility of 'religion' here in the 21st century but Dempsey does a good job of explaining the emergence of complexity in our universe and explains in understandable language many of the ideas from complexity science. The book provides a useful lens for navigating our emergent and increasingly complex world."
— Jim Rutt, former chairman of the Santa Fe Institute and host of The Jim Rutt Show
"You might know Brendan from his acclaimed Youtube series After Postmodernism -- or his recent work as one of the mavens of Metamodern Spirituality. His unique mixture of careful critique, quick assimilation & daring imagination provides a very playful and provocative arena of thought. This new book (pseudonymously & crypto-humorously attributed to a certain Adyahanzi) picks up, arguably, where Ken Wilber and Teilhard de Chardin left off. It presents a cosmic, biological and social developmentalism that attempts to be more culturally critical, scientifically up-to-date and mythically potent. Huzzah! ...If any of that tickles your fancy or strikes you as essential for grappling with the meaning crisis, then you'd be an utter fool (and possibly a heretic?) to ignore this intrepid trek from Logos to Mythos to Religio."
— Layman Pascal, co-founder and host of the Integral Stage podcast and co-editor of Dispatches from a Time Between Worlds: Crisis and Emergence in Metamodernity
About the Author
Brendan Graham Dempsey is a writer whose work focuses on the meaning crisis and the nature of spirituality in metamodernity. He holds an MA from Yale Divinity School.
Adyahanzi is a spiritual teacher, theologian, futurist, and "ironic prophet" of metamodernity.
