This series is not the result of a fixed construction process, but of a personally evolving exploration developed over the past several months. It will continue to unfold as new material is encountered and interwoven into the ongoing question of what reality might be like.
Its direction and organization were neither foreseen nor predetermined at the outset, but have emerged through a series of writing projects offering insight and reflection through the lens of process philosophy and theology into contemporary cultures.
Looking back, a natural pattern is beginning to take shape. The Master Contents list below represents an effort to gather and arrange these essays in a way that offers clarity, coherence, and accessibility for the reader, while still honoring the developmental nature of the work. As it has grown the numbering and grouping of the mini-series within the greater body of the essays may not correlate cleanly with the fuller structure, thus necessitating this present outline.
As with the subject of reality itself, this present exploration is best approached not as a finished system, but as a living process - one that will continue to be shaped, deepened, expanded, and refined in the months ahead. The essays to date are but an evolving imagining of reality’s continuous becoming.
- R.E. Slater
Though this series may be read linearly, it is best understood recursively -using each layer to deepen and reinterpret the essays before it.Additionally, this index will continue to evolve as the work itself evolves.
When exploring reality we might move from "question, to structure, to lived expression." Or, from "questioning reality, to describing its structure, to living within its unfolding." - R.E. Slater
- Movement I – Inquiry: "What Is Reality?"
- Introduction & Orientation (Section 1)
- Metaphysics of Reality: Its Grounding & Nature (Section 2)
- Movement II – Structure: "What is the Ontology of Reality?"
- The Operative Outworking of Reality + Emergence of EPR (Section 3)
- The Ontological Layers of Reality I-V (Sections 4-8)
- Movement III – Expression: "How is Reality Lived and Interpreted?"
- Cosmology - What Kind of Universe Do We Live In? (Section 9)
- Theology - Reading the Universe through Theology (Section 10)
- Ethics - The Lived Consequences of EPR (Section 11)
Gateway essays introducing the question of reality
The Last Cartographer (prequel)
Orientation I – Mapping the Edge of Reality
A Conversation Before Leaving
Orientation II – Questioning "the Real"
Stories of Survival and Contact (1)
(The Martian, Project Hail Mary, and Arrival)
Orientation III – Process, Intelligence, and Relational Knowing
II. The Metaphysical Question - What Is Reality?
Why reality may be processual as a philosophical necessity
What Is Meant by "Processual Reality"
Metaphysics I – An Introduction to Process
What Is Reality? Theories and Their Limits (1)
Metaphysics II – Contemporary Theories and Their Limits
Why Process is Metaphysically Necessary (2)
Metaphysics III – Toward a Processual Ground of the Real
III. The Emergence of Embodied Process Realism (EPR)
Here we ask the question, "What Kind of Reality Do We Live In?"
Man in Process (2)
EPR I – The Human Journey Toward Embodied Realism
God in Process (3)
EPR II – Toward a Relational and Lived Theology
Scripture in Process (4)
EPR III – Scripture as Lived Encounter within an Unfolding Reality
IV. Ontology I - The Structure of Reality
Developing a constructive framework for an Ontology of Reality:
The Ontology of Reality as Relation (3)
Ontology I – The Foundations of Embodied Process Realism
The Inner Life of Reality (4)
Ontology II – Interiority and the Emergence of Experience
Persistence and Continuity of Becoming (5)
Ontology III – Coherence across Time
Toward an Ontology of Reality (7)
Ontology IV – The Emergence of Embodied Process Realism
Ontology V - Whiteheadian Classicism and the Emergence of Embodied Process Realism
👉 These essays serve as the conceptual core of the entire series.
V. Ontology II - Cosmology and the Physical Universe
Gravity, Coherence, and the Real (1)
Cosmology I – The Relational Structure of the Real
The Rise of Relational Physics (2)
Cosmology II – From Particles to Processes
From Cosmic Energy to Cosmic Meaning (6)
Cosmology III – A Processual Timeline of the Universe
👉 Quantum Physics becomes intelligible within an ontology of embodied process reality.
VI. Ontology III - Consciousness and Interiority
Beyond the Spatial Mind
Consciousness I - Process Consciousness and the Failure of Structural Realism
Why Consciousness Requires a New Ontology
Consciousness II – Rethinking Mind Through Structure
Consciousness III – Ontological Priority and the Ground of Experience
Consciousness Resources - The MIND-AT-LARGE Project
Consciousness IV –Digests of Consciousness Studies
Ontology → coherence of consciousness within the ontology of reality
Metaphysics → panpsychism (mind) within the philosophical grounding of reality
VII. Ontology IV - Life, Evolution, and Meaning
Integration of biology, emergence, and teleological direction into EPR
Evolutionary Process Biology and a Relational Ontology
Evolution I – Biology Beyond Mechanism
Responding to Fine-Tuning & Intelligent Arguments
Evolution II – Rethinking Intelligence, Life, and Emergence
VIII. Ontology V - Identity, Value, and Meaning
The Ontology of Identity in a Relational Universe (9)
Identity I – The Emergence of Self, Creation, and God
Identity II – Identity as Patterned Continuity
The Emergence of Value in a Relational Universe (11) (forthcoming)
Identity III – Meaning as Relational Achievement
Open Teleology in a Relational Universe (12) (forthcoming)
Identity IV – Directionality Without Determinism
Testing Reality (13) (planned)
Identity V – Constraints, Coherence, and Falsifiability
👉 These final essays provide a forward trajectory to the conclusion of the reality series.
IX. A Process Cosmology - What Kind of Universe Do We Live In?
An Awakening Universe - Cosmology and Consciousness (1)
Cosmology IV – Entering a Living Reality
A Cosmic Metaphysic - Of Origins and Futures (2)
Cosmology V – Teleology and the Shape of Becoming
A Universe of Value (3)
Cosmology VI - A Universe of Life, Character and Value
The Universe as Divine Process (4)
Cosmology VII - From a Universe of Value to Its Theology
👉 This is where ontology becomes cosmological vision.
X. The Sacred Cosmos - A Theology of Reality
The Sacred Cosmos - How God Became God (1)
Theology I – The Evolution of God and Religion
The Sacred Cosmos - The World of Many Gods (2) - unfinished
Theology II – Ancient Cosmologies and Divine Multiplicity
XI. Ethics & Culture - Living Reality
Truth as Horizon - Responding to Truth Cultures
Ethics I – On Faith, Scripture, and the Refusal of Certainty
A Processual View of Cultures in Process (1)
Ethics II – Cohesion in a Fragmenting Age
A Processual View of Regenerative Civilizations (2)
Ethics III – Toward Sustainable Futures
A Processual View of a Relational Horizon (3)
Ethics IV – Living Within Processual Reality
👉 This is the lived consequence of EPR.
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| Illustration by R.E. Slater and ChatGPT |
