God, Information and the Sciences of Complexity, J.K. Russell Research Conference with 2013 Russell Fellow in Religion and Science, Niels Henrik Gregersen
Information and complexity have become central concepts of our contemporary scientific world-view. In which sense can we speak of information and complexity also as part of the nature of God? It will be argued that traditional Logos Christology already offers important resources for speaking of aspects of information as inherent to divine life. The divine Logos is “in God”, while being both the wellspring of information (the differentiating and structuring capacity in creation) and the incarnational embodiment of creaturely differences (from physical “differences that make a difference” to semantic information). Philosophical theology, however, has often maintained a strong distinction between the divine Logos and the logoi of creation. Accordingly, the inherited idea of divine simplicity has circumvented notions of complexity from being inner features of divine fecundity, creative richness, and capacity for communication. An argument will be developed for an alternative philosophical theology, inspired by central concerns of Trinitarian theology. To the Father is ascribed the role of the inner fecundity of ‘birthing’ the eternal Son, thus encompassing the overflow of divine essence and love; to the eternal Son is ascribed the role of the differentiating power of information (Logos), while the life-giving and communicative power is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. In this light, the notion of divine simplicity will have to be redefined as the divine self-identity in the midst of temporal flux. For not all that happens in the world of creation is conformal with divine life.