Many theologians have beenreconceiving the God-worldrelation, challenging the separationthat underlay too much of Patristicand Scholastic theology. Thesepanentheists affirm a radical indwellingof God within the world and the worldwithin God. During the same periodscientists have begun to abandon thereductionist ideology that characterizedmuch of the modern period.Reductionism is being replaced by anew emphasis on emergence: the studyof how new structures and entitiesarise throughout the evolutionaryprocess and how each requires its ownform of explanation.

Surprisingly few theologians haverecognized the paradigm shiftrepresented by the convergenceof these two important schools ofthought. Clayton’s pioneering workdevelops new models of God andthe God-world relation in light ofpanentheism and emergent complexityand models an open-minded Christiantheology that still respects tradition.