What do you think?
Rate this book
The Entangled Trinity: Quantum Physics and Theology
The Doctrine of the Trinity is an exercise in wonder. It is drawn from the wonder of our own existence and the diverse experiences of the divine encountered by the early Christian community. From the earliest days of Christianity, theologians of the church have drawn upon the most sophisticated language and understandings of their time in an attempt to clarify and express that faith and this task is no different today. But how should we attempt to articulate that faith today? In this volume, Ernest Simmons engages precisely that question by asking what the current scientific understanding of the natural world might contribute to our reflection upon the relationship of God and the world in a Triune fashion. The result is a fruitful engagement between the ancient and the current, the theological and the scientific.
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
4 people are currently reading
48 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 11, 2015
The Entangled Trinity: Quantum Physics and Theology is a fascinating book. Skeptics might cite it as “fabricated science” much like some of the so-called “intelligent design” books. Yet, this work of theology (which cites science but doesn’t presume to subvert science for its purposes) is informed by science as well as historical and modern theology. Starting with a historical summary which pays significant attention to Karl Rahner’s emphasis on the “economic” trinity (functionality over personality) and blending this starting point with a more immanent understanding (John Cobb’s “Process Theology” with its panentheism meets quantum mechanics), The Entangled Trinity doesn’t make the common mistake of trying to explain away mystery. Rather, the thesis is, “We seek greater understanding. But while enhancing faith, understanding will never be a substitute for faith.” (Location 122 in my Kindle Edition)
Indeed, I particularly liked Simmons’ use of Elizabeth Johnson’s Quest for the Living God: Mapping Frontiers in the Theology of God: “Mysterium refers to the hidden character of the Holy, beyond imagination not just because of our intellectual limits but because of the very nature of the subject. Far from being a pessimistic experience, however, encounter with the Holy as mystery is laced with the promise of plenitude: more fullness exists than we can grasp.” (pp. 8-9 of Johnson, Location 142 cites it)
As a person who, in spite of a personal faith experience, has dealt with doubt on more than one occasion, I really appreciated Simmons’ idea about, “…the doubt intrinsic to faith—indeed, a structural feature of it—is ‘existential’ doubt, the uncertainty and anxiety based on our very finitude.” (Loc 232) This came through even better a few pages later when he wrote, “Human beings live their lives in the dash, the dash inscribed on the grave marker between the date of birth and the date of death. Existential thinkers such as Tillich invite us to contemplate our dash and how and why we live it. Do we rush through it? Do we ‘dash’ through the dash?” (Loc. 239) With such words, Simmons encourages the reader to indulge herself or himself in contemplating the unknowable in order to value that “dash” of life just that much more. As we are juxtaposed between time and eternity, we struggle for that self-conscious awareness that might make sense of the “dash.”
Naturally, some portion of the argument involves how humanity knows truth and why we have to understand so much analogically. Simmons cites the 20th century’s Paul Tillich’s distinction between sign and symbol: “…both point to a reality beyond themselves, but while signs are constructed, symbols participate in the reality to which they point.” (Loc. 513) While that may be more poetic than helpful to some, Simmons clarifies by noting, “All areas of human reflection, theology included, draw on human experience and thought to try to understand something about the world presented to it but that can never be known in itself. This is why symbol, analogy, and metaphor are so important in theological reflection.” (Loc 507) “Analogy draws on experience and yet also affirms that that to which it refers is not identifical to itself. There is both a similarity, hence the analogy is useful; but also a dissimilarity, otherwise the analogy would simply be redundant.” (Loc. 525)
So, after a brief screed against modern tendencies toward reductionism (using some eloquent arguments from a modern Jesuit scholar named John Haught), Simmons points out the value of “emergence” in understanding reality in general which, extrapolated, might help us understand the idea of “begotten, not created” with regard to the early Christian creeds. Simmons points out that emergence is the key to increased complexity in biological/chemical structures. For example, there is nothing “wet” about either hydrogen or oxygen molecules but the wetness of water emerges when the atoms merge to form a water molecule (Loc.565). Of course, this isn’t a perfect analogy because, in orthodox Christian theology, neither Father nor Son is diminished by the Incarnation event we know as Jesus the Christ, but the hydrogen and oxygen molecules lose their distinctiveness as long as they are water. Still, one gets the idea.
The main analogy, as the title implies, is that quantum theory demonstrates that there is not an unchanging subject of change at the base of physical existence, “…but rather discrete units (quanta) of energy that were in a constant state of flux or motion.” (Loc. 654) Taken by itself, that may not seem helpful, but when Simmons gets to the discussion of entanglement, the argument soars. To get there, he blends a little bit of Alfred North Whitehead’s philosophy (Loc. 670—“We have a becoming of continuity, not a continuity of becoming…”). He goes on to state, “To be is to become, and to become is to be relational.” (Loc. 676)
So, the classic question has been, “How does God become relational without becoming diffused? How does God maintain transcendence while becoming immanent?” (my wording) After a concise, but very illuminating, summary of the historical understanding of the Trinity from the early Church fathers through the present, Simmons shifts to his main topic—quanta as representative of reality existing in all possible states at once (Loc. 2587). As photons and subatomic particles act as both waves and particles simultaneously, we only understand them as one or the other on the basis of what we are measuring or observing. Scientists call this “superposition” because the reality is “superimposed” on the other—even though the other is still there (Loc 2582).
Of course, the key idea is this: “Quantum entities that have interacted with each other can remain mutually entangled, however far they may eventually separate spatially. It seems that nature fights back against a relentless reductionism. Even the subatomic world cannot be treated purely atomistically.” (Loc. 2656) Astute readers will see where this is going. In Christian doctrine, Father interacts with Son Who interacts with Spirit. The Trinity is, essentially entangled so that no matter how separate they may be “spatially,” they remain in the reality of their relationship. Simmons poetically makes this point by borrowing an old Greek term from the early Fathers, “perichoretic.” The Greek root can simply mean gathering together, but I like the idea of “dancing around” in unity (the classical idea of the Greek root).
If one gets nothing else out of this book, here is the main idea: “…the Spirit is always connected to the activity of the Father and Son in creation and that the Father and Spirit are connected to the Son in incarnation, including crucifixion and resurrection. Divine entanglement becomes a way of understanding the perichoretic expression of divine love and grace in the creation.” (Loc. 2787)
The Entangled Trinity: Quantum Physics and Theology may well be the most meaningful and thought-provoking theological work that I’ve read this year. And, it is a book that I will return to again and again.
Indeed, I particularly liked Simmons’ use of Elizabeth Johnson’s Quest for the Living God: Mapping Frontiers in the Theology of God: “Mysterium refers to the hidden character of the Holy, beyond imagination not just because of our intellectual limits but because of the very nature of the subject. Far from being a pessimistic experience, however, encounter with the Holy as mystery is laced with the promise of plenitude: more fullness exists than we can grasp.” (pp. 8-9 of Johnson, Location 142 cites it)
As a person who, in spite of a personal faith experience, has dealt with doubt on more than one occasion, I really appreciated Simmons’ idea about, “…the doubt intrinsic to faith—indeed, a structural feature of it—is ‘existential’ doubt, the uncertainty and anxiety based on our very finitude.” (Loc 232) This came through even better a few pages later when he wrote, “Human beings live their lives in the dash, the dash inscribed on the grave marker between the date of birth and the date of death. Existential thinkers such as Tillich invite us to contemplate our dash and how and why we live it. Do we rush through it? Do we ‘dash’ through the dash?” (Loc. 239) With such words, Simmons encourages the reader to indulge herself or himself in contemplating the unknowable in order to value that “dash” of life just that much more. As we are juxtaposed between time and eternity, we struggle for that self-conscious awareness that might make sense of the “dash.”
Naturally, some portion of the argument involves how humanity knows truth and why we have to understand so much analogically. Simmons cites the 20th century’s Paul Tillich’s distinction between sign and symbol: “…both point to a reality beyond themselves, but while signs are constructed, symbols participate in the reality to which they point.” (Loc. 513) While that may be more poetic than helpful to some, Simmons clarifies by noting, “All areas of human reflection, theology included, draw on human experience and thought to try to understand something about the world presented to it but that can never be known in itself. This is why symbol, analogy, and metaphor are so important in theological reflection.” (Loc 507) “Analogy draws on experience and yet also affirms that that to which it refers is not identifical to itself. There is both a similarity, hence the analogy is useful; but also a dissimilarity, otherwise the analogy would simply be redundant.” (Loc. 525)
So, after a brief screed against modern tendencies toward reductionism (using some eloquent arguments from a modern Jesuit scholar named John Haught), Simmons points out the value of “emergence” in understanding reality in general which, extrapolated, might help us understand the idea of “begotten, not created” with regard to the early Christian creeds. Simmons points out that emergence is the key to increased complexity in biological/chemical structures. For example, there is nothing “wet” about either hydrogen or oxygen molecules but the wetness of water emerges when the atoms merge to form a water molecule (Loc.565). Of course, this isn’t a perfect analogy because, in orthodox Christian theology, neither Father nor Son is diminished by the Incarnation event we know as Jesus the Christ, but the hydrogen and oxygen molecules lose their distinctiveness as long as they are water. Still, one gets the idea.
The main analogy, as the title implies, is that quantum theory demonstrates that there is not an unchanging subject of change at the base of physical existence, “…but rather discrete units (quanta) of energy that were in a constant state of flux or motion.” (Loc. 654) Taken by itself, that may not seem helpful, but when Simmons gets to the discussion of entanglement, the argument soars. To get there, he blends a little bit of Alfred North Whitehead’s philosophy (Loc. 670—“We have a becoming of continuity, not a continuity of becoming…”). He goes on to state, “To be is to become, and to become is to be relational.” (Loc. 676)
So, the classic question has been, “How does God become relational without becoming diffused? How does God maintain transcendence while becoming immanent?” (my wording) After a concise, but very illuminating, summary of the historical understanding of the Trinity from the early Church fathers through the present, Simmons shifts to his main topic—quanta as representative of reality existing in all possible states at once (Loc. 2587). As photons and subatomic particles act as both waves and particles simultaneously, we only understand them as one or the other on the basis of what we are measuring or observing. Scientists call this “superposition” because the reality is “superimposed” on the other—even though the other is still there (Loc 2582).
Of course, the key idea is this: “Quantum entities that have interacted with each other can remain mutually entangled, however far they may eventually separate spatially. It seems that nature fights back against a relentless reductionism. Even the subatomic world cannot be treated purely atomistically.” (Loc. 2656) Astute readers will see where this is going. In Christian doctrine, Father interacts with Son Who interacts with Spirit. The Trinity is, essentially entangled so that no matter how separate they may be “spatially,” they remain in the reality of their relationship. Simmons poetically makes this point by borrowing an old Greek term from the early Fathers, “perichoretic.” The Greek root can simply mean gathering together, but I like the idea of “dancing around” in unity (the classical idea of the Greek root).
If one gets nothing else out of this book, here is the main idea: “…the Spirit is always connected to the activity of the Father and Son in creation and that the Father and Spirit are connected to the Son in incarnation, including crucifixion and resurrection. Divine entanglement becomes a way of understanding the perichoretic expression of divine love and grace in the creation.” (Loc. 2787)
The Entangled Trinity: Quantum Physics and Theology may well be the most meaningful and thought-provoking theological work that I’ve read this year. And, it is a book that I will return to again and again.
January 13, 2021
Ernest Simmons certainly has an earnest ambition for connecting theology (Trinitarianism no less!) with quantum physics. But what may seem at first like unconnected areas of study are creatively interwoven together in the thesis of his book, namely that quantum concepts like entanglement and superposition can help elucidate how the transcendent God can simultaneously be immanent and intimately active in the life of human persons and created history. In other words, the best model to express the relationship between God and creation is with a panentheistic model, one in which its understanding is facilitated by current definitions and findings in quantum physics.
The first two-thirds (parts I and II) offer (1) a salient exploration into the Christian epistemological framework that informs his following metaphysical considerations, and (2) an overview of the historical to contemporary developments of an orthodox, biblical understanding of the Trinity, emphasising the biblical roots, names, and ideas that contributed mightily to where much of its current literature and scholarship stands today.
Part III, however, is the destination and it is there we find his novel contribution: a panentheistic model of God and creation, one that harmonises and converses contemporary quantum concepts and understandings (e.g. entanglement and superposition) with Trinitarian concepts like perichoresis. Such a model, to be sure, would invariably affect our understanding of an array of subjects (i.e. anthropology, cosmology, sanctification, ecclesiology, missiology, eschatology, etc.), and he draws out some of those implications at the end of his book.
Overall, this small book is insightful and creative! It has left me amazed by how a lofty, mysterious doctrine like the Trinity can also be paradigmatic and fruitful for other disciplines with which to be engaged.
Just keep a tab open to help understand some of the more heavy theological and scientific content! If you have little to no prior knowledge in quantum physics and its vocabulary (like me), then prepare to find clarity elsewhere.
The first two-thirds (parts I and II) offer (1) a salient exploration into the Christian epistemological framework that informs his following metaphysical considerations, and (2) an overview of the historical to contemporary developments of an orthodox, biblical understanding of the Trinity, emphasising the biblical roots, names, and ideas that contributed mightily to where much of its current literature and scholarship stands today.
Part III, however, is the destination and it is there we find his novel contribution: a panentheistic model of God and creation, one that harmonises and converses contemporary quantum concepts and understandings (e.g. entanglement and superposition) with Trinitarian concepts like perichoresis. Such a model, to be sure, would invariably affect our understanding of an array of subjects (i.e. anthropology, cosmology, sanctification, ecclesiology, missiology, eschatology, etc.), and he draws out some of those implications at the end of his book.
Overall, this small book is insightful and creative! It has left me amazed by how a lofty, mysterious doctrine like the Trinity can also be paradigmatic and fruitful for other disciplines with which to be engaged.
Just keep a tab open to help understand some of the more heavy theological and scientific content! If you have little to no prior knowledge in quantum physics and its vocabulary (like me), then prepare to find clarity elsewhere.
October 4, 2017
This small book starts out quiet well, and I was intrigued with the aim to use concepts from Quantum Theory to model and help improve our understanding of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Author delves into a pretty good overview of the theological understanding of the Trinity. This has been an area of interest for me for many decades, and I was taken by surprise by just how much the Author covered given the size of the book - and that made me quite eager to get into the Physics side of the book.
However, I thought that this History of Physics leading up to modern understanding of Quantum Theory - whilst good - was too short, especially give my comments above. It seems the Author is assuming that it is a Physicist who picks up this book, more so than a Theologian - which I think is a mistake.
I struggled with the Author's argument for Panentheism, modified for Creation, the Incarnation and our Sanctification, as a good model of explaining the Trinity in Quantum Theory-related terms. This seemed to then become an argument for not only Theistic Evolution but for the Intelligent Design of the Universe. Which I think is quiet a big challenge for a small book!
Whilst I am a Lutheran Pastor, I do also have a Science Degree and continue to enjoy reading about Astronomy, Cosmology, Quantum Physics and Relativity. Yet I find myself feeling disappointed with this when it started out quite good.
On the positive side, it does have an excellent bibliography that does allow further study.
However, I thought that this History of Physics leading up to modern understanding of Quantum Theory - whilst good - was too short, especially give my comments above. It seems the Author is assuming that it is a Physicist who picks up this book, more so than a Theologian - which I think is a mistake.
I struggled with the Author's argument for Panentheism, modified for Creation, the Incarnation and our Sanctification, as a good model of explaining the Trinity in Quantum Theory-related terms. This seemed to then become an argument for not only Theistic Evolution but for the Intelligent Design of the Universe. Which I think is quiet a big challenge for a small book!
Whilst I am a Lutheran Pastor, I do also have a Science Degree and continue to enjoy reading about Astronomy, Cosmology, Quantum Physics and Relativity. Yet I find myself feeling disappointed with this when it started out quite good.
On the positive side, it does have an excellent bibliography that does allow further study.
December 10, 2017
Theologically Weighty
Simmons does a great job of introducing the history and doctrine of the Trinity. As he connects the Trinity to quantum physics, the terminology becomes ever more complex. I enjoyed it, but you probably want to keep a dictionary nearby as you read.
Simmons does a great job of introducing the history and doctrine of the Trinity. As he connects the Trinity to quantum physics, the terminology becomes ever more complex. I enjoyed it, but you probably want to keep a dictionary nearby as you read.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews