In this sequel to Outgrowing Materialism, Thompson explores five conceptual “Worlds” that preceded the dualist v. materialist divide and shows why recent philosophy—often little-known outside of academic circles—is now giving these old ideas a new relevance. In an approachable way, but without avoiding complexity, Embodying Mind leads the reader through the Worlds of panpsychism, idealism, Aristotelianism, emergence, and information theory, holism, and process theology, examining the ideas of ethics and God, and the difficult questions, accompanying each. Thompson concludes that causal processes harmonize as in a cosmic counterpoint. The world and its beautiful contents form a seamless material whole. It is not as if Mind or God glints obscurely through ever-narrowing chinks in otherwise seamless nature. There are no chinks, but the whole is full of Mind. Overall, imperfectly, things are moving towards their sustaining good: God is becoming God, surpassing God. Embodying Mind can be read independently from Outgrowing Materialism, but together the two volumes of Ten Ways to Weave the Word mount a robust, wide-ranging case that nobody interested in the science v. religion debate, or wishing more widely for an integrated understanding of “Matter, Mind and God,” can afford to ignore.

The idea of an ideological war between science and religion, Thompson argues, is founded on a mistake. But this does not mean that there is nothing at stake. For behind the ill-conceived conflict lie complex issues about the nature of mind, consciousness, experience, subjectivity, quality, value, and the like, all of which need to be disentangled and assessed in their own right. Outgrowing Materialism leads the reader through a sequence of five “Worlds,” each of which offers a distinct way of understanding (or failing to understand) these issues, and where God might belong (or not). Writing accessibly, but with a sharp eye for detail, Thompson sheds new light on the familiar territory of materialism, dualism, and structural realism, and evaluates the growing attraction of the multiverse. He argues that dualism mechanized the material world; then materialism exorcised the mental “ghost” from the machine; and finally, this machine is evaporating into pure mathematics. Outgrowing Materialism is half of Ten Ways to Weave the World: Matter, Mind, and God. The sequel, Embodying Mind, discusses five “Worlds” that precede and follow those discussed here. However, Outgrowing Materialism stands in its own right as a critique of the modern science v. religion dilemma.

In this sequel to Outgrowing Materialism, Thompson explores five conceptual "Worlds" that preceded the dualist v. materialist divide and shows why recent philosophy--often little-known outside of academic circles--is now giving these old ideas a new relevance. In an approachable way, but without avoiding complexity, Embodying Mind leads the reader through the Worlds of panpsychism, idealism, Aristotelianism, emergence, and information theory, holism, and process theology, examining the ideas of ethics and God, and the difficult questions, accompanying each. Thompson concludes that causal processes harmonize as in a cosmic counterpoint. The world and its beautiful contents form a seamless material whole. It is not as if Mind or God glints obscurely through ever-narrowing chinks in otherwise seamless nature. There are no chinks, but the whole is full of Mind. Overall, imperfectly, things are moving towards their sustaining good: God is becoming God, surpassing God. Embodying Mind can be read independently from Outgrowing Materialism, but together the two volumes of Ten Ways to Weave the Word mount a robust, wide-ranging case that nobody interested in the science v. religion debate, or wishing more widely for an integrated understanding of "Matter, Mind and God," can afford to ignore.