Co-inherence

The term co-inherence was coined by the English writer and theologian Charles Williams (1886-1945) to describe a concept that was central to his rather unorthodox theology. This concept was derived from the Christian mystery of the unity of God in the three persons of the Trinity. Williams extended this to the idea that the unity of mankind consisted of their analogous co-inherence with  each other. Williams believed this applied to all of mankind.

A limited definition of co-inherence has been given as “Things that exist in essential relationship with another, as innate components of the other.” I say “limited” because the phrase ” innate components” doesn’t fully capture, to my mind, the mysterious origins of the concept.

Williams’ original concept of co-inherence, as it related to Christian theology, can be expressed in the following diagram ( though I have added an unorthodox twist by identifying co-inherence with the Holy Spirit.) If Muslims took to heart the concept of co-inherence, they might understand that their God and the Christian God are one and the same.

In the co-inherence diagrams given below I hope to provoke a sense of what I mean by the term co-inherence in a broader sense. Some of these (after a little meditation) may expose the mysterious nature of co-inherence but as someone who studies quantum physics, I have become quite accustomed to including mystery in my world view.

The initiation of the Big Bang is a mystery. Quantum entanglement is a mystery. Complementarity as exposed in Young’s double slit experiment is a mystery. The phenomenon of emergence in complex adaptive systems, such as the emergence of a self-aware mind from the network of synapses in the human brain, is a mystery. But these things all happen, and so might co-inherence.

More down to earth diagrams might be:

Perhaps you can suggest others.