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2 Porting Grace When I say that I want to ‘‘port’’ grace into an objectoriented framework, I’m using the word in a way that is analogous to its use in computer programming. To a programmer , to port means to modify a program or application for use on a different platform or with a different operating system. To port an application, you need to rewrite the sections of code that are system-specific and then recompile the program on the new platform. Analogously, to philosophically port a concept means to modify it for use on a different metaphysical platform. My aim is to experimentally port the Christian concept of grace out of a traditional, theistic ontology and into a nontheistic , object-oriented ontology. To do this, it is necessary to (1) identify the essential features of grace, (2) identify the key differences between a theistic ontology and an objectoriented ontology, (3) map the modifications that are necessary in order to recompile grace on an object-oriented 4 platform, and (4) make explicit the practical implications of these modifications. Can grace survive such a port? Would it remain recognizable? Would it still be functional? Part of this book emphasizes theory and frames my own object-oriented account of grace in terms of Bruno Latour’s ‘‘experimental’’ metaphysics. Here, I describe how Latour’s experimental metaphysics breaks with many of the essential tenets of a traditional, theistic account of reality and I draw out the implications of these differences for a non-theistic approach to grace. The balance of the book focuses on practice and examines what kinds of religious instruments and training might take center stage if grace is understood as a ubiquitous micro-force rather than a supernatural macroforce . Though experimental in character, my intention is to stage this bit of metaphysical theater for decisively nonspeculative ends. For my part, this elaborate philosophical project of porting grace has a very practical aim: I mean to bring more clearly into focus the nature of suffering, its root causes, and—most importantly—the relationship of such suffering to grace. It is my position that, from a theological perspective, the crucial metaphysical issue is suffering. Everything hinges on how a given theory of the real responds to this question: is suffering in general—and human suffering in particular—an accidental and temporary feature of the way things are? Or is suffering wound so tightly into the real that, of necessity, it goes all the way down? Here, again, my hypothesis favors the latter. Porting Grace 5 ...

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