This work is an introduction to the totality of the metaphysical philosophy of nature of Hedwig Conrad-Martius (1888-1966). Her own training and inclination as a realist phenomenologist enables a unique perspective on central issues in modern and contemporary (twentieth century) theoretical biology and physics. Here we find novel theories of, e.g., space and time, as well as development and evolution. This work is thus of interest to anyone studying the history of the phenomenological movement as well as religious cosmology.

The philosophical basis for this cosmology is Conrad-Martius¿ ¿realontology¿ which is a phenomenological account of the essence of appearing reality. The full elaboration of the modes of appearing of what is real enables the unfolding of an analogical theory of ¿selfness¿ within the order of nature culminating in an account of the coming to be of humans, for whom there is an essentially distinctive world- and self-manifestation for which she reserves the term ¿spirit.¿ Key to her position is the revival of ancient metaphysical themes in new transformed guises, especially potentiality and entelechy.

Nature¿s status, as a self-actuation of world-constituting essence-entelechies, places Conrad-Martius in the middle of philosophical-theological discussions of, e.g., the hermeneutical mandate of demythologization as well as the nature of evolution. Of special interest is her insistence on both nature¿s self-actuating and evolving powers and a robust theory of creation.

James G. Hart is a Professor Emeritus at Indiana University, Bloomington, where he taught in both the Department of Religious Studies and (as an Adjunct Professor) in the Philosophy Department from 1972 until 2001. His previous works include The Piety of Thinking (Indiana University Press, 1976, with John Maraldo), The Person and the Common Life (Springer, 1992), and Who One Is  (two volumes, Springer, 2009). 

Rodney K.B. Parker is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Dominican University College in Ottawa, Ontario. From 2017 to 2018, he was the lead researcher for Women in Early Phenomenology at the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists, University of Paderborn. He is also a former Adjunct Professor at the University of Western Ontario and Visiting Scholar at the Husserl Archives, KU Leuven. His areas of specialization are Husserl's transcendental phenomenology and the history of the phenomenological movement.  

Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. The Method of The Realontology.- Chapter 3. The Foundations of the Realontology.- Chapter 4. The Self-Formation of Nature.- Chapter 5. The Aeonic World-Periphery.- Chapter 6. The Realontology and Realmythology.- Chapter 7. Phenomenology and the Unearthing of Heaven.- Chapter 8. Conclusion.