Toward a Generative Religious Studies: GIP as an Evolutionary Framework for Post-Axial Spirituality and Integrative Theologies

Abstract

This paper proposes a generative framework for reimagining theology, ritual, and spiritual practice through the Genesis-Integration Principle (GIP). Building on the triadic structure of Genesis (G), Integration (I), and Optimization (O), GIP provides a dynamic architecture for understanding religious evolution as an emergent, adaptive process. At the same time, the paper acknowledges that authentic religious experience often arises from sources beyond conscious design or systemic intention. While GIP offers a new grammar for thinking and embodying religious life in a planetary age, it does not seek to replace the unplanned or ineffable core of spirituality. Drawing on process philosophy, apophatic mysticism, indigenous cosmologies, and systems theory, the framework develops a generative theology that is both universal and pluralistic, honoring tradition while engaging new spiritual possibilities. It introduces "generative rituality," explores emergent religious forms, and addresses its own limits by proposing an "ethics of the ungenerated." Rather than prescribing new dogma, this work articulates an open-ended, participatory process of becoming̶aiming to foster a post-metaphysical and integrative spirituality for the 21st century.