Among the many scientific ideas that seem to support the naturalist worldview that of emergence now holds an increasingly prominent place. Emergence means the appearance in natural history of more and more intricately organized physical and living systems over the course of time. What is most remarkable about emergent systems is that they display properties and functions that had not been operative at earlier and less complicated chapters in cosmic history. Emergence implies, at the very least, that the universe was not finished or fully formed at the instant of its origin and that it takes time for its potentialities to become actualized. Emergence also leaves open the possibility that unpredictably novel modes of being are yet to be realized in the cosmic future. There is no good reason to suspect that emergence will not continue for billions of years to come. Even while it is always subject to the laws of thermodynamics, the cosmos remains open to surprising outcomes up ahead that will resist entropy even as they feed on it.

However, in the end, will the story of cosmic emergence prove to be nothing more than a fascinating but ultimately futile thrust into the void? Or is it instead a meaningful series of responses to a beckoning presence that addresses the universe from beyond, calling it into a new future, and perhaps endowing it with permanent meaning?