Quotes & Sayings


We, and creation itself, actualize the possibilities of the God who sustains the world, towards becoming in the world in a fuller, more deeper way. - R.E. Slater

There is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have [consequential effects upon] the world around us. - Process Metaphysician Alfred North Whitehead

Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem says (i) all closed systems are unprovable within themselves and, that (ii) all open systems are rightly understood as incomplete. - R.E. Slater

The most true thing about you is what God has said to you in Christ, "You are My Beloved." - Tripp Fuller

The God among us is the God who refuses to be God without us, so great is God's Love. - Tripp Fuller

According to some Christian outlooks we were made for another world. Perhaps, rather, we were made for this world to recreate, reclaim, redeem, and renew unto God's future aspiration by the power of His Spirit. - R.E. Slater

Our eschatological ethos is to love. To stand with those who are oppressed. To stand against those who are oppressing. It is that simple. Love is our only calling and Christian Hope. - R.E. Slater

Secularization theory has been massively falsified. We don't live in an age of secularity. We live in an age of explosive, pervasive religiosity... an age of religious pluralism. - Peter L. Berger

Exploring the edge of life and faith in a post-everything world. - Todd Littleton

I don't need another reason to believe, your love is all around for me to see. – Anon

Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all. - Khalil Gibran, Prayer XXIII

Be careful what you pretend to be. You become what you pretend to be. - Kurt Vonnegut

Religious beliefs, far from being primary, are often shaped and adjusted by our social goals. - Jim Forest

We become who we are by what we believe and can justify. - R.E. Slater

People, even more than things, need to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. – Anon

Certainly, God's love has made fools of us all. - R.E. Slater

An apocalyptic Christian faith doesn't wait for Jesus to come, but for Jesus to become in our midst. - R.E. Slater

Christian belief in God begins with the cross and resurrection of Jesus, not with rational apologetics. - Eberhard Jüngel, Jürgen Moltmann

Our knowledge of God is through the 'I-Thou' encounter, not in finding God at the end of a syllogism or argument. There is a grave danger in any Christian treatment of God as an object. The God of Jesus Christ and Scripture is irreducibly subject and never made as an object, a force, a power, or a principle that can be manipulated. - Emil Brunner

“Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” means "I will be that who I have yet to become." - God (Ex 3.14) or, conversely, “I AM who I AM Becoming.”

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. - Thomas Merton

The church is God's world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the Eucharist/Communion table to share life with one another as a new kind of family. When this happens, we show to the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be. The church is God's show-and-tell for the world to see how God wants us to live as a blended, global, polypluralistic family united with one will, by one Lord, and baptized by one Spirit. – Anon

The cross that is planted at the heart of the history of the world cannot be uprooted. - Jacques Ellul

The Unity in whose loving presence the universe unfolds is inside each person as a call to welcome the stranger, protect animals and the earth, respect the dignity of each person, think new thoughts, and help bring about ecological civilizations. - John Cobb & Farhan A. Shah

If you board the wrong train it is of no use running along the corridors of the train in the other direction. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God's justice is restorative rather than punitive; His discipline is merciful rather than punishing; His power is made perfect in weakness; and His grace is sufficient for all. – Anon

Our little [biblical] systems have their day; they have their day and cease to be. They are but broken lights of Thee, and Thou, O God art more than they. - Alfred Lord Tennyson

We can’t control God; God is uncontrollable. God can’t control us; God’s love is uncontrolling! - Thomas Jay Oord

Life in perspective but always in process... as we are relational beings in process to one another, so life events are in process in relation to each event... as God is to Self, is to world, is to us... like Father, like sons and daughters, like events... life in process yet always in perspective. - R.E. Slater

To promote societal transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework which includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace. - The Earth Charter Mission Statement

Christian humanism is the belief that human freedom, individual conscience, and unencumbered rational inquiry are compatible with the practice of Christianity or even intrinsic in its doctrine. It represents a philosophical union of Christian faith and classical humanist principles. - Scott Postma

It is never wise to have a self-appointed religious institution determine a nation's moral code. The opportunities for moral compromise and failure are high; the moral codes and creeds assuredly racist, discriminatory, or subjectively and religiously defined; and the pronouncement of inhumanitarian political objectives quite predictable. - R.E. Slater

God's love must both center and define the Christian faith and all religious or human faiths seeking human and ecological balance in worlds of subtraction, harm, tragedy, and evil. - R.E. Slater

In Whitehead’s process ontology, we can think of the experiential ground of reality as an eternal pulse whereby what is objectively public in one moment becomes subjectively prehended in the next, and whereby the subject that emerges from its feelings then perishes into public expression as an object (or “superject”) aiming for novelty. There is a rhythm of Being between object and subject, not an ontological division. This rhythm powers the creative growth of the universe from one occasion of experience to the next. This is the Whiteheadian mantra: “The many become one and are increased by one.” - Matthew Segall

Without Love there is no Truth. And True Truth is always Loving. There is no dichotomy between these terms but only seamless integration. This is the premier centering focus of a Processual Theology of Love. - R.E. Slater

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Note: Generally I do not respond to commentary. I may read the comments but wish to reserve my time to write (or write off the comments I read). Instead, I'd like to see our community help one another and in the helping encourage and exhort each of us towards Christian love in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. - re slater

Wednesday, December 2, 2020

Introducing the Center for Open & Relational Theology




Introduction
by R.E. Slater 

What Is Open and Relational Theology? "Open and Relational Theology is an umbrella label under which a variety of theologies and believers reside." It asks the questions of the future of Christianity in a cauldron of polypluralistic societies each sorting both themselves and their neighbors out - "Whether to love one another or exclude and hate one another."
It also asks the questions of sin and evil and divine sovereignty - "Where is God in all this mess?" Not very surprisingly, though many think so, God is here with us in all its awful and joyous moments.
A process based faith shares how this is so by removing the God of transcendent judgment into the realms of infilling grace and mercy. There is no "God up there, I am here" teachings in process theology. Just the opposite. "God is here as God ever has been here with creation. We, conversely, God's disbelievers, are the ones being asked to invite God into our lives which translate into loving each other even as God loves us." It is this latter invite which threatens most as it asks us, who prefer to exclude and hate, to stop, and learn to love." - res


https://c4ort.com/


What Is Open and Relational Theology?

“Open and Relational Theology” is an umbrella label under which a variety of theologies and believers reside. This variety shares at least two ideas in common:

  • God experiences time moment by moment (open)

  • God, us, and creation relate, so that everyone gives and receives (relational)

  • Most open and relational thinkers also affirm additional ideas, such as the idea love is our ultimate ethic, creatures are free at least to some extent, all creation matters, life has purpose, genuine transformation is possible, science points to important truths theology needs to incorporate, and more.


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What Is Open and Relational Theology?
Premiered Oct 15, 2020


This 2-minute video offers a brief introduction to Open and Relational Theology.
For more information, visit the Center for Open and Relational Theology website 


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10 Myths of Holiness
Holiness Lecture 1 (Final)
by Thomas Oord - May 22, 2020




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News & Events


Resources


Bibliographies

John Sanders - Open Theism
This bibliography is arranged in five categories: (1) multi-views works, (2) works supporting open theism, (3) works engaging open theism, (4) works against open theism, and (5) doctoral dissertations and masters theses engaging open theism. Updated November 2018     Read More >>

Center for Process Studies Library
The Center for Process Studies library is the world’s largest collection of writings in process-relational thought–consists of more than 2,400 books, 750 dissertations, and 12,000 articles.    Browse Library >>

Whitehead Research Library
The Whitehead Research Library provides open access to archival material related to the philosophy and life of Alfred North Whitehead. It includes electronic versions of student lecture notes, letters, and photographs.    Browse Library >>

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Podcasts
        • Catherine Keller (Homebrewed Christianity) 
        • Chris Fisher (God is Open) 
        • John Haught (Homebrewed Christianity) 
        • John Sanders (Homebrewed Christianity) 
        • Open and Relational Q&A with Thomas Jay Oord and Tripp Fuller (Homebrewed Christianity) 
        • Open and Relational Theology Throwdown (Homebrewed Christianity) 
        • Open and Relational Theology Series (Laity Podcast) 
        • Thomas Jay Oord (A Better Story) 
        • Thomas Jay Oord (Homebrewed Christianity)

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Videos & Online Courses
        • A People’s Theology
        • An Introductory Introduction to Process Theology (John Cobb) 
        • An Introduction to Process Theology (David Ray Griffin) 
        • Animal Suffering (Bethanie Sollereder) 
        • Dancing with God in a World of Crucifixion (Karen Baker Fletcher) 
        • God and Suffering (Tim Reddish)
        • Homebrewed Christianity
        • Open View of the Future (Greg Boyd) 
        • Open Theism (Greg Boyd) 
        • Open Theism (William Hasker) 
        • Panentheism and Panpsychism (Thomas Jay Oord) 
        • The God of Noncoercive Love in the Face of Randomness and Evil (Thomas Jay Oord and Tripp Fuller) 
        • What in the World is Process Theology? (Theology Matters)  
        • What is Open Theism? (Chris Fisher) 
        • What is Process Theology? (Thomas Jay Oord) 
        • Why Go Process? (Monica Coleman and Tripp Fuller) 
        • Process and Faith Lectionary
        • Click the image below to view the Process and Faith Lectionary

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Web Essays & Sites

Select Blog Essays:
        • “An Open and Relational God” – Scott McKnight
        • Andrew Davis
        • “Is Open Theism a Type of Arminianism?” – Roger Olson
        • “Open and Relational Theology” – TC Moore
        • “O is for Open Theology” – Bo Sanders 
        • “Relational Power” – Jay McDaniel
        • “Ask an Open Theist” – Rachel Held Evans
        • “Summary of Open Theism” – John Sanders
        • Resource Websites:
        • Academia Open and Relational Papers
        • Bruce Epperly
        • Catherine Keller 
        • Debates on Open Theism.org
        • God Can’t Website
        • God is Open – Scripture Sources 
        • John Sanders 
        • Keith Ward
        • Mike Edwards
        • Open and Relational Reading Group 
        • Open Horizons Website
        • Open (Access) Theology Journal
        • Process Essays – Religion Online
        • Process Studies Website 
        • ReKnew Website 
        • Thomas Jay Oord 
        • Tom Torbeyns
        • Tripp Fuller 
        • Uncontrolling Love Essays


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