Relevancy22: Contemporary Process Christianity: Post-Evangelic Topics and Theology: Sep 26, 2020

A New Natural Theology: Post-Reformed

Contemporary Theology Meets World

In my more recent ramblings I happened to stumbled across the discourses of Matthew Segall who I am quickly learning to appreciate from a very deep level of my being. It is the kind of philosophical-theological discussions that at least allows me to think about God, the bible, and the Christian faith from a more specific Whiteheadian Process perspective. This is not to say that process thought is the only way to approach the bible but this being the year of the pandemic and climate crises of 2020 it seems I am camping down on this philosophical/theological framework.

Concentrating on a specific Christian theme would not be an unusual task for me as I have done the same over the years across a range of topical subjects such as: i) Arminianism and Calvinism; ii) Evolutionary Cosmology and Quantum Science; iii) the Church and Society; iv) Hermeneutics and Interpretation; v) Open and Relational Theology; vi) Christianity and its Social/Ecological Importance; vii) Postmodernism, Post-Structuralism, Deconstruction, and Reconstruction; viii) Dominianism, Authoritarianism and the Post-Christian World; ix) etc.

But if you were to bookmark a page this would be it. And when you complete its content then bookmark Matt Segall's page to listen to all that was missed here. When looking over Matthew's oeuvre (a substantial body of work constituting the lifework of a writer, an artist, or a composer) I believe I will subjectively start with the later renditions of Matt's videos from around 2017 and forward. It should be enough of a bookwards look to sufficiently hear what Matt is saying from a cosmocentric universe of process, panpsychism, and metaphysics. The closest I've been able to come to date to this type of discourse would be that of the philosopher Whitehead's work (naturally), philosopher Alain Badou's Being and Event, and a collection of Continental Philosophical thought beginning with Hegel onwards.

My bible training from youth through seminary coupled with 34 years of lay ministry taught me a lot about God and the bible from the Reformed perspective of Special Revelation. So much so that I needed to go into a deep withdraw and rethink of the entirety of its biblical system. What I needed was a larger God with a more expanded version of the bible's outreach of God's love and atoning redemption for creation. Through the years I began to remove every Reformed doctrinal barrier by enlarging the thoughts across every area of Reformed thinking. When finally redefining its system in some contemporary form of post-evangelic, perhaps progressive / liberal form of itself, I have now come back full circle to take all that I've written and advance forward once again. Sic, I don't miss the irony of this new undertaking in that this type of task would be a very process-type-of-thing to do: To take a past subject and increase it by a complexity of one.

About a month ago I referred to this new stage I had entered into as the beginning of Chapter 2 for me where Chapter 1 extended backwards from August 2020 to the inception of Relevancy22 around March of 2011 (excluding 3 articles I had written in 2009). Having written a series on cosmoecology this past August I realized later that evening I had come full circle and had completed what I first set out to do in 2011. When realizing this I thought to push on into new territory; topical areas that deal more concretely with today's contemporary societies and the world at large.

Having enlarged the "God/bible/faith" world of Special Revelation "from above," it really needs a contextualizing Natural Theology of General Theology "from below". Think of the first as the post-evangelic, post-Reformed world of theology, and the second as the contemporary, post-structuralist world of philosophy. From above... and from below.... From biblical eyes to academic eyes. From the lenses of Theology and the lenses of Philosophy. Better put... both theology and philosophy are inseparable from one another. Each integrally affects the other.

However in order of influence, philosophy comes first. How we look at life is how we look at God. We do not live in a vacuum. We live in societies and with nature. How we understand life from these perspectives is how we will understand God. We do not begin with spiritual abstractions and speculate outwards into our experiences. That only comes later. At first, our inner being is always affected by the relational externals of the cosmos causing us to speculate outwards into the metaphysics, ontology, and epistemology of God, self and world. Experience always leads speculation. Thus the importance of a Natural Theology. It brings structure to God, the bible, the Christian faith, and our lives.

Without a natural context it would be very difficult to speculate about God as theology qua theology. Theology always needs context. Philosophy is Theology's context. We view the bible how we view life. Our views of life becomes our views of God. It is at this point which may then begin to reflect upon our views of life once a theology of God has been obtained. Some become harsher, meaner, more cruel. Other theologies become gracious, forgiving, and hopeful. And within these reflections we may go round-and-round again-and-again. Life reflecting upon God reflecting upon Life reflecting on God. My journey beyond the classic Reformed express of God is one such instance. Having lived life, studied Reformed Theology, I now speculate that both myself, my being, and my believes need to syncretize upwards and outwards into newer, updated forms of its once existential self. And when doing, hopefully not bringing with it the old fundamentalisms of attitude, defense, and distrust with it into its more expanded form of epistemology.

And thus and thus have I transitioned the spiritual contents of my faith - and perhaps been personally transformed into a more loving spiritual sense of being and purpose - by expanding a past philosophical framework of Reformed philosophical theology towards a new framework and firmament of Post-Reformed metaphysics of God, self, the bible, and the cosmos. Let's call this more recent personal and structural development a "New Natural Theology" of sorts for me. Where a theology of Revelation (bible doctrines) have been enlarged and expanded. Where now a theology of Creation (the sciences, arts, and humanities) might now be included, enlarged and expanded. Where once I viewed creation in classical terms now I may look at it on evolutionary terms without losing God but having gained an expanded appreciation for God's handiwork. Where once I viewed Christ in very personal terms of salvation now I may see Christ's atoning work in an encompassing salvation for the entirety of a freewilled cosmos without end, predetermination, or spiritual devolvement. Where once I might understand Dispensational or Covenantal Eschatologies as a futile ends I may now throw those out for an open future pregnant with possibilities of constructive wellbeing and societal generation ordained by God if not very sacrament itself.

As such, if God is all-in-all then I need to see this God not only through the perspective of Himself in Christ Jesus but through the innerworkings of His creation. How humanity works at all levels between it's freewill self, with God, and with God's freewill creation, from all perspectives. Lately I've been focusing on the socio-political-ecological perspective as a result of the fall of the church during the Trumpian era of Christianity. An era that has been death to the church as it wraps itself inside-out with empire ethics and memes. It is sad to see this evangelical era end so abysmally with all societal inquisitions it has created bringing deep harm upon those it deemed godless and wicked. Not realizing they were the ones casting hell upon the "secular" lives of the "unchurched heathen" masses. Refusing to hear the refugee crying for mercy and help, to not seeing the invisible men and women on the streets, nor the impoverished, nor the many genders and races of America. The secular church has deeply failed in its mission to relieve, replenish, restore, redeem, mediate, advocate, or renew. It has become one with the empire making it three times the child of hell.

To wrap up, I would like to think of this expanded contemporary version of Natural Theology as "Post-Reformed Theology meets the World." I kinda like it. It tells me if the church, or we as Christians, are to live and minister in this world then we need to learn how to meet the world in all its complexities. To live in it and not shy away from it. To include it rather than exclude it. To be a part of it without forcing our "ideas and laws" upon society. But at all times to share love and loving outreach in practices and policies. This is God's world in its entirety and wholeness. God's world operates divinely where all that isn't divine is disconnected from its flow, energy, and processes. If Christianity is to meet and live in the world then it better know the where, how, why, and what of its faith. The Christian faith is as integrally connected to the world as the very air we breathe. But unless this faith has sufficiently holistic Natural Theology of God and world then it is hopeless at odds with the flow and energy of God's Spirit.

To each new day I wish you the very best of Christian journeys through this world of opportunities and possibilities. Enjoy!

R.E. Slater

September 26, 2020