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

Thursday, May 27, 2021

Meet Catherine Keller, Process Theologian


The Process Metaphysics of Alfred North Whitehead (*1861, †1947)
Alfred North Whitehead Project

A short introduction to the process philosophy & process theology of Alfred North Whitehead (*1861, †1947), containing several photos and 4 speakers, describing some core hypotheses of Whitehead's metaphysics. The speakers are: John B. Cobb, David Ray Griffin, Charles Hartshorne and Rupert Sheldrake.

 




TheoCon: Process Theology
Jun 24, 2020


Host - Tripp Fuller
Speaker - John Cobb
Speaker - Catherine Keller
Respondent - Sarah Lane Ritchie
Respondent - Jacob Erickson



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http://catherineekeller.com/

With immediate impact and deep creativity, Catherine Keller offers this brief and unconventional introduction to theological thinking, especially as recast by process thought. Keller takes up theology itself as a quest for religious authenticity.

Through a marvelous combination of brilliant writing, story, reflection, and unabashed questioning of old shibboleths, Keller redeems theology from its dry and predictable categories to reveal what has always been at the heart of the theological enterprise: a personal search for intellectually honest and credible ways of making sense of the loving mystery that encompasses even our confounding times. 

Biography

Catherine Keller, Professor of Constructive Theology in the Theological and Graduate Schools of Drew University, teaches and writes across a wider range of contemporary theological and religious studies. After a seminomadic childhood, undergraduate studies in theology in Heidelberg, Germany, and an M.Div. from Eden Seminary in 1977, she pursued doctoral studies at Claremont Graduate School, in conjunction with the Center for Process Studies. With John B. Cobb, Jr. as her advisor, she received her Ph.D in 1984. After 3 years as Assistant Professor at Xavier University, she has taught at Drew ever since, offering seminars in the reconstruction of historical Christian doctrine.

Systematic theology, often called constructive theology in its contemporary form, involves a deconstructive as well as a creative moment.In the constructive task, Keller employs a wide hermeneutical palette, including feminist and gender studies, metaphorical, biblical, and literary readings, process and poststructuralist philosophies, and practices of ecological and social justice.

She is also a self-avowed and practicing United Methodist, who enjoys preaching and teaching in multicontextual, multireligious settings.

Drew Transdisciplinary Theological Colloquia
Campus Extension: 3268
Office: Seminary Hall 108


Biographical Ammendment

Catherine Keller practices theology as a relation between ancient hints of ultimacy and current matters of urgency. As the George T. Cobb Professor of Constructive Theology in the Theological School and Graduate Division of Religion of Drew University, she teaches courses in process, political, and ecological theology. Within and beyond Christian conversation, she has all along mobilized the transdisciplinary potential of feminist, philosophical, and pluralist intersections with religion.

Most Recent Books

  • Her most recent books invite at once contemplative and social embodiments of our entangled difference:
  • Facing Apocalypse: Climate, Democracy, and Other Last Chances (April 2021);
  • Political Theology of the Earth: Our Planetary Emergency and the Struggle for a New Public (2018);
  • Intercarnations: On the Possibility of Theology (2017);
  • Cloud of the Impossible: Negative Theology and Planetary Entanglement (2014).

Earlier Books

  • On the Mystery: Discerning Divinity in Process (2008);
  • God and Power: Counter-Apocalyptic Journeys (2005);
  • Face of the Deep: A Theology of Becoming (2003);
  • Apocalypse Now and Then: A Feminist Guide to the End of the World (1996);
  • From a Broken Web: Separation, Sexism, and Self (1986).


Co-Editorial Projects

Since the start of the millennium, she has served as executive director of the annual Drew University Transdisciplinary Theological Colloquium. These events have yielded 12 anthologies, mostly published by Fordham University Press. Of these volumes, Keller is co-editor of:
  • Entangled Worlds: Religion, Science, and the New Materialisms (co-edited with Mary Jane Rubenstein);
  • Common Goods: Economy, Ecology, and Political Theology (co-edited with Melanie Johnson-DeBaufre and Elías Ortega-Aponte);
  • Polydoxy: Theology of Multiplicity and Relation (co-edited with Laurel Schneider); 
  • Apophatic Bodies: Negative Theology, Incarnation & Relationality (co-edited with Christopher Boesel);
  • Ecospirit: Theologies and Philosophies of the Earth (co-edited with Laurel Kearns);
  • Toward a Theology of Eros: Transfiguring Passion at the Limits of Discourse (co-edited with Virginia Burrus);
  • Postcolonial Theologies: Divinity and Empire (co-edited with Michael Nausner and Mayra Rivera, published by Chalice Press).

All Books and Projects




Amazon Link

The questions raised by use of American power and the advent of an "American empire," Keller argues, reveal a deeply troubled political unconscious that is wrestling with basic religious issues of power, terror, territory, and love. Keller traces our response to the current national, international, and religious situation to the deeply fraught legacy of Christian apocalypticism. Religious and political factions both left and right, she argues, read our situation in apocalyptic terms without truly understanding that complex legacy. After diving deeply into the multiple and conflicting political and religious meanings of the Book of Revelation, she proposes a counter-apocalypse, an anti-imperial political theology of love.

Interview with Catherine Keller, Facing Apocalypse:
Climate, Democracy, and Other Last Chances



 Political Theology of the Earth with Catherine Keller



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Amazon Link


Leading scholars explore the relationship between deconstructive theory and process thought.
The similarities and creative tensions between French-based poststructuralism and Whiteheadian process thought are examined here by leading scholars. Although both approaches are labeled “postmodern,” their own proponents often take them to be so dissimilar as to be opposed. Contributors to this book, however, argue that processing these differences of theory at a deeper level may cultivate fertile and innovative modes of reflection. Through their comparisons, contrasts, and hybridizations of process and poststructuralist theories, the contributors variously redefine concepts of divinity and cosmos, advance the interaction between science and religion, and engage the sex/gender and religious ethics of otherness and subjectivity.
“Keller and Daniell break astonishingly new ground with this volume. North American process theology and philosophy are unlikely to remain the same after this collection.” — Darren J. N. Middleton, author of Novel Theology: Nikos Kazantzakis’s Encounter with Whiteheadian Process Theism
“This is a truly pioneering work. Individual authors have explored the theoretical convergence of process and post-structuralist thought, but this volume demonstrates that a number of very competent philosophers and theologians are exploring this field, opening up many avenues for future work. These writers don’t deny that differences persist between ‘constructive’ and ‘deconstructive’ postmodern trajectories, but by reinterpreting each side of the conversation, they suggest many possible points of agreement and mutually beneficial influence.” — Don H. Compier, author of What is Rhetorical Theology?: Textual Practice and Public Discourse
At Drew University, Catherine Keller is Professor of Constructive Theology and Anne Daniell is a doctoral candidate. Catherine Keller is the author of Apocalypse Now and Then: A Feminist Guide to the End of the World and From a Broken Web: Separation, Sexism, and Self.


Catherine Keller interview
Apr 16, 2016




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Catherine Keller

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Catherine Keller
CatherineKeller.jpg
Born1953 (age 67–68)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materClaremont Graduate SchoolEden Theological SeminaryUniversity of Heidelberg
Era20th-century philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolFeminist Theology
Process Theology
Constructive Theology
Main interests
theologyprocess theologyecologyfeminismpoststructuralism

Catherine Keller (born 1953) is a contemporary Christian theologian and Professor of Constructive Theology at Drew University's Graduate Division of Religion.[1] As a constructive theologian, Keller's work is oriented around social and ecological justice, poststructuralist theory, and feminist readings of scripture and theology. Both her early and her late work brings relational thinking into theology, focusing on the relational nature of the concept of the divine, and the forms of ecological interdependence within the framework of relational theology. Her work in process theology draws on the relational ontology of Alfred North Whitehead, fielding it in a postmodern, deconstructive framework.[2]

Education

Keller received a Ph.D. in Philosophy of Religion and Theology from Claremont Graduate School in 1984, a M.Div. from Eden Theological Seminary in 1977, and a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) equivalent in Theology from University of Heidelberg in 1974.[3]

Academics

Keller's work stresses an interdisciplinary approach, pulling from sub-fields such as feminist thoughtenvironmental thought, and Continental philosophy. She has played a leading role in building interdisciplinary connections into, and out of, the field of theology. Since 2001 she has had a central role in directing and developing Drew University's Transdisciplinary Theological Colloquium.[4] The colloquia seek to "foster a fresh style of theological discourse that is at once self-deconstructive in its pluralism and constructive in its affirmations".[5] Recent colloquia have brought theology into conversation with movements such as Queer Theory and Animal Studies, have offered novel perspectives on debates about Religion and Science, and have explored topics such as political theology. Notable scholars from outside the field of theology who have participated in the colloquia in recent years include: William E. ConnollyKaren BaradGayatri Chakravorty SpivakDaniel Boyarin, and Amy Hollywood.

With John CaputoRoland Faber and others, Keller provides leadership in the field of theopoetics.[6]

Works

Books

  • From a Broken Web: Separation, Sexism and Self. Boston: Beacon Press, 1986. Der Ich-Wahn: Abkehr von einem.
  • Apocalypse Now and Then: A Feminist Guide to the End of the World. Boston: Beacon Press, 1996.
  • Face of the Deep: A Theology of Becoming. London: Routledge, 2003.
  • God and Power: Counter-Apocalyptic Journeys. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2005.
  • On the Mystery: Discerning God in Process. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2008.
  • Cloud of the Impossible: Negative Theology and Planetary Entanglement. New York: Columbia University Press, 2015.
  • Political Theology of the Earth: Our Planetary Emergency and the Struggle for a New Public. New York: Columbia University Press, 2018.

Edited

  • Process and Difference: Between Cosmological and Poststructuralist Postmodernisms (with Anne Daniell), N.Y.: SUNY, 2002.
  • Postcolonial Theologies: Divinity and Empire (with Mayra Rivera and Michael Nausner), St. Louis: Chalice, 2004.
  • Toward a Theology of Eros: Transfiguring Passion at the Limits of Discipline (with Virginia Burrus), New York: Fordham Press, 2006.
  • The American Empire and the Commonwealth of God: a Political, Economic, Religious Statement (with David R. Griffin, John B. Cobb, Jr,. Richard A. Falk), Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006.
  • Ecospirit: Theologies and Philosophies of the Earth (with Laurel Kearns), New York: Fordham Press, 2007.
  • Polydoxy: Theology of Multiplicity and Relation (with Laurel Schneider), New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group (2011).
  • Entangled Worlds: Religion, Science, and New Materialisms (with Mary-Jane Rubenstein), New York: Fordham University Press, 2017.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Catherine Keller: professor of constructive theology drew theological school". Archived from the original on 2016-04-04. Retrieved 2014-07-14.
  2. ^ "Polydoxy: Theology of multiplicity and relation". Archived from the original on 2014-07-23. Retrieved 2014-07-15.
  3. ^ "CURRICULUM VITAE of Catherine Keller". Archived from the original on 19 April 2016. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
  4. ^ "Catherine Keller: Professor of Construction Theology Drew Theological School"depts.drew.edu. Archived from the original on 4 April 2016. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
  5. ^ "Drew University Transdisciplinary Theological Colloquium: About".
  6. ^ "Process Perspectives" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2014-07-15.

External links