Christian Process Theology is Here to Stay...
by R.E. Slater
Reading Feinberg's earnest but mistaken surmise of process theology which was published by the Gospel Coalition some years ago I can say that I heartily disagree with both the essay and the understanding of the essay. However, it is important to understand why today's church disbelieves process theology and the many errors the church entertains in its thinking about process theology.
As a process guy I can do little to dissuade those who cling to such essays and hold out reasons to viewing the God I know in traditionally unhelpful ways such as found in classic evangelicalism. I personally have found evangelicalism to have wholly failed and must therefore be wholly abandoned in the life of a Christian. Why?
I had some years ago, and since, have actively reworked the Calvinist Reformed tradition I knew so well in order to speak better of the God of the bible than the traditional church has done under its rubrics, creeds, attitudes, and deeds. If you wish to argue this point then I submit the entirety of this website here, Relevancy22, to see how I went about deconstructing and reconstruction the Christian faith. It's truest version is that of God's love and the Atoning Work of Christ Jesus.
I first sought for a better hermeneutic and reading of the bible by removing and adding ways of reading theology. This took me several years where in the process the Spirit of the Lord lead to the development of an open and relational theology, and then later to process theology. Eventually I put the two together and came upon a fellowship I never knew existed. Fortunately, I had stumbled rightly in directions removing the philosophical Christian God from Greek Hellenism and Westernism into a wholly new philosophic-theological foundation. Which is to say I was looking in the wrong place. The very foundations of the Christian belief had been set upon vastly inferior foundations which needed breaking down, removing, and rebuilding using the right lumber, brick, and mortar.
Let me further submit that the process theology I, and others, are developing releases the Christian God from the bondage of man's idolatrous images by placing God's Selfhood and Essence exactly where it needs to be. Thus and thus, Mr. Feinberg and all such arguments like his, as entertain here by parachurch organizations such as the Gospel Coalition are anathema and unhelpful to the follower in Christ Jesus.
I would rather those interested in process theology begin here at this site and not waste your time trying to find arguments to uphold unworthy Christian beliefs. I will gladly dissuade you of your presumptions little by little, post after post after post. And like my own journey please be aware it will take time to grasp. For myself, it took years of doubt and disagreement until landing where I am today (almost ten full years). But having taken the time to pursue the "Hound of Heaven" I am very glad now that I have.
Peace and blessings.
R.E. Slater
February 13, 2023
How the Traditional Church viewed Process Theology as seen here
in an older essay written by Evangelical Theology John S. Feinberg
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Recommended Websites
- Homebrewed Christianity - Podcasts, Books, Resources by Process Experts -
- https://trippfuller.com/category/podcast/
- The Center for Process Studies -
- https://ctr4process.org/about/
- Open and Relational Process Studies -
- https://thomasjayoord.com/
- Process Essays by R.E. Slater
- [Use the Indexes which list out some of the site's topic lists] -
- https://relevancy22.blogspot.com/search/label/Index%20-%20Process%20Essays%20by%20R.E.%20Slater
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Here is a list of Process Books by Process Thinkers
of the late 20th and early 21st Century
Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology (Paperback)by (shelved 8 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.20 — 800 ratings — published 1929
Process Theology (Paperback)by (shelved 6 times as process-theology)
avg rating 3.80 — 180 ratings — published 1976
On the Mystery: Discerning Divinity in Process (Paperback)by (shelved 5 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.17 — 267 ratings — published 2007
Process Theology: A Guide for the Perplexed (Paperback)by (shelved 5 times as process-theology)
avg rating 3.88 — 103 ratings — published 2011
God Christ Church: A Practical Guide to Process Theology (Paperback)by (shelved 4 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.13 — 83 ratings — published 1984
A Christian Natural Theology: Based on the Thought of Alfred North Whitehead (Paperback)by (shelved 4 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.15 — 39 ratings — published 1965
Piglet's Process: Process Theology for All God's Children (Kindle Edition)by (shelved 3 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.35 — 17 ratings — published
Cloud of the Impossible: Negative Theology and Planetary Entanglement (Paperback)by (shelved 3 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.41 — 51 ratings — published 2014
God as Poet of the World: Exploring Process Theologies (Paperback)by (shelved 3 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.25 — 12 ratings — published 2008
Omnipotence and Other Theological Mistakes (Paperback)by (shelved 3 times as process-theology)
avg rating 3.90 — 106 ratings — published 1983
Back To Darwin: A Richer Account of Evolution (Paperback)by (shelved 3 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.20 — 5 ratings — published 2008
The Process Perspective: Frequently Asked Questions about Process Theology (Paperback)by (shelved 3 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.11 — 45 ratings — published 2003
Creative Evolution (Paperback)by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.08 — 1,211 ratings — published 1907
God of Becoming and Relationship: The Dynamic Nature of Process Theology (Hardcover)by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.19 — 72 ratings — published 2013
Matters of Life and Death (Paperback)by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 3.91 — 11 ratings — published 1991
Adventures of Ideas (Paperback)by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.11 — 247 ratings — published 1933
Process Theology: A Basic Introduction (Paperback)by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.08 — 119 ratings — published 1993
In God's Presence (Paperback)by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.14 — 104 ratings — published 1996
The Weakness of God: A Theology of the Event (Paperback)by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.14 — 235 ratings — published 2006
The Nature of Love: A Theology (Paperback)by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.11 — 54 ratings — published 2010
Grace & Responsibility: A Wesleyan Theology for Today (Paperback)by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.17 — 36 ratings — published 1995
Fall to Violence: Original Sin in Relational Theology (Paperback)by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.36 — 42 ratings — published 1994
Religion in the Making (Paperback)by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 3.41 — 196 ratings — published 1926
Science and the Modern World (Paperback)by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 3.98 — 503 ratings — published 1926
Face of the Deep: A Theology of Becoming (Paperback)by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.32 — 105 ratings — published 2002
Aquinas To Whitehead: Seven Centuries Of Metaphysics Of Religion (Hardcover)by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.17 — 12 ratings — published 1976
Process-Relational Philosophy: An Introduction to Alfred North Whitehead (Paperback)by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.06 — 204 ratings — published 2008
Creating Women's Theology: A Movement Engaging Process Thought (Paperback)by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 3.96 — 23 ratings — published 2011
Becoming a Thinking Christian: If We Want Church Renewal, We Will Have to Renew Thinking in the Church (Paperback)by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 3.80 — 40 ratings — published 1993
The Divine Relativity: A Social Conception of God (Paperback)by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.02 — 44 ratings — published 1982
Process Theology and Celtic Wisdom (Paperback)by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 3.60 — 10 ratings — published
Beyond the Impasse (Paperback)by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 3.50 — 4 ratings — published 1997
Praying with Process Theology: Spiritual Practices for Personal and Planetary Healing (Paperback)by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 4.60 — 5 ratings — published
Gilkey on Tillich (Hardcover)by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 4.57 — 7 ratings — published 1990
Augustine's Theology of Angels (Hardcover)by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 4.50 — 4 ratings — published
Religious Experience and Process Theology: The Pastoral Implications of A Major Modern Movement (Hardcover)by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 2.00 — 1 rating — published
Science and the Search for God: Spirituality for the Twenty First Century (Kindle Edition)by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 0.0 — 0 ratings — published
The Creative Mind (Paperback)by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 4.07 — 287 ratings — published 1934
Living Consciousness: The Metaphysical Vision of Henri Bergson (Hardcover)by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 4.12 — 16 ratings — published 2011
Dreams (Kindle Edition)by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 3.55 — 142 ratings — published 1901
Matter and Memory (Paperback)by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 4.10 — 2,413 ratings — published 1896
An Introduction to Metaphysics (Paperback)by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 3.89 — 632 ratings — published 1903
Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic (Paperback)by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 3.72 — 1,785 ratings — published 1900
Thinking in Time: An Introduction to Henri Bergson (Paperback)by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 3.71 — 58 ratings — published 2006
The Two Sources of Morality and Religion (Paperback)by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 3.78 — 231 ratings — published 1932
Time and Free Will (Paperback)by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 4.00 — 810 ratings — published 1889
Henri Bergson: Key Writings (Athlone Contemporary European Thinkers)by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 4.18 — 44 ratings — published 2002
Salvation: Jesus's Mission and Ours (Kindle Edition)by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 4.50 — 10 ratings — published
The Message Devotional Bible: Featuring Notes and Reflections from Eugene H. Peterson (Hardcover)by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 4.63 — 141 ratings — published
As Kingfishers Catch Fire: A Conversation on the Ways of God Formed by the Words of God (Hardcover)by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 4.48 — 734 ratings — published
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