Thursday, October 24, 2024

Sheri D. Kling - Process & Faith, Oct 2024

 

Amazon link

Recently I had open heart surgery and have been recovering these past several weeks. In lieu of my occasional essays I will provide readers with additional process resources which may be read here and then linked over to process websites for future readings and study along with my own here.

Below is the inter-religious process site, Process & Faith, tended by Sheri Kling, a process scholar and theologian. She has chosen to interlink the world's major religions to Whitehead's process philosophy and thereby bring a point of common ground between process Christianity (mainly Protestantism, but some Catholicism and Eastern Christian sects) with process Islam, process Buddhism, process Judaism, and so forth.

Too, Chad Bahl is a Facebook friend of mine whose latest work is being promoted this month on the Process & Faith website. Hence, I've included Chad's book and Youtube video herein.

As I recover I urge exploration of the sites I will share in the week(s) ahead. Mainly Jay McDaniel's writings which he has been airing out on Facebook. For my own ambition, I am thinking of relearning Whitehead's Process Philosophy and Cobb's Process Theology through Andrew Davis' insights which I'll share in time.

Further, I hope to begin piecing together how we should begin learning to read the bible  in a process-based evangelic which I'll call a process of post-evangelic, metamodern, and process theological cultural "eyes" and understanding.

Since I was raised as a fundamental Baptist and my training is in Reformed theology and evangelical Calvinism, recent "maga-shunning" ex-vangelicals might find comfort in my site as I explore pushing out the boundaries of my former faith via process theology. If I were to rewrite this site and my journey again, I think I might do it by way of writing process commentaries on the books of the bible just like theologians of old did via their own background and training. Perhaps in a year or so I might start this as I've been contemplating writing a commentary on the book of Colossians lately. We'll see.

Otherwise, I wish to tie together my many past hundreds of articles previous developed on the theme of Evolution and God with a final series on The Evolution of God and Religion. Much of it is charted out... I just have to put it all together.

As always, Relevancy22 tells of mine own journey out of traditional evangelic Calvinism through evangelical Arminianism into Open and Relational theology and finally, into Open and Relational PROCESS theology. Both of which Chad Bahl and Thomas Oord do assent by way of seeding process thought into evangelicalism by way of Oord's own version of Open and Relational thought reform.

Myself, I'm just going to state process theology outright - whether it's accepted by my past fellowship or not. I feel that the future of Christianity is dependent on process thought if it is to survive outside of the mythic and existential-subjectivism that it currently has lapsed into.

Christian processualism expands the Christian faith; recenters it into God's love and Christ Jesus alone (without the typical doctrainnaires of the Institutionalized Church); and expands the entire study of systematic theology from the Godhead through to Eternity.

Process Christianity proposes an Open Faith, and Open Future, and an Open Godhead, as I've explained over the years. It's now up to my readers to grasp the subject, learn the subject, and learn to speak it better than I have in the years ahead if it is to find any footing in the Christian faith.

Blessings,

R.E. Slater
October 24, 2024
Faith & Feeling: Process Pop-Up


88 views Oct 17, 2024 #theology #spirituality #faith

For both Schleiermacher and Whitehead, God is not “up there somewhere.” Rather, God is most readily found by looking inward, to where God is experienced.

In theological circles, German philosopher Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834) may be best known for his text, On Religion: Speeches to Its Cultured Despisers, his effort to defend religion from Enlightenment skeptics. He’s also been a subject of interest to process thinkers like Philip Clayton, Thandeka, and, more recently, Chad Bahl. In his doctoral research, Chad has been putting Schleirmacher’s thoughts on faith and feeling into conversation with the work of Alfred North Whitehead.

He has found that “In both process thought and Schleiermacher’s philosophy, the essence of existence is not lifeless matter or dogmatic precepts. Rather, it is lived experience. In this lived experience, we are interconnected both as human beings and in fellowship with the Divine.”

Schleiermacher is known for talking about faith as a feeling of “absolute dependence.” Resonant with Whitehead’s thinking about God’s aims for every actual event, Chad describes this as a “natural result of being in tune with our deepest intuitions. It arises from our recognition of the presence and purpose of God in our lives.” As we cultivate our awareness of God—through spiritual practices like contemplation—this feeling naturally arises as a kind of “God-consciousness” that is “developed as we experience community with others, fellowship with the Divine, interaction with nature, the Gospel story, and much more.”

While each of us may experience the Divine differently, it is this “personal perception, (not reason, dogma, or scientific proof), which serves as the centering principle for faith.” According to Chad, attuning to this interior faith and feeling is crucial to human life. “We become fully actualized human beings when we realize fellowship with the Divine in our experiences of both Creator and creation.”

About the Speaker:

Chad Bahl, DThM candidate at Northwind Theological Seminary, specializes in the study of Open and Relational Theology. Bahl is the author of God Unbound: An Evangelical Reconsiders Tradition in Search of Truth, the author/editor of Deconstructing Hell: Open and Relational Responses to the Doctrine of Eternal Conscious Torment, and, most recently, the author of Mornings with Schleiermacher: A Devotional Inspired by the Father of Modern Theology.

Process & Faith is a multi-faith network for relational spirituality and the common good. 


Join the Process & Faith community: https://processandfaith.org

 

No comments:

Post a Comment