The task of any process prophet
lifting up a theology of love is to:
From Pope Francis I credit his help in determining the kind of radical theology I wished to have developed about God, my faith, and the duty of both the church and society to one another. It is and was beheld in one word. Love.
My earlier faith believed in the repentance and annihilation of sinners, the crass abusive usage of the earth, and the caretake of only those who agreed with a church's assimilating beliefs=dogmas. As much as the church's traditional forms could be forgiving it still wasn't forgiving enough. This has been steadily shown when witnessing the church rejecting all forms of sciences and philosophies which challenged its many traditions; and by the preaching of its many forms of attitudinal legalisms against the simple love language of a compassionate faith per the New Testament Covenant established in Jesus' atoning death.
Pope Francis' own Catholic church may be as guilty as my own Protestant faith traditions but his schema of placing love in the center of all faith activities provided the diagram I needed to complete my journey towards a living faith that was actually selfless, serving, and sacrificial. A faith that wanted nothing back but gave all.
It was from this radicalized demarcation that the Lord led me to a re-orientating philosophy whose core bespoke fundamental elements like creativity, well-being, radical inclusiveness that actually meant all things living and dead, organic or inorganic, are on the same journey of health and wholeness within God's cosmological framework as set within God's very own character and immaculate being. Love is what makes God holy. Not perfection. Not sinlessness. Not austerity, nor ascetic beingness nor transcendent apartness. But actions of Love. Loving care and wellbeing. Loving intimacy. God is Love above all else and hence, we develop a new theology using this definition of God as Love. Theologies claiming such foundations but evidencing otherwise are of the old worlds, old wineskins, hard soils, and patched rags which Jesus rejected. And so do I.
Of course, this conforms to Whitehead's philosophy of organism come to be known as process philosophy with its derivative of process theology, process science, process societal living. Looking back over the centuries of humanity this outlook has always been portrayed under differing visions, outlooks and perspectives or partially included in differing beliefs and religions. But next to Buddhism, Whietehead's process thought became the more singular, purer form of all preceding elemental 'isms.
Over thse past 14 years I have used Pope Francis' radical love theology combined with Whitehead's living organic philosophy to re-establish who or what God is, who we are, what creation's ecosystems are, and our purpose on earth. All other errant beliefs, dogmas, or philosophies not so centered in this radiating love center were abandoned if removed altogether from my faith language, thinking, theology, and practices. As example, I might say that Jesus' love language most purely represented God and is most accurately summarized in his Sermons on the Mount, Matthew chapters 5-7. And that any-and-all passages of the bible not portraying God's love have been but devolved forms of faith-living and humanized religion as narrated in the bible and exampled by undiscerning church structures.
Hence, the violence, constrictions, legalisms, and bastardizations of God by faith groups as less than Love bespeaking unenlightened faith beliefs striving against all which properly challenges their un-superior crass theologies such as the theology of Reformed Calvinism which I have removed from my Protestant bible theology (but not its Reformed covenantal theologies which I re-constructed in faith's love language as a good re-forming theolog).
The examples of bad theology are many but that is why I have left 14 years of labour on the written pages of my website to be examined, argued over, and held up to criticism. Nor do I wish to see a resulting process movement but a consistently applied loving processual theology undergirded by evolving process fundamentals. In essence, we don't need more church denominations nor sects but faith followers who are kind, compassionate, constructive, healing, and in general, creating practicing redemptive cruciform works in love's faith language.
Blessings to Pope Francis' grand and beautiful vision of love.
R.E. Slater
February 23, 2025
"Parishioners at St Charles Catholic Church in North Hollywood say they are deeply saddened by the Pope’s condition and hope their prayers along with those around the world will lift him at a time when he needs it most. Tracey Leong reports for the NBC4 News at 11 p.m. on Feb. 22, 2025."
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