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 from 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, July 3, 2025

How Is Process Philosophy Completed by Process Theology?


How Is Process Philosophy
Completed by Process Theology?
PART 4B

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT


Proceeding directly from Part 4A, Is Process Philosophy Enough without Process Theology?Let's continue to its integral partner here in Part 4B, How Is Process Philosophy Completed by Process Theology?


🌿✨ I. How Is Process Philosophy Completed by Process Theology?

Meaning:

How does the metaphysical framework of process thought find its fuller moral, existential, and communal depth when integrated with Process Theology? In other words: What does the theological dimension add that pure process metaphysics alone does not fully supply?


🧭 1️⃣ Process Philosophy Alone: The Metaphysical Frame

Process Philosophy provides:

  • A relational metaphysics: Everything is in process, in relation, co-becoming.

  • A dynamic view of reality: No fixed substances — only events and connections.

  • A value-laden universe: Even the simplest entities have some aim, responsiveness, or intrinsic worth.

  • An ethical impulse: Because all things are connected, our actions ripple outward — implying moral responsibility.

BUT: On its own, this vision stays broad and general. It says why care (interconnectedness) — but does not always specify:

  • What we owe each other.

  • Why we should prefer love over domination.

  • What ultimate hope or meaning grounds this vision.


2️⃣ Process Theology: Completes the Vision

Process Theology completes Process Philosophy by weaving in:

  • A relational divine lure: God is the supreme relational reality, continuously calling the world toward greater beauty, harmony, and intensity of experience. This “lure” makes moral growth more than human striving — it’s built into the fabric of existence.

  • A moral anchor: The universe is not indifferent — it pulses with a loving aim. Goodness aligns us with the creative movement of God’s becoming.

  • A story and symbols: Theology gives images — covenant, incarnation, Spirit, sacred community — that carry the process vision into worship, ritual, and daily life.

  • A communal framework: Process Theology is not just individual insight — it becomes a shared faith practice that binds people together, nurturing moral formation through prayer, story, sacrament, and communal discernment.

  • Hope: Theology gives process vision an eschatology — a forward pull of meaning. The universe is not just open-ended; it is divinely invested in the flourishing of all life.


🌍 3️⃣ How They Work Together

AspectProcess Philosophy AloneCompleted by Process Theology
MetaphysicsAll is relational becomingBecoming is infused with a divine aim
EthicsWe are responsible co-creatorsWe respond to God’s loving lure
MotivationRelational interdependenceDivine call to love, mercy, justice
MeaningNo final closure, perpetual noveltyHope in co-creating with God
CommunityPossible but abstractConcrete faith communities living it out
SymbolsAbstract cosmologyRich narrative: Spirit, Christ, sacred world

🕊️ 4️⃣ Summary Answer

Process Philosophy gives us a brilliant, dynamic map of reality.

Process Theology adds a living compass — grounding our moral becoming in a vision of divine relationality that calls us to love more fully, create more beautifully, and hope more deeply.

Together they say:

Reality is process — and the heart of that process is Love, always luring us to become more than we were before.



🕊️II. Is there anything essential missing in the comparison of Process Philosophy when completing its metaphysic with its derivative, Process Theology?


🔍 1️⃣ The Problem of Motivation

Why not just do moral good because we’re interconnected?

Many critics note that interconnectedness alone can be morally neutral — the same web that supports love can support domination.

Process Theology strengthens the moral vision by insisting there is an ultimate valuing agent (God) whose lure is toward beauty, justice, peace — not just any outcome.

👉 So: The divine dimension deepens the moral aim.


🌎 2️⃣ The Role of Suffering & Evil

Process Philosophy alone can be rather abstract about the tragic side of reality. But Process Theology speaks directly to it:

  • God does not control all suffering, but shares in it, feels it, redeems it relationally.

  • The cross and resurrection motifs in Christian process thought offer symbolic ways to talk about the world’s wounds — not just as facts of process but as sites of moral solidarity and hope.

👉 So: Theology adds existential honesty and symbolic depth about how we hold suffering.


🕊️ 3️⃣ Community & Ritual Practice

Philosophy alone struggles to create durable communities that live out the moral vision generation after generation. But religions do this through:

  • Shared liturgies that form character.

  • Stories that keep the vision alive.

  • Moral communities that test and hold one another accountable.

👉 Without this ritual-symbolic layer, process as a pure metaphysic risks remaining academic.


🧬 4️⃣ Cosmic Teleology vs. Open-Endedness

A subtle but important point:

  • Pure process philosophy says reality has no fixed final goal — just perpetual creativity.

  • Process Theology affirms this openness but says the divine lure gives creation a direction toward more beauty, intensity, relational depth.

So: Theology provides an ethical arc — not a rigid plan, but a reason to prefer some futures over others.


📚 5️⃣ Historical Continuity

Theology roots process thought in an ancient moral stream:

  • It draws on the Hebrew prophets’ justice vision, the Christian Christic love vision, and the Spirit’s renewing power.

  • Without this historical depth, process thought alone may lack the living stories that people trust, repeat, and pass on.


Key Final Takeaway

Process Philosophy gives the framework — a cosmos alive with becoming, novelty, and interrelation.

Process Theology supplies the living aim, hope, narrative, symbols, and practices that keep that framework morally forceful and existentially meaningful.

Together they become more than the sum of their parts.



📚✨ III. Are There Other Philosophical Theologies as Broad in Scope as Process Philosophy + Theology?

Short answer:

Very few philosophical-theological systems rival the comprehensive reach of the process framework when fully unfolded. But a few stand out historically and today — each with different strengths and gaps.

Let’s map them clearly.


🧭 1️⃣ Classical Theism (Greek-Patristic-Thomistic)

  • Philosophical core: Strong metaphysics of being. God is pure actuality (actus purus), the unmoved mover. All finite being participates in God’s infinite being.

  • Theological expansion: Fused with Jewish and Christian scripture — giving rich doctrines of creation, providence, Christ, Trinity.

  • Scope: Offers a huge system: nature, humanity, moral order, salvation, and cosmic destiny all within a single vision.

  • Limit: Tends to emphasize divine immutability and omnipotence — which process thinkers critique for making God static and problematically detached from the world’s becoming.

So: Comprehensive, but more static.


2️⃣ Hegelian Idealism

  • Philosophical core: Reality is absolute Spirit unfolding dialectically — history is the self-realization of Spirit through contradiction and synthesis.

  • Theological version: Hegel saw Christian theology as the highest expression of Spirit’s self-consciousness. The cross becomes the dialectical pivot of divine reconciliation.

  • Scope: Covers metaphysics, history, politics, culture, theology — sweeping totality.

  • Limit: Strongly deterministic — the teleology is so tight that genuine novelty can feel illusory. Process thought differs by preserving real indeterminacy.

So: Extremely comprehensive — but historically heavy and prone to determinism.


🌱 3️⃣ Existentialist Theologies (Kierkegaard, Tillich, Bultmann)

  • Philosophical core: Human existence is freedom, anxiety, choice — the individual stands before God in radical responsibility.

  • Theological reach: Deeply relational in the human sense — but less about cosmic metaphysics.

  • Scope: Profound on personal ethics and faith — but narrower on cosmology, nature, and ecological relationality.

  • Limit: Doesn’t supply a robust “natural theology” — tends to bracket the cosmos in favor of the human drama.

So: Deep for inner life, but less cosmically integrative than process.


4️⃣ Teilhard de Chardin’s Evolutionary Theology

  • Philosophical core: Cosmic evolution as a divine impulse driving matter to consciousness and spiritual union.

  • Theological vision: Christ is the Omega Point — the culmination of evolutionary becoming.

  • Scope: Big integration of science, cosmology, mystical Christology.

  • Limit: Feels overly teleological — some process thinkers see Teilhard’s vision as too closed, not fully open-ended like Whitehead’s cosmogenesis.

So: Sweeping in scope — but with a more deterministic final goal.


🌍 5️⃣ Liberation / Political Theologies (Marxist-inflected)

  • Philosophical core: Social analysis rooted in Marx, critical theory — focus on structures of power and oppression.

  • Theological reach: God’s action is realized through justice and liberation for the oppressed.

  • Scope: Powerful for social ethics and praxis — transformative for communities.

  • Limit: Less developed metaphysical cosmology — uses process or other frameworks to fill in the “nature of reality.”

So: Transformative moral reach, but not a stand-alone metaphysics.


🧩 What Makes Process Unique

When you stack these side-by-side:

✔️ Process thought alone gives a living metaphysics of becoming plus an open-ended theology of relational divine lure, panentheism, creaturely freedom, ecological depth, symbolic richness, and cosmic hospitality.

✔️ Few other systems hold science, nature, humanity, God, ethics, and the future so dynamically together without determinism.


So the answer is...

Are there rivals? Yes — classical theism, Hegelian idealism, Teilhard’s vision, existentialist streams.

Are they equally processual in depth, openness, and universal scope? No — process remains unique in balancing:

  • Real indeterminacy,

  • Real relationality,

  • Real divine involvement,

  • Real room for pluralism.


That’s why many say:

“Process thought is the broadest living option for integrating science, spirituality, ethics, and hope — without sacrificing openness.”



📚✨ IV. Comparative Table: Process vs Other Big Systems


1️⃣ Process Philosophy & Theology vs. Classical Theism

AspectClassical TheismProcess Philosophy & Theology
Core strengthClear, stable vision of God’s perfection, timelessness, omnipotence; deep tradition & coherenceDynamic, relational God; co-suffers with creation; openness to change
Pro compared to ProcessOffers firm certainty, absolute anchor, metaphysical clarity; strong sense of divine authorityProcess can seem vague to classical minds; lacks “immutability” comfort (well speak to this in Part 5)
Con compared to ProcessCan make God distant, static, less responsive to real timeProcess overcomes problem of evil by showing God is involved, feeling, yet non-coercive
Nature of realityHierarchical, fixed essences, static beingFluid becoming, emergent relationality
Ethical visionClear moral absolutes grounded in eternal orderAdaptive, relational (not relevistic) ethics grounded in co-creative lure

2️⃣ Process vs. Hegelian Idealism

AspectHegelian IdealismProcess Philosophy & Theology
Core strengthSystematic totality: everything reconciled dialectically; deep historical consciousnessFlexible openness; real indeterminacy; relational creativity
Pro compared to ProcessGives powerful account of history’s logic; deep social, political dimensionProcess rejects closed determinism — real novelty can break patterns
Con compared to ProcessOften feels overly deterministic; the “Absolute Spirit” can override creaturely freedomProcess allows genuine freedom for creatures, not just Spirit’s self-expression
Nature of realityDialectical unfolding of Absolute SpiritOpen-ended, many-becoming web with divine lure but no final closure
Ethical visionEthical progress baked into dialectical historyMoral responsibility never guaranteed — humans must choose novelty & care

3️⃣ Process vs. Existentialist Theologies

AspectExistentialist TheologyProcess Philosophy & Theology
Core strengthRaw honesty about human freedom, anxiety, and meaningBroader cosmology — freedom + ecological, cosmic care
Pro compared to ProcessPowerfully confronts individual faith crises, radical choiceProcess can feel too abstract — existentialism cuts to lived immediacy
Con compared to ProcessOften neglects nature, non-human life, cosmic becomingProcess integrates humans into whole planetary story, not just subjective crisis
View of GodGod is a paradox, or “ground of being” (Tillich)God is dynamic participant, relational lure, feeling the world’s joys and wounds
Ethical visionPersonal authenticity, radical responsibilityCommunal co-creativity, ecological justice, shared moral evolution

4️⃣ Process vs. Teilhard’s Evolutionary Theology

AspectTeilhard’s VisionProcess Philosophy & Theology
Core strengthCosmic Christ unifies science & faith; powerful vision of evolutionary hopeKeeps becoming truly open-ended — no forced final Omega Point
Pro compared to ProcessInspires big picture meaning, pulls science toward mystical wholenessProcess more pluralistic — allows multiple futures, not just convergence
Con compared to ProcessTeleology can feel rigid or too determined — does freedom remain real?Process sees God as persuasive lure, not a controlling final destiny
View of realityMatter evolves toward consciousness and unityReality is always relationally creative — novelty never fully settled
Ethical visionHumanity participates in planetary ChristificationHumanity co-creates beauty with all life, not just as apex species

5️⃣ Process vs. Liberation / Political Theologies

AspectLiberation TheologyProcess Philosophy & Theology
Core strengthFierce moral passion for the oppressed; praxis-orientedBroader metaphysics to hold social, ecological, cosmic relationality together
Pro compared to ProcessStronger structural analysis of injustice; action-centeredProcess benefits from liberation lens — reminds it to stay grounded
Con compared to ProcessSometimes uses inherited metaphysics that conflict with open relationalityProcess adds depth — all oppression is relational; ecology and economy interlinked
View of GodGod is liberator, judge of oppressorsGod is lure for creative transformation; non-coercive, relational, suffers with victims
Ethical visionPreferential option for the poor; social transformation nowSame commitment but with cosmic horizon — all life included in redemption process

Key Takeaway

🔑 What makes Process unique?

✔️ Combines: real metaphysical openness + deep relationality + real novelty + divine involvement + a narrative that bridges science, ethics, and spirituality — all without locking history into a closed script.

✔️ Few other systems balance flexibility and coherence so fully.

✔️ Its main limit: needs local communities, symbols, and stories to stay alive — which is why it partners so naturally with Process Theology to become lived faith and moral force.


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