Rewriting God: Updating Theological Language, Part 3

 

Rewriting God:

Updating Theological Language

PART 3

From Essence to Event:

Rethinking Theology in a Processual Age

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT

In producing parts 1 and 2, I had considered several general and academic titles showing the extensiveness of the subject matter at hand that could be written about. They are:

New Theological Language

• Rewriting God: The Case for Updating Theological Language (this was Part 1)
• Beyond Substance: Process Theology and the Renewal of Christian Doctrine
• Process and Presence: A Contemporary Language for God
• Becoming Divine: The Evolution of Theological Metaphysics
• God in Process: Moving Beyond Hellenistic Ontologies
• Relational Reality: Rethinking Doctrine through Process Thought (today's Part 2)
• From Static to Dynamic: A New Vocabulary for God
• Process over Plato: Reforming the Language of the Church
• Theology in Motion: Updating the Language of God, Christ, and Creation

Redescribing the Trinity

• The Trinity in Motion: A Processual Reimagining of Divine Relationality
• Christology Expressed in Processual Terms
• Incarnating Process: Jesus Beyond Essence and Experiencing Becoming
• Doctrinal Language Focus
• Old Words, New Worlds: Translating Doctrine for a Relational Cross & Cosmos
• The Failure of Substance: Why Theology Needs a New Metaphysic
• Semantic Resurrection: Redeeming Doctrinal Language through Process

Creative & Poetic Genre Titles

• The Grammar of God: Speaking the Divine in a Changing World
• Theology on the Move: Language, Love, and Becoming
• A Lexicon of Living Faith: From Static Terms to Dynamic Truths
• Verbs of God: A Process Lexicon for a Relational Theology (this was an earlier article)
• Words in the Wind: Rethinking Doctrines for a World in Process

Consequently, each theological category is a story in itself reflecting the expansiveness of 21st century postmodern/metamodern theological language.

Now let's proceed to a general outline of these categories showing the possibilities for reimagining God, Scripture, Jesus, and Church along with doctrinal terms like Trinity, Incarnation, Divinity, Atonement, Salvation, Redemption, and even Eschatology.

Because of modern societies complexities and the great age of historic, academic scholarship, theology no longer is a straight path as it seemed to be in the church's early years. Rather, theology has become an eclectic hodgepodge of constructions, suppositions, ideations, reformulations, denominationalisms, sectarian thought, and applications.

When leaving evangelical theology I was not content to journey forward in my Christian faith as a past-evangelical... I needed a new theology that was more open to academic scholarship, more progressive, and more freeing. And one that led out by doubt and uncertainty so that other avenues could be explored, investigated, and/or developed. This I finally found in process theology though I knew nothing of it when I started.

And in hindsight, having left before Trumpian evangelicalism had become a thing (me: 2009/11 v trumpisim: 2015/16), I am glad I left my former faith's once bannered halls of propositional truths claimed as timeless and everlasting... whose outcome has been shown in the spiritual bankruptcy of trumpian supremacy... and not in the love of an everlasting God founded in the observable witness, works, and love of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and, in Jesus' own terms of himself, the Son of Man, remade in God's image.

Ten years later, in 2025, evangelical trumpism has evidently not repented of the evil it is doing to the oppressed and unloved in America - nor of the harm and evil it is doing across the world in Ukraine (Putin's kind of Christian Orthodoxy) - nor has it repented of the destruction Israel has done to the Palestinian people across the Gaza region - nor in America's trade wars with the world evoked in mistrust, suspicion, one-sided accusations and indictments.

This kind of Christianity is the kind to flee from, shun, be rid of, burn up, and cast away. It is hateful, unhelpful, unattractive, and isolating. This is not how Jesus lived in the world and it is not how the gospel of Christ is to reach out into the world. It is of the devil, dressed in sheep's clothing, and altogether heinous.

Statedly, it seems that evangelicals have been paying lip service to God over the decades and not dedicating in their hearts truly to God nor to Jesus as they said they were. Their prayer and repentance rally in Washington D.C. in 2015 was a lie enunciated before the world by their words and actions in trumpian hate.

Sadly, the evangelical religion of most of my life has betrayed it's real self as bigoted, discriminatory, and bent on returning to the imperial religion of its day - even if it means following the devil himself with his many corrupt and lawless trumpian minions. To all this I say, Good Riddance.

Here is a brief review of how process theology rethinks the deep and rich history of the Christian church over the many millennia...

---

From Essence to Event: Rethinking Theology for a Processual Age

Chapter 1: The Crisis of Theological Language

Surveys the loss of intelligibility in classical doctrine. Shows how metaphysical assumptions—drawn from a Hellenistic worldview—limit theology’s relevance today. Introduces process philosophy as a way forward.

• Why our metaphysical assumptions matter

• Misunderstood doctrines: Trinity, Incarnation, Atonement

• Overview of language stagnation in Christian theology

Chapter 2: Hellenistic Metaphysics in Christian Doctrine

Traces historical roots of terms like ousia, hypostasis, and logos. Shows their use in the Nicene Creed and Chalcedonian definitions. Critiques the static and hierarchical cosmology behind timeless, impassible, omnipotent portrayals of God.

• Substance, form, and essence: Ousia and hypostasis

• Timelessness and immutability in Greek thought

• Plato, Aristotle, and the Church Fathers

Chapter 3: Modern Metaphysics and the Rise of Process Thought

Presents Whitehead's alternative vision: reality as becoming, not being. Explains actual entities, concrescence, and relational power. Frames process theology as metaphysically richer and more ethically viable.

• Alfred North Whitehead and relational metaphysics

• Process philosophy and theology: core concepts

• Actual entities, concrescence, prehension, and God’s two natures

Chapter 4: The Trinity in Process Perspective

Reinterprets the Trinity not as three substances in one essence but as threefold relationality in the becoming of divine love. Highlights dynamic interrelation and mutual indwelling as evolving forms of divine expression.

• From substance unity to relational flow

• Dynamic mutuality of the divine persons

• Reinterpreting perichoresis and divine diversity

Chapter 5: Christology and the Incarnation Reimagined

Affirms Jesus as the ideal embodiment of divine intention. Refutes metaphysical dualism of God inserted into flesh. Incarnation becomes the fullest moment of divine-human synergy.

• Jesus as the ideal response to divine aim

• Incarnation as processual, not metaphysical insertion

• Christ's divinity: ontological vs. participatory models

Chapter 6: Creation, Time, and Providence

Argues for a co-eternal God-world relationship. Rejects creation ex nihilo and affirms deep temporality. God knows all that is actual and all that is possible, responding in real-time to creation’s unfolding.

• Co-creative becoming: no ex nihilo, no determinism

• God as temporal yet everlasting

• Deep time, open future, and divine knowledge

Chapter 7: Atonement and the Power of Persuasion

Replaces legal satisfaction models with an image of God who redeems through persuasive, suffering love. Salvation is relational repair, not juridical balancing.

• A critique of penal substitutionary models

• Suffering love, divine solidarity, and healing justice

• Salvation as creative transformation over legal rectification

Chapter 8: Scripture as Processual Witness

Views the Bible as a collection of evolving experiences of divine presence. Sacred not because it is inerrant, but because it captures humanity’s dynamic relationship with God.

• The Bible as evolving testimony, not static revelation

• Inspiration, error, and the divine-human partnership

• Narrative truth vs. metaphysical absolutism

Chapter 9: The Afterlife and Eschatology in Process

Rejects binary heaven/hell constructs. Resurrection becomes transformation into divine memory and renewed value intensity. Eschatology is unfolding participation, not final catastrophe.

• Eternal life as ongoing becoming

• Memory, transformation, and the resurrection of meaning

• New creation as emergence, not cataclysm

Chapter 10: A New Lexicon for Faith

Proposes replacements for outdated metaphysical terms, beginning with “essence.” In classical theology, essence (ousia) implies a fixed, timeless substance shared among divine persons. In process theology, this is replaced with the language of actual occasions—events of experience that participate in God’s unfolding. God’s character is not located in an essence but in the faithful continuity of divine intention expressed through the dynamic responsiveness of the world. The new lexicon offers liturgical, pastoral, and doctrinal tools to replace static concepts with processual ones.

• Suggested replacements for classical terms

• Examples of sermons, doctrines, and liturgy updated

• Toward a relational grammar of theology

Conclusion: A Faith Worth Speaking Again

Summarizes how process theology revitalizes Christian speech. Encourages theology grounded in love, relationality, and hope.

• Pastoral implications

• A spirituality of response, not control

• Theology as living conversation

---

CORE ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality (1929)
Introduces key concepts such as actual occasions, prehension, concrescence, and God’s dipolar nature.
Use: Foundational framework for both theological reconstructions.

2. Charles Hartshorne, The Divine Relativity (1948)
Expands process thought into theology, showing how God can be both constant and affected by the world.
Use: Core for divine relationality, mutability, and faithfulness.

3. John B. Cobb Jr., Christ in a Pluralistic Age (1975)
Reconstructs Christology in relational, process terms.
Use: Central to discussions of incarnation, universal significance of Christ.

4. Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki, God Christ Church (1982)
Presents process theology in church life with attention to sin, grace, and ecclesiology.
Use: Applies theological ideas to community formation and ethics.

5. Catherine Keller, On the Mystery (2008)
Poetic and feminist-inflected view of process theology; integrates mystery and relationality.
Use: Enriches language renewal and eschatological imagination.

6. David Ray Griffin, Reenchantment Without Supernaturalism (2001)
Advocates metaphysical naturalism compatible with religious awe.
Use: Supports reconceptualization of miracles and divine action.

7. Bernard Loomer, Two Conceptions of Power (1976)
Contrasts coercive vs. persuasive power.
Use: Underpins all critiques of divine omnipotence.

8. Thomas Jay Oord, The Uncontrolling Love of God (2015)
Argues that divine love never overrides creaturely freedom.
Use: Bridges process metaphysics and evangelical pastoral concerns.

9. Daniel A. Dombrowski, A Platonic Philosophy of Religion (2005)
Explores how classical theology borrowed metaphysical structures from Plato.
Use: Basis for critique in Part I of both projects.

10. John Polkinghorne, Theology in the Context of Science (2008)
Marries science and faith in constructive dialogue.
Use: Supports process theology’s compatibility with scientific cosmology.

11. Langdon Gilkey, Naming the Whirlwind (1969)
Engages scientific modernity with theological reflection.
Use: Critiques the irrelevance of static language in theology.

12. Robert Mesle, Process Theology: A Basic Introduction (1993)
Clear and accessible entry into process categories.
Use: Introduces dynamic thinking to general readers.

13. Schubert Ogden, The Reality of God (1963)
Describes divine presence as temporally engaged.
Use: Grounds theology in existential and historical reality.