1. Introduction
Christianity is the world’s largest religion, with deep historical roots, global diversity, and profound cultural influence. It is centered on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, understood as God’s unique revelation of divine love. Over two millennia, the Christian tradition has grown into a vast family: Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Evangelical, and many others.
Yet, as the world changes, Christianity must continually re-examine itself. New scientific discoveries, ecological crises, philosophical shifts, and interfaith encounters all raise pressing questions. What does it mean to follow Christ in the twenty-first century? How should Christians understand God, the world, and salvation in light of modern knowledge and experience?
Process Christianity is one such contemporary re-examination. Rooted in process philosophy (especially in the process philosophical work of Alfred North Whitehead), it interprets Christianity not through the (Platonic et al) metaphysics of timeless substances but through the categories of becoming, relationality, and novelty/creativity. It is both deeply faithful to Christianity’s essence and radically open to reinterpretation.
2. Christianity: The Traditions and Evangelicalism
Traditional Christianity (Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant)
Christianity’s “Great Tradition” is expressed through three major branches:
Catholicism: Centered on the Pope in Rome, Catholicism emphasizes the sacraments, apostolic succession, and the unity of the universal church. Its theology draws heavily on Augustine, Aquinas, and the scholastic synthesis of Greek philosophy with Christian faith.
Orthodoxy: Eastern Orthodoxy treasures continuity with the early church, the mystical experience of God’s energies, and the beauty of liturgy. The Orthodox vision of salvation (theosis) emphasizes participation in God’s life.
Protestantism: Emerging from the Reformation, Protestantism stresses scripture as the ultimate authority, justification by grace through faith, and the priesthood of all believers. It is an eclectic collection of past philosophical approaches and has produced a wide family of faith traditions - Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal, and beyond.
Together, these streams shaped the cultural, theological, and institutional life of global Christianity. They carried immense depth but also inherited limitations - especially a God seen through classical metaphysics as unchanging, impassible, and omnipotent in coercive control.
Evangelical Christianity
Evangelicalism is a subset of Protestant Christianity that emerged with great vitality in the 18th and 19th centuries. It spread through revival movements, missionary work, and later the global growth of Pentecostalism. Hallmarks of Evangelicalism include:
Biblicism: Strong emphasis on the authority (and often inerrancy) of the Bible.
Conversionism: The necessity of a personal conversion or “born again” experience.
Crucicentrism: The cross of Christ as the center of salvation, often in substitutionary or penal terms.
Activism: Evangelism, missions, and social reform as essential expressions of faith.
Evangelical Christianity has been a source of spiritual passion, missionary zeal, and social engagement. Yet it has also tended toward narrow literalism, exclusivism, and alignment with political-cultural agendas.
3. Why Process Christianity?
Process Christianity emerges as a response to the limitations of both the Great Christian Tradition of Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and Protestant and the relative new lense of 18th-20th century Evangelicalism.
The Great Tradition, influenced by Hellenistic metaphysics, often pictured God as unmoved, unchanging, and beyond relationship as a transcendent cosmic monarch. This made it difficult to reconcile God with suffering, change, and human freedom.
Evangelicalism, while vibrant, often reduced Christianity to personal salvation, biblical literalism, and juridical atonement (see the 3-part series on Atoning Sacrifice), sidelining ecological care, interfaith dialogue, and systemic justice.
Process Christianity asks: What if God is not the unmoved monarch of classical theology, nor the severe managerial overseer of evangelical culture, but the inspirational and relational companion of creation? What if salvation is not escape from the world but the healing of the world itself?
By anchoring itself in process philosophy, Process Christianity reimagines the Christian story in categories of relational love, persuasive power, and co-creative partnership.
4. What Is Process Christianity?
Process Christianity is Christianity reframed through process thought:
God: Not a remote ruler but the Most Moved Mover - present in every moment, feeling the world’s joys and sorrows, guiding with persuasive love.
Jesus Christ: The fullest embodiment of God’s relational presence. His life, death, and resurrection reveal not simply a legal transaction but the depth of divine solidarity with creation.
Holy Spirit: The ongoing energy of God in the world - animating creativity, inspiring justice, and sustaining communities of compassion.
Bible: A dynamic, evolving testimony of humanity’s encounter with God - a library of voices rather than a static code.
Salvation: The flourishing of creation, the reconciliation of relationships, and the fulfillment of God’s loving purposes - not escape from history but creational transformation within it.
Church: A community of co-creators with God, partnering in ecological care, justice, and spiritual renewal.
5. Differences in Theological Orientation
| Aspect | Traditional Christianity | Evangelical Christianity | Process Christianity |
|---|---|---|---|
| View of God | Immutable, impassible, omnipotent | Sovereign authority, intervening ruler | Relational, dipolar, persuasive love |
| View of Jesus | Savior through incarnation & sacraments | Savior through atoning death (often penal substitution) | Embodiment of divine love, model of relational solidarity |
| Bible | Authoritative, interpreted with tradition | Inerrant, literal | Dynamic witness, evolving testimony |
| Salvation | Sacramental participation, grace, faith | Personal conversion, assurance of heaven | Healing of creation, co-creative partnership with God |
| Power | God as ruler over all history | God as interventionist | God as persuasive, non-coercive |
| Church | Institutional, sacramental | Gathered believers, evangelistic | Relational community, co-creative with God |
| Mission | Extend the faith, preserve tradition | Convert the lost, defend truth | Collaborate with God toward justice, peace, and ecological wholeness |
6. Applications of Process Christianity
Faith & Worship
Worship becomes not obligation to a monarch but communion with a companion God. Prayer is dialogue with a relational presence who truly responds and suffers-with creation.
Ecology
If every creature is a “drop of experience” within God’s body (Whitehead), then ecological care becomes central to discipleship. Creation-Care is not backdrop but participant in God’s life.
Justice
God’s love empowers social transformation through persuasion and solidarity, not coercion. Process Christianity aligns faith with movements for equity, peace, and liberation.
Interfaith Dialogue
Process categories - relationality, creativity, becoming - provide common ground for respectful dialogue with Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Indigenous spiritualities, and secular humanism. More so when processual elements between each faith are identified and enlarged between differences.
7. Conclusion
Christianity, in its traditional and evangelical forms, has offered the world profound gifts - deep worship, vibrant mission, spiritual renewal. Yet both have also inherited limitations from metaphysics and culture.
Process Christianity does not discard the Christian story; it deepens and expands it. It honors the central narrative - God’s love revealed in Jesus Christ - while reframing it in categories that resonate with science, ecology, justice, and interfaith community.
At its core, Process Christianity proclaims:
God is not aloof but relational.
God is not coercive but persuasive.
God is not static but the living companion of creation.
This vision calls believers not to withdrawal but to co-creation - partnering with God in the ongoing adventure of the universe.
No comments:
Post a Comment