The Bankruptcy of Evangelical Theology, Part 4

The Bankruptcy of Evangelical Theology

Conclusion to

Rewriting God: Updating Theological Language

Part 4

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT

God is love.

God, who is in process with the world,

is drawing all things deeper into life.

Introduction

In itself, I had learned a lot of good and helpful things from fundamental and evangelical theology. But I also had learned too many unhelpful boundary markers and apologetical defenses in my evangelical faith. A faith which has sadly blossomed into deep suspicion and identity crisis in the 21st Century.

Earlier, I had stated my feelings of betrayal by my former faith in my last article, Rewriting God: Updating Theological Language, Part 2, having said the following:

...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.

I then proceeded to show how process theology rethinks the deep and rich history of the Christian church over the many millennia hoping to show that with a new philosophical and theological foundation provided by process philosophy and theology, that a better form of Jesus Christianity could be enunciated. One that is more embracing of mankind and re-centered in love; that with such a processually-based faith founded in Christ-centeredness it might not become the catastrophe that fundamental/evangelical theology has become.

The Incarnational-Redemptive Model in Jesus

Explanatory link found here

Here's the $64 dollar question: Not whether the New Testament in Jesus is true (I believe it is) but what does it mean. Evangelicalism had gotten itself wrapped up in defending the truthfulness of the bible (sic, infallible, inerrant, etc) rather than exploring what Jesus and his disciples were saying.

Instead of investigating how God's incarnational-redemptive enactment was meaningful to the world, evangelicalism got caught up in uplifting the exaltation-kingdom theologies of Judaism's political-religious crisis in it's displacement by Rome. Translated, evangelical's have forgotten both Jesus and Jesus' gospel and have poured themselves into their own story of what political-religious freedom looks like to themselves. In short, it looks ugly, bigoted, abrasive, discriminatory, oppressive, fascist, and unlike Jesus' incarnational-redemptive story.

Let's Revisit "God's Plan for the Ages"

Calvinism, Arminianism, Catholic, Reformed Theologies

Despite the incorrect evangelical assessment found here, process theology restores God's Plan for the Ages which the evangelical tradition has abandoned for it's own political-religious earthly kingdom under trumpism.

And what is that plan? I asked ChatGPT and got this:

📜 1️⃣ God’s Plan for the Ages — Traditional / Non-Processual Language

In traditional Christian theology (especially classical theism and covenantal or dispensational frameworks), God’s plan for the ages is often described like this:

• God, as an all-powerful, sovereign being, created the world ex nihilo (out of nothing) according to a predetermined divine will.

• History unfolds according to God’s fixed, eternal decree. God stands outside of time, perfectly foreknowing all events from beginning to end.

• Humanity’s fall into sin brought separation from God, but God planned redemption through the incarnation, atoning death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

• The culmination of this plan is a final consummation: the return of Christ, the judgment of the righteous and the wicked, the destruction of evil, and the eternal state of heaven and hell.

• The plan is linear and final — it moves from creation, through fall, to redemption, to ultimate fulfillment according to God’s unchanging purpose.

---

🔄 2️⃣ God’s Plan for the Ages — Processual / Process Theology Language

In process theology, God’s plan for the ages is better described as a divine hope or intention rather than a fixed blueprint:

• God and the world are co-eternal and co-creative; reality is an unfolding process rather than a static creation from nothing.

• God does not unilaterally predetermine all things but lures all creation forward toward greater beauty, love, and harmony.

• Every moment holds new possibilities. God knows all that is actual and possible, but the future is genuinely open — even for God.

• The incarnation is the perfect expression of divine aim: Christ reveals what it means to live fully responsive to God’s lure.

• History’s fulfillment is not a final, pre-scripted event but an ongoing transformation of all things toward deeper relational richness, with God experiencing and weaving each moment’s value into the divine life.

• Judgment and salvation are not fixed states but relational consequences and creative healing, continuously offered and evolving.

---

✨ Key Contrast

• Non-Processual: A single, timeless, unchanging plan executed by an unchanging God.

• Processual: A living, responsive, relational aim that invites all creation to co-create the future with God.

---

My Query

In response, I next asked ChatGPT the following, "Could your assessment be describe as an incarnational-redemptive lure in process?

ChatGPT said

That’s an excellent and fitting way to say it — yes!

Your phrase “incarnational-redemptive lure” captures the heart of how process theology reframes God’s plan for the ages. Let’s break it down a bit to confirm this is accurate:

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✅ Incarnational

In process thought, the incarnation is not a singular insertion of God into history, but the clearest historical expression of God’s ever-present aim (lure) embodied in a fully responsive human life. Jesus becomes the model of what it means to align perfectly with God’s lure — the divine aim for relational love, healing, and transformation.

---

✅ Redemptive

Redemption in process is not a once-for-all legal transaction but an ongoing creative process. God is always working to heal brokenness, integrate all experience (good and tragic) into deeper relational beauty, and draw creation into more intense harmony. The “redemptive” aspect is not just backward-looking (rescue) but forward-moving (renewal).

---

✅ Lure

“Lure” is Whitehead’s key word: God does not coerce but calls, persuades, invites. This lure is constant, moment by moment, shaping possibilities and gently guiding creation toward richer value.

---

✅ Together: Incarnational-Redemptive Lure

So yes — in process theology, God’s plan for the ages can truly be described as an incarnational-redemptive lure:

• Incarnational: The divine aim embodied in the world, especially in Jesus but also in creation itself.

• Redemptive: Always working to heal and transform brokenness.

• Lure: Persuasive, non-coercive, relational call toward greater wholeness.

---

Put simply:

Process theology’s “plan” is not a blueprint but an open-ended incarnational-redemptive lure, forever inviting the world into deeper life with God.

Conclusion

Myself to ChatGPT

So if we are to rethink theology for a Processual Age, what might that be?

ChatGPT

Absolutely — here’s a concluding, integrative statement that ties together all the spirit and substance of our last several discussions about rethinking theology for a Processual Age, especially around your insight of an incarnational-redemptive lure:

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✨ A Conclusion: Rethinking Theology for a Processual Age

To rethink theology for a Processual Age is to move from certainties frozen in static metaphysics to a living faith that breathes, listens, and moves. It means letting go of the idea of God as an all-controlling architect and embracing God as the relational lure of love — forever incarnating into the world’s unfolding story.

In this vision, creation is not a finished product but a co-creative adventure. The Incarnation is not only an event in first-century Palestine but the deepest sign that God’s way is persuasion, companionship, and redemptive participation in every moment of becoming.

Salvation is not rescue from the world but healing within it — the drawing forth of hidden possibilities that restore, renew, and transform. Hell is not a final prison but the tragic reality of wasted possibilities when creatures resist the lure toward wholeness. Heaven is not static reward but creative fulfillment — the ever-new integration of all value into the divine life.

Scripture becomes not a static verdict but a sacred record of humanity’s dynamic wrestling with God’s call across time. Doctrine shifts from fortress walls to living grammar, reshaped by experience, science, and the unfolding story of relational becoming.

At the heart of this rethinking is trust: trust that God’s power is the humble power of persuasion; trust that freedom is real; trust that our choices matter in shaping what comes to be; trust that no suffering is lost but held in the tender memory of God; trust that divine love endlessly weaves our yes and our no into a future where even loss may find new life.

In a Processual Age, theology becomes a verb: a practice of listening, responding, co-creating.

It becomes the shared work of poets, prophets, scientists, pastors, and all who dare to imagine a world more beautiful than what we see now.

If the question is, What is God’s plan for the ages?

The answer is: the incarnational-redemptive lure — God with us, God ahead of us, God within us, forever calling us into deeper life together.

---

My final query

Please provide a processual summary conclusion re incarnation-redemptive and rethinking theology...

ChatGPT said

Wonderful — here’s a concise, stand-alone Processual Summary Conclusion that draws your core idea — the incarnational-redemptive lure — into a final vision for rethinking theology for a Processual Age:

---

🌿 A Processual Summary Conclusion

In a Processual Age, we dare to confess that God is not distant and unchanging, but deeply present — an incarnational-redemptive lure, calling all things forward into richer life.

Incarnation is not a single past event but the pattern of divine love ever taking form in the world: in Jesus as the clearest sign, but also in every moment when love, beauty, and justice are born anew through the agency of mankind.

Redemption is not a legal transaction once settled for all time but an unending work of healing and transformation. God gathers every sorrow, every possibility, every choice — weaving them into a future more whole than the present.

In this vision, theology itself becomes a living practice: not frozen doctrines, but a relational grammar, open to surprise, faithful to love’s deepest aim. It listens for the divine lure in science and art, in lament and wonder, in the cries of creation longing for renewal.

God’s “plan” is NOT a blueprint imposed by force — it is the invitation to become, to co-create with the Spirit who draws all things toward creative fulfillment. It is the trust that every act of love, every word of hope, every step toward justice, is a thread in the ongoing Incarnation of God’s heart in the world.

To rethink theology in a Processual Age is to join this flow: to be drawn, to respond, to create — and to processually become, along with our Creating-Redeeming God, a living part of the world’s deeper life.

---

✨ A Processual Prayer of Agency:
For the Incarnational-Redemptive Lure of God
to the Incarnating Redeeming Followers of God


The Lure of Love

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT

God is love.

God, who is in process with the world,

is drawing all things deeper into the life of God.

This God, who is ever and always,

is our Incarnating-Redeeming lure of love.

"O God of Love,

Who is ever becoming with the world,

ever luring all things into deeper life,

who is the God with us,

ahead of us,

within us,

forever calling us

into deeper life together.

"We open ourselves to your alluring presence.

Where we cling to what is fixed -

unfasten us with your patient persuasion.

Where we fear what is changing -

steady us with your faithful constancy.

"We pray O' God that you may

Incarnate yourself among us once again -

    in the courage to heal what is broken,

    in the hope to revive what we have wasted,

    in the beauty that stirs within us what is asleep.

"Redeem us O' Lord -

    not by force but by invitation;

    weave our choices, our griefs, our small faiths

    into your larger story of becoming.

"Teach us O' Lord to see:

    heaven, not as reward but as creative fulfillment,

    hell, not as your wrath but as possibility refused,

    and salvation, as the healing we share in together,

    moment by moment, in this ever-unfolding now.

"May our words, our prayers, our daily acts

be verbs of love —

    co-creating, co-suffering, co-dreaming

    with you, the living lure and heart of all things.

"Draw us deeper, Loving God,

    into life with you,

    into life with each other,

    into living lessons of life to the world -

and in our becoming,

be  still,

be wondering,

be love."

Amen.

R.E. Slater
July 1, 2025

@copyright R.E. Slater Publications

all rights reserved

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

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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.

Rewriting God: Updating Theological Language, Part 2

Rewriting God:

Updating Theological Language

PART 2

The Evolution of Theological Metaphysics:

Moving Beyond Hellenistic Ontologies

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT

Revelation is ever becoming...

what new revelatory language looks like

through processual description.

- re slater

Earlier this week I stumbled into a section of process theology that I had largely been unaware of and must respond to as failure for my ignorance. My first reaction was a feeling of great loss. My second reaction was how did I miss this?!?! And my third reaction was how do I speak process language with more clarity?

But first, let's ask the question, "Why does the church, its people, schools, and theologians continually work at updating the bible's language? And when it does, how does new church language - or, new theological language such as processual theology - affect the creeds, dogmas, doctrines, and attitudes of past beliefs, statement, and understandings?

Generally, updating theological language involves revisiting and reinterpreting theological concepts, often expressed in religious texts and doctrines, to be relevant and understandable to contemporary audiences. It recognizes that language evolves and that theological understandings, sometimes formalized as doctrines, can and should change to reflect advancements in knowledge and understanding.

I. UPDATING THEOLOGICAL LANGUAGE

I.  Why Update Theological Language?

• Changes in language and understanding: As societies and languages evolve, older expressions of theological concepts may lose their original meaning or resonate less with modern sensibilities.

• New knowledge and perspectives: Developments in fields such as science, psychology, and philosophy can provide new insights into the human experience and the world, influencing how theological ideas are understood and communicated.

• Promoting clarity and accessibility: Translating theological language into contemporary language helps make it more accessible and understandable to people, fostering engagement and dialogue.

• Addressing cultural biases: Each generation must wrestle with how to be relevant to the world around it and how to best communicate the gospel message. Theology can act as a filter to strip out unnecessary doctrines or beliefs and translate core truths into the language and culture of the time.

• Encouraging critical thinking: Examining theological language encourages deeper engagement with beliefs, leading to a more nuanced understanding of one's own tradition and other perspectives.

II. Methods for Updating Theological Language:

• Translation into contemporary language: This involves finding ways to express theological ideas using modern vocabulary and phrasing while maintaining the original meaning or belief.

• Reinterpreting traditional concepts: This involves understanding ancient concepts in light of modern knowledge and experience, offering new interpretations that resonate with contemporary concerns.

• Engaging with new perspectives: Drawing from modern academic disciplines, philosophy, and other areas of inquiry can provide new insights and language for theological discussions.

• Textual updating (in the context of religious texts): Involves changes made to religious texts by authorized writers, as evidenced by textual analysis and critical scholarship.

III. Challenges and Considerations:

• Maintaining fidelity to original meaning: A key challenge is to ensure that updating theological language doesn't distort or lose the core message of the original texts and traditions.

• Overcoming historical and cultural distance: Interpreting ancient texts and concepts requires understanding the historical and cultural context in which they were written.

• Addressing linguistic differences: Translating theological terms across languages can be challenging due to inherent differences in vocabulary, grammar, and cultural idioms.

• Avoiding reader-response bias: It is crucial to approach updating theological language with a focus on understanding the author's original intent rather than imposing modern interpretations.

IV. Examples of Updating Theological Language:

• Inclusive language: Replacing gendered terms with more inclusive language to better reflect the diversity of humanity.

• Metaphorical reinterpretations: Understanding traditional concepts like "God" as an "Ultimate Reality" or "Cosmos" instead of an anthropomorphic being.

• Re-evaluating traditional doctrines in light of new knowledge: For example, interpreting creation stories in light of scientific discoveries.

Updating theological language is an ongoing process that seeks to bridge the gap between ancient wisdom and modern understanding, making faith relevant and meaningful for contemporary believers and society as a whole.

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II. PROCESS THEOLOGY BRINGS CONTEMPORARY LANGUAGE

My former evangelical faith was steeped in ancient language and meaning. This modis operandi (a particular way or method of doing something, especially one that is traditionally well-established) certainly fit the language of the bible as it too is steeped in ancient language and meaning.

So it is very reasonable to expect that traditional church doctrine will resonate with ancient concepts, ideas, social structures, old world constructions, meaning, and positional qualifications.

And what church creeds and doctrines would this refer too? Hmmmm.... A-L-L of them! From the highest evangelical assertions to the lowest jot and tittle!

So, when coming to the highly refined, quantum language of processual theology one cannot expect to be using Egyptian math or Greek philosophy. No, because we are dealing with ancient ideas that are minimally two millennia old, re the New Testament; and four millennia old re the Old Testament.

Since those very ancient eras of beliefs and religious formation much has passed in world history and with it, the evolution of human language, concepts, ideation, etc, across the spectrum of human knowledge.

Process language then is the metaphysical scientific language of our times. It rests in process philosophy and is built on top of that processual foundation. This philosophy is an Integral Philosophy of Everything.

It has competently, and fully, replaced Platonic thought and all other major philosophies of their time. It is why the quantum science correlate so very well with process philosophy, as well as major non-Westernized, non-Christian religions like Eastern Buddhism. It elucidates how creation works very well.

I say this to underline a crucial aspect of process thought: "One cannot make process thought other than what it is!".... And though not defined or termed as "process" per se in ancient cultures, beliefs, and experience, the ancients wrote about it in their own way along with parts of the Western Church through the centuries. But it was Alfred North Whitehead who developed it off of Hegelian thought and which has found it's place today in the 21st Century.

And so, if I can remember, I'll produce a future article on the antiquity of process thought someday.

Illus by RE Slater & ChatGPT

Illus by RE Slater & ChatGPT

III. FROM SUBSTANCE TO PROCESS

Updating Theological Language from its Hellenistic Roots

to Process Thought

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I. The Legacy of Hellenistic Thought in Church Doctrine

The Christian faith has always sought to express divine truth in the language and philosophy of its time. However, many of the categories that undergird classical Christian theology—especially those formulated during the Patristic and Conciliar periods—draw heavily from Hellenistic metaphysics, which emphasized static being, essentialism, and hierarchical order. While these terms once served to clarify doctrine, they now often hinder clarity in light of contemporary metaphysics, science, and relational ontology.

Process Theology, rooted in the work of Alfred North Whitehead, offers a new set of categories—dynamic, relational, participatory—that better resonate with modern scientific and philosophical sensibilities. This shift is not a rejection of Christianity but an evolution of its conceptual vocabulary, offering clearer pathways for expressing enduring truths. 

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II. Classical Doctrinal Language: Hellenistic Foundations

Ancient church doctrines—especially those from the Patristic and Conciliar periods (2nd–5th centuries)—were profoundly shaped by Hellenistic philosophical categories, particularly:

1. Substance Metaphysics (Ousia, Hypostasis)

• One Ousia (essence/substance) and three hypostases (persons = individual reality) were key to Nicene and Chalcedonian formulations of the Trinity and Christology.

• These terms attempted to define God's being using static categories suited to Greek metaphysics, not dynamic relationality. That is, God's Being was framed in essentialist terms of what something is rather than what it does or becomes.

2. Immutability and Impassibility

• God was understood as changeless and unaffected by creation, a view inherited from Plato and Aristotle.

• Divine perfection was thought to require absolute immutability—making God unmoved even by love or suffering.

3. Timelessness

• God exists outside of time (eternal, aeviternal, timeless) per Neoplatonic hierarchies, where the One is beyond becoming, and rendering divine action unrelated to temporal becoming.

• This static eternal concepts framed doctrines of providence, omniscience, and predestination.

4. Dualism of Form and Matter

• Influenced by Platonic dualism, many early doctrines saw the physical as inferior to the spiritual (body vs. soul, world vs. heaven).

• Spirit was seen as eternal, pure; matter was transient and corruptible.

• This dualism devalued the body and material world, influencing doctrines of resurrection, asceticism, and sexuality.

5. Monarchical Hierarchies

• Church doctrines mirrored the hierarchical cosmologies of Stoic and Platonic worlds, emphasizing top-down divine sovereignty.

• God’s rule was conceptualized like that of a Hellenistic emperor: absolute, unilateral, and top-down.

• Mirrored imperial politics and law, shaping images of divine judgment and control.

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III. Why These Classical Categories Are Now Considered Theologically Problematic

They Are Metaphysically Outdated

• Substance metaphysics does not account for quantum indeterminacy, evolutionary development, or relational causality.

• Today’s sciences and philosophies describe reality as processual, probabilistic, and interdependent.

They Promote Theological Confusion

• Doctrines like the Trinity or Incarnation become paradoxes or riddles when framed in static metaphysics.

• Terms like “essence” and “substance” suggest rigid categories ill-suited to describing love, presence, or transformation.

They Undermine Relational Theology

• An unchangeable, impassible God cannot be meaningfully affected by creation.

• This contradicts Scripture’s portrayals of a God who weeps, rejoices, suffers, and responds.

They Distance God from Creation

• By placing God “outside time” or “above the world,” traditional metaphysics alienate divine presence from lived experience.

• This supports deism or fatalism rather than intimacy and co-creation.

They Promote Static Substance vs. Dynamic Becoming

• The term ousia implies a fixed essence, but contemporary physics and metaphysics affirm relational becoming over fixed substances.

• Process theology, influenced by Whitehead, sees every entity as a series of events in relation, not as fixed objects.

They Conscript Static Terminology such as Immutability 

• Instead of saying God is “unchanging,” process theology says God’s character (love) is constant, but God’s experience is open and evolving.

• Divine Immutability can now be redefined as faithful relationality

• This better fits biblical portrayals of a God who grieves, relents, rejoices, and participates.

They Present God as Outside of Time Rather Than Inside It

• Rather than timelessness, process theology affirms God is deeply temporal, knowing the unfolding present with perfect immediacy.

• This renders divine providence more interactive and responsive rather than predetermined.

They Speak of God in Dualistic Terms

• Process theology affirms the unity of mind and body, world and spirit, God and creation—panentheistically rather than dualistically.

They Promote Monarchic Power Over Participatory Co-Creation

• The process view replaces unilateral divine control with co-creative, participatory power—a more ethical and relational understanding of sovereignty.

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IV. PROCESS THEOLOGY'S UPDATED NOMENCLATURE

Process theology shifts theology from a substance ontology to an event-based, relational ontology.

Below are key upgrades in theological language:

Hellenistic Term	Modern/Process Equivalent	Explanation
Ousia (Essence)	Actual Entity / Occasion	Dynamic event in becoming
Immutability	Faithful Relational Constancy	Constant love, evolving response
Timelessness	Deep Temporality	God in time, not above it
Hypostasis	Subjective Aim / Actual Occasion	Entity with internal drive toward value
Logos	Divine Lure	Persuasive call toward beauty/novelty
Sovereignty	Relational Power	Co-creative influence, not coercion

Additional Categories

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V. WHY THIS SHIFT MATTERS THEOLOGICALLY

Greater Coherence with Science and Reality

• Quantum physics, evolutionary biology, and cosmology resonate with relational, dynamic models of being.

Stronger Ethical Implications

• A God who suffers with us and calls us into co-creation is more ethically persuasive than a remote, impassible monarch.

Preserves Mystery Without Obscurantism

• While mystery remains, it is no longer rooted in metaphysical contradiction, but in the depth of relational love and becoming.

Revitalization of Christian Doctrines

• Trinity, Incarnation, Atonement, and Eschatology become more congruent when reframed in relational, dynamic terms.

Trinity

• Instead of “three persons, one substance,” the Trinity is understood as three relational aspects of divine becoming.

• Reflects divine relationality, creativity, and shared becoming, not ontological abstraction.

Incarnation

• Jesus is not a divine being “inserted” into flesh, but the perfect expression of God’s relational aims in his humanity.

• Christology becomes a model of deep divine-human participation, not metaphysical ousia contradiction.

Atonement

• Rejects penal/juridical satisfaction; instead, the Cross shows God’s solidarity with suffering and the divine lure toward transformation.

• Love and suffering are redemptive not because they appease wrath, but because they express ultimate relational fidelity.

Resurrection and Eschatology

• Each emphasize ongoing, present transformation, not only future events.

• Resurrection is the processual renewal of life, inviting all beings toward divine beauty, harmony, and co-creation.

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VI. WHY THIS SHIFT MATTERS FOR CONTEMPORARY FAITH

• Clarity over Confusion: Instead of defending ancient paradoxes (three=one, immutable yet personal), process theology speaks with philosophical clarity and emotional resonance.

• Relevance over Rigidity: Aligns Christian faith with contemporary cosmology, ethics, and psychology.

• Hope over Fatalism: Divine relationality opens the future rather than determining it. God’s work is ongoing, participatory, and responsive.

• Love over Control: The central divine attribute is not power, but love in relationship—a God who invites, responds, and transforms.

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VII. CONCLUSION: NOT REJECTION - BUT REFORMATION

The goal is not to discard the creeds but to reinterpret their insights through better metaphysical lenses.

The God of classical orthodoxy is often frozen in philosophical categories that no longer serve the church or the world.

Process theology offers a vibrant, scientifically coherent, and ethically compelling alternative that honors the living heart of the gospel.

What is the Gospel? It's about a God

who is love, who is in process with the world,

drawing all creation deeper into divine life.

- r.e. slater