Relevancy22: Contemporary Process Christianity: Post-Evangelic Topics and Theology: Index

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 off 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

Showing posts with label Index - Process Theology: What Is It?. Show all posts

Sunday, February 18, 2024

Index - Process Theology: What Is It?

Jay McDaniel did a massive mind-dump today... or, perhaps more accurately, a massive website dump, over years and years of labor as he put together volumes and volumes on his Open Horizon's website explaining what Process Philosophy and Theology is via AN Whitehead and notable process figureheads over many decades devoted to this subject.

In fact, this is such a massive mind meld that I am taking the entire post here and making it into it's own INDEX file by placing it with the many other process-based Index files I have listed here at Relevancy22 on the right column serving as a ready library to any and all who come visiting.

Moreover, there is so much good information here that one could create:

(i) a dozen different college courses, or

(ii) a full introductory year for a (Christian) high school course in the freshman year, or

(iii) serve as a senior capstone project, or even

(iv) serve as a decent start for a doctoral or post-doctoral program.

And for those of us in the church and/or the work-a-day world, these dialogues would serve as great discussions in weekly group formats, Sunday School topics, pulpit and lectern teaching / preaching, as well as policy initiatives for community, environmental, and social justice activism locally, regionally, and even nationally.

So THANK YOU JAY! for the many years of love and devotion to your subject. You have done a profound job in creating and disseminating such much great material onto the Internet we everybody can come, read, and go away rethinking life and faith, community and responsibility. We are very, very thankful for all you have done and given to the process world!

R.E. Slater

February 17, 2024

* * * * * * * *

Open Horizons

Exploring a Process Worldview

and Way of Living

curated by Jay McDaniel

Welcome. Open Horizons is an evolving collection of webpages by different writers and artists exploring a process worldview and way of living. All pages include images and text, and some include music. We believe in many ways of knowing. We have readers from more than a hundred countries and add new content almost every day.

This homepage introduces the process worldview and way of living; gives you a sense of the social aspirations and practices of the process movement; and offers a list of recently added pages for further exploration. New to the "process" outlook on life? Scroll down and you'll get the introduction you need. Thanks for joining us.

20 Key Ideas in Process Thought

What Is Process Thought? by Jay McDaniel

[brackets] and highlights are mine for added clarity - r.e. slater]

1 - Process: The universe is an ongoing process of development and change, never quite the same from moment to moment. Every entity in the universe is best understood as a process of becoming that emerges through its interactions with other [relationships]. The "beings" of the world are "becomings".

2 - Interconnectedness: The universe as a whole is a seamless web of interconnected events, none of which can be completely separated from the others. Everything is connect to everything else and contained in everything else. As Buddhists put it, the universe is a network of inter-being.

**As I understand it, many of Process Christianity's processual elements are shared by Buddhist thought... meaning, what Western British mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead developed in his "Philosophy of Organism" - and which later became known as "Process Philosophy" - was already extuant in ancient Eastern Buddhist thought. Whitehead did not intend this coincidence when observing ancient civilization's philosophies and Hegel's work begun but not completed - however, his prescient thought is also shared by Buddhism's prescient thoughts founded centuries earlier. - r.e. slater

3. Continuous Creativity: The universe exhibits a continuous creativity on the basis of which new events come into existence over time which did not exist beforehand. This continuous creativity is the ultimate reality of the universe. Everywhere we look we see it. Even God is an expression of Creativity. Even as God creates, [God's Self] is also continuously created.

4. Nature as Alive: The natural world has value in itself, and all living beings are worthy of respect and care. Rocks and trees, hills and rivers are not simply facts in the world; they are also acts of self-realization. The whole of nature is alive with value. We humans dwell within, not apart from, ~~the Ten Thousand Things~~ [the natural world]. We, [then, also] have value.

5. Ethics: Humans find their fulfillment in living in harmony with the earth and compassionately with each other. The ethical life lies in living with respect and care for other people and the larger community of life (nature) [around itself]. Justice is fidelity to the bonds of relationship. A just society is a free and peaceful society. It is creative, compassionate, participatory, ecologically wise, and spiritually satisfying - with no one [relationship] left behind.

6. Novelty: Humans find their fulfillment in being open to new ideas, insights, and experiences that may have no parallel in the past. Even as we learn from the past, we must be open to the future. God is present in the world, among other ways, through novel possibilities. Human happiness is found, not only in wisdom and compassion, but also in creativity.

7. Thinking and Feeling: The human mind is not limited to reasoning but also includes feeling, intuiting, imagining; all of these activities can work together toward understanding. Even reasoning is a form of feeling: that is, feeling the presence of ideas and responding to them. There are many forms of wisdom: mathematical, spatial, verbal, kinesthetic, empathic, logical, and spiritual.

8. Relational Selfhood: Human beings are not skin-encapsulated egos cut off from the world by the boundaries of the skin, but persons-in-community whose interactions with others are partly definitive of their own internal existence. We depend for our existence on friends, family, and mentors; on food and clothing and shelter; on cultural traditions and the natural world. The communitarians are right: there is no "self" apart from connections with others. The individualists are right, too. Each person is unique, deserving of respect and care. Other animals deserve respect and care, too.

9. Complementary Thinking: The process way leans toward both-and thinking, not either-or thinking. The rational life consists not only of identifying facts and appealing to evidence, but taking apparent conflicting ideas and showing how they can be woven into wholes, with each side contributing to the other. In Whitehead’s thought these wholes are called contrasts. To be "reasonable" is to be empirical but also imaginative: exploring new ideas and seeing how they might fit together, complementing one another.

10. Theory and Practice: Theory affects practice and practice affects theory; a dichotomy between the two is false. What people do affects how they think and how they think affects what they do. Learning can occur from body to mind: that is, by doing things; and not simply from mind to body.

11. The Primacy of Persuasion over Coercion: There are two kinds of power – coercive power and persuasive power – and the latter is to be preferred over the former. Coercive power is the power of force and violence; persuasive power is the power of invitation and moral example.

12. Relational Power: This is the power that is experienced when people dwell in mutually enhancing relations, such that both are “empowered” through their relations with one another. In international relations, this would be the kind of empowerment that occurs when governments enter into trade relations that are mutually beneficial and serve the wider society; in parenting, this would be the power that parents and children enjoy when, even amid a hierarchical relationship, there is respect on both sides and the relationship strengthens parents and children.

13. The Primacy of Particularity: There is a difference between abstract ideas that are abstracted from concrete events in the world, and the events themselves. The fallacy of misplaced concreteness lies in confusing the abstractions with the concrete events and focusing more on the abstract than the particular.

14. Experience in the Mode of Causal Efficacy: Human experience is not restricted to acting on things or actively interpreting a passive world. It begins by a conscious and unconscious receiving of events into life and being causally affected or influenced by what is received. This occurs through the mediation of the body but can also occur through a reception of the moods and feelings of other people (and animals).

15. Concern for the Vulnerable: Humans are gathered together in a web of felt connections, such that they share in one another’s sufferings and are responsible to one another. Humans can share feelings and be affected by one another’s feelings in a spirit of mutual sympathy. The measure of a society does not lie in questions of appearance, affluence, and marketable achievement, but in how it treats those whom Jesus called "the least of these" -- the neglected, the powerless, the marginalized, the otherwise forgotten.

16. Evil: “Evil” is a name for debilitating suffering from which humans and other living beings suffer, and also for the missed potential from which they suffer. Evil is powerful and real; it is not merely the absence of good. “Harm” is a name for activities, undertaken by human beings, which inflict such suffering on others and themselves, and which cut off their potential. Evil can be structural as well as personal. Systems -- not simply people -- can be conduits for harm.

17. Education as a Lifelong Process: Human life is itself a journey from birth (and perhaps before) to death (and perhaps after) and the journey is itself a process of character development over time. Formal education in the classroom is a context to facilitate the process, but the process continues throughout a lifetime. Education requires romance, precision, and generalization. Learning is best when people want to learn.

18. Religion and Science: Religion and Science are both human activities, evolving over time, which can be attuned to the depths of reality. Science focuses on forms of energy which are subject to replicable experiments and which can be rendered into mathematical terms; religion begins with awe at the beauty of the universe, awakens to the interconnections of things, and helps people discover the norms which are part of the very make-up of the universe itself.

19. God: The universe unfolds within a larger life – a love supreme – who is continuously present within each actuality as a lure toward wholeness relevant to the situation at hand. In human life we experience this reality as an inner calling toward wisdom, compassion, and creativity. Whenever we see these three realities in human life we see the presence of this love, thus named or not. This love is the Soul of the universe and we are small but included in its life not unlike the way in which embryos dwell within a womb, or fish swim within an ocean, or stars travel throught the sky. This Soul can be addressed in many ways, and one of the most important words for addressing the Soul is "God." The stars and galaxies are the body of God and any forms of life which exist on other planets are enfolded in the life of God, as is life on earth. God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere. As God beckons human beings toward wisdom, compassion, and creativity, God does not know the outcome of the beckoning in advance, because the future does not exist to be known. But God is steadfast in love; a friend to the friendless; and a source of inner peace. God can be conceived as "father" or "mother" or "lover" or "friend." God is love.

20. Faith: Faith is not intellectual assent to creeds or doctrines but rather trust in divine love. To trust in love is to trust in the availability of fresh possibilities relative to each situation; to trust that love is ultimately more powerful than violence; to trust that even the galaxies and planets are drawn by a loving presence; and to trust that, no matter what happens, all things are somehow gathered into a wider beauty. This beauty is the Adventure of the Universe as One.

Explanation: 

Process thinking is an attitude toward life emphasizing respect and care for the community of life. It is concerned with the well-being of individuals and also with the common good of the world, understood as a community of communities of communities. It sees the world as a process of becoming and the universe as a vast network of inter-becomings. It sees each living being on our planet as worthy of respect and care.

People influenced by process thinking seek to live lightly on the earth and gently with others, sensitive to the interconnectedness of all things and delighted by the differences. They believe that there are many ways of knowing the world -- verbal, mathematical, aesthetic, empathic, bodily, and practical - and that education should foster creativity and compassion as well as literacy.

Process thinkers belong to many different cultures and live in many different regions of the world: Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe, North America, and Oceania. They include teenagers, parents, grandparents, store-clerks, accountants, farmers, musicians, artists, and philosophers.

Many of the scholars in the movement are influenced by the perspective of the late philosopher and mathematician, Alfred North Whitehead. His thinking embodies the leading edge of the intellectual side of process thinking. Nevertheless, a mastery of his ideas is not necessary to be a process thinker. Ultimately process thinking is an attitude and outlook on life, and a way of interacting with the world. It is not so much a rigidly-defined worldview as it is a way of feeling the presence of the world and responding with creativity and compassion.

The tradition of process thinking can be compared to a growing and vibrant tree, with blossoms yet to unfold. The roots of the tree are the many ideas developed by Whitehead in his mature philosophy. They were articulated most systematically in his book Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology. The trunk consists of more general ideas which have been developed by subsequent thinkers from different cultures, adding creativity of their own. These general ideas flow from Whitehead's philosophy, but are less technical in tone. The branches consist of the many ways in which these ideas are being applied to daily life and community development. The branches include applications to a wide array of topics, ranging from art and music to education and ecology.

Much of this website -- Open Horizons - is devoted to the branches and trunk. Of course, some people will be interested in the roots. For those interested in gaining knowledge of the roots, we have created a free course of short videos which provides an introduction to Alfred North Whitehead's organic philosophy and serves as a guiding companion to Whitehead's seminal work, Process and Reality. These twenty six-minute videos are offered below. They can be viewed in sequence or in parts, depending on your interests. If you would like to get started on this short course to better understand the roots of process thinking, go to What is Process Thought? The ideas above represent the twenty key ideas in the trunk.

RECENT POSTS

Scan, click, and enjoy according to your interests.

Click here for index of all titles in Open Horizons.

updated February 17, 2024

Practicing the Process Way

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no need for permission or citation

Process Worldview: - A Simpler Version

by Jay McDaniel

14 Process Transformations

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by Jay McDaniel

Ecological Civilizations: Just & Compassionate Communities

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The social ideal of process philosophy

Ecological civilizations are the world's best hope. We humans live within, not apart form, a larger web of life filled with value and beauty. Our responsibility is to care for the larger whole and for one another. The building blocks of ecological civilizations are local communities that are creative, compassionate, participatory, inclusive, diverse, humane to animals, good for the earth, and spiritually satisfying -- with no one left behind. The social aim of process thinkers is to help build these kinds of communities.

Here are some links to get started:

Ecotheology in Theory and Practice (Jay McDaniel)

The Radical Vision of Ecological Civilization (Andrew Schwartz)

Five Foundations for an Ecological Civilization (John Cobb)

Ten Ideas for Saving the Planet (John Cobb)

Economic Justice and Process Philosophy (John Cobb and others)

China's Ecological Civilization (Zhihe Wang)

A Call to Deeper Places: The Owl as My Teacher (Nita Gilger)

Goodbye, Earth: The Failure of "Adults" to Care for the Planet (Patricia Adams Farmer)

Beauty & Process Theology

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by Patricia Adams Farmer

God in Process Theology

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Four Aims of the Process Movement

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Process and Spirituality

Process and Spirituality Presentation

by Jared Morningstar

Jewish Process Theology

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Reflections from Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson

Christian Process Theology

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by Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki

Christian Process Theology

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by Jeffery D. Long

A Miscellany of Recent Offerings

A Process Perspective of Virtual Reality: Jason Barker

The Ripening of Souls: Avocado Theology

Enlightenment as Awakening to Essential Kenosis:

Open and Relational Buddhism

Key Questions for Process Philosophy & Theology:

An Interview with Andrew Davis

Kimjang and the Sharing of Kimchi:

An Eco-Practice from Korea

Clock Time and Lived Time:

Henri Bergson, Pete A.Y. Gunter

Mudddleheadedness and Simplemindedness

by Whitehead and Russell

Process and Ceremony: Raising a Totem Pole

Potlucks not Battlefields: Eboo Patel and Interfaith America

Whitehead without God: Donald Sherburne

Process Thought: God

created and narrated by Hope Montgomery

Musician in Residence, Open Horizons

Snapshots

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CLICK HERE FOR SUMMARY OF PROCESS THINKING

The Process Movement

Many people from around the world visit the site. They include viewers from Venezuela, Korea, Kenya, Canada, Germany, Philippines, Mexico, Botswana, Sweden, Turkey, England, Brazil, and the United States. And a few from mainland China, too, where the process movement is growing rapidly.

Some visitors are affiliated with one or another of the world's religions and some are spiritual independents. All are welcome.

The contributors to Open Horizons include artists, photographers, musicians, poets, clerks, accountants, farmers, theologians, and philosophers. They share many of the ideas and aims offered above, as understood in their own ways, and are committed to the practices, especially that of living with respect and care for life.

Open Horizons is part of the larger process community. If you would like to be part of the process community, help with its work, and contribute your own ideas, here are some ways:

Join the Claremont Process Nexus.

Join the Cobb Institute: A Community of Process and Practice.

Join Process and Faith: A Multi-Religious Network.

Support the The Center for Process Studies.

Support the Institute for Ecological Civilization.

New to the Process World?

here are some pages that will help you get started

Relationships as the Spiritual Web of our Lives (Frederic Brussat)
Twenty Key Ideas in Process Thinking (Jay McDaniel)
A Whole Universe of Stories (Patricia Adams Farmer)
Beauty as a Spiritual Home (Patricia Adams Farmer)
The Numinosity of Rocks (Patricia Adams Farmer)
Whitehead, Jung, and Psychospiritual Wholeness (Sheri Kling)
Whitehead Video Series (video series for people serious about reading Process and Reality)
The Constellation of Process Theology (Bradley Artson)
God Almighty? No Way! (Bradley Artson)
Can a Muslim be a Panentheist? (Farhan Shah)
Whitehead's Theory of Value (John Cobb)
Emotional Intelligence and Embodied Wisdom: The Spiritual Side of Process Thinking
The New Process Theology: International, Multireleligious, Practical, Theopoetic (Jay McDaniel)
Building Ecological Civilizations: The Practical Side of Process Thinking
China's Ecological Civilization: Our Common Great Opportunity (Zhihe Wang)
A Biologist Looks at Process Thought (Charles Birch)
Comparing Whitehead and Chinese Thought (Jay McDaniel)

more snapshots

Created by Susannah Stubbs

Artist in Residence, Open Horizons

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Windows into Open Horizons

navigating the website

subjects

ART, MUSIC, AND LITERATURE

REFLECTING ON BIG QUESTIONS

SPIRITUALITY AND PRACTICE

WHITEHEAD'S PHILOSOPHY

SOCIAL JUSTICE AND ECONOMICS

GOD AND PANENTHEISM

MYSTICISM: EIGHT FORMS

MISCELLANY FOR THE CURIOUS MIND

PROCESS AND BUDDHISM

ECOLOGICAL CIVILIZATION

INTERFAITH EXPLORATIONS

SCIENCE: BIOLOGY AND PHYSICS

EAST-WEST EXPLORATIONS

ANIMALS AND SPIRITUALITY

TRANSPERSONAL PSYCHOLOGY

PROCESS IN CHINA

MENTAL HEALTH

PEOPLE'S STORIES

FOOD AND FOOD CULTURE

FILM REVIEWS: FREDERIC AND MARY ANN BRUSSAT

JOHN BECKER

GENE REEVES

TRISTAN NORMAN

JOANNA CAMPBELL

writers

PATRICIA ADAMS FARMER: ESSAYS

FARHAN SHAH: ESSAYS ON ISLAM

JOHN B. COBB, JR.: ESSAYS

JEA SOPHIA OH: ESSAYS ON KOREA

PAUL INGRAM: ESSAYS

VIVIAN DONG: ESSAYS

ANDREW SCHWARTZ

BANGXIU XIE

MARILYN BILES: ART

SOPHIA SAID

MICHAELENE MILLER

SAM COKER

PHILIP FLETCHER

BRADLEY SHAVIT ARTSON: ESSAYS

TERI DAILY: ESSAYS ON CHRISTIANITY

ISLAM: ADIS DUDERIJA

ZHIHE WANG AND MEIJUN FAN: ESSAYS ON CHINA

NITA GILGER: ESSAYS

BOB MESLE: ESSAYS

BRUCE EPPERLY: ESSAYS

MARJORIE SUCHOCKI

PAT BRENTANO: ART

SHERI KLING

FREDERIC BRUSSAT

LES MURAY

Photo: Susannah Stubbs

Interfaith Cooperation

growing in religious literacy and

engaging in interfaith cooperation

as an open and relational practice

We encourage growing in religious literacy as a beginning, but not an end, to what is most important: interfaith cooperation.

We in the "process" world believe that friendships with people of other faiths, combined with joint projects aimed at helping bring about just, sustainable, and joyful communities, are what is most important.

Still, a degree of religious literacy is very important and a worthy aim. Very few people in the world are religiously literate in a complete sense; the very process of growing in such literacy is a lifelong endeavor and, for some, a spiritual practice. Let this page help you take first steps.

Click on the links to the left and you will be taken to the best resource you can find for understanding the world's religions today: On Common Ground from The Pluralism Project at Harvard University. These are the multiple "faiths" which can be an important part of a relational culture and community. Process philosophy offers a way of appreciating the best in each tradition and articulating the traditions from the inside, by those who practice them.

an interfaith spiritual alphabet

For us "spirituality" is embodied cognition and emotional intelligence in everyday life. In the wheel of spirituality below, you will find thirty seven qualities of heart and mind that are part of spirituality. We borrow the list from one of our partner organizations: Spirituality and Practice. In the essays on the left, Patricia Adams Farmer and Jay McDaniel offer interpretations of some of the letters.