Quotes & Sayings


We, and creation itself, actualize the possibilities of the God who sustains the world, towards becoming in the world in a fuller, more deeper way. - R.E. Slater

There is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have [consequential effects upon] the world around us. - Process Metaphysician Alfred North Whitehead

Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem says (i) all closed systems are unprovable within themselves and, that (ii) all open systems are rightly understood as incomplete. - R.E. Slater

The most true thing about you is what God has said to you in Christ, "You are My Beloved." - Tripp Fuller

The God among us is the God who refuses to be God without us, so great is God's Love. - Tripp Fuller

According to some Christian outlooks we were made for another world. Perhaps, rather, we were made for this world to recreate, reclaim, redeem, and renew unto God's future aspiration by the power of His Spirit. - R.E. Slater

Our eschatological ethos is to love. To stand with those who are oppressed. To stand against those who are oppressing. It is that simple. Love is our only calling and Christian Hope. - R.E. Slater

Secularization theory has been massively falsified. We don't live in an age of secularity. We live in an age of explosive, pervasive religiosity... an age of religious pluralism. - Peter L. Berger

Exploring the edge of life and faith in a post-everything world. - Todd Littleton

I don't need another reason to believe, your love is all around for me to see. – Anon

Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all. - Khalil Gibran, Prayer XXIII

Be careful what you pretend to be. You become what you pretend to be. - Kurt Vonnegut

Religious beliefs, far from being primary, are often shaped and adjusted by our social goals. - Jim Forest

We become who we are by what we believe and can justify. - R.E. Slater

People, even more than things, need to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. – Anon

Certainly, God's love has made fools of us all. - R.E. Slater

An apocalyptic Christian faith doesn't wait for Jesus to come, but for Jesus to become in our midst. - R.E. Slater

Christian belief in God begins with the cross and resurrection of Jesus, not with rational apologetics. - Eberhard Jüngel, Jürgen Moltmann

Our knowledge of God is through the 'I-Thou' encounter, not in finding God at the end of a syllogism or argument. There is a grave danger in any Christian treatment of God as an object. The God of Jesus Christ and Scripture is irreducibly subject and never made as an object, a force, a power, or a principle that can be manipulated. - Emil Brunner

“Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” means "I will be that who I have yet to become." - God (Ex 3.14) or, conversely, “I AM who I AM Becoming.”

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. - Thomas Merton

The church is God's world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the Eucharist/Communion table to share life with one another as a new kind of family. When this happens, we show to the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be. The church is God's show-and-tell for the world to see how God wants us to live as a blended, global, polypluralistic family united with one will, by one Lord, and baptized by one Spirit. – Anon

The cross that is planted at the heart of the history of the world cannot be uprooted. - Jacques Ellul

The Unity in whose loving presence the universe unfolds is inside each person as a call to welcome the stranger, protect animals and the earth, respect the dignity of each person, think new thoughts, and help bring about ecological civilizations. - John Cobb & Farhan A. Shah

If you board the wrong train it is of no use running along the corridors of the train in the other direction. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God's justice is restorative rather than punitive; His discipline is merciful rather than punishing; His power is made perfect in weakness; and His grace is sufficient for all. – Anon

Our little [biblical] systems have their day; they have their day and cease to be. They are but broken lights of Thee, and Thou, O God art more than they. - Alfred Lord Tennyson

We can’t control God; God is uncontrollable. God can’t control us; God’s love is uncontrolling! - Thomas Jay Oord

Life in perspective but always in process... as we are relational beings in process to one another, so life events are in process in relation to each event... as God is to Self, is to world, is to us... like Father, like sons and daughters, like events... life in process yet always in perspective. - R.E. Slater

To promote societal transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework which includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace. - The Earth Charter Mission Statement

Christian humanism is the belief that human freedom, individual conscience, and unencumbered rational inquiry are compatible with the practice of Christianity or even intrinsic in its doctrine. It represents a philosophical union of Christian faith and classical humanist principles. - Scott Postma

It is never wise to have a self-appointed religious institution determine a nation's moral code. The opportunities for moral compromise and failure are high; the moral codes and creeds assuredly racist, discriminatory, or subjectively and religiously defined; and the pronouncement of inhumanitarian political objectives quite predictable. - R.E. Slater

God's love must both center and define the Christian faith and all religious or human faiths seeking human and ecological balance in worlds of subtraction, harm, tragedy, and evil. - R.E. Slater

In Whitehead’s process ontology, we can think of the experiential ground of reality as an eternal pulse whereby what is objectively public in one moment becomes subjectively prehended in the next, and whereby the subject that emerges from its feelings then perishes into public expression as an object (or “superject”) aiming for novelty. There is a rhythm of Being between object and subject, not an ontological division. This rhythm powers the creative growth of the universe from one occasion of experience to the next. This is the Whiteheadian mantra: “The many become one and are increased by one.” - Matthew Segall

Without Love there is no Truth. And True Truth is always Loving. There is no dichotomy between these terms but only seamless integration. This is the premier centering focus of a Processual Theology of Love. - R.E. Slater

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Note: Generally I do not respond to commentary. I may read the comments but wish to reserve my time to write (or write from the comments I read). Instead, I'd like to see our community help one another and in the helping encourage and exhort each of us towards Christian love in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. - re slater

Thursday, November 11, 2021

Complete Essays by Dr. John B. Cobb, Jr. from 1998 - 2015





Ask Dr. Cobb


Each month Dr. John B. Cobb, Jr. answers questions regarding process thought and faith.

To submit your question for Dr. Cobb, you can either post it on our Facebook page or submit a question to the P&F Website Coordinator.

See Dr. Cobb’s answers to questions from 1998-2015 below.

If you find these articles helpful, please consider contributing to Process & Faith by making a donation.

 

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998





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John Cobb - Is Process Theology Postmodern?

 



Is Process Theology Postmodern?

John B. Cobb, Jr.
June 2010

"Could Whitehead Have Been Considered a Postmodern Thinker?"

(Subtitles and commentary edits are mine. - re slater)


Is process theology postmodern?

As with all such questions, a great deal depends on what one understands by the key terms. If “modern” refers to what has been called theological “modernism,” there would be little point in calling process theology “postmodern.” One form of theological “modernism” was specifically Catholic, and process theology arose in a quite different context. There was also a movement of “modernism” in Protestant circles in the United States centered at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. The leaders of that modernism were especially interested in new developments in science early in the twentieth century, and found Whitehead especially important. The study of Whitehead’s thought in Chicago led to the development there of what Bernard Loomer later named “process theology.” To call it postmodern in relation to that form of “modern” theology would be misleading.

The meaning of “postmodern” in the general culture has hardly been touched by these “modernist” movements in theology, and it is in relation to this wider use that the question now arises. Although “process theology” can be used much more broadly, I will deal only with the form mentioned above, the one in which Whitehead’s influence plays an important role. Whether this should be called “postmodern” is at once the question whether Whitehead should be considered a postmodern thinker.

Even setting the specific theological modernism aside, the term “modern” has quite diverse meanings in different contexts. The meaning of “modern” is somewhat different in the phrases “modern art,” a movement centering in France in the late nineteenth century and “modern architecture,” a movement centering in Germany in the twentieth century. Postmodern art and postmodern architecture are fairly well-defined ideas, but there is little point in locating Whitehead in relation to these developments. “Modern” has a still different meaning when Western history is periodized into ancient, medieval, and modern periods. Historians often trace the roots of the modern period to the Italian Renaissance in the fourteenth century. Thus far any idea that we are in a postmodern period of history is quite marginal among historians, although future scholars may see deep historical changes now occurring that are giving rise to a new era deserving of that label. For the present we will expect to consider ourselves, and certainly Whitehead, as living in the modern period of history.

Modernism in Transition

Nevertheless, Whitehead wrote a book entitled “Science and the Modern World,” in which the modern world is presented as ending. Although he does not use the term “postmodern,” he is clearly thinking of the “modern” as a mode of thought whose limitations have become apparent and that is being superseded. It is this depiction that suggested the term “postmodern” to me and others long before we knew of any use of the term by French philosophers.

Whitehead shows that although the social, political, economic, and military characteristics of the modern world may continue to develop, modern science and modern philosophy are ending, and he is calling for a new beginning. Whitehead intends to be contributing to this new beginning.

Philosophical eras change abruptly; Commercial eras are gradual

In most areas, the beginning of the modern is hard to identify with any precision. The transition from the Medieval to the modern is gradual. This is true even with science. But in the case of philosophy the transition is quite abrupt. Whereas it is hard to say who is the first modern scientist, there is widespread agreement that “modern” philosophy began with Descartes in the middle of the seventeenth century. His philosophy was influenced by new scientific sensibilities and also contributed to giving definite form to the assumptions with which modern science became identified. The enormous success of the resulting science gave it among modern thinkers the highest prestige. Although philosophy went through drastic permutations, the understanding of nature associated with the natural sciences became a central part of the worldview of the modern world.

Whitehead's Ideas Needed a Quantum World, Not a Classical World

For Whitehead, the fact that this worldview could not encompass the new frontiers of science itself – relativity and quantum theory—called for deep changes in the understanding of nature, changes that would bring an end the dominance of the “modern” worldview. It is quite natural to say that Whitehead is calling for, and proposing a “postmodern world view,” and this is what we mean when we call Whitehead a postmodern thinker. To call process theology postmodern is to say that it is influenced by, and contributes to, the construction of a postmodern world view.

Those of us who follow Whitehead are disappointed that the changes for which he called are taking place so slowly. For example, only a few scientists have abandoned the modern view of nature.

(e.g., nature as a machine, orderly and mechanistic, reductionist. This is the classical world of modernistic science during and after the time of the Enlightenment. The newer sciences must now acknowledge and deal with chaos theory, randomness, disorder, and the dilation of spacetime, among other categories. - re slater). 

Most continue to approach physical, chemical, and biological phenomena with categories that ignore what we have learned from relativity and quantum theory. Indeed, even in these new fields of inquiry, most scientists work with modern categories even when they acknowledge that they cannot formulate consistent theories in these terms. Most scientists have found it easier to give up the claim that science describes the real world than to adjust their thinking to the new evidence as Whitehead proposed. Of course, this abandonment of realism is itself a drastic change from the modern worldview, but it leaves most of the dominant formulations developed during the modern period intact and in control of Western thought.

(That is, rather than to acknowledge Whitehead's process theory and move into it's spaces, modern science is easing towards it in it's own way and may, quite naturally, stumble into it as a matter of course. Which perhaps, though not elegant, is at least preferable to self discover over singular assumption as all of science should at all times be testing itself to its fallacies and directions. - re slater).

For this reason, the need for systematic and detailed “deconstruction” of the modern remains, and Whiteheadians can rejoice in the successes of the French school of postmodernism. Real cooperation is finally emerging between these two schools. The French are far more successful in destabilizing modern habits of thought, whereas Whitehead points to a new vision that can replace what is overthrown. Much still needs to be done before there is full mutual support. And such support, of course, does not imply the end of important differences.

Vive la Différance!

These differences show up, among other places, in theology. Although Whitehead is very clear about the provisional and hypothetical character of all his cosmology - and especially when he speaks of God, he has opened the door to quite direct statements about God and how God works in the world. Charles Hartshorne gave even fuller description of these matters with less qualification as to the status of what he said.

On the other hand, modernity in its later phases drastically questioned the capacity of human thought to understand reality in general and anything that transcended nature in particular. God was often flatly denied, and those who were not ready to give up the idea of God altogether typically emphasized the limitations and indirectness of all speech about God. These features of late modernity have been continued in deconstructive postmodernism. The deconstruction has been of the certainties and literal claims of early modernism rather than of the emphasis in late modernity on the constructive and often distorting work of the human mind in producing such ideas. Even if the value of some of Whitehead’s reconstructive proposals are accepted, this is in the context of emphasis on their hypothetical and perspectival character.

Process Thought Frees Earlier Expressions of Faith

There are practical issues at stake. For theologians, one important question is about what the church needs. We process theologians see the church as in need of a way of thinking about God that can make sense of Christian faith and practice without coming into conflict with actual experience or the best thinking in the sciences. We think that process theology goes a long way toward meeting this need:

(i) One part of its strength is its acknowledgment of limitations and corrigibility.

(ii) Another is that it shows that there are other valid forms of spirituality that are not oriented to God. 

(iii) But it hopes to give people of theistic faith confidence that their Way is valid and eminently worthy of being pursued.

(iv) It sees process philosophy as liberating thought to explore issues of faith without the harsh constraints of either medieval or modern metaphysics.

We know that our theology, like all theologies, is an expression of our faith and not of reason alone. However plausible we consider the ideas we promote [as process theologians] we do not regard them as logically coercive of those whose life experience and orientation [which] are profoundly different from ours.

Deconstructive Postmodernists v Process Thought

To many deconstructive postmodernists, on the other hand, the confident and straightforward affirmations about God by process theologians are a sign that process theology has not freed itself from a deep stratum of early modernity. In their view our concern for the church is already an indication of our failure to participate in postmodernity. Although some features of Whitehead’s thought may be appreciated and even appropriated, process theology is not likely to be a part of this.

Process theologians regret that their work constitutes an obstacle to closer relations with deconstructive postmodernists just as it has been a problem for philosophers who would like to have Whitehead taken more seriously in American university philosophy departments. But this practical problem cannot outweigh our commitment to our faith and to our communities.

*Note: Lately, this space of criticizing the church in both a helpful deconstructive, as well as constructive, manner as risen more rapidly during the tenure of Trumpian Christianity these past several years. However, the Emergent Church of the 1990s was already disparaging evangelical Christianity's many unhelpful ways of church polity, ministry, doctrine, teaching, and evangelism within the various faith-rubrics strictly held by the more modernistic attitudes displayed within the modernistic church towards humanity, social culture, violence, aggression, capitalism, and social politick. And as process thought has begun to permeate the progressive Christian movement more lately these past few years as the successor to the emergent church movement of the 90s, the work of process-based deconstruction is also occurring in a more fundamentally helpful way across the societal aspect of progressive Christianity's activism into social justice, even as process thought is also challenging the very sanctuaries of evangelical theology itself. Thus, as evangelical protestantism splits between social and spiritual faith issues, so too is process theology is responding to each in its own way centered in the person and work of Jesus and the love of God.  - re slater

Jesus Calls to both World and Church

I would add that our theistic faith, clarified by Whitehead’s thought, points us even more to the needs of the world than to the needs of the church. We feel called to bring Whitehead’s conceptuality to bear on crucial public issues of our time, especially those that respond to the greatest dangers humanity now faces. To have any chance of making a difference, we must put forward with some confidence proposals based on our understanding of reality. We know that we know nothing for sure. But for us it is important not to allow our awareness of the hypothetical nature of our beliefs to prevent us from acting with conviction for what seems to us essential to the salvation of the world. In this [socio-spiritual] process, openness to correction and improvement, are of utmost importance, just as with respect to church teaching. But this openness cannot be allowed to undermine the confidence without which we cannot act effectively.

It is our hope that the correct emphasis of both late modernism and deconstructive postmodernism on human fallibility and the limitations of all our knowledge will not discourage vigorous proposals about how best to respond to the great crises we face. We hope that more postmodernists who are not theists will find in their beliefs reasons to work together with us [as process philosophers and theologians] on matters that are far more important than our differences.

- John Cobb

Addendum: R.E. Slater, 11.11.2021 
My opinion would place the rise of postmodernism somewhere after the 1950s, and specifically after the Vietnam War of the 1960s and early 70s, which had torn apart most of the major institutions of American Society. That, coupled with the rightful protest of Blacks of the 50s and 60s, and America's acquiescence from rural, agricultural communities towards a more fundamental metropolitan basis signify by the creation of the federal highway system. From the 70s to today, we've witnessed fundamental breakdowns in modernist society questioning our identity and purpose as a society and nation. To that end I would consider Whitehead's postmodernist thought to be easily transitional into the postmodern spaces of late and fundamentally translatable into all future era-specific spaces which contemplate how the whole and the part interjoin and interwork together with one another. Process Thought then is not an era-specific qualifier as it is an integral description of our cosmology and metaphysics as a philosophic theology looking heavensward and inwards both at the same time. - re slater 


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Wednesday, November 10, 2021

Index - Process Philosopher Matthew Segall


Index to Process Philosopher Matthew Segall




Whitehead's Process Philosophy


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Process Thought and Psychology/Sociology

Carl Jung's Archetypes within Whitehead's Process Metaphysic

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Process Natural Theology


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Process Cosmology

Gaia and Realism - unfinished

x






Process Panpsychism








Process-Based Cosmopolitic Ecological Civilizations

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