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
Several years ago Shane Hipps was the adjunct preacher at Mars Hill and during that time preached from the pulpit and around the country. Below is a collection of his sermons which I think should not be hidden away but made open to those thirsty for God and His Word. On this blog page you will find many of Shane's sermons. By clicking on the pictures below you will be taken to his website for further instructions for that particular topic. By clicking the "teaching" label on the top or bottom menu bars you may go to the full collection of his sermons. Many of Shane's sermons are free (the ones without pictures) but some (with pictures) will require a small donation. Enjoy. R.E. Slater February 8, 2014 Shane's Website - http://shanehipps.com/category/teaching/sermons/ Where in the World is Shane Hipps? -Life After Mars Hill
Today we begin a 6-part audio-slide series by Denis Lamoureux on the always gripping, never boring, live-changing topic of all those “begats” in the Bible, a.k.a., biblical genealogies.
Stop rolling your eyes.
Actually, in my experience, genealogies–what they are and how they function in the Bible–is about as commonly misunderstood as any biblical genre.
As Lamoureux puts it, “Most Christians assume that genealogies in the Bible are merely lists of related family members quite similar to genealogies today. However, in the ancient world the primary purpose of a genealogy was to offer an important message about the community or nation.
In this series of episodes we will look at various genealogies in Scripture, and then come to a conclusion regarding why Adam appears in the biblical genealogies found in Genesis 5, 1 Chronicles, and Luke 3.”
The series is as follows. To view part 1, click "Introduction" below and so forth.
Lamoureux holds three earned doctoral degrees (dentistry, theology, and biology) and is associate professor of science and religion at St. Joseph’s College in the University of Alberta (full bio here). He is the author of I Love Jesus & I Accept Evolution(see first of the audio slide series on this book here) which is a great introduction to his view of origins called “evolutionary creation.”
One time my oldest son went to hear a lecture by a gifted musician. He enjoyed the lecture very much, but he wasn't sure he could rehearse its thesis.
As he was leaving he said to a professor: "I don't think I can restate his thesis or his line of argumentation." The professor said: "He wasn't offering a single line of argumentation, he was displaying networks of meaning."
What can it mean to think in terms of networks of meaning? In the video "Manuel Lima senior UX design lead at Microsoft Bing, explores the power of network visualisation to help navigate our complex modern world." RSA (Royal Society of the Arts) offers these videos free: <http://comment.rsablogs.org.uk/videos/>.
To get a sense of network thinking, consider a rhizome. According to the RSA animate, it is "an acentered non-hierarchical, non-signifying system without a general organizing memory or central automaton, defined solely by a circulation of states."
When we enter into network thinking, we begin to think rhizomatically.
A Metaphysics for Network Thinking
Among 20th century philosophers, Alfred North Whitehead offers a metaphysical perspective that supports network thinking. In Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology, he presents the universe as a seamless web of interconnected events and proposes that even the inclusive "mind" of the universe, even God Himself, is relational.
He suggests that every individual node in the web of life, whether on our planet or in any other sphere of existence, is intimately entangled with every other node in the web, which means that individuals are not self-contained substances but rather outcomes of, and contributors to, the larger web.
Thus he rejects the view that individual entities have single causes. Any event that occurs in our world, from a single act of human decision-making to a galactic explosion in outer space, emerges out of an infinitely complex past and adds to an infinitely complex future: "The many become one and are increased by one."
You can learn more about Whiteheadian thinking by going to the website of theCenter for Process Studies: http://www.ctr4process.org/.
Process Theology
Process theologians build upon his perspective to develop unique forms of theology that encourage network thinking. Many are Christian, but some are Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, and Bahai. You can learn more about the religious side of the process perspective by going to the Process and Faith website: http://processandfaith.org/.
Not all process theologians are theistic. Some find ultimacy in the sheer interconnectedness of things. But theistic process theologians build upon Whitehead's understanding of God to develop a relational theology. For them God is personal and filled with empathy and intelligence. God is the unfolding "Network" within whose life the universe unfolds.
We cannot picture this Network by means of a map, but we can feel the presence of the Network within our own lives as a lure toward wisdom, compassion, and creativity. And we can trust that the Network somehow embraces all of us with an arc of love. This trust is what process theologians call faith.
The Interconnected Universe
Manuel Lima draws upon the work of Warren Weaver to suggest that science has gone through three phases. From the 17th century to the early 20th century, it was concerned with how one entity influences another. In the early and middle of the 20th century it turned its attention to the reality of random occurences, thus giving rise to a science of chaos. And then, in the latter part of the twentieth century it has turned its attention to the reality of organized complexity and self-organizing wholes. He believes that network thinking is more appropriate to organized complexity than earlier forms of thinking concerned with single causes.
As I shared his talk with a friend, my friend said: "Oh, I do not have to think logically anymore." But we quickly realized that Lima was introducing the idea of a new kind of logic that sees things in terms of dynamic gestalts and circulatory states, that is at home with non-hierarchical approaches to life, that does not see things as reaching closure because things keep circulating, that is sensitive to the absolute interconnectedness of all things.
This new logic can seem mystical in its own way. At least it is non-linear. Linear forms of thinking think in terms of discrete and relatively self-contained entities which can be defined apart from their connections with others, and which are moved by other discrete and relatively self-contained entities.
Network logic can seem non-rational because it is non-linear. However, it might better be called another kind of reasoning, ["a-symmetrical?"], perhaps tapping into a different part of the brain.
The Intuitive Mind
What part of the brain? The question is problematic because the brain is a network, too. Still, the brain is asymmetrical and divided between two hemispheres. In the RSA video at the bottom of this page, the renowned psychiatrist and writer Iain McGilchrist proposes that there is value in honoring two kinds of mind: the intuitive mind of the right hemisphere and the more controlling mind of the left hemisphere. He thinks that society today has fallen too swiftly into a valorization of the controlling mind at the expense of the intuitive mind. Perhaps network thinking has a logic of its own, but perhaps its logic is more intuitive than linear. Call it intuitive reason as opposed to controlling reason.
Linear Thinking is Good, Too
McGilchrist calls for a healthy synthesis of the two kinds of mind. In this respect he is very much like those of us influenced by Whitehead. He is passionate about reason and the careful use of language, but also passionate the intuitive mind. Those of us influenced by Whitehead are as well. If a new and more rhizomatic paradigm for thinking is emerging in the 21st century, and if it is more appropriate for certain circumstances; it is also the case that linear thinking is appropriate for other circumstances.
Whitehead was a philosopher and also a mathematician. He knew the pleasures of a linearly-ordered argument and a well-crafted piece of prose. He knew they had cognitive value. Let us hope that our engineers can think in linear terms; let us hope that our attorneys can develop clear, well-formulated arguments for defending the poor.
Whitehead's philosophy lends itself to an appreciation of multiple forms of intelligence: mathematical-logical, verbal-linguistic, visual-spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic, existential. Linear thinking is a combination of mathematical-logical and verbal-linguistic. I borrow the idea from the Harvard educational theorist, Howard Gardner: www.howardgardner.com.
Network thinking adds a strong visual-spatial component and finds value in the other forms. The problem of the 21st century does not lie in its appreciation of verbal-linguistic and mathematical-logical, but rather in its valorization of these two forms of intelligence as the only forms worth appreciating, and in its neglect of other forms of intelligence. When only two forms of intelligence are valorized, the others are repressed.
Sometimes even verbal-linguistic intelligence is reduced to simple-minded clarity, neglectful of the cognitive value of more poetic and multivalent uses of language. Even when it comes to verbal wisdom, there can be wisdom in vagueness: that is, in not being able to make definitive determinations of meaning. The wisdom of much poetry lies in this undecidability.
Undecidability makes room for more spacious orientation toward life, a sense of having a bigger picture of things, albeit without a frame. For process theologians, a willingness not to place everything inside a mental frame of our own making -- and not to hypostasize a particular region of mental space in which God resides -- is the very heart of faith.
The faith at issue is not firm belief but rather as trust in the availability of fresh possibilities. It is not controlling or acquisitive. It is not adaptive and flexible and free. It has its own rhizomatic beauty. Perhaps faith is a transition from left to right hemisphere and then a return to balanced creativity. Let Iain McGilchrist make the case.
If you don't mind taking a walk with me over to the where the other third of the world lives (China, India, the Asian Orient in general), than the summary below may help in understanding what process theology is as a different point of view immersed in eastern religion and mysticism. If nothing else, consider it a good starting point in which to have a more relevant conversation about Jesus with your Buddhist neighbors.
Otherwise, like some of you, I know just enough about process thought to be drawn into it, while at the same time have stumbled over some of its predecessor's ideas and theologies to react to it (and bad press about process theology doesn't help - contributing as it does to the FUD factors of fear, uncertainty, and doubt). To many of my conservative friends it is a philosophical approach to Scripture and the world which will confuse the American Evangelical more acquainted (and much more comfortable) with Hellenistic / Classical church theology in its Greek, Medieval and Modernistic forms. However, to those brave few of us willing to re-orientate our Christianity towards postmodernism, and postmodern philosophies, than process thought seems to be the way to go at this point (even as it is now modifying itself by newbies like you and me to flesh it out a bit more than where it was earlier as a discipline).
Which presents another problem. Just which postmodern philosophy do you go with? I tend more towards the continental philosophy side of things than I do the opposing analytic branch (though I think we should be familiar with both). And in the streams of continentalism I'm flowing forwards through the sometimes salient, and sometimes turbulent, waters of Kant/Nietzsche towards the Hegelian waters of existentialism and phenomenology (aka Heidegger, Ricouer, Tillich, Bonhoeffer, Derrida, Delueze, Cobb, Caputo, among others). Which then bumps us up into Radical Theology's philosophical positions (sic, John Caputo, Peter Rollins, among others) which are merging and forming around all past, present, and future movements now present.
Given this, it would be misleading to think as a modern day Evangelical Christian that Hellenistic-based classical theology is here to stay. I would venture a guess that its fast losing turf (if not gone altogether) and that it began to do so in the Italian Renaissance of the 14th century. Meaning that, one's preference of philosophy is pretty much what you grow up with and that it is the rare bird who can adapt to another. That said, if one could adapt to a philosophy than it should be investigated as to what it is, and how one's Christian faith might reacquire itself within that process of adaptation. As example, Greek philosophy (Hellenism) filled the early church in the Apostle's day and the later Church Fathers. However, Medieval Scholasticism came along to influence the church as it struggled with Augustine and Plato in the early days of the Renaissance resulting in the Reformational years afterwards. And since then, the church has been forming and re-forming, with-and-against, the ideas of the Enlightenment and Modern secularism, accommodating it in part and criticizing it in part. Hence, it would be naive to think that time, culture, traditions, and orthodoxies don't change with people, movement, events, eras, and ideas, because it does and it will. Nothing stays the same as both creation and humanity are in a grand process of movement in-and-through, and with-and-against, the Lord and His relentless Spirit of process adaptation (sic, creational and social evolution). To hunker down and pretend that the good ol' days were here to stay from the post-war era of America in the 1950s is like myself believing that the good ol' days really belonged in Colonial America during the Indian wars. Much like Owen Wilson, in his film "Midnight in Paris", believed his golden age was in the Parisian of the 1930s, or Marion Cotillard's golden age began-and-ended in the Paris of the 1890s. This is the constant struggle we have as Christians of faith attempting to live out a heavenly faith while trapped in the aegis of man.... Nothing stays the same and nothing will ever stay the same. These ideas would be fundamental to Process Philosophy and Theology.
Midnight In Paris Movie Trailer Official (HD)
However, presented in another way, this is exactly the way things work in God's creation. We are not to live as monks, escapists, hermits, or isolationalists but as men and women valiant in the faith caught between the daily struggles and plethora of dilemmas in the turmoil of our present age. Who are deeply involved in our communities and societies while struggling to living out our hard bitten faith in Jesus. A faith that wishes to be both real and relevant as a witness to all that we say-and-do as best we can live it, know it, understand it, and do it. The bottom line is that though the Christian God may be dead for many today (especially for those who have heard the church's message and rejected it), perhaps God is not dead for all who have placed their faith in the Lord Himself rather than in the church, its traditions, and dogmas. Accurate theological doctrine and orthodoxy is one thing, but inflexible theological doctrine and orthodoxy that is dogmatic is another. Orthodoxy is not a thing that should be static because it's faith isn't static. It moves and lives through the church as it's members live and breathe, embrace or react, as a living organic process between ourselves, and God, and His creation. Two hundred years ago (beginning with the 13 colonies) Christians were confronted with the awfulness of the slave trade. Today the church is confronted with its discrimination of women and gays (and class and race). Thus the name "process theology"... succinctly refers to an orthodox theology that is always in the process of being and becoming a better version of itself than its last version. As such, many of today's postmodern issues simply require a redress of our thinking more in accordance to the times of our day and less in accordance with the crumbling beliefs of yesteryear's dithering fears and doubts.
Hence, Americanized Christianity needs to expand to become more open to other ideas, less sure of itself, more doubtful of its rights and prerogatives, assurances and privileges. A Christian faith that can be broken, molded, formed, and reformed, so that it can find fellowship and ministry with others unlike itself.... At the last, it is a church universal, as well a church local. But a faith which is center-set upon Jesus and not bounded-set on dogmas and folklore religion. The wisdom lies in discerning just where the "playing field" is as the goal posts seem to move about the field between teams, players, and spectators. To that end, postmodern process theology must be able to help us here if we can allow ourselves to stretch a bit. For many of us we cannot. It's just too hard or too foreign an idea. But for others of us, we may have been given the "gift of tongues" which in this instance is the ability to reach across the world we are familiar with to bridge the chasm-and-voids of the worlds unfamiliar to us in finding meaningful ways to relate the Gospel of the Lord Jesus to those having despaired of today's present Christian witness. So that those lost ones once discouraged with the Christian message of rancorous politics and unfeeling rhetoric might be ushered into the folds of the postmodern church to become God's newest emissaries burdened with the preaching of His Word in ways in which we haven't allowed, tried, considered, or consulted. Such emissaries may speak a different language than the present day church language we are use to but if that language is dipped in the Spirit's troughs of love and faith we would do well to step aside and not impede the work of God who impels His children to go into all the world as light and sound and fury.
That being said, here are some twenty key ideas that one might find in process thought... see what you think. If it demands you, like myself, to re-evaluate our thoughts about biblical theology as to what should be held onto and what may be let go, than I think we're on the right track together. Thus this blog and its many a-typical articles on doctrine and theology.
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 (complete online essay here; or go to the Amazon link here)
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.
Key Stakeholders
The ideas below represent the twenty key ideas in the trunk of the process tree:
1. Process: The universe is an ongoing process of development and change, never quite the same at any two moments. Every entity in the universe is best understood as a process of becoming that emerges through its interactions with others. 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 connected to everything else and contained in everything else, which is to say that the universe is a network of inter-being (Buddahism).
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.
4. Nature as Alive: The natural world has value in itself and that 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. We, too, have value.
5. Ethics: Humans find their fulfillment in living 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. Justice is fidelity to the bonds of relationship. A just society is also a free and peaceful society. It is creative, compassionate, participatory, ecologically wise, and spiritually satisfying - with no one 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. The Self as Person-in-Community: 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 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 that 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 that 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.
"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
