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

Tuesday, September 13, 2022

P&F / Sherri Kling - The Universal God:Integral Consciousness & Process Theology



A Special Invite from Process & Faith

P&F / Sherri Kling - The Universal God:
Integral Consciousness & Process Theology


Process & Faith (a program of the Center for Process Studies at Claremont School of Theology)
is a multi-faith network for relational spirituality and the common good, and my friends there have announced some pretty zesty offerings that I thought you’d want to know about.

First, there’s an online class that begins Tuesday, Sept. 13 at 7:30 EDT called “The Biblical Narrative and Universal God Identity: Integral Theology and Process Approaches.” In this six-session course, Doug King (founder of Presence International) and Sheri Kling (director of Process & Faith and the John Cobb Legacy Fund) will guide students through an exploration of integral consciousness and spiral dynamics using integral and process theologies to reveal the message of universal God identity in the Judeo-Christian biblical narrative.

Could it be that Jesus and Paul both promoted a world-centric identity? If so, the implications may dramatically affect the future of long-held Christian views of identity and might actually point to something beyond exclusionary models and separation thinking.

“The convergence of quantum physics, evolutionary biology and ecology are pointing to an underlying field of unity. If God is all in all, how would the Biblical Narrative align with these scientific findings?” Doug King.

All sessions will be recorded and available through the learning platform. Learn more here.





If you’re still hungry for more, then take a look at the 3-hour online seminar P&F is offering on Sept. 30 at 8pm EDT called “*Process Thinking and Human Living*.” This one features Patricia Adams Farmer (“Beauty in Troubled Times”), Andrew Davis (“Ideas in Process: Five Whiteheadian Transitions”), Bruce Epperly (“Healing Politics: Process and Political Theology”), and Sheri Kling (“Wholeness and Transformation: A Process Spirituality”). Co-convened along with the Network of Spiritual Progressives (Australia) and the Centre for Interfaith Understanding (Singapore), and co-sponsored by the Cobb Institute, this event is meant to spark reflection on the way we think about the workings of our cosmos and the impact of those beliefs on the way we live. Our unquestioned assumptions can negatively affect our world, and so these four speakers will offer some zesty alternatives!

Process thought often has more in common with ways of thinking that are found in the East – such as in the traditions of Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism – than it does with the dominant worldview in the West. How might we apply these resources in both East and West to address the division and suffering we see in our world today?

Six Sessions Exploring Universal God Identity In the Biblical Narrative Through the Lenses of Integral Consciousness and Process Theology

WHO: Doug King and Sheri D. Kling
WHAT: Six Online Sessions
WHEN: Tuesdays @ 4:30 - 6:00 PM PST
Begins September 13th
WHERE: Online via Zoom

In this six-session course, Doug King (founder of Presence International) and Sheri Kling (director of Process & Faith) will guide students through an exploration of integral consciousness and spiral dynamics using integral and process theologies to reveal the message of universal God identity in the Judeo-Christian biblical narrative.

"The convergence of quantum physics, evolutionary biology and ecology are pointing to an underlying field of unity. If God is all in all, how would the Biblical Narrative align with these scientific findings?" -Doug King

Course Description

Both process thought and integral consciousness provide a developmental approach to the evolution of human consciousness. Process philosophy and theology have been used as life-giving tools in interpretation of the biblical narrative and this course will investigate the use of integral consciousness models as complementary to biblical interpretation as well. Our primary question will be whether the biblical narrative has always been evolving toward and into universal God identity. The implications of the possible answers to that question can dramatically affect the future of long held Christian views of identity. This is especially true if the biblical narrative points to something beyond separation thinking with regard to identity.

In this course, we will use models like Spiral Dynamics to trace biblical history, finding meaning both in its original setting and as a process story of the evolution of spiritual consciousness with regard to God identity. Spiral Dynamics uses a two-tier framework, and we’ll begin by seeing how it is applied to various fields of study. Next, we’ll apply this approach to the biblical narrative, examining each first-tier level or stage and comparing it to biblical history. Then we’ll look at Tier 2 and the development of integral consciousness as a unitive step. As we go, we’ll build on the principles behind the process to see how each level or stage of development produces necessary values that become part of a “transcend and include” understanding of identity. Finally, we’ll explore the implications of process or developmental models for religion itself, particularly the religion of Christianity and its future. The possibilities are literally world changing.

Course Outline

Session 1: Introduction: Spiral Dynamics and the Biblical Narrative
Session 2: Archaic, Tribal, Identity & Separation
Session 3: Warrior, Traditional, and the Seeds of Integral
Session 4: Modern, Postmodern, and Second Tier
Session 5: Christology and Eschatology, Form and Transform
Session 6: Universal God Identity

“There is a unity in the universe, enjoying value and (by its immanence) sharing value. When we survey nature and think however flitting and superficial has been the animal enjoyment of its wonders, and when we realize how incapable the separate cells and pulsations of each flower are of enjoying the total effect – then our sense of the value of the details for the totality dawns upon our consciousness. This is the intuition of holiness, the intuition of the sacred, which is at the foundation of all religion.” - Alfred North Whitehead

About the Instructors


Doug King is CEO of Presence International, a growing network that engages emergent, integral, and interspiritual organizations and idea leaders to facilitate a “global conversation for a new earth.” Doug is steeped in biblical scholarship and worked alongside his father Max King to develop Presence to offer events, a podcast, and other teaching resources.


Sheri D. Kling, Ph.D., is the director of Process and Faith with the Center for Process Studies of the Claremont School of Theology and director of the John Cobb Legacy Fund. In her teaching and writing, Sheri draws from wisdom and mystical traditions, relational worldviews, depth psychology, and the intersection of spirituality and science to help people transform their lives. She is a faculty member of the Haden Institute, the author of A Process Spirituality: Christian and Transreligious Resources for Transformation, and can be found online at www.sherikling.com.

If you’d like to join the P&F community, you can also sign up for a free membership and join one or more of the 19 Paths (from Harvard’s Pluralism Project) if you’d like to connect with others interested in relational spirituality and the common good.

Head over here to join



Meet the Instructors

Presence Joins Process and Faith
New Course Offering
Sep 1, 2022

Course Description:
Both process thought and integral consciousness provide a developmental approach to the evolution of human consciousness. Process philosophy and theology have been used as life-giving tools in interpretation of the biblical narrative and this course will investigate the use of integral consciousness models as complementary to biblical interpretation as well. Our primary question will be whether the biblical narrative has always been evolving toward and into universal God identity. The implications of the possible answers to that question can dramatically affect the future of long held Christian views of identity. This is especially true if the biblical narrative points to something beyond separation thinking with regard to identity.

In this course, we will use models like Spiral Dynamics to trace biblical history, finding meaning both in its original setting and as a process story of the evolution of spiritual consciousness with regard to God identity. Spiral Dynamics uses a two-tier framework, and we’ll begin by seeing how it is applied to various fields of study. Next, we’ll apply this approach to the biblical narrative, examining each first-tier level or stage and comparing it to biblical history. Then we’ll look at Tier 2 and the development of integral consciousness as a unitive step. As we go, we’ll build on the principles behind the process to see how each level or stage of development produces necessary values that become part of a “transcend and include” understanding of identity. Finally, we’ll explore the implications of process or developmental models for religion itself, particularly the religion of Christianity and its future. The possibilities are literally world changing. 

Saturday, September 10, 2022

Christianity in Process - Part 5 - John Cobb

 









* * * * * * *


The Kingdom of God with John Cobb
July 6, 2022 - by John Cobb [1:23 hrs]
[podcast may have a slight initial delay]

Jesus’ world like ours was heading toward self-destruction. His “world” was Israel rather than the planet. Jesus taught that God called us to enter a different world. His name for it has been translated into English as “Kingdom of God.” In this world, people would, above all, love their enemies, especially those who persecuted them. Those Jews who followed him gave up revolting against Rome and tried loving individual Romans. But most Jews did not, and Rome eventually destroyed Jerusalem and dispersed the Jewish people. Still, those who were living by love of one another and others continued to experience a different reality in which they could participate even when Israel as a political entity was destroyed. Today, some of us call the alternative to the current world order, an ecological civilization.


* * * * * *


CLASS NOTES BY STEVE THOMASON


Christianity in Process Session 5
with John Cobb and Tripp Fuller

by  | Aug 7, 2022 | Theology

I am currently participating in the class Christianity in Process with John Cobb and Tripp Fuller. Here are my notes from their fifth session: The Kingdom of God. They discuss how Jesus’ proclamation of the basileia tou theou was not a top-down power structure, but a divine commonwealth that offered an alternative to Empire and what the implications are for us today. Enjoy!

COMPOSITE ILLUSTRATIONS 1-6



ILLUSTRATION 1


ILLUSTRATION 2


ILLUSTRATION 3


ILLUSTRATION 4


ILLUSTRATION 5


ILLUSTRATION 6



Christianity in Process - Part 6 - John Cobb

 









* * * * * * *


Life After Death with John Cobb
July 13, 2022 - by John Cobb [1:30 hrs]

[podcast may have a slight initial delay]

The question of life after death did not preoccupy the Jews of Jesus’ day. Most believed that a different kind of life continued. Jesus used this belief as a background for some of his parables. It was never the foreground of his teaching. We are called to live in and for the “Kingdom of God” here and now. I personally believe that there is new and different life after death. I think it is all heaven in that our relation to God will play a more direct and immediate role. However, much of it may also be more like purgatory. As C.S. Lewis points out not all of us will be ready to live intentionally in and for God and one another. 

* * * * * *


CLASS NOTES BY STEVE THOMASON


Christianity in Process Session 6
with John Cobb and Tripp Fuller

by  | Aug 12, 2022 | Theology

Christianity in Process - Part 4 - John Cobb











* * * * * * *


The Human Experience - Law & Grace
with John Cobb
June 29, 2022 - by John Cobb [1:28 hrs]

[podcast may have a slight initial delay]

Often law is a human construct, and often it is to be supported and enforced. But Christians believe that the grounds for better and worse are found elsewhere, in the initial aim God gives us in each moment. We are called beyond all strictly rational arguments or considerations, moment by moment, to constitute ourselves in the way that is best for the whole. Since that is different in every situation, it is not easily understood as law. Christians are free from the law just because we are called to do far better. We can generalize and say that we are always called to love and to act in love. The gift of the initial aim is itself grace. But much of the time “sin” in the sense of “missing the mark” or “falling short.” This in no way lessens God’s love and generosity. This is grace. The grace may include calling us to face our failures if that is what we need. Grace does not free us from sinning or from responsibility for sinning. But the divine response to our falling short is to love us and keep calling.

* * * * * *


CLASS NOTES BY STEVE THOMASON


Christianity in Process Session 4
with John Cobb and Tripp Fuller

Here are my notes from their fourth session: The Human Experience of God – Law and Grace. They discuss the role of law in human society and how Jesus led not from law but from virtue ethics of love. Enjoy!

ILLUSTRATION 1


ILLUSTRATION 2


ILLUSTRATION 3


ILLUSTRATION 4


ILLUSTRATION 5




Christianity in Process - Part 3 - John Cobb












* * * * * * *


Divine Relationality with John Cobb
June 22, 2022 - by John Cobb [1:21 hrs]

[podcast may have a slight initial delay]

Strangely Christian “orthodoxy” followed a particular philosophy far more than the Bible. This orthodoxy thought that what is really good is what a thing is in itself. Relations were limitations. God, they thought had none. But think for a moment what God could be before God had created anything when God was all alone by Godself. God could not love, for there was nothing to love. God could not know, for there was nothing to know, God could not cause anything, for there was no effect. Indeed, it is hard to think of God existing at all. The greater the cosmos that God influences loves, and knows, the greater is God. It seems rather obvious that a Creator who does not create anything is not much of a Creator. Sometimes people don’t notice that if they attribute all power to God, they similarly deny any power to God.


* * * * * *


CLASS NOTES BY STEVE THOMASON


Christianity in Process Session 3
with John Cobb and Tripp Fuller

by  | Jul 4, 2022 | Theology

I am currently participating in the class Christianity in Process with John Cobb and Tripp Fuller. Here are my notes from their third session: The Divine Relationality. They compare and contrast two dominant views of God in the West–Being Itself and Supreme Being–with the Process Theology perspective of God as every instance of creativity. Enjoy!

ILLUSTRATION 1
[click to enlarge any graphic]


ILLUSTRATION 2


ILLUSTRATION 3


ILLUSTRATION 4


ILLUSTRATION 5


ILLUSTRATION 6