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

-----

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

Monday, February 13, 2023

Christian Process Theology is Here to Stay...



Christian Process Theology is Here to Stay...

by R.E. Slater

Reading Feinberg's earnest but mistaken surmise of process theology which was published by the Gospel Coalition some years ago I can say that I heartily disagree with both the essay and the understanding of the essay. However, it is important to understand why today's church disbelieves process theology and the many errors the church entertains in its thinking about process theology.

As a process guy I can do little to dissuade those who cling to such essays and hold out reasons to viewing the God I know in traditionally unhelpful ways such as found in classic evangelicalism. I personally have found evangelicalism to have wholly failed and must therefore be wholly abandoned in the life of a Christian. Why?

I had some years ago, and since, have actively reworked the Calvinist Reformed tradition I knew so well in order to speak better of the God of the bible than the traditional church has done under its rubrics, creeds, attitudes, and deeds. If you wish to argue this point then I submit the entirety of this website here, Relevancy22, to see how I went about deconstructing and reconstruction the Christian faith. It's truest version is that of God's love and the Atoning Work of Christ Jesus.

I first sought for a better hermeneutic and reading of the bible by removing and adding ways of reading theology. This took me several years where in the process the Spirit of the Lord lead to the development of an open and relational theology, and then later to process theology. Eventually I put the two together and came upon a fellowship I never knew existed. Fortunately, I had stumbled rightly in directions removing the philosophical Christian God from Greek Hellenism and Westernism into a wholly new philosophic-theological foundation. Which is to say I was looking in the wrong place. The very foundations of the Christian belief had been set upon vastly inferior foundations which needed breaking down, removing, and rebuilding using the right lumber, brick, and mortar.

Let me further submit that the process theology I, and others, are developing releases the Christian God from the bondage of man's idolatrous images by placing God's Selfhood and Essence exactly where it needs to be. Thus and thus, Mr. Feinberg and all such arguments like his, as entertain here by parachurch organizations such as the Gospel Coalition are anathema and unhelpful to the follower in Christ Jesus.

I would rather those interested in process theology begin here at this site and not waste your time trying to find arguments to uphold unworthy Christian beliefs. I will gladly dissuade you of your presumptions little by little, post after post after post. And like my own journey please be aware it will take time to grasp. For myself, it took years of doubt and disagreement until landing where I am today (almost ten full years). But having taken the time to pursue the "Hound of Heaven" I am very glad now that I have.

Peace and blessings.

R.E. Slater
February 13, 2023


How the Traditional Church viewed Process Theology as seen here
in an older essay written by Evangelical Theology John S. Feinberg


* * * * * * * *

Recommended Websites






* * * * * * * *


Here is a list of  Process Books by Process Thinkers
of the late 20th and early 21st Century



Process and Reality: An Essay in CosmologyProcess and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology (Paperback)
by (shelved 8 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.20 — 800 ratings — published 1929
Process TheologyProcess Theology (Paperback)
by (shelved 6 times as process-theology)
avg rating 3.80 — 180 ratings — published 1976
On the Mystery: Discerning Divinity in ProcessOn the Mystery: Discerning Divinity in Process (Paperback)
by (shelved 5 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.17 — 267 ratings — published 2007
Process Theology: A Guide for the PerplexedProcess Theology: A Guide for the Perplexed (Paperback)
by (shelved 5 times as process-theology)
avg rating 3.88 — 103 ratings — published 2011
God Christ Church: A Practical Guide to Process TheologyGod Christ Church: A Practical Guide to Process Theology (Paperback)
by (shelved 4 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.13 — 83 ratings — published 1984
A Christian Natural Theology: Based on the Thought of Alfred North WhiteheadA Christian Natural Theology: Based on the Thought of Alfred North Whitehead (Paperback)
by (shelved 4 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.15 — 39 ratings — published 1965
Piglet's Process: Process Theology for All God's ChildrenPiglet's Process: Process Theology for All God's Children (Kindle Edition)
by (shelved 3 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.35 — 17 ratings — published
Cloud of the Impossible: Negative Theology and Planetary EntanglementCloud of the Impossible: Negative Theology and Planetary Entanglement (Paperback)
by (shelved 3 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.41 — 51 ratings — published 2014
God as Poet of the World: Exploring Process TheologiesGod as Poet of the World: Exploring Process Theologies (Paperback)
by (shelved 3 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.25 — 12 ratings — published 2008
Omnipotence and Other Theological MistakesOmnipotence and Other Theological Mistakes (Paperback)
by (shelved 3 times as process-theology)
avg rating 3.90 — 106 ratings — published 1983
Back To Darwin: A Richer Account of EvolutionBack To Darwin: A Richer Account of Evolution (Paperback)
by (shelved 3 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.20 — 5 ratings — published 2008
The Process Perspective: Frequently Asked Questions about Process TheologyThe Process Perspective: Frequently Asked Questions about Process Theology (Paperback)
by (shelved 3 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.11 — 45 ratings — published 2003
Creative EvolutionCreative Evolution (Paperback)
by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.08 — 1,211 ratings — published 1907
God of Becoming and Relationship: The Dynamic Nature of Process TheologyGod of Becoming and Relationship: The Dynamic Nature of Process Theology (Hardcover)
by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.19 — 72 ratings — published 2013
Matters of Life and DeathMatters of Life and Death (Paperback)
by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 3.91 — 11 ratings — published 1991
Adventures of IdeasAdventures of Ideas (Paperback)
by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.11 — 247 ratings — published 1933
Process Theology: A Basic IntroductionProcess Theology: A Basic Introduction (Paperback)
by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.08 — 119 ratings — published 1993
In God's PresenceIn God's Presence (Paperback)
by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.14 — 104 ratings — published 1996
The Weakness of God: A Theology of the EventThe Weakness of God: A Theology of the Event (Paperback)
by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.14 — 235 ratings — published 2006
The Nature of Love: A TheologyThe Nature of Love: A Theology (Paperback)
by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.11 — 54 ratings — published 2010
Grace & Responsibility: A Wesleyan Theology for TodayGrace & Responsibility: A Wesleyan Theology for Today (Paperback)
by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.17 — 36 ratings — published 1995
Fall to Violence: Original Sin in Relational TheologyFall to Violence: Original Sin in Relational Theology (Paperback)
by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.36 — 42 ratings — published 1994
Religion in the MakingReligion in the Making (Paperback)
by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 3.41 — 196 ratings — published 1926
Science and the Modern WorldScience and the Modern World (Paperback)
by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 3.98 — 503 ratings — published 1926
Face of the Deep: A Theology of BecomingFace of the Deep: A Theology of Becoming (Paperback)
by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.32 — 105 ratings — published 2002
Aquinas To Whitehead: Seven Centuries Of Metaphysics Of ReligionAquinas To Whitehead: Seven Centuries Of Metaphysics Of Religion (Hardcover)
by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.17 — 12 ratings — published 1976
Process-Relational Philosophy: An Introduction to Alfred North WhiteheadProcess-Relational Philosophy: An Introduction to Alfred North Whitehead (Paperback)
by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.06 — 204 ratings — published 2008
Creating Women's Theology: A Movement Engaging Process ThoughtCreating Women's Theology: A Movement Engaging Process Thought (Paperback)
by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 3.96 — 23 ratings — published 2011
The Divine Relativity: A Social Conception of GodThe Divine Relativity: A Social Conception of God (Paperback)
by (shelved 2 times as process-theology)
avg rating 4.02 — 44 ratings — published 1982
Process Theology and Celtic WisdomProcess Theology and Celtic Wisdom (Paperback)
by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 3.60 — 10 ratings — published
Beyond the ImpasseBeyond the Impasse (Paperback)
by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 3.50 — 4 ratings — published 1997
Praying with Process Theology: Spiritual Practices for Personal and Planetary HealingPraying with Process Theology: Spiritual Practices for Personal and Planetary Healing (Paperback)
by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 4.60 — 5 ratings — published
Gilkey on TillichGilkey on Tillich (Hardcover)
by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 4.57 — 7 ratings — published 1990
Augustine's Theology of AngelsAugustine's Theology of Angels (Hardcover)
by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 4.50 — 4 ratings — published
Science and the Search for God: Spirituality for the Twenty First CenturyScience and the Search for God: Spirituality for the Twenty First Century (Kindle Edition)
by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 0.0 — 0 ratings — published
The Creative MindThe Creative Mind (Paperback)
by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 4.07 — 287 ratings — published 1934
Living Consciousness: The Metaphysical Vision of Henri BergsonLiving Consciousness: The Metaphysical Vision of Henri Bergson (Hardcover)
by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 4.12 — 16 ratings — published 2011
DreamsDreams (Kindle Edition)
by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 3.55 — 142 ratings — published 1901
Matter and MemoryMatter and Memory (Paperback)
by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 4.10 — 2,413 ratings — published 1896
An Introduction to MetaphysicsAn Introduction to Metaphysics (Paperback)
by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 3.89 — 632 ratings — published 1903
Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the ComicLaughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic (Paperback)
by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 3.72 — 1,785 ratings — published 1900
Thinking in Time: An Introduction to Henri BergsonThinking in Time: An Introduction to Henri Bergson (Paperback)
by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 3.71 — 58 ratings — published 2006
The Two Sources of Morality and ReligionThe Two Sources of Morality and Religion (Paperback)
by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 3.78 — 231 ratings — published 1932
Time and Free WillTime and Free Will (Paperback)
by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 4.00 — 810 ratings — published 1889
Henri Bergson: Key Writings (Athlone Contemporary European Thinkers)Henri Bergson: Key Writings (Athlone Contemporary European Thinkers)
by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 4.18 — 44 ratings — published 2002
Salvation: Jesus's Mission and OursSalvation: Jesus's Mission and Ours (Kindle Edition)
by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 4.50 — 10 ratings — published
As Kingfishers Catch Fire: A Conversation on the Ways of God Formed by the Words of GodAs Kingfishers Catch Fire: A Conversation on the Ways of God Formed by the Words of God (Hardcover)
by (shelved 1 time as process-theology)
avg rating 4.48 — 734 ratings — published
Rate this book