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

Friday, December 15, 2023

What Is In a Christian Label? Examining Conservative, Progressive & Processual Christianity



EVERYDAY ATTITUDES

"Being is as much about Becoming
as Becoming is about Being." - R.E. Slater

Process Living is:

upLifting and uniting,
motivating and encouraging,
being and becoming...

bearing all things,
being all things,
becoming all things...

abiding all people,
reviving all relationships,
surviving all difficulties...

when pursuing faith,
overcoming obstacles,
suffering as Grace...

in sacrifice and service,
with diligence extended,
abiding, staying, doing...

reclaiming and redeeming,
renewing and resurrecting,
regenerating all about...

everyone,
everything,
everywhere,
ever and ever...

---

process amplification
is singing, throbbing,
all around and in us,

across heaven and earth,
hearts and lands,
about, within, and from us,

unstoppable,
instoppable,
withheld no hand,
no soul, no land,

we are... as creation is...
as life and death are,
immortal wonders,
are, and are becoming...


R.E. Slater
December 15, 2023
revised December 19, 2023


@copyright R.E. Slater Publications
all rights reserved




What Is In a Christian Label?
Examining Conservative, Progressive & 
Processual Christianity

by R.E. Slater

Introduction

When a Christian is advocating for social equality, nature, and justice, they are known as progressive Christians regarding their faith and denominational orientation.

Though labels should be unimportant we use them daily to identify who we are (rightly or wrongly), what is important to us, and why such things are important to us.

When speaking about today's present-tense church many wish to break free of the church-molds we find ourselves in but dare not because of the ostracism which may follow when doing so. Thus we continue to bind ourselves within societal structures which have become meaningless, useless, and unhelpful.

In the evangelical world of church-in-the-present-tense we hear a lot about conservative Christians but very little about progressive Christians... the kind which wish to live in a judgment-free world with people who are allowed to be who they chose to be or, are-in-themselves people who do not need to live up to another's (inappropriate, or binding) standards.

Conversely, progressive Christians are co-operating Christians co-ordinating their faiths with the disseparate (unlike) faiths of others. They yearn to live in co-hesive communities where difference is a strength and not a weakness.

If a progressive Christian attends a mainline church the fellowships therein are usually progressive... as in progressive Methodists, Lutherans, Nazarenes, etc. Here, one may discover diverse congregational attributes supportive of social equality, ecological, and social justice. Where people who have different cultures and backgrounds with one another are usually accepted, welcomed, and embraced.

In the Catholic Church, progressive Catholic faiths may be more equally divided with that of conservative Catholic faiths demographically.

Broadly, a conservative faith is more traditionally-orientated, keeping with the familiar, unwanting change, and refusing racial introspection regarding feminism, gender difference, or race and religious heritage. All congregants are to be as one and to be assimilated into one conservative attitude (much as Picard's crew on the USS Enterprise were assimilated into the Borg).

Hence, some Catholic Churches may be more conservatively evangelical in their outlook or character or they may be more progressively evangelical in the same.


What is Conservative Evangelicalism?

Evangelicalism is a recent descriptor of a traditionalized church's acclaimed creeds and doctrines:

  • They generally are Cross-centered in Christ;
  • Preach repentance from sin and salvation by Christ;
  • Assimilating in outreach community programs;
  • Broadly authoritative in their church's social and political structures; and,
  • Usually Patriarchal in orientation restricting women to serve under the guidance of men because women are thought to be unequal in the home, church, office, or generally, in society with men.
  • This is known as complementarianism:

 

Wikipedia - Complementarianism is a theological view in some denominations of Christianity, Rabbinic Judaism, and Islam, that men and women have different but complementary roles and responsibilities in marriage, family life, and religious leadership. Complementary and its cognates are currently used to denote this view. Some Christians interpret the Bible as prescribing complementarianism, and therefore adhere to gender-specific roles that preclude women from specific functions of ministry within the community. Though women may be precluded from certain roles and ministries, they are held to be equal in moral value and of equal status. The phrase used to describe this is "ontologically equal, functionally different".
Complementarians assign primary headship roles to men and support roles to women based on their interpretation of certain biblical passages. One of the precepts of complementarianism is that while women may assist in the decision-making process, the ultimate authority for the decision is the purview of the male in marriage, courtship, and in the polity of churches subscribing to this view.
The main contrasting viewpoint is Christian egalitarianism, which maintains that positions of authority and responsibility in marriage and religion should be equally available to both females and males.
Roles in the Church: Based on [a fellowship's] interpretation of certain scriptures complementarians view women's roles in ministry, particularly in church settings, as limited. The complementarian view holds that women should not hold church leadership roles that involve teaching or authority over men. For instance, Frank Page, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, has written that "...while both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of Pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture" while the office of deacon are open to both men and women (excluding Catholicism). According to complementarianism, women are not completely forbidden from speaking within a church since Paul speaks about women prophesying inside the church....

 

  • Further, a conservative faith, fellowship, or church are oriented to living for-and-in the future seeing the present day and its times as having little worth except in waiting for Jesus' thunderous return to put down all evil and wickedness in the Last Days Which is to say that except for providing for one's family or community all other things in life carry little value... such as the restoring of ecology, or ecological living, or building mansions for one's self. All are rags and meaningfully unimportant in light of dying and going to heaven to be with God.


And because Jesus' Return is of high importance to a conservative Christian faith this "biblical" form of governmental structure has carried over into their jargon relative to a preferred form of governance... that of a "theocratic kingdom" over-and-above all other forms of governance... including that of an open democracy.

  • A theocratic kingdom is a realm led by a godly king rather than by a people's republic. It is known as a theocracy and is at all times preferred, possible, and desired:
Wikipedia - Theocracy is a form of government in which one or more deities are recognized as supreme ruling authorities, giving divine guidance to human intermediaries who manage the government's daily affairs.

Consequently, the idea of the "divine-rights of kings (and queens)" is accepted into the conservative church's "kingdom language"... regardless the king or god.

In the cinema's 2023 flick on "Napoleon" we see the difficulty France had in overthrowing a bad king as they willing tried to establish a "people's government".  However, (New) France's revolutions repeatedly failed thus allowing figures like Napoleon to fill in as a quasi-emperor until the French form of democracy could finally prevail and survive.

  • Lastly, conservative evangelicalism fails or succeeds in growing love amongst it's assembly and with it's community. Usually they tend to be guarded and isolating to themselves and their practices with like-minded assemblies. At other times a congregation feels relatively comfortable in their witness and cooperative working relationships with their community.
  • However, being literal in their reading of the bible - rather than reading the bible as source-literary redactionists  qua the bible's era-specific cultures as progressives would do - conservative evangelics seek to emulate / institute a "biblical morality" rather than a societal "humane morality" as relating to all things civilly ethical and equal.

And so, various levels of discrimination are kept and maintained into naturally occurring societal fellowships. Anything less than some form of interpretive "biblical morality" is sinful and of the devil.

  • Lastly, conservative evangelics preach a God who is holy first, and loving second. Which means God's holiness informs all the rest of God's divine attributes of God's divine presence or divine separation from an unholy Christian or secular world.

Conservative fellowships live in binary worlds of their own making:
  • Holiness through Christ using forms of penal substitutionary atonement; that,
  • God may leave or stay, come or go, from an unholy society or sinful Christian; that,
  • God's sovereignty is measured in retributive divine power upon all God's enemies or wayward children; and that,
  • Outreach and assimilation into their interpretations of the bible and creedal beliefs of God is their main obligations in preparing the world for Christ's return.
And underneath all these character traits of a conservative fellowship is one last attribute... that of revering the past believing yesteryear (perhaps Eden? Victorian England? Etc.) held some form of utopia which made it more preferable than the present societies experiential dystopias.
  • That any traditionalism - such as Israel's early kingdom forms in the Old Testament - favoring an unequal patriarchal-based economy along with cultural standards are preferrable to conservative church in comparison to any other form of civil-societal arrangements such as those based upon constitutional forms of  governance allowing men and women, free and slave, rich and poor, black, red, white, or brown races to govern themselves in fully equal, fair, and just civil relationships with one another.

What is Progressive Evangelicalism?

In comparison, progressive Christians feel completely out-of-place in an open democracy or an open-form of progressive church ministry. This feeling of unethical treatment of the feared Other is what has motivated progressive Christians towards re-balancing the theological equations in their church or leaving altogether to find fellowships which are welcoming and affirming in their reception of all members of a community.
WikipediaProgressive Christianity represents a postmodern theological approach, and is not necessarily synonymous with progressive politics. It developed out of the liberal Christianity of the modern era, which was rooted in the Enlightenment's thinking.

Progressive Christianity is a postliberal theological movement within Christianity that, in the words of Reverend Roger Wolsey, "seeks to reform the faith via the insights of post-modernism and a reclaiming of the truth beyond the verifiable historicity and factuality of the passages in the Bible by affirming the truths within the stories that may not have actually happened." [Wolsey's statement confuses me... - re slater]

Progressive Christianity, as described by its adherents, is characterized by a willingness to question tradition, acceptance of human diversity, a strong emphasis on social justice and care for the poor and the oppressed, and environmental stewardship of the earth. Progressive Christians have a deep belief in the centrality of the instruction to "love one another" (John 15:17) within the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Progressive Christianity focuses on promoting values such as compassion, justice, mercy, and tolerance, often through political activism. Though prominent, the movement is by no means the only significant movement of progressive thought among Christians. It draws influence from multiple theological streams, including evangelicalism, liberal Christianity, neo-orthodoxy, pragmatism, postmodern theology, progressive Christian reconstructionism, and liberation theology. The concerns of feminism are also a major influence on the movement, as expressed in feminist and womanist theologies [I prefer the wider form of theology known as "intersectional theology. - re slater].

Although progressive Christianity and liberal Christianity are often used synonymously, the two movements are distinct, despite much overlap.

What Is Processual Christianity?

To conclude, I have personally discovered and chosen a third option. One that is not conservative but one that is also more broadly progressive than an evangelical basis can provide in itself, its traditions, and its histories.
To illustrate, say my heritage and education always preferred to painting with the bolder colors of the spectrum... however, with time's passage and cultural preference, I now wish to paint using the softer, pastel colours rather than with bold colours.
In the former instance I was a "conservative painter" whereas in the latter instance I had become more "progressive as a painter." That is, until science came along with a new "species" of paints fallen into the broader category of "quantum paint spectralysis applications".
In this new science of paints I find I no longer need to be defined by my preference between binary forms of painting but may approach painting in its truer quantum forms of spectralysis application.
And so, I have found a more naturalized foundation replacing the binary forms I was at first acquainted with. Let's call this naturalized process of growth "process-based painting" which speaks to both i) the foundation of the science as well as ii) its application of the science into my beliefs and ways I might chose to live within the many evolving forms of society.
Over the years as I deconstructed by conservative faith and explored others forms of Christian belief and living, I eventually tripped over AN Whitehead's process philosophy of cosmological metaphysics, ontology and ethics.

Much as Westernized philosophical forms have held biblical faiths to unnatural forms of inorganic, binary thinking (such as Platonic Hellenism, etc) so as Whitehead's process-based thinking provided a more natural way of looking at God and creation, humanity and society.

I found it was unnecessary to force progressive beliefs out of a culturally bound, unevolving, binary system of Christian belief such as present day forms of evangelicalism. But in process philosophy I could participate fully and freely in its derivative... that of process theology. It is more organic, naturally relational and intersecting within-and-about itself with greater or lesser forms of processual metaphysics and cosmology. And at its core, process-panpsychism play abouts its being, novelty, imagery, imagination, and becoming.

In sum...
  • God becomes less restrictive;
  • A Christian theology may be centralized in-and-around a God of love;
  • Whose loving divine attribute informs all other attributes of God's divine person;
  • God may be both "Other" in Ontological transcendency but always abiding in God's divinely loving immanency within-and-about creation;
  • God's always abiding presence recharges creation with God's divine character of love;
  • A divine character which creation was born with while not lessening our responsibility to recharge ourselves, our world, and nature about us, with redeeming qualities;
  • Divinely loving qualities which are... and are becoming.

Conclusion

In short, our being-ness in God is always in the evolving redemptive stages of becoming-ness:

  • Process-based Salvation is what defines Christ's crucifixion and the church's direction to teach love, be love, and do love;
  • We are to approach this life in processual hope and energy;
  • A process Christianity must always be mindful to nurture it's processual faith which at it's core is always progressive and without need for any withholding (evangelical) theological basis.
  • Lastly, any Christian or religious (cultural) background can be re-centered around a loving, processual God and faith. As example, I can take my past (Calvinistic) Baptist (Reformed) heritage and training, remit it, grind it up, and come back with the kind of loving God and theology which Jesus was clearly teaching the rabbis and showing to his countrymen and disciples.

This is how Relevancy22 was birthed and why it is designed to teach processual Christianity from as many angles as I have time to write of all the ways in which Whiteheadian process philosophy may be applied as a third / fourth generational Whiteheadian Christian philosophic-theologian.

So what is in a Christian Label?

Everything and nothing. It may, or may not, describe who we are but cannot inhibit us in our interiority from growing and evolving and becoming more than we once believed we were in our faith, our behaviors, our hopes, and dreams.
A processual ME is the best God-redeemed Me we can be in this life or the next. We are. And are becoming. Praise God !
Peace,

R.E. Slater
December 15, 2023




Amazon link

ORT Theology is more properly described as
Open and Relational PROCESS Theology


Building the Basileia: Moving
the Church into the 22nd century

by Ulrick Dam (Author)  |  November 10, 2023
Year after year, a familiar narrative unfolds: Church attendance declines, communities wither away, and once-thriving churches shutter their doors. But does this spell the end of Christianity and the relevance of church communities? Absolutely not. We have the power to breathe new life into the church and restore its significance by embracing the ideas of Open and Relational Theology, allowing it to shape our ecclesiology. Within this transformation lies a profound summons – to actively engage in constructing the very kingdom of God, here and now. We are called to partake in the building of the kingdom of God, or the what the biblical writers called the Basileia, even as we keep our gaze fixed on the ultimate kingdom that awaits. This will be the key to new life for churches moving into the 22nd century.

* * * * * *



Amazon link


Revelation for Normal People:
A Guide to the Strangest and Most 
Dangerous Book in the Bible 
(from "The Bible for Normal People" Series, Pete Enns)

by Robyn J. Whitaker (Author)  |  November 24, 2023


It has never been more important to read Revelation well.

Whether you love it, hate it, or avoid it like the plague, the last book of the Bible’s influence permeates our cultural, political, and religious landscapes. From the so-bad-they’re…still bad actually…Left Behind series, to conspiracy theories about microchips and barcodes, to all-too-real political discourse and actions, John’s visions in Revelation reach far beyond anything their ancient author could have imagined.

But what did John imagine? Who was he writing for and why? And what’s the deal with all the hideous horned beasts?

Join New Testament scholar Robyn Whitaker as she uncovers the real-world contexts behind this ancient apocalyptic text. A world occupied by an oppressive empire, a marginalized people, and a God committed to justice. Where a beast overthrown was a declaration of authority and a falling star was a statement of evil’s demise. Where symbols gave voice to resistance and visions provided a glimpse of hope. A world utterly and entirely ancient.

Only when we understand Revelation’s ancient contexts can we begin to find meaning for our own.

Learn to read Revelation well with The Bible for Normal People—bringing the best in biblical scholarship to everyone. 

AI Bard / Gemini Update



Gemini is the most capable and general model we’ve ever built.

Bard will use a fine-tuned version of Gemini Pro. It will be available in English in more than 170 countries and territories, and we plan to expand to different modalities and support new languages and locations in the near future.

In our new update, Gemini Pro will help Bard be far more capable at things like:
  • Understanding
  • Reasoning
  • Planning
Bard with Gemini Pro is already performing as well as or better than other industry-leading chatbots, and it will continue to improve with your feedback.

BUILD WITH GEMINI
Integrate Gemini models into your applications
via the Gemini API in Google AI Studio and
Google Cloud Vertex AI.



Google Bard’s First Year
It’s been a wild year, and we are grateful to everyone who’s given Bard a try. Our team is so thankful for your support, and we’re excited for you to experience and enjoy what’s to come in 2024.



Googles GEMINI Just SHOCKED The ENTIRE INDUSTRY! 
(GPT-4 Beaten) Full Breakdown + Technical Report
by "TheAIGRID"  |  Dec 6, 2023


 #Largelanguagemodel #chatgpt #NeuralNetworks
Googles GEMINI Just SHOCKED The ENTIRE INDUSTRY!
(GPT-4 Beaten) All Capabilities...

The Buzz Around Bard

Bard has access to Google’s apps and now its the
best large language model...  |  Image: Google

 

* * * * * * * *

Google’s Bard chatbot is getting
way better thanks to Gemini

By David Pierce, editor-at-large and Vergecast co-host with over a decade of experience covering consumer tech. Previously, at Protocol, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired.
Dec 6, 2023, 10:00 AM EST

While OpenAI’s ChatGPT has become a worldwide phenomenon and one of the fastest-growing consumer products ever, Google’s Bard has been something of an afterthought. The chatbot has steadily gained new features, including access to your data across other Google products, but its answers and information have rarely seemed to rival what you get from ChatGPT and other bots using GPT-3 and GPT-4.

The case for Bard may have just gotten more compelling, though: as of today, for English-speaking users in 170 countries, Bard is now powered by Google’s new Gemini model, which it says matches and even exceeds OpenAI’s tech in a number of ways. (Google says Gemini is coming to more languages and countries “in the near future.”)

Bard is now running Gemini Pro, the middle tier of the Gemini series. Ultra is the biggest and slowest but the most capable, Nano is small and fast and meant for on-device tasks, and Pro sits right in the middle. It’s meant to be the Goldilocks version of the model, really: fast and efficient while still as capable as possible.

Pro is meant to be the Goldilocks version of Gemini: fast and efficient while still as capable as possible

Sissie Hsiao, who runs Bard and Assistant at Google, said in a press briefing that Gemini represents the “biggest and best upgrade yet” for Bard. It should be a marked improvement for just about everything Bard already does: summarizing, brainstorming, writing, and the like. Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, tells me that, in his testing, he’s found that there’s not so much a whizbang new feature as there is just an overall improvement across the board. “I think people are just going to find that the product got a lot better,” he says. “It understands their intent better, it’s answering better. It’s more factual, higher quality. If you’re trying to code it’s better!”

Right now, Bard is still just a chatbot: you type, it types back. But there’s a new version of Bard coming soon that could be much more. Next year, Google is planning to launch a preview of “Bard Advanced,” powered by Gemini Ultra, which is the most powerful and capable version of Google’s new large language model. Gemini Ultra is also the multimodal version of the model, meaning it can accept and create images, audio, and video in addition to just text.

The non-text interactions are where Gemini in general really shines

The non-text interactions are where Gemini in general really shines, says Demis Hassabis, the head of Google DeepMind. “We built it to be natively multimodal from the ground up,” he says. “That’s one of the new capabilities that it has… the kinds of seamless integration and reasoning it can do across modalities.” Google’s demos included the YouTuber Mark Rober using Bard to make the perfect paper airplane — including by taking photos of his designs to get AI-provided feedback — and parents uploading pictures of their children’s homework to get help figuring out where their math went wrong.

That’s all just demos and promotional videos for now, though. Pichai says he thinks of this launch both as a big moment for Bard and as the very beginning of the Gemini era. But if Google’s benchmarking is right, the new model might already make Bard as good a chatbot as ChatGPT. And that’s already a pretty impressive feat.


Thursday, December 14, 2023

Teaching Resources: James McGrath, "The A to Z of the New Testament"




Today's post relates to a very recent discussion I had with a well-churched Christian friend after receiving too many insulting jibe's directed at me. They were not meant to be funny but to be taken personally. At which point, a fun evening became a full-on private discussion between myself and my accuser.

The matter at hand - that of process theology using the newest and latest philosophic and redactive tools at hand - had been brewing for years requiring some form of frank, but well-meaning, discussion.

Unfortunately our venue that night very quickly became the time and place for me to share my personal journey. A journey I had kept private knowing full well the kind of response I would receive.

It began when asking my friend about his trip to an international pro-life religious-political conference which we talked about without getting too deep. But then the remarks started coming when I mentioned a few appointments I had taken this past month.

As I briefly mentioned these my friend began to goad the discussion onwards with accusations towards my community so that it became readily apparently he was unwilling to engage in any meaningful or positive way but fully readily to enact accusatory judgments.

If only his commentary was directed towards myself I would have laughed it off and moved on as I had done over the years but when accusations started landing upon fellow assemblies and friends then it had gone too far.

And so, there we were as I tried to share where I was personally as he pretended to listen while innocently blinking his eyes indicating he had stopped listening and was, instead, looking to argue and accuse in defense of his brand of Christianity.

I found it all particularly sad and a bit frustrating if I am to be honest. And the outcome a complete bust. Nothing was gained. And I became road-kill once again.

It also reinforced the thought I had asked myself on too many occasions that if anyone wished to find Christian enlightenment they should not come to the area I live in.

Once known as the New Jerusalem, my hometown refuses to update its old theologies; rather, it obsequiously monitors all new ideas by it's self-appointed Scribes and Pharisees as overseers of all church polities and policies. Not Jesus. Not love. And certainly not enlightenment.

The apologetic walls here are on high alert and at all times. People come here to leave. Not stay. Any new seed dies on it's hard grounds. And any new wine is expected to be poured into old wine sacks which predictably will burst and be lost. We are expected to stay to the old ways and imagine the rugged past as better than any promised future.

Which is also why I have felt Spirit-driven over the years to write out my personal journey so that readers may benefit by my examination of traditional church beliefs and teachings and how they may be more appropriately applied for today's present times.

Which is also why I am posting Tripp and James' discussion today finding similar souls on similar journeys as my own. That our testimony may aide fellow travellers and local church assemblies exploring the meaning of their Christian faith against all which would make it hollow and empty.

To find a Jesus-gospel which reclaims and redeems; renews and repents; heals and will not harm; as versus another kind of gospel meant to prevent doubt or inquiry; any meaningful self-examination; or force all who come to Jesus to assimilate under a specific brand of socio-political doctrinnaire.

Tripp, by background, comes from a North Carolina Baptist setting in his youth - while James, at present, teaches at Butler University in Indiana. I respect them both. Each have their strengths in Christian witness and testimony. Whether James is a process theologian I do not know. However, he's hanging around the right people who are even as I am trying to find similar fellowship in my area if it is possible.

Moreover, Tripp, like myself, are "all-in on Process-everything" and have been actively fleshing it out since becoming acquainted with Whitehead's organic cosmo-philosophy and metaphysics.

Enjoy,

R.E. Slater
December 14, 2023




Source and Redaction Criticism

There are a lot of critical tools we use when studying the Bible. These ways of thinking about the text help us understand where it came from and how it has been used by the authors. The passage we looked at on Sunday leads into a really neat example of both source and redaction criticism.

Source criticism tries to uncover the original source of a story or document and looks to understand what that original source was trying to say. Redaction criticism sees the author of the text as it comes to us as the primary source and tries to understand what the author was trying to say as they edited (or redacted) that original source.

Well, in Matthew 25:14–30 (the parable of the talents) and in Luke 19:11-27 (the parable of the minas) these two authors tell a very similar story with almost diametrically opposed meanings. and this brings up some really interesting questions.

From a source-critical perspective, we can ask where this parable originated. One of the most common assumptions in the study of the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) is what is known as the two source hypothesis. Mark is assumed to be the oldest of the Gospels and Matthew and Luke appear to take much of their material from this pre-existing text. However, as in the case of the talents/minas parable, Matthew and Luke share some stories that Mark does not. From this, we surmise that there may have existed another older Gospel containing stories of Jesus that Mathew and Luke also borrowed from. We call this hypothetical document Q from the German for source. (I know now very creative.)

Perhaps even more intriguing though, is the fact that Matthew and Luke seem to think this parable means something very different from each other. In Matthew’s version the servant who brings back the most to his master is the hero of the story, while in Luke’s version it’s the servant who is willing to bring back the least that is the example we should follow. If the source is indeed Q, then this means the two Gospel writers/redactors have interpreted the parable in two different ways based not their understanding of Jesus. And in the end, this is a pretty fascinating window into how each of us encounters Jesus through the text of the Gospels.

Jesus, Zacchaeus, and Source Criticism


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James McGrath: The A to Z of the New Testament
Streamed live on Dec 1, 2023  |  1:04:05

One of the ongoing tensions for Biblical scholars is the gap between the shared knowledge within the academy and the need for more awareness among the larger public. Most ministers are aware of the tension this creates in the congregation, but the public square is no better. A friend and New Testament scholar, Dr. James McGrath, is back on the podcast to discuss his new book to tackle this problem. Here's the book: https://amzn.to/46Wjqv6


The A to Z of the New Testament:
Things Experts Know That Everyone Else Should Too
by James F. McGrath (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
So you think you know the New Testament?  Did you know that Jesus made puns? Did you know that Paul never calls himself or the churches he writes to “Christian”? Did you know that we don’t know who wrote the Letter to the Hebrews, or if it’s even really a letter? 
James F. McGrath sheds light on these and many other surprising facts in The A to Z of the New Testament. Cutting through common myths and misunderstandings of problematic Bible passages, McGrath opens up expert knowledge to laypeople in his friendly introduction to New Testament studies. Each chapter in this fresh, accessible volume begins with a provocative anecdote or fact and then pulls back the curtain to inform curious readers about how scholars approach the issue. Along the way, McGrath explains unfamiliar terminology and methodology to non-specialists with humor and clarity.  

Sunday, December 3, 2023

INDEX - Process Thinkers of Note


click here for article


INDEX - PROCESS THINKERS OF NOTE



R.E. SLATER

Chatbot & I discuss why "Common Sense Is Not So Common"





ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD
Alfred North Whitehead - Biography




DR. JOHN B. COBB, JR.








DR. ANDREW M. DAVIS




ELVI BJORKQUIST, ARCHITECT / ARTIST




DR. MATTHEW SEGALL


Matt has many more videos and discussions. Simply look up his Index in
the columns to the right. He is one of my favorite process thinkers.




PROCESS STATEMENTS & CITATIONS


In physics, Ilya Prigogine distinguishes between the "physics of being" and the "physics of becoming". Process philosophy covers not just scientific intuitions and experiences, but can be used as a conceptual bridge to facilitate discussions among religion, philosophy, and science."


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"It seems sensible to understand "process philosophy" as a doctrine committed to, or at any rate inclined toward, certain basic propositions:

1) Time and change are among the principal categories of metaphysical understanding.

2) Process is a principal category of ontological description.

3) Processes are more fundamental, or at any rate not less fundamental, than things for the purposes of ontological theory.

4) Several, if not all of the major elements of the ontological repertoire (God, Nature as a whole, persons, material substances) are best understood in process terms.

5) Contingency, emergence, novelty and creativity are among the fundamental categories of metaphysical understanding. 

A process philosopher, then, is someone for whom temporality, activity, and change─of alteration, striving, passage, novelty-emergence─are the cardinal factors for our understanding of the real.  Ultimately, it is a question of priority─of viewing the time-bound aspects of the real as constituting its most characteristic and significant features.  For the process philosopher, process has priority over product─both ontologically and epistemically."

-  Nicholas Rescher, Process Philosophy, 1928, p 6.


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"The cycles that can ground us through our busy lives are: breath, rhythms of the day, weekly rhythms and Sabbath rest, waxing and waning lunar cycles, seasons of the year, seasons of a lifetime, ancestral time, and cosmic time. Each cycle encourages us to mindfully consider the time that passes as quickly as each breath and as slowly as the passing of generations."

- Christine Valters Paintner, Sacred Time, 2021


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"Philosophers can never hope finally to formulate these metaphysical first principles. Weakness of insight and deficiencies of language stand in the way inexorably. Words and phrases must be stretched towards a generality foreign to their ordinary usage; and however such elements of language be stabilized as technicalities, they remain metaphors mutely appealing for an imaginative leap."

- Whitehead, Process and Reality, 1928, p. 4


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"Process philosophy, a 20th-century school of Western philosophy that emphasizes the elements of becoming, change, and novelty in experienced reality; it opposes the traditional Western philosophical stress on being, permanence, and uniformity. Reality—including both the natural world and the human sphere—is essentially historical in this view, emerging from (and bearing) a past and advancing into a novel future. Hence, it cannot be grasped by the static spatial concepts of the old views, which ignore the temporal and novel aspects of the universe given in man’s experience."

- Encyclopedia Britannica, 2021

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"Mind transforms the continuance of physical spacetime into moments (the absolute Now) and blends these moments into an apparent continuity through an overlapping of unfolding capsules. The flow of psychological time is an illusion based on the rapid replacement of these capsules. Each mind computes the measure of time passing and duration from the decay of the surface present in relation to a core of past events. As each new surface is generated, that surface, the rim of the immediate past, recedes in the wake of rising contents. This recession, an uncovering of phases latent in the original traversal, exposes layers in the past forming the content of the immediate past moment. The surge of the microgeny to a surface that dissolves the instant it appears, the priority of the Self in the unfolding sequence, the feeling of agency, create a Self in a state of becoming, a Self that travels in time like the crest of a wave, always in pursuit of a future just beyond the grasp of the present."

- Jason W. Brown, Psychology of Time Awareness, 1990


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"The Huayan developed the doctrine of "interpenetration" or "coalescence" (Wylie: zung-'jug; Sanskrit: yuganaddha),[23][24] based on the Avatamsaka Sūtra, a Mahāyāna scripture. It holds that all phenomena (Sanskrit: dharmas) are intimately connected (and mutually arising). Two images are used to convey this idea. The first is known as Indra's net. The net is set with jewels which have the extraordinary property that they reflect all of the other jewels. The second image is that of the world text. This image portrays the world as consisting of an enormous text which is as large as the universe itself. The words of the text are composed of the phenomena that make up the world. However, every atom of the world contains the whole text within it. It is the work of a Buddha to let out the text so that beings can be liberated from suffering. The doctrine of interpenetration influenced the Japanese monk Kūkai, who founded the Shingon school of Buddhism. Interpenetration and essence-function are mutually informing in the East Asian Buddhist traditions, especially the Korean Buddhist tradition."


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  • "Reality is a process: nothing ever stays the same.
  • The process of reality is creative, emergent, evolutionary, and social.
  • There is a profound relationship between creativity, beauty, and life.
  • All life deserves respect; nothing in nature stands alone; everything is connected.
  • Thinking and feeling are connected; mind and body are not separate entities;
  • aesthetic wisdom and rational inquiry are complementary.
  • Human experience begins by feeling the presence of the world and being affected by it.
  • Human happiness involves sharing experience with others and responding in harmony to these relationships."


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"This sense of reality as a dynamic breath-force tissue is reflected in the Chinese language itself, and so operates as an unnoticed assumption in ancient Chinese consciousness. There is no distinction between noun and verb in classical Chinese. Virtually all words can function as either. Hence, the sense of reality as verbal: a tissue alive and in the process. This includes all individual elements of reality, such as mountains or people, and contrasts with our language's sense that reality is nominal, an assemblage of static things. A noun in fact only refers to a temporal slice through the ongoing verbal process that any thing actually is."

- David Hinton, China Root, 2020, p. 35


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Some Principles of Whitehead's Thinking:
1. Question the assumptions of your community, your society, your religion, your science, your educational institutions, especially those that are rarely mentioned.

2. Question the dominant media, asking who controls it and what they want you to think.
3. Recognize that a serious answer to any important question brings into view lots of other questions.
4. When people appeal to mystery, consider that it may be mystification. Push critical thought as far as you can.
5. Recognize that the wider range of influences on an event or person that you consider, the better you understand that event or person.
6. Recognize that the broader you consideration of the context and of the likely consequences of your action, the better chance that you will make the right choice.
7. Realize that all your ideas and values are influenced by your particular situation, but refuse to conclude that for this reason they can be dismissed as merely "relative."
8. Recognize that there may be no actions that are completely harmless, but do not let that prevent you for acting decisively.
9. Understand that compassion is the most basic aspect of our experience, and seek to liberate and extend your compassion to all with which you come in contact.
10. Deepen you commitments to your own immediate communities, but always remember that other communities make similar demands on their members. Let you ultimate commitment be all-inclusive."

- By John B. Cobb, Jr.What would Whitehead Think?


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"They both listened silently to the water, which to them was not just water, but the voice of life, the voice of Being, the voice of perpetual Becoming.”

- Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

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The Core Doctrines of Process Philosophy for Circa 2020 CE:


"1. The integration of moral, aesthetic, and religious intuitions with the most general doctrines of the sciences into a self-consistent worldview as one of the central tasks of philosophy in our time.

2. Hard-core commonsense notions as the ultimate test of the adequacy of a philosophical position.

3. Whitehead's nonsensationist doctrine of perception, according to which sensory perception is a secondary mode of perception, being derivative from a more fundamental, nonsensory "prehension."

4. Panexperientalism with organizational duality, according to which all true individuals─as distinct from aggregational societies─have at least some iota of experience and spontaneity (self-determination).

5. The doctrine that all enduring individuals are serially ordered societies of momentary "occasions of experience."

6. The doctrine that all actual entities have internal as well as external relations.

7. The Whiteheadian version of naturalistic theism, according to which a Divine Actuality acts variably but never supernaturally in the world.

8. Doubly Dipolar Deism.

9. The provision of cosmological support for the ideals needed by contemporary civilization as one of the chief purposes of philosophy in our time.

10. A distinction between verbal statements (sentences) and propositions and between both of these and propositional feelings."

- David Ray Griffin, Reenchantment Without Supernaturalism, 2001, p.1-12, summary excerpts.