Process Theology
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Process theology is a type of theology developed from
Alfred North Whitehead Alfred North Whitehead (15 February 1861 – 30 December 1947) was an English mathematician and philosopher. He is best known as the defining figure of the philosophical school known as process philosophy, which today has found applicat ...
's (1861–1947)
process philosophy Process philosophy, also ontology of becoming, or processism, is an approach to philosophy that identifies processes, changes, or shifting relationships as the only true elements of the ordinary, everyday real world. In opposition to the classic ...
, most notably by
Charles Hartshorne Charles Hartshorne (; June 5, 1897 – October 9, 2000) was an American philosopher who concentrated primarily on the philosophy of religion and metaphysics, but also contributed to ornithology. He developed the neoclassical idea of God and ...
(1897–2000),
John B. Cobb John Boswell Cobb, Jr. (born 9 February 1925) is an American theologian, philosopher, and environmentalist. Cobb is often regarded as the preeminent scholar in the field of process philosophy and process theology, the school of thought associ ...
(b. 1925) and Eugene H. Peters (1929-1983). Process theology and process philosophy are collectively referred to as "process thought". For both Whitehead and Hartshorne, it is an essential attribute of God to affect and be affected by temporal processes, contrary to the forms of theism that hold God to be in all respects non-temporal (
eternal Eternal(s) or The Eternal may refer to: * Eternity, an infinite amount of time, or a timeless state * Immortality or eternal life * God, the supreme being, creator deity, and principal object of faith in monotheism Comics, film and television * ...
), unchanging ( immutable), and unaffected by the world ( impassible). Process theology does not deny that God is in some respects eternal (will never die), immutable (in the sense that God is unchangingly good), and impassible (in the sense that God's eternal aspect is unaffected by actuality), but it contradicts the classical view by insisting that God is in some respects temporal, mutable, and passible. According to Cobb, "process theology may refer to all forms of theology that emphasize event, occurrence, or becoming over substance. In this sense theology influenced by
G. W. F. Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...
is process theology just as much as that influenced by Whitehead. This use of the term calls attention to affinities between these otherwise quite different traditions." Also
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin Pierre Teilhard de Chardin ( (); 1 May 1881 – 10 April 1955) was a French Jesuit priest, scientist, paleontologist, theologian, philosopher and teacher. He was Darwinian in outlook and the author of several influential theological and phil ...
can be included among process theologians, even if they are generally understood as referring to the Whiteheadian/Hartshornean school, where there continue to be ongoing debates within the field on the nature of God, the relationship of God and the world, and immortality.


History

Various theological and philosophical aspects have been expanded and developed by
Charles Hartshorne Charles Hartshorne (; June 5, 1897 – October 9, 2000) was an American philosopher who concentrated primarily on the philosophy of religion and metaphysics, but also contributed to ornithology. He developed the neoclassical idea of God and ...
(1897–2000),
John B. Cobb John Boswell Cobb, Jr. (born 9 February 1925) is an American theologian, philosopher, and environmentalist. Cobb is often regarded as the preeminent scholar in the field of process philosophy and process theology, the school of thought associ ...

Eugene H. Peters
and
David Ray Griffin David Ray Griffin (August 8, 1939 – November 26, 2022) was an American professor of philosophy of religion and theology and a 9/11 conspiracy theorist.Sources describing David Ray Griffin as a "conspiracy theorist", "conspiracist", "conspirac ...
.John W. Cooper, ''Panentheism: The Other God of the Philosophers'' (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006), 342. A characteristic of process theology each of these thinkers shared was a rejection of
metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...
that privilege "
being In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality. Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities exis ...
" over " becoming", particularly those of
Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...
and
Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known wi ...
. Hartshorne was deeply influenced by French philosopher
Jules Lequier Jules Lequier (or Lequyer,Lequyer's birth certificate had "Lequier" but in 1834 his father had the spelling legally fixed as "Lequyer." ; 30 January 1814 – 11 February 1862) was a French philosopher from Brittany Brittany (; french: link=n ...
and by Swiss philosopher
Charles Secrétan Charles Secretan (January 19, 1815 – January 21, 1895) was a Swiss philosopher. He was born on 19 January 1815 in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he also died on 21 January 1895. Educated in his native town and later under Friedrich Schelling in M ...
who were probably the first ones to claim that in God liberty of becoming is above his substantiality. Process theology soon influenced a number of
Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
theologians including
Rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...
s
Max Kadushin Max Kadushin ( be, Макс Кадушын; December 6, 1895 – July 23, 1980) was a Conservative Judaism, Conservative rabbi best known for his organic philosophy of rabbinics. Biography Born in Minsk, Max Kadushin grew up in Seattle; his father ...
,
Milton Steinberg Milton Steinberg (November 25, 1903 – March 20, 1950) was an American rabbi, philosopher, theologian and author. Life Born in Rochester, New York, he was raised with the combination of his grandparents' traditional Jewish piety and his fath ...
and Levi A. Olan, Harry Slominsky and, to a lesser degree,
Abraham Joshua Heschel Abraham Joshua Heschel (January 11, 1907 – December 23, 1972) was a Polish-born American rabbi and one of the leading Jewish theologians and Jewish philosophers of the 20th century. Heschel, a professor of Jewish mysticism at the Jewish T ...
. Today some rabbis who advocate some form of process theology include
Bradley Shavit Artson Bradley Shavit "Brad" Artson (born 1959) is an American rabbi, author and speaker. He holds the Abner and Roslyn Goldstine Dean's Chair of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, California, where ...
, Lawrence A. Englander, William E. Kaufman,
Harold Kushner Harold Samuel Kushner (born April 3, 1935) is a prominent American rabbi and author. He is a member of the Rabbinical Assembly of Conservative Judaism and served as the congregational rabbi of Temple Israel of Natick, in Natick, Massachusetts, ...
, Anson Laytner, Michael Lerner, Gilbert S. Rosenthal, Lawrence Troster, Donald B. Rossoff, Burton Mindick, and Nahum Ward. Alan Anderson and Deb Whitehouse have applied process theology to the
New Thought The New Thought movement (also Higher Thought) is a spiritual movement that coalesced in the United States in the early 19th century. New Thought was seen by its adherents as succeeding "ancient thought", accumulated wisdom and philosophy from ...
variant of
Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
. Richard Stadelmann has worked to preserve the uniqueness of Jesus in process theology.


God and the World relationship

Whitehead's classical statement is a set of antithetical statements that attempt to avoid self-contradiction by shifting them from a set of oppositions into a contrast: * It is as true to say that God is permanent and the World fluent, as that the World is permanent and God is fluent. * It is as true to say that God is one and the World many, as that the World is one and God many. * It is as true to say that, in comparison with the World, God is actual eminently, as that, in comparison with God, the World is actual eminently. * It is as true to say that the World is immanent in God, as that God is immanent in the World. * It is as true to say that God transcends the World, as that the World transcends God. * It is as true to say that God creates the World, as that the World creates God.


Themes

*
God In monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...
is not
omnipotent Omnipotence is the quality of having unlimited power. Monotheistic religions generally attribute omnipotence only to the deity of their faith. In the monotheistic religious philosophy of Abrahamic religions, omnipotence is often listed as one ...
in the sense of being
coercive Coercion () is compelling a party to act in an involuntary manner by the use of threats, including threats to use force against a party. It involves a set of forceful actions which violate the free will of an individual in order to induce a desi ...
. The divine has a power of persuasion rather than coercion. Process theologians interpret the classical doctrine of omnipotence as involving force, and suggest instead a forbearance in divine power. "Persuasion" in the causal sense means that God does not exert unilateral control. * Reality is not made up of material substances that endure through time, but serially-ordered events, which are experiential in nature. These events have both a physical and mental aspect. All experience (male, female, atomic, and botanical) is important and contributes to the ongoing and interrelated process of reality. * The universe is characterized by process and change carried out by the agents of
free will Free will is the capacity of agents to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded. Free will is closely linked to the concepts of moral responsibility, praise, culpability, sin, and other judgements which apply only to actio ...
.
Self-determination The right of a people to self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international law (commonly regarded as a ''jus cogens'' rule), binding, as such, on the United Nations as authoritative interpretation of the Charter's norms. It stat ...
characterizes everything in the
universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the universe. Acc ...
, not just human beings. God cannot totally control any series of events or any individual, but God influences the creaturely exercise of this universal free will by offering possibilities. To say it another way, God has a will in everything, but not everything that occurs is God's will. * God contains the universe but is not identical with it (
panentheism Panentheism ("all in God", from the Greek language, Greek grc, πᾶν, pân, all, label=none, grc, ἐν, en, in, label=none and grc, Θεός, Theós, God, label=none) is the belief that the Divinity, divine intersects every part of Univers ...
, not
pantheism Pantheism is the belief that reality, the universe and the cosmos are identical with divinity and a supreme supernatural being or entity, pointing to the universe as being an immanent creator deity still expanding and creating, which has ex ...
or
pandeism Pandeism (or pan-deism), is a theological doctrine that combines aspects of pantheism with aspects of deism. Unlike classical deism, which holds that God does not interfere with the universe after its creation, pandeism holds that a creator de ...
). Some also call this "theocosmocentrism" to emphasize that God has always been related to some world or another. * Because God interacts with the changing universe, God is changeable (that is to say, God is affected by the actions that take place in the universe) over the course of time. However, the abstract elements of God ( goodness,
wisdom Wisdom, sapience, or sagacity is the ability to contemplate and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight. Wisdom is associated with attributes such as unbiased judgment, compassion, experiential self-knowledge, ...
, etc.) remain eternally solid. *
Charles Hartshorne Charles Hartshorne (; June 5, 1897 – October 9, 2000) was an American philosopher who concentrated primarily on the philosophy of religion and metaphysics, but also contributed to ornithology. He developed the neoclassical idea of God and ...
believes that people do not experience ''subjective'' (or personal)
immortality Immortality is the concept of eternal life. Some modern species may possess biological immortality. Some scientists, futurists, and philosophers have theorized about the immortality of the human body, with some suggesting that human immorta ...
, but they do have ''objective'' immortality because their experiences live on forever in God, who contains all that was. Other process theologians believe that people do have subjective experience after bodily death. * Dipolar theism is the idea that God has both a changing aspect (God's existence as a Living God) and an unchanging aspect (God's eternal essence).


Relationship to liberation theology

Henry Young combines Black theology and Process theology in his book ''Hope in Process''. Young seeks a model for American society that goes beyond the alternatives of integration of Blacks into white society and Black separateness. He finds useful the process model of the many becoming one. Here the one is a new reality that emerges from the discrete contributions of the many, not the assimilation of the many to an already established one.
Monica Coleman Monica A. Coleman (born 1974) is a contemporary theologian associated with process theology and womanist theology. She is a Professor oAfricana Studies at the University of Delaware She is Faculty Co-Director Emerita for the Center for Process Stu ...
has combined Womanist theology and Process theology in her book ''Making a Way Out of No Way''. In it, she argues that 'making a way out of no way' and 'creative transformation' are complementary insights from the respective theological traditions. She is one of many theologians who identify both as a process theologian and feminist/womanist/ecofeminist theologian, which includes persons such as
Sallie McFague Sallie McFague (May 25, 1933 – November 15, 2019) was an American feminist Christian theologian, best known for her analysis of how metaphor lies at the heart of how Christians may speak about God. She applied this approach, in particular, to ...
,
Rosemary Radford Ruether Rosemary Radford Ruether (1936–2022) was an American feminist scholar and Roman Catholic theologian known for her significant contributions to the fields of feminist theology and ecofeminist theology. Her teaching and her writings helped est ...
, and Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki. C. Robert Mesle, in his book ''Process Theology'', outlines three aspects of a process theology of liberation: # There is a relational character to the divine which allows God to experience both the joy and suffering of humanity. God suffers just as those who experience oppression and God seeks to actualize all positive and beautiful potentials. God must, therefore, be in solidarity with the oppressed and must also work for their liberation. # God is not omnipotent in the classical sense and so God does not provide support for the status quo, but rather seeks the actualization of greater good. # God exercises relational power and not unilateral control. In this way God cannot instantly end evil and oppression in the world. God works in relational ways to help guide persons to liberation.


Relationship to pluralism

Process theology affirms that God is working in all persons to actualize potentialities. In that sense each religious manifestation is the Divine working in a unique way to bring out the beautiful and the good. Additionally, scripture and religion represent human interpretations of the divine. In this sense pluralism is the expression of the diversity of cultural backgrounds and assumptions that people use to approach the Divine.


Relationship to the doctrine of the incarnation

Contrary to Christian orthodoxy, the
Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, names and titles), was ...
of mainstream process theology is not the mystical and historically unique union of divine and human natures in one hypostasis, the eternal
Logos ''Logos'' (, ; grc, wikt:λόγος, λόγος, lógos, lit=word, discourse, or reason) is a term used in Western philosophy, psychology and rhetoric and refers to the appeal to reason that relies on logic or reason, inductive and deductive ...
of God incarnated and identifiable as the man
Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
. Rather God is incarnate in the lives of all people when they act according to a call from God. Jesus fully and in every way responded to God's call, thus the person of Jesus is theologically understood as "the divine Word in human form." Jesus is not singularly or essentially God, but he was perfectly synchronized to God at all moments of life. Cobb expressed the Incarnation in process terms that link it to his understanding of actualization of human potential: "'Christ' refers to the Logos as incarnate hence as the process of creative transformation in and of the world".


Debate about process theology's conception of God’s power

A criticism of process theology is that it offers a too severely diminished conception of God’s power. Process theologians argue that God does not have unilateral, coercive control over everything in the universe. In process theology, God cannot override a person’s freedom, nor perform miracles that violate the laws of nature, nor perform physical actions such as causing or halting a flood or an avalanche. Critics argue that this conception diminishes divine power to such a degree that God is no longer worshipful. The process theology response to this criticism is that the traditional Christian conception of God is actually ''not'' worshipful as it stands, and that the traditional notion of God’s
omnipotence Omnipotence is the quality of having unlimited power. Monotheistic religions generally attribute omnipotence only to the deity of their faith. In the monotheistic religious philosophy of Abrahamic religions, omnipotence is often listed as one o ...
fails to make sense. First, power is a relational concept. It is not exerted in a vacuum, but always by some entity ''A'' over some other entity ''B''. As such, power requires analysis of both the being exerting power, and the being that power is being exerted upon. To suppose that an entity ''A'' (in this case, God), can always successfully control any other entity ''B'' is to say, in effect, that ''B'' does not exist as a free and individual being in any meaningful sense, since there is no possibility of its resisting ''A'' if ''A'' should decide to press the issue. Mindful of this, process theology makes several important distinctions between different kinds of power. The first distinction is between "coercive" power and "persuasive" power.David Ray Griffin (2004). p. 9. Coercive power is the kind that is exerted by one physical body over another, such as one billiard ball hitting another, or one arm twisting another. Lifeless bodies (such as the billiard balls) cannot resist such applications of physical force at all, and even living bodies (like arms) can only resist so far, and can be coercively overpowered. While finite, physical creatures can exert coercive power over one another in this way, God—lacking a physical body—''cannot'' (not merely ''will'' not) exert coercive control over the world. But process theologians argue that coercive power is actually a secondary or derivative form of power, while persuasion is the primary form. Even the act of self-motion (of an arm, for instance) is an instance of persuasive power. The arm may not perform in the way a person wishes it to—it may be broken, or asleep, or otherwise unable to perform the desired action. It is only after the persuasive act of self-motion is successful that an entity can even ''begin'' to exercise coercive control over other finite physical bodies. But no amount of coercive control can alter the free decisions of other entities; only persuasion can do so. For example, a child is told by his parent that he must go to bed. The child, as a self-conscious, decision-making individual, can always make the decision to ''not'' go to bed. The parent may then respond by picking up the child bodily and carrying him to his room, but nothing can force the child to alter his decision to resist the parent's directive. It is only the ''body'' of the child that can be coercively controlled by the body of the physically stronger parent; the child's free will remains intact. While process theologians argue that God does not have coercive power, they also argue that God has ''supreme persuasive power'', that God is always influencing/persuading us to choose the good. One classic exchange over the issue of divine power is between philosophers Frederick Sontag and John K. Roth and process theologian
David Ray Griffin David Ray Griffin (August 8, 1939 – November 26, 2022) was an American professor of philosophy of religion and theology and a 9/11 conspiracy theorist.Sources describing David Ray Griffin as a "conspiracy theorist", "conspiracist", "conspirac ...
.David Ray Griffin, "Creation Out of Chaos and the Problem of Evil," in ''Encountering Evil: Live Options in Theodicy'', ed. Stephen Davis (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1981), 135. Sontag and Roth argued that the process God’s inability to, for instance, stop the genocide at Auschwitz meant that God was not worthy of worship, since there is no point in worshipping a God that cannot save us from such atrocities. Griffin's response was as follows:
One of the stronger complaints from Sontag and Roth is that, given the enormity of evil in the world, a deity that is erelydoing its best is not worthy of worship. The implication is that a deity that is ''not'' doing its best ''is'' worthy of worship. For example, in reference to Auschwitz, Roth mocks my God with the statement that “the best that God could possibly do was to permit 10,000 Jews a day to go up in smoke.” Roth prefers a God who had the power to prevent this Holocaust but did not do it! This illustrates how much people can differ in what they consider worthy of worship. For Roth, it is clearly brute ''power'' that evokes worship. The question is: is this what ''should'' evoke worship? To refer back to the point about revelation: is this kind of power worship consistent with the Christian claim that divinity is decisively revealed in Jesus? Roth finds my God too small to evoke worship; I find his too gross.
The process argument, then, is that those who cling to the idea of God's coercive omnipotence are defending power for power's sake, which would seem to be inconsistent with the life of Jesus, who Christians believe died for humanity's sins rather than overthrow the Roman empire. Griffin argues that it is actually the God whose omnipotence is defined in the "traditional" way that is not worshipful. One other distinction process theologians make is between the idea of "unilateral" power versus "relational" power.C. Robert Mesle,
Relational Power
," ''JesusJazzBuddhism.org'', accessed May 7, 2014.
Unilateral power is the power of a king (or more accurately, a tyrant) who wishes to exert control over his subjects ''without'' being affected ''by'' them. However, most people would agree that a ruler who is not changed or affected by the joys and sorrows of his subjects is actually a despicable ruler and a psychopath. Process theologians thus stress that God’s power is relational; rather than being unaffected and unchanged by the world, God is the being ''most'' affected by every other being in the universe. As process theologian C. Robert Mesle puts it:
Relational power takes great strength. In stark contrast to unilateral power, the radical manifestations of relational power are found in people like
Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
,
Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
, and
Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
. It requires the willingness to endure tremendous suffering while refusing to hate. It demands that we keep our hearts open to those who wish to slam them shut. It means offering to open up a relationship with people who hate us, despise us, and wish to destroy us.
In summation, then, process theologians argue that their conception of God’s power does not diminish God, but just the opposite. Rather than see God as one who unilaterally coerces other beings, judges and punishes them, and is completely unaffected by the joys and sorrows of others, process theologians see God as the one who persuades the universe to love and peace, is supremely affected by even the tiniest of joys and the smallest of sorrows, and is able to love all beings despite the most heinous acts they may commit. God is, as Whitehead says, "the fellow sufferer who understands."
Alfred North Whitehead Alfred North Whitehead (15 February 1861 – 30 December 1947) was an English mathematician and philosopher. He is best known as the defining figure of the philosophical school known as process philosophy, which today has found applicat ...
, ''
Process and Reality ''Process and Reality'' is a book by Alfred North Whitehead, in which the author propounds a philosophy of organism, also called process philosophy. The book, published in 1929, is a revision of the Gifford Lectures he gave in 1927–28. Whi ...
'' (New York: The Free Press, 1978), 351.


See also


References


Further reading

* Bruce G. Epperly ''Process Theology: A Guide for the Perplexed'' (NY: T&T Clark, 2011, ) This is "perhaps the best in-depth introduction to process theology available for non-specialists." * Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki's ''God Christ Church: A Practical Guide to Process Theology'', new rev. ed. (New York: Crossroad, 1989, ) demonstrates the practical integration of process philosophy with Christianity. * C. Robert Mesle's ''Process Theology: A Basic Introduction'' (St. Louis: Chalice Press, 1993, ) is an introduction to process theology written for the layperson. * Jewish introductions to
classical theism Classical theism is a form of theism in which God is characterized as the absolutely metaphysically ultimate being, in contrast to other conceptions such as pantheism, panentheism, polytheism, deism and process theism. Classical theism is a for ...
, limited theism and process theology can be found in ''A Question of Faith: An
Atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
and a
Rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...
Debate the Existence of God'' (Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1994, ) and ''The Case for God'' (St. Louis: Chalice Press, 1991, ), both written by Rabbi William E. Kaufman. Jewish variations of process theology are also presented in Harold Kushner's '' When Bad Things Happen to Good People'' (New York: Anchor Books, 2004, ) and Sandra B. Lubarsky and David Ray Griffin, eds., ''Jewish Theology and Process Thought'' (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995, ). * Christian introductions may be found in Schubert M. Ogden's ''The Reality of God and Other Essays'' (Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1992, ); John B. Cobb, ''Doubting Thomas:
Christology In Christianity, Christology (from the Ancient Greek, Greek grc, Χριστός, Khristós, label=none and grc, wiktionary:-λογία, -λογία, wiktionary:-logia, -logia, label=none), translated literally from Greek as "the study of Chr ...
in Story Form'' (New York: Crossroad, 1990, ); Charles Hartshorne, ''Omnipotence and Other Theological Mistakes'' (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1984, ); and Richard Rice, ''God's Foreknowledge & Man's Free Will'' (Minneapolis, Minn.: Bethany House Publishers, 1985; rev. ed. of the author's ''The Openness of God'', cop. 1980; ). In French, the best introduction may be André Gounelle, ''Le Dynamisme Créateur de Dieu: Essai sur la Théologie du Process'', édition revue, modifiée et augmentee (Paris: Van Dieren, 2000, ). * The most important work by Paul S. Fiddes is ''The Creative Suffering of God'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992); see also his short overview "Process Theology," in A. E. McGrath, ed., ''The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Modern Christian Thought'' (Oxford: Blackwell, 1993), 472–76. * Norman Pittenger's thought is exemplified in his ''God in Process'' (London: SCM Press, 1967, ), ''Process-Thought and Christian Faith'' (New York: Macmillan Company, 1968, ), and ''Becoming and Belonging'' (Wilton, CT: Morehouse Publications, 1989, ). * Constance Wise's ''Hidden Circles in the Web: Feminist Wicca, Occult Knowledge, and Process Thought'' (Lanham, Md.: AltaMira Press, 2008, ) applies process theology to one variety of contemporary
Paganism Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christianity, early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions ot ...
. *
Michel Weber Michel Weber (born 1963) is a Belgian philosopher. He is best known as an interpreter and advocate of the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead, and has come to prominence as the architect and organizer of an overlapping array of international ...
,
Shamanism and proto-consciousness
», in René Lebrun, Julien De Vos et É. Van Quickelberghe (éds), ''Deus Unicus'', Turnhout, Brepols, coll. Homo Religiosus série II, 14, 2015, pp. 247–260. *
David Ray Griffin David Ray Griffin (August 8, 1939 – November 26, 2022) was an American professor of philosophy of religion and theology and a 9/11 conspiracy theorist.Sources describing David Ray Griffin as a "conspiracy theorist", "conspiracist", "conspirac ...
''Reenchantment Without Supernaturalism: A Process Philosophy of Religion'' (Cornell University Press, 2001, ), an exposition of the central theses of process theology. * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


External links


The Center for Process Studies

Process and Faith
;Reference works *
An encyclopedic-type article
*
Michel Weber Michel Weber (born 1963) is a Belgian philosopher. He is best known as an interpreter and advocate of the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead, and has come to prominence as the architect and organizer of an overlapping array of international ...
and Will Desmond (eds.),
Handbook of Whiteheadian Process Thought
', Frankfurt / Lancaster, Ontos Verlag, Process Thought X1 & X2, 2008 (). {{DEFAULTSORT:Process Theology Christian theological movements Conceptions of God Religion and science