Process theology is a school of thought within contemporary theology based on the metaphysical philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead. It emphasizes God’s relationship with and involvement in the world, viewing God as dipolar rather than impassible. God is seen as having both a primordial and consequent nature, engaging in a process of creative transformation and working with the world based on persuasive power rather than coercion.
Background on Process Philosophy
Process philosophy was developed by Alfred North Whitehead in the early 20th century. Drawing on insights from mathematics, physics, and metaphysics, Whitehead conceived of reality as a series of experiential events rather than stable substances. These events relate to one another through processes of perception, whereby one event prehends or feels its relationship to all other events. Process unfolds through the interweaving of these events into an organic whole.
Whitehead rejected the primacy of mind or matter, instead giving ontology over to events and processes. His thought emphasizes change, novelty, and creativity as fundamental qualities of reality. The world is characterized by flux and flow rather than permanence.
Central ideas in process philosophy include:
– The metaphysical primacy of events over substances
– Reality as composed of interrelated, interpenetrating processes
– The creative advance into novelty as inherent to reality
– The reciprocal relationship between parts and whole
– A panexperientialist worldview in which all entities have some level of experience
Applying Process Thought to Theology
Process theology developed in the mid-20th century as an attempt to integrate insights from process philosophy into Christian doctrine. Key figures include philosophers Charles Hartshorne and John Cobb, and theologians Norman Pittenger and Schubert Ogden.
Process thought resonated with liberal and postmodern theologians who were reacting against static conceptions of God and deterministic worldviews. It provided a dynamic framework more attuned to relativity, evolution, and a world in flux.
Some key themes in process theology include:
– God as creative and interactive rather than controlling
– God working through persuasive power rather than coercion
– God experiencing and responding to the world
– The world contributing to God’s experience
– Human free will and agency emphasized
– Nature as an integral part of God’s body
– Evolutionary thinking applied to doctrines
A Relational, Responsive, Becoming God
At the heart of process theology is a dipolar conception of God’s nature and relationship to the world. God has two natures- one primordial, absolute and unlimited; the other consequent, interactive and related to the world.
The primordial nature represents God’s timeless potentiality and perfection. This aspect does not change. However, there is also a consequent nature through which God interacts with and experiences the world. This represents God’s embodied relationality.
Whereas classical theism viewed God as impassible and immutable, process thought sees God as intrinsically related to the world, affected by and responsive to creatures. God is not aloof or controlling, but intimate and vulnerable. This impacts many doctrines:
– Creation is not a divine unilateral act, but a process requiring the participation of creatures.
– Evil and suffering affect and distress God, who works to persuade creation toward harmony.
– The future is open-ended, not predetermined. God inspires and lures creation toward the good through love rather than control.
– Creatures contribute to God’s experiential reality and become part of the divine.
God is conceived not as a supreme substance exerting will upon the world, but as the chief exemplification of creative process, seeking to maximize beauty, intensity and harmony. God is the poet of the world.
Humanity’s Role and Relationship
Process theology emphasizes human agency, freedom and creativity. We are co-creators with God, contributing to the unfolding of reality. Our choices have real consequences for good or ill.
At the same time, our fulfillment comes through alignment with God’s vision for creation. God seeks to persuade us toward justice, beauty and harmony through love and inspiration. Jesus represents the incarnation of divine vision in a human life lived for others.
Salvation is not a once-for-all event, but an ongoing process of becoming – being transformed and participating ever more fully in community with God, humanity and nature. We find meaning in creative service.
Some contrasts with classical theism:
– Humanity has a crucial role in shaping reality. We are not passive objects of divine will.
– Salvation is ontological (a change in being), not just legal forgiveness.
– Destiny comes through creative transformation, not merely payment for sins.
– The aim is adventure, growth and beauty; not legal pardon.
Implications for Theology
Process theology leads to rethinking many traditional doctrines in dynamic rather than static terms. Reality is conceived as vital and interrelated.
– The Trinity: a social model focused on community and diversity within unity
– Christology: Jesus as the embodiment and revelation of divine vision
– Ecclesiology: the church as an organic community where all members have gifts to contribute
– Eschatology: the coming kingdom seen as the realization of meaning through creative transformation
– Soteriology: salvation as aligning ourselves with God’s vision through an inward process of redemption
– Theodicy: evil as arising from misalignments within creation; God suffers with victims
– Sacraments: outward signs of inward processes of divine-human interaction
– Prayer: a reciprocal relation with God; changes us rather than God
– Scripture: a record of people’s interactions with the divine; not inerrant
Process theology offers a dynamic narrative of humanity’s spiritual evolution toward greater beauty, justice and meaning. It spurs us to creative action and collective transformation in making God’s vision real.
Contrasts with Classical Theism
Process thought differs markedly from traditional theistic ideas about God’s nature and relation to the world:
– Classical Theism: God is impassible, immutable, transcendent, all-determining will
– Process Thought: God is interactive, passible, immanent, persuasive love
– Classical Theism: Creation is a unilateral act of God’s will
– Process Thought: Creation is a collaborative process requiring creaturely participation
– Classical Theism: The world has no effect on God
– Process Thought: The world contributes to God’s experience
– Classical Theism: The future is exhaustively settled by God
– Process Thought: The future is open with possibilities to be realized
– Classical Theism: Evil arises from human will alone
– Process Thought: Evil results from distortions within an interdependent creation
– Classical Theism: Salvation is extrinsic forgiveness
– Process Thought: Salvation is inward transformation toward redemption
– Classical Theism: Heaven/hell are eternal states
– Process Thought: Our choices lead toward joy or desolation, but God’s love is relentless
So in summary, process theology sees God and the world as intrinsically interrelated and involved in a creative process. It offers a more dynamic narrative relevant to a postmodern context.
Historical Precedents and Influences
While process philosophy was a modern development, process theologians see precedents for their ideas in the Christian tradition:
– Early Greek Fathers like Irenaeus emphasized God’s immanence, involvement in creation, and humanity’s role.
– The Eastern Orthodox idea of theosis is compatible – salvation as divinization rather than external pardon.
– John Scotus Eriugena and Nicholas of Cusa held unorthodox process-like views of God and creation.
– John Wesley’s concept of sanctification as a lifelong process of redemption bears similarities.
Process thought was influenced by:
– Philosophers like Bergson, James, Whitehead, and Hartshorne
– Alfred North Whitehead’s process metaphysics
– Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory
– Quantum physics and relativity theory – favoring dynamic views
– Romanticism’s organicism and Schelling’s panentheistic vision
– Liberal and pragmatist theologies that embraced modernity and focused on religious experience.
So in many ways process theology continues and develops past currents of thought toward a more holistic, organismic worldview.
Objections and Criticisms
Process theology has been controversial and critiqued by mainstream theologians. Some common objections include:
– It compromises God’s transcendence, immutability and perfection. A passible God seems too anthropomorphic.
– Making God dependent on the world denies his self-sufficiency.
– God’s ontological nature should not be changed by contingent events in creation.
– Evil and suffering should not have the power to condition God’s being.
– The idea of God “prehending” events seems demeaning.
– God’s historic covenants and revelation seem undermined if God is evolving too.
– The humanistic emphasis on agency detracts from grace, reverence, and recognizing human limitations.
– Process thought can lead to pluralism since many perspectives contribute to truth.
– It is based more on speculative metaphysics than biblical revelation.
– Subjective experience and feeling is made primary rather than objective divine revelation.
– The phenomenal, changing aspect of God is elevated over his transcendent being.
So process theology remains controversial in its reformulation of classical Christian teaching about God. Critics argue it departs too radically from biblical revelation.
Evaluation
There are strengths and weaknesses to process theology from an evangelical perspective:
Strengths:
– Takes modern science, evolution, and process philosophy seriously
– Avoids the excessive determinism of some classical theism
– Emphasizes God’s immanence and intimacy with creation
– Provides for human freedom, creativity and real impact
– Offers more relational and organic conceptions of God’s nature
– Explains the problem of evil and suffering in creative ways
– Creates space for dynamic experience of faith and God’s involvement
Weaknesses:
– Ambiguous about God’s ontological nature and historic faithfulness
– Risks overemphasizing God’s responsiveness to the world
– God’s self-sufficiency and sovereignty are attenuated
– Christ’s definitive revelation of God’s character is not always primary
– Speculative philosophy is given priority over Scripture
– Human creativity and experience eclipse accepting divine revelation
– Minimizes concepts like holiness, justice, sin and judgment
– Insufficient basis in the biblical narrative
So in conclusion, process theology provides some helpful corrections to static classical theism but also tends toward an overemphasis on human agency, speculation, and God’s vulnerability to process. More biblical balance is needed regarding God’s transcendence and faithfulness.