Process Theology As A Possibility For Promoting Interreligious Dialogue
A Paper By Kenneth Langer
This paper will explore the concept of Process Theology as developed by Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) and further refined by Charles Hartshorne (1897-2000) as a way to promote dialogue and interaction between different religions. This will be done through a brief introduction of the two pioneers of process thought, an explanation of the theory, a survey of the application of Process Theology in different religious traditions, a consideration of a possible atheistic approach to Process Theology, and a brief discussion on how Process Theology can be used as a means for interfaith dialogue.
Though elements of Process Theology have been observed in the writings of William James, John Dewey, Henry Bergson, and Martin Buber (just to name a few), it is the mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead who is often credited as the person who fully developed the idea. An agnostic for most of his life, the death of Whitehead’s sons and some of his students during World War I caused him to reevaluate his philosophical stance on God. The concepts at which he arrived were developed from his exploration and understanding of mathematics and physics–especially the theories of special and general relativity and quantum physics. [1]
Charles Hartshorne further refined the concept of Process Theology by describing the philosophy as panentheistic. He conceived God as both part of the world yet beyond the world and that both were interdependent upon each other. “God is seen by Hartshorne as the mind or soul for the whole body of the natural world... although he thinks of God as distinguishable from the creatures.” [2] The introduction of interactive dipolar boundaries of reality like God and the world became an important part of Process Theology. However, both Whitehead and Hartshorne focused less on defining these boundaries and emphasized that it was the interaction between seemingly opposite limitations that was more important. “For both Whitehead and Hartshorne, it is an essential attribute of God to be fully involved in and affected by temporal processes.” [3]
In Process Theology, God is not viewed as a separate and distinct being who stands in oppositional character to creation. In classical theology God is eternal, omniscient, and omnipotent–all qualities which are not possessed by humanity. This stark contrast creates clear boundaries between the maker and the made. Process Theology, however, claims that God and humanity are not clearly separated entities but are interconnected and interrelated ends of an ongoing and continuous evolution. This process is the divine nature of all reality itself; it is this drive for constant change that is eternal while everything else constantly changes. “Process theology describes the dynamic interplay of permanence and flux, evident in the universe and our own lives.” [4] Permanence and impermanence are but outer boundaries of a continuous reality. The permanent is a placeholder for the events within it but cannot itself exist without those events to define it much like a soap bubble is defined by the active air molecules within it and would cease to exist without their presence. “Just as novelty requires order to give meaning and stability to life, flux requires something permanent to provide a sense of confidence that our actions truly matter in the scheme of things.” [5]
God does not possess one half of the total reality by being one thing and not another. Rather, God is both permanent and, at the same time, the essence of the impermanence of all things; God is both the source and the substance of the world. For Whitehead and Hartshorne, God is “an actual entity. In God, the physical and mental poles are called the consequent nature and the primordial nature respectively.” [6] The primordial nature of God is goodness, beauty, and creativity while the consequent nature is the constantly changing shape and forms of the world. “The limitation of God is God's goodness. God does not cause all things, but creates in, through, and with all things. Divine power, accordingly, is relational rather than coercive in nature. God's power is the power of an ideal, a vision that lures each moment of experience toward what it can become in light of its environmental context.” [7]
It is the relational quality of God to the world that is most important to Process Theologians for it is in that relationship that meaning and purpose can be found. The two poles between divinity and humanity are less important than the interaction and continuum between the two–for they define each other. “Without some degree of continuity between God and the world, divine love, relationship, and activity in the world are meaningless and irrelevant. " [8]
Process Theologians describe God in terms of complementary opposites not to say that the divine is one and all else is the other because this takes away from God as the totality of all things. God is both the point of creation and the objective goal of all things. In Process Thought, God can be understood as both eternal and temporal, changeable and unchanging, and powerful yet able to experience the suffering of the world.
The essence of living beings is the string of continuously evolving experiences from one moment to the next. These experiences are the very thing that define life and create the connection between the world and God. Each experience is relational and it is the interaction of these relationships that defines them. Whitehead defined the initial interactions of people in the world as prehensions and the resulting interactions as conscrescence. Like the result created by smashing two subatomic particles, the energy from one event fans out in all directions to create even more interactions. With humanity, however, the direction and intent of these interactions are not random but are directed toward further outcomes and are influenced by God. This is the process of divine creativity. “Our lives emerge from a dynamic web of relationships in which each moment of experience arises from a creative synthesis or conscrescence of its prehension, or experiences of the world, and then contributes to the future of its immediate and ambient world.” [9]
Creativity is an important concept for Process Theology for it is both the prime purpose of God and the means by which God interacts with the world for “to have power in relation to others is to have power in relation to other entities with some degree of power.”[10]
Humans are creative because they come from God but it is through creativity that they interact with divinity. Life is a constant interaction between God and humanity so that each moment of experience is made anew. “Humans are part of a multi-leveled experiential universe, throbbing with emotion and creativity” [11] In this process God has an intention which is to promote good and beauty wherever possible and the world is the necessary means for realizing this intention; both are needed to coexist. “Process theology describes the soul as a stream of experiences, always creative and always connected with God's ongoing and intimate vision for each drop in the stream.” [12]
For Process Theologians the purpose of life is to understand the possibilities for beauty and wonder provided by God and to grow into those possibilities through the interactive process of creativity. The focus is on realizing and utilizing the total interconnectivity of all things including the divine. “The goal of life in an interdependent universe is to experience a widening, and not a dissolving, of self, such that the well-being of others and one's own well-being are intimately connected in the moment by moment and long-term process of self-actualization.” [13]
Both Whitehead (later in life) and Hartshorne were rooted in the Christian tradition but did not think that Process Theology was necessarily anchored to one religion. Whitehead considered Process Theology not as a defined and separate practice but part of the reality of the world. He viewed his philosophical theory more like a scientific discovery–true for all people regardless of spiritual practice or religious identification. “Process theology suggests that the creative quest for beauty of experience may be a higher value than obedience or adherence to tradition.” [14] With a slight shift in thinking from a fixed and separate God to an interactive and co-creative God, practitioners of the many different religions can adopt Process Thought.
Christianity
God, in Christian Process Theology, remains the supreme entity of the world but is not conceived as fixed and separate. Rather God is “the ultimate being who cannot be surpassed by any other being... God, as an actual entity, has the wisdom of the ages as it has been transformed through the passage of time. The future though has not arrived, neither for the universe, nor for God.” [15] God is the source of all that humanity can become and can change as humanity acts with this divine source. “Process people can say that God works generally toward greater complexity, harmony, intensity, and beauty in the world. How this applies specifically depends upon the world as well as God.” [16]
Jesus is the model of the perfect interaction of God. The status or divinity of Jesus is less important than is his model of compassion and his divine unfolding of God’s aims. Jesus “reveals the nature of God and God's vision for our lives and the world. In his teachings about the reign of God, his radical hospitality toward the lost and outcast, his transformation of tradition, and his healing touch, Jesus reveals God's aim at abundant life moving through all things.” [17]
It is through the life of Jesus and his interaction with God that humanity can see in human form the workings of God. Jesus reflects the divine through his life and work. “He conforms himself so thoroughly to the will of God that in and through his person and his actions, we see clearly what God is like. We learn through him that God’s will is toward love, compassion, justice, kindness. Because we trust that God’s character is revealed through Jesus’ life, we can trust God as well!” [18]
Similarly, the resurrection of Christ becomes in Process Theology, a symbol of the possibility of salvation. Sin is not viewed as a power that is left to corrupt the faithful. It is a choice made by people to go against the will of God but is also a choice that can be forgiven. In this way sin, too, is part of the process. “Resurrection reveals that sin does not have the last word, but God does. God is the power to answer our sins not by succumbing to them, but by transforming them.” [19]
Particular practices of Christianity such as prayer and worship are understood as ways to engage in the overall process of growth through God both individually and as a community. Prayer and worship “involves us in individual and corporate actions toward the communal good throughout our lives.” [20]
Judaism
Jews may also relate to the idea of a God-In-Process especially in the practice of Hassidic Kabbalah where “the cosmos is viewed as, to use analogy, the body of God.” [21]
One example of a Jewish Process Theologian is Abraham Heschel who wrote: “God does not reveal himself in an abstract absoluteness, but in a specific and unique way–in a personal and intimate revelation to the world. God does not simply command and expect obedience; He is also moved and affected by what happens in the world and he reacts accordingly.” [22] Heschel explains that God cares for humanity through what he calls the divine pathos and that humanity can have an authentic relationship through this pathos. In this way, humanity is in fellowship with God. He describes such a relationship as “a communion with the divine consciousness which comes about through the prophet's reflection of, or participation in, the divine pathos.” [23]
For contemporary Jews, Process Theology can help solve the problem of the living God. Too often God is discussed as historically significant but irrelevant for present times. “Central to the Jewish narrative is the notion of a Divine Being that enters into covenantal relationship with the Jewish people. Without a compelling way of talking about how the God so profoundly experienced by our biblical and Rabbinic ancestors is still active in our lives and in the world around us, our master story threatens to become little more than a nostalgic fairy tale.” [24] Process Theology is a path to an active relationship with God. “It can help enormously when it comes to those Jews who want to make sense of their lived experience in spiritual terms, and who seek a way to speak about God that doesn’t revert to outdated metaphors or irrelevant metaphysical claims.” [25]
Islam
Contemporary Muslims–especially in the West–can feel caught in a bind. “Many Muslims today are trapped between two realities: a rising tide of Islamophobia on the one hand, and a stagnant, overly rule-based version of Islam that curbs freedom of thought and creativity on the other. The Islam they know and love is not militant Islam nor is it the stagnant, legalistic version too often promulgated by conventional clerics.” [26]
Muhammed Iqbal of Pakistan (1877-1938) was an Islamic Process Theologian who has inspired modern Muslims to take a process view of their faith. Iqbal describes two ways to bring about what he calls a creative Islam: “One way invites Muslims to reclaim the idea that the purpose of Islam is to participate in eternal potentialities residing in the organic whole of Allah which lead to gentleness of soul and humane, sustainable community, with the earth understood as a ‘primordial mosque’. The other invites Muslims to respond to a call from the future, the call of Allah, as it beckons Muslims to realize their creative potential for adding beauty to the world, respectful of the dignity and ontological equality of each person and adding novelty to the world.” [27]
Buddhism
There are some qualities of Buddhist thought that relate well to Process Theology including “the rejection of substances and the notion of impermanence. These were explained by such central concepts as pratitya samutpada, which, for many Buddhists, has a quasi-metaphysical character. Although all of this, for Buddhists, subserves religious purposes, it is also deeply a part of the Buddhist worldview.”[28] Whitehead’s description of the arising of an experience in relation to other experiences is very similar to a Buddhist description of the world known as “dependent origination.” Such a term (Pratītyasamutpāda) can be understood as all phenomena (Dharma) arises within other phenomena.
Putting aside some Buddhist traditions such as Pure Land Buddhism which have devotional practices, Buddhism would seem to be at odds with the idea of a supreme being– a part of original Process Theology. The Whiteheadian view of God, however, is not similar to the God of classical theology and, when examined, is closer to a Buddhist conception of the universe. “For Whitehead, God is not a substance. Instead God is an instance, albeit the all-inclusive instance, of dependent origination. In Whitehead's full analysis, God originates not only from all the possibilities God mediates to the world but also from all the occasions that have ever occurred in the world. God depends on creatures. Creatures depend on God. God does not violate the basic Buddhist understanding.” [29]
Another important theological intersection with Buddhism is on the question of the afterlife. Though Whitehead is not completely clear on this question, his emphasis on experiences and events over entities suggest that the value of an event is experienced by God and lasts through time in God’s memory. Furthermore, the value of that event (or life) may continue on to influence the future or ongoing developmental process of the world. (Broniak) Many Buddhists understand death not to be final but a gateway to further enlightenment. Each life is a chance to gain greater awareness and to release all attachments. In both viewpoints, what we do in this life will affect the lives of ourselves and others into the future. “For Whitehead the soul is not an unnatural or supernatural entity, but rather (to repeat what was said above) a continuous stream of experiencing and responding to what is given for experience, slightly different at every moment. The soul does not stand outside the process of experiencing and responding as its owner or possessor; rather the soul is the process of experiencing, moment by moment. This parallels the Buddhist idea of an-atman: that is, the idea that, if we think of the self as separate from the process of experiencing, there is no self at all.” [30]
Taoism
With Taoism, the objective of spiritual engagement is to transform one’s self through nature and with the recognition of the oneness of the Tao. Though the Tao is impersonal, Taoist/Buddhist philosopher Wim Van Den Dungen believes that the personal God of Process Theology can be integrated into Taoist thought and practiced in a way that balances both traditions “by ‘preserving the One’, experiencing the ‘God of process’ next to meditation and Chi-circulation, prayer & mystic experience enter as the third pole of spiritual life.” [31] With this integration the Tao is the all-in-one like Whitehead’s God but becomes more personal and relational. The Tao becomes known “not merely as [a] life-force "driven" by intent as an objective series of (generative, vital & spiritual) powers.” [32] Instead, it becomes capable of engaging in an intersubjective dialogue.
Hinduism
In Vedanta Hinduism, the ultimate reality of the universe is labeled Brahman though this cannot be equated with the Western concept of God. Hindus of this tradition say that God is part of Brahman because Brahman is the formed and the formless. It is within the concept of Brahman that Hindus can also find the creative interchange between humanity and God. “Brahman–contains within itself a formless aspect, corresponding to the process concept of creativity, but that Brahman also possesses an aspect with form, corresponding to the universe of actual entities.” [33] It is within the boundless and limitless possibilities of Brahman that the process God of creativity may be found. Such a God is “the pre-eminent exemplar of the principle of creativity underlying all beings, the one who makes creativity available to the other beings that make up the universe–the reality that mediates between the realms of form and formlessness.” [34] Thus, the actualization of being, consciousness, and bliss (sat, chit, ananda) is the process of creativity between the world and the divine in all its forms.
Nontheistic
“Process thought works very easily with religions that have something besides God as their ultimate reality, i.e., the Tao of Taoism or the Buddhist concept of Sunyata (which is best translated as “boundless openness”) or “Heaven” in Confucianism or Brahman in more devotional strands of Hinduism. It’s an astonishingly hospitable worldview, which will definitely disappoint those who are out to prove that their version of God is the only workable answer to our biggest questions.” [35]
The core of Process Theology is the focus on events or activities that are interactive within the world and that are based on previous events but are themselves novel. This is what Process Thinkers call creative synthesis. With theistic frameworks of Process Theology it is assumed that there must be some type of backdrop of direction and influence upon which all this creativity takes place. “In process terms, the simplest definition for something like God would be: the ultimate, all-interactive activity, i.e., the activity in direct interaction with all other activities.” [36]
Non-theists and naturalists might disagree with this assumption and ask if even such a backdrop is necessary. It is possible that the processes of the universe are all natural without the need for an outside force. New discoveries in science such as complexity theory and chaos theory lend credence to the idea that the universe may have developed independently and operates just fine on its own. The idea of a grand master of the universe may be comforting and can, for some, add a needed personal relationship to the cosmos but might not be necessary in reality. “After all, if nature is already chock-full of different degrees of originality, there’s no need to invoke an ‘outside’ creator or designer to explain any of the complexity we find in nature.” [37]
The difference may just be a matter of semantics. The God of Process Theology is less a separate controlling being and more of a directional and integrated initiator for the activity of the world, the ‘all-interactive activity.’ In contrast, the naturalistic process thinker will appreciate the wonder and beauty of the creative interactions of the world without giving it a separate name. What one might simply call a beautiful and creative process, another might call God. What might remain is only a label that works for some but not others. “God can simply be the word and symbol we use to describe the wonder we experience from the natural world.” [38]
But there is a quality to the use of the word ‘God’ that may be absent without its use–at least for some. The idea that God is the ultimate interactive activity provides the image of a personal connection to that source of all events. This anthropomorphising of nature can be comforting and supportive and can make the interaction between humanity and nature feel more personal. In the words of one process theologian, Process Thought offers “an ultimate, all-interactive activity [that] does interact with me, and not just with me but with all the activities, at every level, that combine to make me who I am. I make a real difference to that activity, and that activity makes a real difference to me, all the time. It somehow matters in the grand scheme of things that I exist.” [39]
Process Theology and Thought provides a strong framework for interfaith dialogue because its view of the world and divinity can be applied within different religious traditions. It also works well with religious practices that are not deity-centered. The basic principles of Process Theology are “open to a variety of interpretations—religious, secular, theistic (of a very peculiar sort!), naturalist, etc. ... part of the appeal of process thought is the extent to which it reframes the very terms on which we debate such fundamental issues.” [40]
In order to understand how this works it may be helpful to filter down the claims made in Process Theology to a few basic principles. In Process Theology:
All things are events or are properties of those events.
All events are inter-related and interactive.
All events are novel which makes all interactions creative.
All creativity is directed toward harmony. [41]
The first and second directive indicate that the only reality of the universe are interconnected events. As American theoretical physicist Lee Smolin sees it “the fundamental ingredient is what we call an ‘event.’ Events are things that happen at a single place and time; at each event there’s some momentum, energy, charge or other various physical quantity that’s measurable. The event has relations with the rest of the universe, and that set of relations constitutes its ‘view’ of the universe. Rather than describing an isolated system in terms of things that are measured from the outside, we’re taking the universe as constituted of relations among events.” [42]
The concept that all events happen along the arrow of time results in the fact that all events are unique in each moment. Heraclitus is reported to have said that no one ever steps in the river twice for it is never the same river and never the same person crossing it. This encapsulates the concept of Process Thought well. Though we may perceive an event as repeating (such as the sun rising or the drive to work), in reality no event ever repeats in exactly the same way or within the exact same circumstances. Because humanity has the ability to make choices means that each event in time is part of a creative process that takes place at all levels of existence: individually, socially, and cosmically and, more importantly, collectively. All events influence all other events and all other event initiators in some manner.
Finally, Process Thinkers do not accept the idea that all events are purely random and have no attraction to an ultimate goal. Just as gravity creates a well in the fabric of space-time which attracts to it all local bodies of mass, so the events of time through creativity are directed toward an ultimate goal. “This creative becoming is from the inside aimed at the realization of esthetic value or harmony. This beauty is the result of multiple adaptations of multiple elements to each other. Harmony is the result of this multiplicity brought under unity.” [43]
Whether the attractor toward harmony is labeled “God” or the “wonder of nature” is less important than the idea that it exists in relation to the world to give the process of creativity an ultimate aim. That ultimate reality, whether it is called God or nature, “is the primordial, but not exclusive manifestation of this Creativity, whose decision to love the world and lure it toward various forms of goodness, truth, and beauty form the encompassing background for the unfolding of continuous creativity.” [44]
In a paper concerning interfaith dialogue, Michael Atkinson lists three ingredients necessary to construct a framework for dialogue between members of different religions:
A recognition of differences,
The need to learn across differences, and
The desire to encourage transformation. [45]
I believe that Process Theology allows for an additional ingredient that may be more difficult without the overarching foundation Process Thought provides which is a recognition of similarities. Because Process Thinkers will already recognize differences by understanding similarities, I have altered the framework:
A recognition of similarities,
A desire to learn across differences, and
A desire to encourage transformation.
A Recognition of Similarities
The basic principles of Process Theology will, of course, provide similarities among religious thinkers of different traditions who accept them. There are, however, some additional concepts that different religious leaders should embrace in order to enact interfaith dialogue. Those include an appreciation of diversity, an acceptance of both the discoveries of science and the presence of mystery, and a “horizontal” notion of God.
Process Thinkers can accept that a variety of theological perspectives in the world is not a detriment to humanity. Since the world is in the midst of a continuous creative process, it only makes sense that different ways to understand the divine relationship to the world will develop. Creativity requires a great range of ideas and resources rather than a single viewpoint. “There’s no essential reason why there should be only one form of human community—to the contrary, all the evidence suggests that God rather delights in diversity.” [46]
Process Thinkers can also accept that part of the creative process of humanity towards harmony includes learning and discovering new things about the universe through the many branches of science but can also balance that quest for understanding with the realization that the universal process is so massive in scale that not everything may be understandable. This requires an embrace of both of the known and the unknown–the discovered and the mystery. We are on the inside trying to look out to see what is beyond our own confinement but our sight is limited.
Process Thinkers also need to embrace an expansive vision of God in order to promote interreligious dialogue. Too often religious leaders think of God in a transcendent or vertical fashion; God is above the world, God controls the world, God creates the world. Process Theology prefers to consider the horizontal aspects of God as a co-creator rather than a celestial CEO. In this fashion, different views of divinity (or non-divinity) are not obstacles to dialogue. “The process view of the horizontal sacred can be experienced without any reference to the vertical sacred, as is the case with nontheistic or non-monotheistic religions, such as Buddhism.” [47] This more immanent view of divinity allows God to exist in several communities at once.
A Recognition of Differences
Process Theologians and their traditions will, of course, have several differences between them but it is important to embrace these differences as well as the similarities. The first step in doing so may be in accepting the idea that no religious tradition is infallible or perfect; all are part of a process of creative growth. A deferential attitude of respect “can contribute to dialogue by removing any tendency to view one’s own tradition as pure and perfect, with the problems lying only in the others.” [48]
It is not necessary to try and create a single religion of Processology simply because Process Thought welcomes and welcomes and celebrates a diversity of thought and practice. Furthermore, it accepts that variations in thought and action are part of the universal process. “Process theology allows one to view the world’s religions as different, but complementary. This view accepts the rich and vast differences in beliefs that characterize many of our interreligious interactions.” [49]
It is through an exploration of differences–not just a melding of similarities–that a deep dialogue can take place. “Seeking difference, rather than similarity and learning from such difference also presents as an unknown journey; but one of rich possibility. The work of people such as Clooney, Knitter and Sharma informs us that a possible pathway to God lies in neither opposing or agreeing with otherness but rather creating a space of reflection around the doubt.” [50]
Transformation
Process Theology can help to work toward the improvement of the condition of humanity by its belief in the ability and responsibility of people to make choices. Humanity and God (or nature) are interactive. Though God provides a goal toward the general aim of harmony, humanity must consciously make decisions and take action toward that goal. Michael Atkinson describes transformation through religious dialogue as “the enablement of people to initiate a process of mutual action, critical consciousness, and shared humanity for the purpose of positive human change.” [51] Such a transformation for Process Thinkers can be directed toward many of the world’s challenges. A theology that does not consider Earth as just a gift from God but as the home for interactive creativity also understands that humanity is responsible for its actions upon Earth and may suffer the consequences of inaction. A theology that values all people as unique and important to the vast fabric of humanity will understand the necessity to work toward social well-being as well as peace and justice.
As just one example, John Cobb writes of the intersection of Process Theology with Liberation Theology: “Process theologians can hardly read the writings of liberation theologians without being pleased to see that many of their emphases are highly congenial. They struggle against static views of authority, of the church, and of God. And the direction their thought moves on these topics seems to be parallel to ours. On many topics we see them as companions and allies. Similarly, with respect to the concern for freedom, it seems to us that what they say is right. [52]
Many Process Thinkers may also agree with Unitarian-Universalist theologian Gary Kowalski when he says “I like process thought because it offers hope to the human spirit and encourages us to take responsibility for our lives—for as each of us shapes the world, we also add to the life of God.” [53]
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