what is process theology

8/6/2019 What is Process Theology

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What IsPROCESS

Theology?

A Conversation with

Marjorie

By Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki


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Process & Faith 2003


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What isProcess

Theology?

1. In a nutshell, what did yousay it is?

Well, some nuts are hard to crack, buttry this: Process theologies are relationalways o thinking about the dynamismo lie and aith. Process-relationaltheologians integrate implications o athoroughly interdependent universe into

how we live and express our aith. We areconvinced that everything is dynamicallyinterconnected; that everything matters; that everything has aneect. Such insights can be adapted to many aith traditions, but thisparticular booklet applies them to Christian aith.

2. Is there a dierence between process

theology and process-relational theology?No, I am using the terms interchangeably.Process indicates thedynamism in this way o thinking, and relational indicates thesupposition o radical interdependence.

3. What sources do process (or process-relational) theologians use?

Like many Christian theologians, we draw rom Scripture, the longaith tradition, philosophical categories, and our own experience.The philosophical categories we use are those o process philosophy,especially as developed by Alred North Whitehead and CharlesHartshorne. But I caution you to notice (should you decide to


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investigate urther!) that these sources and categories can be usedby process-relational theologians in a great variety o ways!

You will nd that within Christianity, process philosophy has

appealed most to liberals, but there are also evangelicals whond it useul. Some Unitarians use process philosophy withoutappropriating much rom Christian scripture or tradition.Further, Jewish and Buddhist thinkers have made use o processphilosophy, operating with quite dierent scriptures and traditions.My answers here refect my personal experience as a committedoldline Protestant who nds rich meaning in the armations and

symbolism o the Christian tradition, but sees the need or quiteradical revision o some inherited teachings. Thus this bookletpresents a Christian process theology that makes the most senseto me, but you will nd some o these other ways o developingprocess theology in the attached bibliography.

4. But arent Scripture and tradition clear

enough to stand on their own?

To study the history o any aith tradition is to see how that aithadapts to the common sense o its particular time and place.Tradition is like a fowing river that continuously carves out newpaths. Once I saw a detailed map that showed how the MississippiRiver had continuously changed its course throughout its history.

It still goes down to the sea, but how it goes down to the seais a varied story. Its the same with tradition. It all leads to theexpression o Gods work with us, but how it expresses that workvaries rom age to age. I we stare at a single spot in tradition,and see it as i it were the entirety o it, we get the illusion thattradition stands still. Its tempting to reduce the whole traditionto what happened at Nicea in the 4th century, or with Aquinas in

the 13th century, or Luther in the 16th, or Wesley in the 18th. Butthe tradition is much richer than any single period! It is constantlymoving, and we who are a part o that tradition are responsibleor knowing how it has developed, and or contributing to itscontemporary fow.


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The same is true o biblical understanding. The texts are given,but how they are interpreted varies enormously rom age to age.Just think o the way several great streams o Christianity interpretthose baptismal texts! The texts are the same; the interpretations

are quite varied and even contradictory. So how we draw romScripture is also an adventure. Scriptural understanding blendsstudies o the actual texts together with the history o the way thosetexts have been interpreted in the tradition. Scripture maylooklikea steady state sort o thing, but it is actually a dynamic story ovarying interpretations and applications through history.

Both Scripture and tradition are ormative or the Christiantradition, deeply contributing to the changing shapes o Christiantheology. But in using Scripture and tradition, we all use othercategories to help us interpret themeven when we think we arenot! Process-relational theologians join those who claim we shouldbe clear about how experience and philosophical suppositionsaect the way we interpret Scripture and tradition.

5. But doesnt that dilute Scripture and thetradition?

Philosophy (the methodical use o reason to interpret the worldand/or our experience within it) has always been involved ininterpreting Scripture and creating the tradition. Its not a question

owhetherphilosophy will be used, but which philosophy will beused! Process people think that Scripture speaks deeply about arelational world to whom and with whom God also relates. So whynot use a philosophy that is relationallike process philosophy?

6. And experience, please?

Theology is always ltered through ones own experience! Oneo the great dierences in theology since the 19th century is thatwe increasingly began to recognize the role o our own subjectiveexperience in how we develop theology. On the one hand, wealways bring a perspective that is shaped by things such as oursocial location, our gender, our nationality, and so orth. But we


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also bring our religious experiences into the mixthat is, ourinterpretation o the presence o God in our own lives. To ignorethis experience is to pretend that theology is just some head tripthat may or may not relate to the way we live.

So, then: scripture, tradition, reason, and experience all enterinto the way process-relational theology is ormed. It becomes thestu rom which we express our aith that God is with us or ourgood.

7. So you use these our sources, but what

exactly is process philosophy?Process is a relational philosophy. There have been variousrelational ways o talking about the world since way back when,but most philosophers talked as i the ideal thing should besomething solid that doesnt depend on anything beyond itsel.To be in relation was considered a lesser value than total sel-

suciency. In the 20th

century we began to see that the ability torelate to another wasnt just a happenstance o the way things are,but is the core o the way things are. To exist is to be in relation.Does God exist? I you say yes, then God must also be in relation.To whom? To everyone and everything!

The philosophy takes relationship a little bit urther. Process

thinking says that to be related to something is to be internallyaected by that something, and to aect something else in turn.Relationship is itsel a dynamic process! To exist is to be aected byothers, and to have an eect on others. Again, does God exist? Iyou answer yes, then God is aected by others, and has eects onothers. Which others? All others!

Alred North Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne are the twomajor philosophers o the 20th century who most ully developedthis kind o philosophy. Process theologies usually draw rom eitheror both o these philosophers.


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8. So what does this mean or the way process-relational theologians talk about God? IsGod still the Creator?

O course! But as you might expect, how we talk about God ascreator in relational categories diers rom the creation out onothing that has been so dominant in most o the Christiantradition. I God is in relation, then God is always in relation.Process does not have a way to talk about there being absolutelynothing except God. Process-relational thinkers tend to take Genesis1 more seriously than does the tradition, or Genesis 1:1 does not

speak o God existing independently and apart rom anything else.In Genesis, there appears to be a primeval chaos with which Godworks, and rom which God brings ordercreationinto existence.

In the relational categories o process thought, God creates withthe world. We actually think this is a much stronger way toexpress Gods power. A childrens able once told about a rivalry

between the wind and the sun. Which one would be able toremove the coat o that man down there on the road? The windthought that it could, and so it blew and blew and blew withgreat orce. Unortunately, the strength o the wind was such thatthe man just drew his coat more rmly around himsel. Then itwas the suns turn. The sun just beamed its rays down upon theman until nally he grew quite warmand removed his coat. In

process terms, the wind worked coercively, trying to orce its willupon the man, but the sun worked persuasively, luring the manscooperative action. To be able to elicit the willing cooperation oanother is a ar greater power than simply to orce the other to doas one wishes.

God creates through persuasive power. Dont we experience it that

way? We dont see God yanking things and people around as i theywere puppets! The tradition accounts or this by saying that Godgave people reedom. Process people think that reedom isnt anoccasional thing limited to just some aspects o creation, but thatsomething like reedom pervades all existence. Every part o Godscreation has some element o reedom. What we call reedom


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ranges rom very low levels o indeterminately random events tovery high levels o conscious decision-making. And there are manygrades in between. God works with each element in existence, inevery time and place, oering possibilities or achieving the good.

Finally, the world determines what it does with Gods possibilitiesin every moment. Freedom means the ability to participate at somelevel in what one becomes.

I we take reedom seriously, then we must talk about three powerso creation. There is the power o the past, which simply meansthat where we are and when we are makes a dierence to who

we can become. We must take account o these past infuences,because we simply do not exist in a vacuum. We exist relationally.In a sense, we take the creative infuences o the past into ourselvesin every moment.

But we also take the creative power o God into ourselves at everymoment. In this second creative power, God oers us a uture, a

way o becoming onesel that is not quite like any other way everachieved beore. Gods creativity is the power o transormation,o hope, o a new uture. Gods infuence toward the uture takesaccount o the past that aects us, oering a way o dealing withthat past.

And the third creative power, o course, is ourselves. Finally, we

decide what we will become. We are responsible or dealing withthe actual past received rom the world and the possible uturereceived rom God. The world as we know it is, in every moment,the end result o this creative process: the power o the past, whichis the power o the world; the power o the uture, which is thepower o God, and the power o the present, which is our ownpower to integrate these infuences into who we are becoming in

every moment. Our reedom is to take these three creative powersand to use them. The choice o how we use them is ours.

So yes, God is by all means Creator, calling the world intoexistence in every moment. But God creates with the world, notindependently o the world. The world enters into something like


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a creative dance with God, emerging anew in every moment as ittakes its past and Gods uture into its becoming sel.

9. Well, what about evil? Doesnt evil ruin this

notion o a creative dance?Your question comes too quickly! What isevil? Is it the same aswhat we call sin? Traditionally, evil has been understood to be thedestructiveness that seems to be built into the nature o things.Volcanoes, earthquakes, and hurricanes are not evil in themselves,but they certainly can have evil eectsnatural evilor living

creatures! Illness and death have also been called natural evils.All living creatures are by denition mortal; hence all will die. Isthis what you mean by evil? In a process universe, every creaturelybecoming takes place in a myriad o other creaturely becomings.There is necessarily a measure o confict built into the system,particularly given our interdependence. For process thinkers, thisis all part o the dynamism that makes existence on our planet

possible. Thus, the act that sentient creatures experience pain ispart o the price o our existence.

Sin, on the other hand, has been understood as moral evil, or choicesthat go against Gods willmissing the mark is a requent biblicalmeaning or sin. The Christian tradition has oten combined thesetwo senses o natural and moral evil by suggesting that sin is the

originating cause o all evil, including natural evils o calamity,illness, and death. While process theologians tend to agree with themissing the mark interpretation o moral evil, they disagree withthe claim that moral evil is the reason why we have natural evils.

10. Do you mean that process theologians donthold with Adam and Eve?

Ah, Adam and Eve. A quick summation o the tradition might behelpul here to highlight some o the dierences between processtheologies and the long tradition o original sin. For much oChristian history, all sin and evil was traced to the disobedience oa rst human pair. Their disobedience resulted in a corruption o


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their very nature. Prior to this ailure, Adam and Eve presumablylived rationally, so that their minds always governed what theyelt and did. What they elt and did was always orderly and goodin a perect love or God, and love or the world in and through

God. Following disobedience, this orderliness was overturned,and proper love lost. Consequently, Adam and all his progeny areaficted with unruliness. The mind no longer governs the bodyrationally, and all manner o evils ollow.

But process cannot ollow this view. All the evidence suggests thathumans are part o a great evolutionary process, and that God

creates in and through this process. Creative transormation isanother name or changes that emerge in evolution. Instead otalking about a perect rst human pair existing about 6000 yearsago, we talk about the long evolutionary history o our race, andthe role that aggression and violence have necessarily played inour developmentsometimes or our good, sometimes not. Butas relatively weak creatures on the animal scene, it was important

or us to live by our wits, and to struggle or our ood and shelter.The ability to ght was important to our survival, and we useditand still use itto shore up our deenses and build up our owninterests. The capacity to do this takes many orms. In positiveorms, we blend our own interests with the interests o the widercommunities within the world. In negative orms, we secure ourown interests against all othersgreed and rapaciousness are

illustrations o this. Process-relational thinkers arm that God callsus beyond violence toward communities o well-being.

Another dierence between process and traditional views concernsthe role o reason. Like the tradition, process thinkers value reasonhighly, but not in the same hierarchical order. Reason is part o themind-body integration o what it is to be human. Reason is valued

as part o the whole o who we are. What threatens to overwhelmus is not our bodies or emotionsthey are who we are!butour tendencies toward the many orms o violence. The traditionsought to control bodily urges and desires; process thinkers seek tocontrol the human capacity or violence.


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What, then, is sin in process views? It is, as the tradition claimed,missing the mark. And what is the mark? The mark wouldbe the ullest development o what we can be, individually andcommunally, in expanding circles o caring to God, sel, and

neighbor. To talk about sin is to talk about the reusal o loverom and to God and rom and to neighbor and even rom andto onesel. Still another way o talking about sin is to say it isunnecessary violence.

In a process view, one must talk about communal as wellas individual sin. We live interdependently, and we act

interdependently. Individual sins are magnied when exercisedthrough our communal identities, creating great evils through suchthings as oppressive systems o exploitation, wars o aggression,economic systems based upon greed, or systematic decimation oour environment or the sake o prot.

Because we believe God is always calling us toward the good,

we believe that God calls us toward transormation rom violentways o imposing our wills on other creatures toward ever-newcooperative ways o creating good on this earth. When we ailto heed Gods call, we ail to contribute as best we can to thecommonwealth o all. This ailure is sin. Sinwhether personalor societalhas ill eects that spiral beyond its origins in thisinterdependent world.

11. But you said God is related to the world.How does God relate to sin? Is this wheretraditional notions o justifcation by aithcome in?

Process thinking holds that God is the most relational reality o

all. I God relates to all the world, then human choices to damageothersbe it humans, animals, or the environmentare elt byGod. God eels everything that happens in just the way that ithappensGod eels victims and violators. Our long traditionthought o God as observing evil, but not eeling itindeed mucho the tradition thought that God could not eel anything at all!


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This was what the doctrine o divine impassibility was all about.But i God is relational, then God eels, and eels perectly. Theissue is not whether God eels the world, but what God does withGods eelings o the world!

Think o the traditional Christian image o the crucixion o JesusChrist. One part o the Christian tradition could not imagine thatGod could experience pain; thereore, it ormulated theories oGods abandonment o Jesus on that cross. The cross then becameGods wrath, poured down on the God-orsaken Jesus because hewas bearing the sin o the world. Thus there is a strong element o

the Christian tradition that views Jesus death as suering infictedby God on the God-Man Jesus instead o us as punishment orour sin. Justication by aith was taken to mean Gods actionthrough Jesus o clearing the slate o sin or all who were united toJesus through aith. Our sins were transerred to him, and thereorewould no longer be counted against us.

Process-relational thinking need not go in this direction, or severalreasons. First, we cannot separate Gods presence to the world evenor a moment, much less or three hours on a cross. God was withJesus on that cross. Second, to the extent that process-relationaltheologians view unnecessary violence as sin, violence cannot bethat which saves us rom sin! To attribute such action to God islike taking the most vile aspect o our own vengeul spite, and

projecting it onto God.

How, then, do process-relational thinkers view that crucixion?The Christian tradition is a many-splendored thing, and whileviewing the cross as God punishing Jesus or our sins has achievedsome dominance, it is by no means the only Christian response tothe cross o Christ. Abelard, living in the twelth century, argued

that God saves us by revealing through Jesus Christ both Godsnature and that which human nature is called to be. This revelationis healing and empowering or us, and Christ becomes our teacher.Process thinkers tend to side with Abelard. Jesus reveals who Godis to us and or us. The cross does not represent vicarious sacrice,but the revelation that God is with us even in our deepest pain.


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God eels us. Jesus did indeed suer the pain o sincrucixionis a vile sin. Because it is morally evil to cruciy persons, Jesus diedbecauseo sin. But this is dierent rom saying that Jesus diedorsin. Jesus reveals that the sins o all humans aect God. I God

eels the world, then God eels the sins o the world. I Jesus isunderstood to be a representative o God, then by his crucixionhe reveals that God eels the eects o our sin.

12. So does the process God simply writhe inagony throughout eternity?

While God must eel the world, what God does with the eltworld is entirely up to God! Because o the philosophy weuse, we relational theologians can maintain that God judgesevil within Gods own nature, and transorms evil throughthis judgment. God integrates the eelings o the world intoGods own sel, transorming those eelings in the process untilthey are conormed to the divine character. I the Christian

tradition speaks o God in crucixion, it does not stop thereitspeaks o resurrection. Process theologians think o God as theresurrection in a variety o ways, the most important o which isthe creative transormation that God works or the world withinthe divine nature. Some process thinkers understand this to bethe resurrection o the world into God or a judgment that saves,arguing urther that this internal transormation within God

has an eect on what creative transormations are yet possiblewithin history. Other process thinkers argue that while Godeels the world, what can be called resurrectionor creativetransormationhappens or the world not in God, but only inhistory.

13. Is this how you deal with resurrection? What

do you process-relational theologians thinkabout Easter? Was there an empty tomb?

I we take the lie, death, and resurrection o Jesus to be arevelation o God or us, then the resurrection is a vital part othis revelation. Resurrection reveals that sin does not have the last


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word, but God does. God is the power to answer our sins not bysuccumbing to them, but by transorming them.

Because I see resurrections all the time, and experience them within

my own lie, I can talk about resurrection condently. I you pushme to say that all the molecules in Jesus body were summonedtogether and the processes o death reversed and Jesus just got upout o that grave and went through a ew walls and thats whatresurrection is all about, I think youre missing the point. I cant tellyou howGod raised Jesus within history. I, like most theologiansprocess or notam convinced that resurrection is something

utterly dierent rom resuscitation. Resurrection cannot be reducedto molecules reviviying! Resurrection is the power o God toovercome evil, to bring hope to otherwise hopeless situations, tomake creative transormation possible no matter what. Womanisttheologians say that God makes a way out o no way, and this iswhat I think resurrection is all about. The resurrection o Jesus islike a great shout telling us that no evil is greater than God, or can

overcome Gods power o resurrection. Because o this revelationhowever God brings it aboutwe know we can trust God nomatter how bleak situations may seem. God is there, oering usa uture that can change historywhether our own or the wholeworldstoward the good. Resurrection tells us that hope isgrounded in the reality o God.

14. So then, or process-relational theologiansthe importance o Jesus is his revelation othe nature o God? We hate to ask, but howcould Jesus have given such a revelation?Dont you see him as just another man?

One at a time, please! For process olks, Jesus represents God or

us, because we see him consistently responding positively to Godsmoment by moment call to him. That call is that he live as Godwould have him live in each and every situation. He conormshimsel so thoroughly to the will o God that in and through hisperson and his actions, we see clearly what God is like. We learnthrough him that Gods will is toward love, compassion, justice,


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kindness. Because we trust that Gods character is revealed throughJesus lie, we can trust God as well!

As or how he could reveal God, the dynamics are the same

dynamics operative in every aspect o creation: the power othe given past, the power o Gods call toward a possible uture,and the power o subjectively integrating the two. We presumethat God used the power o Jesus Jewish past to oer him thepossibility o living according to the love o God in every moment.So ar as we know rom the record, Jesus responded reely andpositively to the call o God. He lived Gods love, and thus

revealed God. This was not a supernatural revelation, but arevelation through the natural processes o existence.

It is possible that i it hadnt been or the crucixion andresurrection, Jesus would have been viewed as another greatteacher, or even have been absorbed into the anonymity o history.But he suered the cruel violence o political torture, which was

ollowed by the amazing stories o his resurrection appearances.All o the gospels are written becauseo these resurrectionappearances, so that Jesus lie and death are seen through thelens o the resurrection. The resurrection is the vindication o theway he revealed Godin his lie andin his death. This revelationbecomes the ground o our aith that God is the power o creativetransormation in history.

15. Hmmm . . . now youre too much oan optimist. Look around you! Read thenewspaper! How can you possibly say thatGod is a power or creative transormationin our world? Pretty hopeless hope, judgingrom todays news.

And thats where youre plumb wrong! Remember, the God oall the universe works with the world, not on the world. Godalwaysoers possibilities or a good that the world can bear. Thatqualier, that the world can bear, is not a disclaimer, just awitness to the threeold power o creation mentioned above: the


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power o the past world, the power o the uture rom God, andthe power o the present, which is our own integration o thesepowers into ourselves. I I am being hit over the head with a leadpipe, the only possibilities or my good that are suited to me have

to do with how I respond to the blow. The physiological responsewill be largely determined by the blow itsel, but even there, we cancount on infuences toward healing throughout our bodies i theblow isnt lethal. Beyond this, God oers me emotional and socialresponses that will work to my own and to the communal good.I need not get twisted into hatred or bitterness or vengeulness.I the blow is lethal, my earthly lie will be overbut God is the

power o resurrection. I will experience the resurrection lie in God.

But your objection had more to do with social and politicalrealities, not simply an individual experience. Again, Godworks with us all toward the communal good. We are called toresponsiveness to God, to care or the common good. God workswith us, and calls upon us to use all our collective wisdom and

power in cooperative response.

16. You said God works with us toward ourindividual and communal good. Does Godhave a plan or our lives?

Id have to say that the plan is in process! Because God works with

the world, Gods plans are necessarily responsive to the world.Process people can say that God works generally toward greatercomplexity, harmony, intensity, and beauty in the world. How thisapplies specically depends upon the world as well as God. Letme give you an example: years ago I was aced with a vocationaldilemma. I was perectly happy teaching at a seminary, directingits Doctor o Ministry program, and teaching many students. As

it happened, one aternoon as I was teaching a class o ministers,I received a phone call: another seminary was asking me to beits dean. I hadnt sought this other jobit had sought me!What to do? I told the class, and immediately one o them put achair in the middle o the circle, and told me to sit down. Thenthese pastors gathered round me, touching me, praying or me.


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Following their prayers, one said, Marjorie, you cant make awrong decision. I knew at once what he meant. Because o theaithul presence o God, both options were real possibilities. I Ichose to stay at the one school, God would work with me to bring

about the best possibilities in those circumstances. But i I choseto leave, the same was true: God would work with me in thosecircumstances as well! Was one better than the other? Probably.But i I made a mistake in choosing, God would nonethelesswork with me toward my own and others good! I could count onit! Gods plan or my lie, then, was not in the go here, do this,do that, but in the overall direction o increasing my openness

to God and to others, and acting with the best wisdom I couldmuster. In the process, I could trust God. Whatever the decision,there was no need to look back, or to second guess. Gods planor my lie is that I become more Christ-like: more deeply loving,more widely caring about lie in community, more intentionaltoward the good in all my acts. And this plan can work in allmanner o circumstances.

Our Christian understanding o the way God works both generallyand specically in our lives is grounded in the revelation o Godthat we see in Jesus Christ.

17. You keep talking about the communalgood. Some o what youre saying sounds

pretty individualistic to me. Is the churchsimply a gathering o individuals, each owhom cares about the common good?

The church is much more than that! Process thinking gives adynamic way o taking seriously such images as being one inChrist, and I am the vine, you are the branches.

We live in an interconnected world, where we are continuouslyreceiving the infuences o others, integrating these infuences intoour continuous becoming. The church is created as we receivethe infuence o the revelation o God in Christ into who we are,weaving it into our very beings. We are literally being ormed in


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and through the infuence o God as mediated through Christ.But i this is so or each, it is so or all. This means that there is aunique sharing o identity among us Christians, binding us intothe community o Christ. We are members o one another, being

many and one at the same time.

There is an important ramication to this continuous emergenceo the church as the community o Christ. Remember, to be is tohave an eect. Each individual infuences what other individualsmay become. This power o infuence is exponentially multipliedthrough the interweaving o individuals that continuously creates

community. Its sort o like the old image o the dierence betweena single straw and a broom when it comes to sweeping foors!Woven together into community, governed by the vision o Godmediated through Christ, the church can be a more powerul orceor good in the world than any single person could be.

A peculiar thing about a community o aith is that it unites people

who might otherwise not come together. It usually takes us beyondour togetherness with people close to us, like amily and riends,and unites us with all sorts o others. This becomes a provingground or learning to care or others beyond our own circle,expanding the edges o that circle. This openness to one anothersgood, and to the common good beyond even our own community,is also openness to God.

18. So which came frst, the individual or thecommunity?

Can you accept a both/and answer? No individual is born ina vacuum; each person is born into a ready-made community,whether it be toward the good or toward the ill. That community

shapes the childs becoming sense o him or hersel. But thegrowing child is increasingly responsible to some degree or whathe or she does with the infuence o the community. We recognizethis in the church through inant baptism, ormally taking thechild into the shaping infuence o the community called church.But that growing childor adult, in cases o adult baptism


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also shapes the continuing community. In an interconnecteddynamic world, one cannot so easily separate out individualand community so as to decide which came rst! It is alwaysan interwoven relationship, so that we best speak o people as

individuals-in-community.

19. All right, youve talked about how process-relational people thinkbut what aboutthings like prayer, and worship, and stulike that?

In a process-relational world, prayer is more important than ever.I God works with the world, then prayers are part o what Godworks with. And think about it. Prayer actually changes the waythe world is, and thereore changes what can happen. In the mostsimplistic o terms, i you are praying, you arent notpraying! Yourpraying is an openness to Gods own desires, and this opening issomething God can work with. Prayers arent some magic-lantern

sort o thing, or some pretty-pleasing that we present to God.Prayers have a very pragmatic unction: they make a dierence tothe kinds o empowering calls that God gives to us and to others.

As or worshipthis is both communal and personal.Communally, its a joining o people together through Christin openness to God and one another. Through this shared

openness, our shared oering o ourselves in praise to God, webecome woven into one anothers welare. This weaving isnt justa present thingto the contrary, the liturgies that many churchesuse in worship also unite us to generations who preceded us.These prayers were their prayers; these readings were theirreadings; these hymns were their hymns. We are united with thecompany o the saints in our worship! And we today, adding

our praise and prayer in new as well as in old ways, join thatcompany o the saints or tomorrows Christians. We anticipatethe uture, even as we remember the past! So worship plays apeculiar role in uniting the church-past and church-uture in theworshiping congregation o the present.


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In worship we also cultivate openness to God in love or God andneighborhuman and otherwise!in all our living. Thus theworship o God involves us increasingly in actions that bring aboutwell-being on this earth. No one person can do everythingbut

every single person can do something, and together we can domore than we can individually. So the worship o God involvesnot only our corporate actions on designated days o worship,but it involves us in individual and corporate actions toward thecommunal good throughout our lives. Worship, then, pervades ourtimes.

20. You keep talking about community, and thecommunal good, in the context o Christianaithwhat about other aiths?

Process-relational people are convinced that God works aithullythroughout the worldthroughout the universe, reallytowardthe good. This means that God is ully involved in all the religions

o the world, calling them toward aithul modes o beingcommunity together. Theres no essential reason why there shouldbe only one orm o human communityto the contrary, all theevidence suggests that God rather delights in diversity. And whileChristians grateully see God or us in Christ and in Christiancommunity, theres no essential reason why God cant work inother ways too. In a deep sense, thats Gods business, and the

business o those committed to the orm o religious lie to whichGod calls them.

Process-relational Christians tend to think that God is calling us toa new moment in the worlds historyto a moment o riendshipsdeveloping across religious lines, both individually and corporatelyas communities o aith. Friends respect one another. They talk

to one another, learn rom one another, are even transormed byone another. What i God is calling the religions o the world tocreate new modes o caring in a world still too torn by greed, lustsor power and domination, and a will to destroy others? Our newmission may be modes o riendship through which we cooperatewith one another toward the common good. And this common


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good involves protection and care or our planet, sustainableliestyles or the worlds people, care or all earths creatures. Its arelational, interdependent world. Perhaps God now calls us to livemore ully into this reality.

21. Whewyouve worn me out. I have morequestions to think aboutor eel about!But frst, will you tell me something aboutyoursel? Who is this Marjorie that Imtalking with?

Im just one more person deeply aected by process-relational wayso thinking! There was a time when I elt like Humpty-Dumpty.All the answers to questions about how God works with us beganto break down or methey no longer made sense, and I elt asi I were alling o o some great wall into a chasm. But then itwas as i the chasm itsel were Godthat I had allen out obelie in categories and doctrines and into the mystery o God as

present. So I looked or new ways to talk about the God I knewthrough chasm andChrist, i that makes sense to you! I went toschool, studied philosophy and the Christian tradition, and wasaccused o being just another process thinker when I didnt evenknow what process was! Then I discovered Whiteheads wayo thinking about the world, and it was as i he were describingthe world that I experienced. So I began to use his philosophy

to reshape how I express my Christian aith. And I am deeplyconvinced that all our philosophies and theologies pale besidethe wonder o who God actually isI suspect God puts up withall our theologies, since none o them can adequately plumb themystery o God, the love o God. I am a United Methodist, andI like the way Charles Wesley so oten says in his hymns that noteven angels can comprehend the love o Godeven though they

spend eternity trying! In any case, I nished school and went on toteach theologymany kinds, not just processat three seminaries,retiring recently rom Claremont School o Theology. I am thedirector o the Process & Faith Program o the Center or ProcessStudies, and also the director o the Whitehead International FilmFestival here in Claremont.


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Want to read more?

Here are a ew suggestions:

Brizee, Robert. Eight Paths to Forgiveness. St. Louis: Chalice Press,1998.

Cobb, John B., Jr. and David Ray Grin. Process Theology: AnIntroductory Exposition. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1976.

Cobb, John B., Jr. Becoming A Thinking Christian. Nashville:Abingdon, 1993.

Cobb, John B., Jr. Reclaiming the Church: Where the MainlineChurch Went Wrong and What to Do About It. Louisville:Westminster/John Knox, 1997.

Cobb, John B., Jr. Transorming Christianity and the World: A Waybeyond Absolutism and Relativism. Maryknoll: Orbis Press, 1999.

Grin, David Ray. God, Power, and Evil: A Process Theodicy.Philadelphia: Westminster, 1976.

Grin, David Ray. Reenchantment without Supernaturalism: AProcess Philosophy o Religion. Ithaca: Cornell University Press,

2001.

Inbody, Tyron L. The Transorming God: An Interpretation oSuering and Evil. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1997.

Lubarsky, Sandra B., and David Ray Grin, eds.Jewish Theologyand Process Thought. Albany: State University o New York Press,

1996.

McDaniel, Jay. O God and Pelicans: A Theology o Reverence orLie. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1989.

McDaniel, Jay. With Roots and Wings: Christianity in a Age o


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Ecology and Dialogue. Maryknoll: Orbis Press, 1996.

Mesle, C. Robert. Process Theology. St. Louis, Chalice Press, 1993.

Suchocki, Marjorie Hewitt. God-Christ-Church: A Practical Guideto Process Theology. New York: Crossroad, 1988 (revised edition).

Suchocki, Marjorie Hewitt. In Gods Presence: TheologicalReections on Prayer. St. Louis: Chalice Press, 1996.

Suchocki, Marjorie Hewitt. Divinity and Diversity: A ChristianAfrmation o Religious Pluralism. Nashville: Abingdon, 2003.


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Process and Faith

1325 North College AvenueClaremont, CA 91711-3199

909.447.2559

www.processandfaith.org

Written in consultation withMany Wise Process People

byMarjorie Hewitt Suchocki

Director, Process and Faith:A Program o the Center or Process Studies

Claremont, CaliorniaCopyright 2003

All rights reserved.

what is process theology

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