>>Dear friends: Will someone please explain for this benighted
individual what "Process
Theology" entails, and how it differs from "Biblical Theology" ?
Thanks,
>>
The easiest way to understand this is do what I did, do a Google search
on the term and read rather thoroughly the first 6 or 8 citations. I
don't wish to "put you off," but it was not until I did this, and the
process too several weeks (May-June of this year) that I finally was able
to get my head around the concept. Even now, I don't think I'm really
able to do more than point out a few attributes of how it differs from --
say -- Presbyterianism.
1. Creation ex-Nihilo is denied, as non-biblical is one reason given.
That doctrine is "blamed" for all the problems of theodicy. Just why, I
have not (yet) figured out.
2. God's actions in the universe are "persuasive," rather than
"Coercive." I like this part of the theology, for it explains free will
much better than orthodox Christianity.
3. God is perceived a having the universe as "part of him." Pantheism is
the doctrine that the two are the same; process theology uses the term
"PanENtheism." ("EN" is my emphasis).
4. I have a review (still in draft form and pretty rough) of Griffin's
book on my web site (page 2) and some of the attributes of process
theology are discussed there.
5. God is in process, as is His universe. He is not omnipotent, and there
are things that happen in the universe about which he is powerless to
fix.
6. There is no certain hope that God and righteousness will prevail in
the end.
7. There is much in common between process theology and open theism, but
I have difficulty separating the two of them yet. They appear to come
from different disciplines. A Google search on open theism was helpful
in getting at least some idea of the concept, but most citations were
people arguing furiously, usually with more heat than light, against the
idea.
Hope that helps.
John Burgeson (Burgy)
www.burgy.50megs.com
(science/theology, quantum mechanics, baseball, ethics,
humor, cars, God's intervention into natural causation, etc.)
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