Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Process Theology
Today's mention of the concept of Process Theology was very intriguing to me. I have often wondered if God is really actually evolving or changing through us and through the evolution of the creation itself. If everything is God as in pantheism, or everything is within God as in panentheism, this to some degree this must be true. Is it possible that as we experience new things, Spirit experiences new aspects of Itself? Because we are each created as unique individual expressions of God, perhaps Spirit is always experiencing itself in totally new ways. I also wonder if it is possible that amidst all of this, at a deeper level Spirit knows all the possibilities of these expressions beforehand, but the expressions themselves are always new and divinely surprising and delightful to God. I envision God looking at the whole drama of the Cosmos as an ever-delightful, ever-new unfoldment of Itself as an opportunity to know Itself infinitely in new ways. I also feel that Unity's concept of Principle can support this. Maybe there are many levels at which Spirit is working and at which Spirit is conscious. Perhaps at one level Spirit is unchanging, and perhaps at another, Spirit is always changing and knowing Itself anew. At the unchanging level, law and Principle is set as the backdrop and under girding of the divine drama of the changing realm. Maybe a part of Spirit even temporarily forgets the unchanging in order to temporarily enjoy the changing realm. It seems that both are existing simultaneously. There seems to be the assurance of deep unchanging Principle operating throughout all creation, and at the same time a continual unfoldment of God in ever new ways in expression as us and as all changing phenomena.
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Jeffrey, I liked whay you had to say. Process theology hss always seemed to make a lot of sense to me. After reading your blog the thought of God as absolute and God as relative came to me. The absolute unchanging or big enough to start with to hold anything and everything. God as relative in that God is within each one of us and experiences what we experience. In my masters thesis I state: If our God is a living God, if God is a concrete reality, then God has to be dynamic and ever-changing in nature.
ReplyDeleteYou might want to read Bernard Loomer and Charles Hartshorne both are process theologians.
You wrote: "It seems that both are existing simultaneously. There seems to be the assurance of deep unchanging Principle operating throughout all creation, and at the same time a continual unfoldment of God in ever new ways in expression as us and as all changing phenomena.
ReplyDeleteThis is what I believe as well -- this is a 'both/and' situation. I don't see how anything else is possible! Of course, I can't prove any of it ... and neither can it be disproved. Right? :)