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Isn't it time we incorporated some of our modern understanding of the universe into our religious thinking? Surely religion should try to illuminate reality, not confuse it. We need a theology which tries to bring together our scientific understanding of the universe and our understanding of God as revealed and experienced. Process theologians are trying to do just that.
The theory behind process theology is very complicated, but I try and understand a simplified version as follows:
All things, including human beings are made of bursts of energy events called "activites" or "occasions of experience" which combine into "societies" or "communities."
Atoms, molecules, and rocks, etc., are elementary "communities" whilst living things are advanced "communities."
Human beings are possibly the most advanced of the "communities of events."
All activities, including humans, are influenced by three forces:
Firstly, God gives us an initial aim which makes us what we are--humans and not flowers, and a specific human at that.
In this aim God provides us with a lure which encourages us to grow uniquely towards a state of beauty and happiness.
Secondly, we are influenced by everything that has ever happened up to this time.
Thirdly, we have the freedom to choose what to do next. Our freedom is limited by many things, but importantly, we are free to NOT follow God's initial aim.
What does this mean to me? Some of it is difficult to grasp but if we think about it we can see from simple examples how it could make sense.
Am I the same person that I was sixty years ago? Yes and no. I am still Keith McPaul but I have grown, changed, processed. I know that my past decisions have influenced present decisions, so maybe all past experiences influence my decisions. I know that the past actions of other people also influence my present decisions., so maybe all past actions everywhere somehow have an influence on my present decision. I know that what I have done, and do now, will influence other people's decisions. By taking note of your reading of this, you can see how the connectedness between ourselves and other people works.
If I accept that this makes sense, how does it affect my understanding of God? Theologians have developed a comprehensive Christian theology based on Whitehead's process concept, but again I like to look at it in a very simple way.
I said earlier that we have described God in terms of what we understand of the world. So, if we understand the world as a process, we can also understand God as a process. We can think of God as:
Having an initial aim which is to guide everything towards newness, uniqueness, beauty, and harmony. (These are four words for what we think is the ultimate.)
Being influenced by everything that happens in the world.
Allowing all creation freedom of choice.
The first of these is not that strange, we have traditionally believed that God somehow directs our paths.
The second and third open up a fantastic new way of understanding our relationship with God.
God provides us with a preferred option and with the ability to follow that option. However God cannot make us follow it, God does not have the power to force us to do anything. If we do not have the power to disobey God, then we are only puppets.
But every time we make a decision God is there to give us a new preferred option. God is always with us to guide and help us.
God is not just a remote observer, God is always with us.
God knows all the options for the future but cannot know the future in detail because it has not yet happened.
Although we have the freedom to disobey, importantly for us, whatever we do influences God.
Every time we make a decision, or take an action, God has a new reality to deal with. God can only work with what has happened.
God works with the world as it is in order to bring it to where it can be.
It does not matter how many times we choose not to follow God's lure, God is always there to provide us with a new preferred option.
If we are happy, God is happy with us and gives us new options to develop our happiness even further.
If we are sad or we are suffering, God is sad and suffering with us and provides us with options to heal our sadness and suffering.
This means the core of Christian theology is the belief in a relational God:
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