Intro to Process Theology

Intro to Process Theology

Science and Religion (God and the World)

Evil and Suffering

Jesus and Creative Transformation

Ethics: Pluralism, Economism, and Ecology

1. How can I have a faith that honors both science and the Bible?

2. Why does God cause bad things to happen?

All simplifications of religious dogma are shipwrecked upon the rock of the problem

of evil." -ANW

Rebecca Parker

World

God

Supernaturalism or Deism

All-determining theism OR

Free-will theism

3 major problems

Tension between God's goodness and God's power

Misunderstanding of God's power

Fallacy of a single cause

The problem of evil (theodicy)

1. God is, by definition, all-powerful and all-good.

2. If God is all-powerful, God could unilaterally prevent all evil.

3. If God is all-good, God would want to prevent all evil.

4.Evil does occur.

5. Therefore God does not exist.

God is all-good.

OR

God is all-powerful.

God World

God's Power in Process Theology

Omnipotent Almighty

All-powerful

Omnipresent Persuasive Love-power

What is the highest form of power?

Love or coercion?

Multiple causation

Key themesCreation out of chaos

Multiple causation

Persuasive, love-power

Capacity to be good and evil rises together

future is open

freedom is a necessity not a gift or divine choice because it is built into the nature of things

Sin vs. "Natural" Evil

Sin = human rebellion against creation through unnecessary violence

Natural evil = forms of evil that are not caused by humans

Process theology sees the universe as creative,

interrelational, dynamic, and open to the future. In process theology, God is relational,

present in every moment of our lives and in all entities and levels of being. The world is

interconnected, in effect a giant ecosystem where what harms or

blesses one, harms or blesses all.

Next week: Jesus and

Creative Transformation