Liberal Christians from all over the country gathered at United Methodism's Claremont School of Theology in Claremont, California earlier this year for the annual Emergent Village Theological Conversation (EVTC). Claremont is a bastion of “process theology.” According to the Center for Process Studies, process theology views God as “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.” One of the speakers was James Cobb, a founder of “process theology" and emeritus Claremont professor.
Cobb spoke for two sessions at the EVTC. The first was an interview about “process theology” in general, and the second was focused on what Cobb referred to as “secularizing Christianity.” According to Cobb, process theology finds its roots in the work of philosophers John Dewey and William James, and was significantly shaped by the metaphysics of 20th century British mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead. In the interview, Cobb said that “process theology formed itself over and against the dominant forms of classical Christian theology, which were all Aristotelian.” The Whiteheadean metaphysical framework – a sort of pantheism – provides a fundamentally different way of understanding reality.
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