February 15th
Reenchanting Religion: Process Theologies in the 21st Century
Session 1: Divinity Reimagined
Presenters
Dr. Andrew M. Davis is Program Director for the Center for Process Studies at Claremont School of Theology, where he earned his Ph.D. in Religion and Process Philosophy. As Program Director, Davis researches, writes, teaches and organizes conferences across process-relational thought. He is the author and editor of several books including Mind, Value, and Cosmos: On the Relational Nature of Ultimacy (2020), Nature In Process: Organic Proposals in Philosophy, Society and Religion (2022); Process Cosmology: New Integrations in Science and Philosophy (2022), and Whitehead’s Universe: Philosophical Foundations of Process Theology (forthcoming, 2023). Follow his work at andrewmdavis.info.
Paper Title: "God as Eternal Becoming: McGilchrist's Hemispheric Process Panentheism"
Dr. Bethany Sollereder is a lecturer in science and religion at the University of Edinburgh. She specializes in theology concerning evolution and the problem of suffering and is currently working on the theological aspects of restoration ecology. Bethany received her PhD in Theology from the University of Exeter and an MCS in interdisciplinary studies from Regent College, Vancouver. She is the author of God, Evolution, and Animal Suffering: Theodicy without a Fall and Why is there Suffering? Pick your own theological expedition.
Paper Title: "Pentecostal meets Process: A Pluralist Model of Divine Action"
Dr. Darren Iammarino is a lecturer at the University of San Diego where he specializes in comparative religious studies, interreligious dialogue, and philosophy of religion. He earned his doctorate in philosophy of religion from Claremont Graduate University in 2010. Darren’s current book project, Not Moses, Not Jesus, Not Muhammad, but Jethro, John the Baptist and Waraqa Nawfal, highlights the lives and ideas of those who truly helped shape Judaism, Christianity and Islam. His previous book—Religion and Reality—explores an alternative methodology for facilitating enriching interreligious dialogue.
Paper Title: "God is a Boltzmann Brane, You are a Biological Brain, Consciousness is a Nucleation Event"
Moderator
Dr. Phillip Clayton holds the Ingraham Chair at Claremont School of Theology, where he directs the PhD program in comparative theologies and philosophies; he is also affiliated faculty at Claremont Graduate University. A graduate of Yale University, he has also taught at Williams College and the California State University, as well as holding guest professorships at the University of Munich, the University of Cambridge, and Harvard University. He has published two dozen books and some 350 articles.
Philip is President of the Institute for Ecological Civilization, which works internationally to support multi-sector innovations toward a sustainable society through collaborations between governments, businesses, policy experts, and NGOs. He is also president of the Institute for the Postmodern Development of China, which works with universities and government officials to promote the concept of ecological civilization through conferences, publications, educational projects, and ecovillages. He has previously served as a Dean, Provost, and as the Executive Vice President of a small university. In 2018 he helped to organize the Justice track for the Parliament of the World’s Religions.
Session 2: Religious Experience and Religious Belonging
Presenters
Rev. Dr. Tim Burnette is a Minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and is the Core Curator of Way Collective in Santa Barbara, CA — a contemplative community for love and liberation. He earned his DMin in Spiritual Renewal, Contemplative Practice, & Strategic Leadership from Claremont School of Theology, and is passionate about bringing sustaining spiritual practices to the work of justice. He is inspired to live out the call to, as Dorothee Soelle has said, “erase the boundary between the mystical internal and the political external.” He is a father to three beautiful children, partner to his wife Cara, and a writer, teacher, and process philosophy nerd.
Paper Title: "Nonduality as Resistance: Mystical Internals, Political Externals, and Process Spirituality in Contemplative Community"
Rev. Dr. Thomas Hermans-Webster is the son of Alabama Methodists whose experiences of Christianity have led him to ordination and ministry in theological education. He earned his PhD from Boston University School of Theology, where he developed a process theology of Holy Communion in a sacramental ecotheology from Norman Pittenger, Theodore Walker, Jr., Monica Coleman, Karen Baker-Fletcher, Mary Elizabeth Moore, and others. Currently, he serves as the Acquiring Editor at Orbis Books in Maryknoll, New York, and on the steering committee of the Open and Relational Theologies Unit of the AAR.
Paper Title: "Nourishing Our Becoming: The Eucharist and Belonging in a Process Perspective"
Rev. Dr. Timothy C. Murphy is a minister-scholar-activist. He is responsible for the spiritual life of the church through preaching, teaching, and pastoral care, serving as executive head and administrator of church staff. Prior to accepting the call to serve Plymouth Church as its Senior Pastor and Teacher in August 2018, Timothy most recently served as Transitional Pastor of All Peoples Christian Church in Los Angeles, CA. He previously led Progressive Christians Uniting, a faith and social justice organization based in southern California, as its Executive Director for three years, focusing on the areas of mass incarceration and climate change. He has also taught courses at Claremont School of Theology in the areas of Religion, Ethics, and Politics. From 2007-2010, he was the Minister for Youth and Social Justice at Pilgrim UCC in Carlsbad, CA. He is the author of Counter-Imperial Churching for a Planetary Gospel: Radical Discipleship for Today and Sustaining Hope in an Unjust World: How to Keep Going When You Want to Give Up.
Paper title: "Process-Relational Good News"
Moderator
Dr. Mary Elizabeth Moore is Dean Emerita and Professor Emerita of Theology and Education, Boston University School of Theology. She studies the relationship of lived religion and tikkun olam, or repair of the world, focusing on ecological and social justice and the theological and existential issues that obstruct or enhance justice. Her activism and research address cultural and racial diversity, ecological justice, interreligious relationships, liberative theologies, education, leadership, peacemaking, white privilege, gender/sexuality, and social transformation and healing. She also writes poetry to explore the depths of these earthy realities. Her recent book publications include Teaching as a Sacramental Act and edited/co-edited works: Deep Understanding for Divisive Times; A Living Tradition: Critical Recovery and Reconstruction of Wesleyan Heritage; and Children, Youth, and Spirituality in a Troubling World. Her recent articles include “Responding to a Weeping Planet”; “Gratitude: Forbears and Future-Bearers”; “The Hidden Force of Gender and Sexuality”; “Embracing Sexuality and Gender: Toward Radical Love”; “Sacred, Revolutionary Teaching”; “Disrupting White Privilege: Diving beneath Shame and Guilt”; “Encountering Dignity: Building Human Community”; and “Deep Breathing in a Moving World.” She also delights in spending time with her children and grandchildren.
Session 3: Panpsychism and Religious Naturalism
Presenters
Dr. Benjamin J. Chicka is Lecturer of Philosophy and Religion at Curry College in Milton, MA. His work connects classical American pragmatism, process theology, and ground-of-being theology. God the Created: Pragmatic Constructive Realism in Philosophy and Theology (SUNY Press) is his constructive comparison of John Cobb and Robert Neville as part of an effort to creatively synthesize process and ground-of-being theology. His most recent work touches upon media criticism and popular culture, which has led to speaking in front of audiences of hundreds of video game fans as much as fellow academics in recent years. Playing as Others: Theology and Ethical Responsibility in Video Games (Baylor University Press) represents the culmination of his research on the video game industry to date and describes how moves toward greater diversity and inclusion in that industry can inform theological ethics and conversations about pluralism.
Paper title: "Trade In Panpsychism for Biosemiotics and Enjoy the Theological Benefits Today!"
Dr. Jea Sophia Oh is Associate Professor of Philosophy at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. Her research primarily focuses on the fields of Asian and comparative philosophies, religion and ecology, process philosophy, and postcolonial theory. Her first book A Postcolonial Theology of Life: Planetarity East and West (Sopher Press 2011) is a path-making work in Korean ecofeminist theology and comparative philosophy. She is the editor and co-author of Nature's Transcendence and Immanence: A Comparative Interdisciplinary Ecstatic Naturalism (Lexington 2017), Suffering and Evil in Nature: Comparative Responses from Ecstatic Naturalism and Healing Cultures (Lexington 2021), Emotions (Jeong/Qing 情) in Korean Philosophies and Religions (Palgrave Macmillan 2022), and Greening Philosophy of Religion: Rethinking Climate Change at the Intersection of Philosophy and Religion (Lexington 2023, forthcoming). She is the chair of the ‘Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy’ (SACP) at the Central division and the ‘International Society of Chinese Philosophy’ (ISCP) at the Eastern division of American Philosophical Association (APA). She also serves as the chair of the ‘Society of Study of Process Philosophy’ (SSPP) at APA in all three divisions.
Paper Title: "Deep Pan-en/theism: Process Inter-Becoming and Triple Immanence of Eastern Learning"
Dr. Tripp Fuller is an American theologian, minister, and broadcaster. He is the founder and host of Homebrewed Christianity, one of the most downloaded theology programs in podcasting. He received his PhD in Philosophy, Religion, and Theology at Claremont Graduate University as was the recent Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Theology & Science at the University of Edinburgh. For over 13 years Tripp has been doing the Homebrewed Christianity podcast where he interviews different scholars about their work so you can get nerdy in traffic, on the treadmill or doing the dishes. Last year it had over 3.5 million downloads. It also inspired a book series with Fortress Press called the “Homebrewed Christianity Guides to…” topics like God, Jesus, Spirit, Church History etc. His is author the recent book Divine Self-Investment: An Open and Relational Constructive Christology.
Paper Title: "Religious Traditioning and Divine Revelation from a Panexperientialist Perspective"
Moderator
Dr. Nancy Frankenberry is the John Phillips Professor in Religion, emerita, at Dartmouth College. She is past president of the Metaphysical Society of America and of the Institute for American Religious and Philosophical Thought. Her research centers on pragmatism and neo-pragmatism, religious naturalism, philosophy of religions, and feminist philosophy. She is currently finishing a book tentatively titled Pragmatism and the End of Religion.
Session 4: Beyond Dialogue and Deep Religious Pluralism
Presenters
Dr. John Becker is Assistant Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Religion and Philosophy at Lyon College. In 2017, he received the International Process Network’s Young Scholar Award. He is a member of the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies and a Research Fellow for the Institute for Postmodern Development of China, USA. His research interests include process thought, comparative theology (Buddhism-Christianity), religions and ecology, and religious pluralism.
Paper Title: "The Future of Religious Pluralism: Perry Schmidt-Leukel’s Interreligious Theology and Roland Faber’s Polyphilic Pluralism"
Dr. Cangfu Wang teaches and researches in several areas: Christian ethics, process thought, Chinese thought, and interreligious dialogue. He graduated from Claremont School of Theology with a Ph.D. in Religion, Ethics, and Society. His dissertation is titled “Transforming Conflict: A Comparison of Whitehead’s Beauty and Laozi’s Ziran 自然 (Self-So).” He currently serves as a faculty member at Nanjing Union Theological Seminary in China.
Paper Title: "For Religious Pluralism: Process Readings of Laozi’s Dao"
Dr. Adis Duderija is Senior Lecturer in the Study of Islam and Society and former Senior Fellow at Centre for Interfaith and Intercultural Dialogue, at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. He is recognized internationally in the field of contemporary Islamic Studies especially in relation to his work on the theory of progressive Islam, theories of interfaith dialogue, gender issues, and the Islamic intellectual tradition more generally. He is the author of over 50 articles, book chapters and encyclopedia entries and the author and editor of over half a dozen books. He serves on the editorial board of several academic journals and his scholarship has been translated into Arabic, Indonesian, Urdu/Hindi and Bosnian.
Paper Title: "Dealing with Difference and Pluralism from the Perspective of Progressive Islam"
Moderator
Dr. Sandra Lubarsky founded one of the first graduate programs in sustainability, the M.A. in Sustainable Communities, at Northern Arizona University and chaired the Department of Sustainable Development at Appalachian State University. She currently serves as President of Flagstaff College, an innovative, community-based college focused on sustainability and social change. She earned her Ph.D. in religion at Claremont Graduate University and has written widely on process thought, interreligious dialogue, beauty, and sustainability.
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