Process Explorations Summer Finale: Wisdom for Building Alternative Futures

This session marks the finale of a six-month series in Process Explorations – “Building Alternative Futures.” The theme echoes the 2015 conference sponsored by John B. Cobb, Jr., “Seizing an Alternative: Toward an Ecological Civilization.” It also underscores the urgency of the present moment in global history, seeking to analyze the present, imagine the potential futures before us, and build toward those futures.

A key feature of process thinking is the metaphysical insight that the world is perpetually changing and that change may open transformation toward the good, beautiful, and true, or change toward destruction, or both. The present age is marked by wars blaring, imperialistic powers laying claim to countries and peoples that they deem inferior or weaker, and authoritarian governance by greed and cruelty in many parts of the world. In such a time, the future looks frightening unless the peoples of this world are able to imagine, propose, and build alternatives. The concern for building alternative futures has been at the heart of our present series.

During the series, we have analyzed severe perils and new possibilities, such as climate change and ecological civilization; racism and post-racism; leadership and social change; youth empowerment; spiritual pathways toward transformation (Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist); experiences of presence; education; public health; economic governance; love-centered theology; and criminal justice. Each of these explorations has opened doors to either perils or possibilities or both.

As we conclude the series, we celebrate the finale with wisdom from our process mentors and friends, poetry, music, art, and conversation.

Featuring

The guest speakers represent rich backgrounds as teachers, philosophers and theologians, poets, musicians, artists, leaders in process-relational networks, and activists in their communities. They are:

• Dick Bunce
• Cindy Bousquet Harris
• Lynn DeJonghe
• Libby Falk Jones
• Sheri Kling
• Rolla Lewis
• Jay McDaniel
• Veronica Michalowski
• Bob Mesle
• Mary Elizabeth Moore
• Thandeka
• Meijun Wong

We look forward to a summer finale that sparks a moment of vision and a movement of hope. Then, on September 15, we will begin Process Explorations anew with a fall and winter series.