Process Thinking & Human Living: An Online Seminar for Exploration and Inspiration

Often, our view of the world may rest on unquestioned assumptions that no longer reflect reality. In fact, some of our assumptions about the world work directly against human flourishing.

Since the early twentieth century, many have found life-giving resources in the work of Alfred North Whitehead and others working in what is now called process philosophy and process or open and relational theologies. Process thought often has more in common with ways of thinking that are found in the East – such as in the traditions of Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism – than it does with the dominant worldview in the West. How might we apply these resources in both East and West to address the division and suffering we see in our world today?

In this 3-hour, online seminar, speakers from Process & Faith, a program of the Center for Process Studies of Claremont School of Theology will explore aspects of process thought that make a positive difference in human life and in the life of the earth. A second seminar is being planned for early 2023 on process thought and various religious traditions.

Topics

Beauty in Troubled Times: Process Aesthetics

In a time of lament and anxiety across the world, we yearn for peace. Whitehead said that peace is primarily a “trust in the efficacy of Beauty.” In this talk by Patricia Adams Farmer, we will explore ways in which a process view of beauty can help refresh our spirits, widen our souls, and offer hope to our beleaguered planet.

Ideas in Process: Five Whiteheadian Transitions

At the heart of Whitehead’s process philosophy are several transformative existential and theological transitions. This presentation by Andrew M. Davis will focus on five in particular: 1. From Exception to Exemplification; 2. From Being to Becoming; 3. From Mechanism to Organism;  4. From Independence to Mutual Immanence; and 5. From Force to Persuasion. These transitions not only transform the way we understand our existence and experience in relation to the world, they also transform our understanding of God and God’s relationship to and interaction with the world.

Healing Politics: Process and Political Theology

In this time of political polarization, process and open and relational theologies provide a pathway toward a more perfect union, embracing diversity and difference in ways that promote the growth and well-being of persons and communities. Today, we need communities of stature that affirm the benefit of contrasting viewpoints in securing economic justice, human rights, and ecological well being. In this talk by Bruce Epperly, we will explore ways to embody the beloved community in politics, balance freedom and responsibility, and join compassion and law in securing the interplay of order and novelty.

Wholeness & Transformation: A Process Spirituality

Evidence of fragmentation abounds at all levels of human experience – societal, interpersonal, and even within ourselves. What will bring us the wholeness and transformation for which we yearn? In this presentation, Sheri D. Kling will draw from the integrating work of Whitehead and Swiss psychologist Carl G. Jung to show us that at both the level of the cosmos and of the human psyche, reality is whole-making and sacred. We can come to know that reality for ourselves through spiritual practices like dream work that facilitate embodied experiences of wholeness and show us that we matter, we belong, and we can experience positive change.