Toward A More Expansive Process Theology

It is sometimes assumed that advocates of open and relational theology must reject the idea that God creates the world out of nothing (creatio ex nihilo). Certainly, many open and relational theologians, especially those influenced by process thought, do take this stance. Their objection lies in the association of creatio ex nihilo with a vision of divine power as unilateral—implying that God can act without any responsiveness from worldly creatures. This, they argue, is both metaphysically problematic and existentially harmful. Instead, they advocate for amipotence, the power of divine love and relationality, rather than omnipotence.

Yet theologian Lina Langby invites us to imagine a more expansive form of open and relational theology—one that makes room for those who find meaning in the idea of creation out of nothing. What might this mean metaphysically? John Cobb, a process theologian who rejects creatio ex nihilo, nonetheless offers a possible direction: “Was God’s act in the Big Bang radically different from God’s act in the initiation of every subsequent event? We don’t know, but we cannot exclude that possibility. Whitehead speaks of one divine decision untrammeled by the influence of any other decision. This decision he calls primordial, which means nontemporal. Today it may be that we will need to associate it quite directly with a datable event. That would seem to bring us closer to the tradition.”

If we can imagine an open and relational—or even process—perspective that remains open to the idea of creation out of nothing, the key question becomes: Could such a perspective interpret creation out of nothing as an act of amipotent love rather than dominating power? Might creatio ex nihilo be reimagined, not as a display of unilateral control, but as the first expression of a divine relationality that honors the freedom and value of all that follows?

These are the kinds of questions that Lina Langby and Jay McDaniel will explore in this Pop-Up conversation.

“I am arguing for the coherence between conceiving God as essentially loving and as necessarily and only expressing love-power, in other words, amipotence, and the possibility that God created the world ex nihilo. I maintain that God coherently can be conceived as essentially loving and relational even if God created ex nihilo.”

Lina Langby

About the Speakers

Lina Langby

Lina Langby, PhD, is a philosopher of religion from Uppsala University, Sweden. Her research focuses on the connection between language and reality, and how conceptions of God relate to worship worthiness. Her research on conceptions of God focuses on panentheism, process theism, pantheism, open theism, and classical theism. Her work includes God and the World, “God’s kenotic Love-Power – a Defense of Relational Theology and the Vulnerability in Love,” “The Holy Spirit and kenotic loving power,” “The Holy Spirit is Amipotence Manifested,” and “The role of panentheism and pantheism for environmental well-being.”

Jay McDaniel

Jay McDaniel, PhD, is professor emeritus of world religions at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas who has written several books on process-relational thought and its application in religion, spirituality, and ecology. His works include Living from the Center: Spirituality in an Age of Consumerism, What is Process Thought?: Seven Answers to Seven Questions, and Choosing Life: Ecological Civilization as the World’s Best Hope. Jay is editor of the website Open Horizons, serves as an advisor to Process & Faith, and is also chair of the board of the Center for Process Studies.

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