Interweavings: A Season of Darkness and Light 2023
2023-12-05 17:00 - 18:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
Cosmologically, this period of late fall marks the increase in hours of darkness until the winter solstice when the hours of light begin to make a return. Many religions have major holidays during this period. For some, the period of darkness is not feared but is celebrated as a time of rest and renewal or of waiting in a kind of pregnant pause. Most celebrate the increase in light and see this turning of the season as the welcome return of the energies of rebirth and growth.

In this event, we’ll introduce some of the major holidays in late fall and early winter, noting their significance in each tradition. We’ll look at Diwali, Advent, Hanukkah, St. Lucia Day, Winter Solstice, Christmas, Epiphany, Kwanzaa, New Year’s Eve, and Lunar New Year.

Come prepared to share a brief memory of a favorite winter holiday food or tradition from your own background!

About the facilitator:

Sheri D. Kling, Ph.D., is the director of Process & Faith with the Center for Process Studies and interim minister of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Bradenton, FL. Sheri earned her Ph.D. in Religion: Process Studies from Claremont School of Theology. She is a theologian, songwriter, and spiritual mentor, as well as a faculty member of the Haden Institute, adjunct faculty with Claremont School of Theology, and the author of A Process Spirituality: Christian and Transreligious Resources for Transformation. She regularly delivers dynamic “Music & Message” presentations to groups, and offers courses, concerts, and spiritual retreats. She may be found online at sherikling.com.

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Collaborating Partners

Process Pop-Up: The Not-Yet God and the Relational Whole
2024-01-08 17:00 - 18:00
We are part of a creative whole of unlimited potential whereby God, self and world are constantly drawn into new existence together

The new science, especially quantum physics, has changed our understanding of space, time and matter; hence it raises new questions on the meaning of God. Is God outside space and time? Or is God integral to the unfolding of the universe? If consciousness is fundamental to matter, is consciousness fundamental to the reality of God as well? We will discuss these questions and more as we explore the essential role of consciousness in relation to the religious experience of God.

We’ll discuss Ilia’s latest book, The Not-Yet God: Carl Jung, Teilhard de Chardin, and the Relational Whole.

Entanglement is the inextricable and insuperable relationality of all that is, including God. If pantheism conjures up the collapse of God into matter, then entanglement holds everything together in a relational whole. There is no transcendence without immanence and no immanence without transcendence; there is no God without matter and no matter without God. God and matter form a complementary whole.
Ilia Delio

Articles about Ilia’s work on Open Horizons

The Not-Yet God” by Ilia Delio: A Reflection and Review

To Love More Radically: John Cobb and Ilia Delio, Whitehead and Teilhard, Buddhism and AI

God is the Whole of every whole: Teilhard de Chardin, Ilia Delio, and Process Theology

Ilia Delio, OSF, PhD is a Franciscan Sister of Washington, DC and American theologian specializing in the area of science and religion, with interests in evolution, physics and neuroscience and the import of these for theology.

Ilia currently holds the Josephine C. Connelly Endowed Chair in Theology at Villanova University, and is the author of twenty books including Care for Creation (coauthored with Keith Warner and Pamela Woods) which won two Catholic Press Book Awards in 2009, first place for social concerns and second place in spirituality. Her book The Emergent Christ won a third place Catholic Press Book Award in 2011 for the area of Science and Religion. Her recent books include The Unbearable Wholeness of Being: God, Evolution and the Power of Love (Orbis, 2013), which received the 2014 Silver Nautilus Book Award and a third place Catholic Press Association Award for Faith and Science. Ilia holds two honorary doctorates, one from St. Francis University in 2015, and one from Sacred Heart University in 2020.

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Process Pop-Up: Process, Pluralism, and Respecting Diverse Religious Ultimates
2024-01-29 17:00 - 18:00
Ultimate reality is often characterized in terms of what are thought to be a variety of incompatible concepts, like God, Dao, Brahman, śūnyatā, etc. In his new book, Religious Pluralism: Towards a Comparative Metaphysics of Religion, Matthew S. LoPresti suggests that shifting to a process understanding of the world allows us to engage multiple religious ultimates alongside diverse religious practices and programs for salvation.

In this event, LoPresti will share key ideas from his book to describe a “meta-theology” of world religions, arguing that both Western and non-Western traditions are helpful. He’ll draw from John B. Cobb’s Whiteheadian “deep religious pluralism” as well as South Asian philosophy, Western analytic philosophy, and the writings of Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI).

Matthew S. LoPresti, PhD (University of Hawai‘i at Manoa) is Chair of the Asian Studies Program at Hawai‘i Pacific University and has been teaching philosophy since 1999. While at HPU (since 2004) he has expanded his teaching to include courses in religious studies and the inter-disciplinary humanities. He is currently developing a course on Yoga Philosophy.

A specialist in South Asian and Comparative Philosophy as well as Philosophy of Religion, his primary area of research has been in developing a metaphysical basis for a genuine religious pluralism. He has published several articles in comparative philosophy and philosophy of religion and serves as a referee for Comparative Philosophy.

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Process Pop-Up: Yoga, Experience, and the Vagus Nerve
2024-02-08 17:00 - 18:00
We are no longer concerned with the dualistic opposition between God and [human], but with the immanent tension in the God image itself…This inner non-equilibrium, the glorious imperfection of life, is the effective principle of evolution. God is not the creator but the mind of the universe.
CG Jung (Eastern Body, Western Mind, 392)

Yoga, a spiritual practice from the Hindu tradition, provides gentle and consistent contributions to the practitioner’s wellbeing. This conversation will introduce participants to recent research on the Vagus Nerve, Pranayama Breathing practices and Asanas, or flows of movement. In addition, Whitehead’s notion of “experience all the way down” is particularly relevant for vagus nerve research.

Pranayama or breath is at the heart of yogic strength and somatic or body awareness. In this event, we’ll look at ways in which process thought on the primordial and consequent natures of God can be deeply applied through pranayama and its effect on various bodily regions. We’ll introduce simple chair yoga movements or asanas and each participant will learn more about their range of movement and how yogic practices best make sense for the body.

Students will be invited to join a follow-up Learning Circle to explore the practices even more deeply.

Without evolutionary inquiry, we lack a sense of direction; without mythological inquiry, we lack a sense of systemic existence. Without both, we separate ourselves from the world we live in.
Erich Jantsch (Eastern Body, Western Mind, 397)

Rev. Dr. Leslie King began her service to First Presbyterian Church of Waco in 2012. She received her BA from Kansas University (’91) and her Masters of Divinity from McCormick Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Chicago (‘94). In 2010 she completed her Doctor of Ministry at Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City Missouri with an emphasis in Spirituality and Organizational Change.

Since September 2020, she has been a yoga instructor (RYT 200) with Spirit Bear Yoga and (RYT 500) with My Vinaysa Practice. She’s a member of Yoga Alliance and has recently completed a Polyvagal Informed Certificate for Mind-Body Practitioners. She enjoys leading yoga flows for her church and the studio, Duality Yoga. Her particular interest is in Yin and Restorative yoga as it relates to spiritual well-being. Piano competency is slowly emerging and music is a source of a lot of joy.

She has been married to DJ King since November of 1996 and together they enjoy watching their three young adult children, Cody, Katie and Claire, make their way in the world. With a menagerie of stray animals, the Kings are glad to call Waco “home”.

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Process Pop-Up: God Will be All in All
2024-02-22 17:00 - 18:00
In her book, God Will be All in All: Theology Through the Lens of Incarnation, Anna Case-Winters re-envisions central affirmations and questions of Christian theology by looking through the lens of incarnation—making incarnation a presupposition rather than a conclusion. Her process-panentheist approach takes a broad view of incarnation proposing that God is already in all things, and all things are in God. Through this lens, the ancient Christological controversies around how Jesus can be “truly God and truly human… two natures in one person” can be unraveled. If we see that God is already in all things, and if we shift from “substance thinking” to dynamic relational thinking, there is no contradiction here. The trinitarian vision of God and our understanding of how God acts in the world are also illumined by this approach.

In this event, Dr. Case-Winters will explore these themes as well as the provoking questions that arise with our affirmation that “God is with us.” How can we believe “God is with us” when there is so much suffering and evil in the world? When we make this affirmation what do we mean by “us”? Do we mean “just us Christians”? Is the claim that “God was in Christ” automatically exclusivist—as if God is nowhere else? Does “us” even mean “only us human beings”? What about divine presence in the larger natural world? Widening our view still further, what if we who are on planet earth, are not alone in the cosmos? Is God with others out there, too? What is the depth and scope of incarnation? How wide is the divine embrace?

Christians affirm that God is with us—a presence and activity we see most clearly in Jesus the Christ. Questions arise around this affirmation, but looking through the lens of incarnation, we can continue to affirm that God is with us—all of us—and especially in the face of suffering and evil. The question is not so much whether God is with us, but whether we are with God in the struggle to engage in transforming work so that all may flourish.
Anna Case-Winters (God Will be All in All: Theology Through the Lens of Incarnation)

Rev. Dr. Anna Case-Winters is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and serves as Professor of Theology at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago where she has been on faculty since 1986. Case-Winters has research interests and publications in several areas: dialogues in religion and science, open and relational theologies, theological contributions of Reformed tradition, and theologies attending to global economic, ecumenical, ecological issues.

Case-Winters is a grant recipient and project leader for the Science for Seminaries program, an initiative of AAAS and ATS. She has also received grants from the Templeton Foundation including: the Religion and Science Course Award, the Templeton/ASA Lecture Series Grant, and the Exemplary Paper in Humility Theology Award. In 2020, she was inducted as a fellow into the International Institute on Religion and Science.

In the wider church, Case-Winters served as a pastor and a denominational leader. For the PCUSA General Assembly, she chaired the Code of Professional Ethics Committee as well as the Committee on Confessions and Christology. In two terms of service as Chair of Christian Unity, she furthered the work in ecumenism that has marked her ministry. Prof. Case-Winters has also been a leader in the global Reformed church serving in various leadership roles and as a theological consultant in the World Communion of Reformed (WCRC).

She is the author of four books: God’s Power: Traditional Understandings and Contemporary Challenges; Reconstructing a Christian Theology of Nature: Down to Earth; A Theological Commentary on Matthew; and God Will be All in All: Theology Through the Lens of Incarnation. Case-Winters is a member of the American Academy of Religion, the past President of the American Theological Society, Midwest Region.

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Interweavings: indigo, the color of grief
2024-03-07 17:00 - 18:00
In a world that Alfred North Whitehead described as one of “perpetual perishing,” grief must certainly be a universal human experience. In this conversation, Jonathan Foster will read excerpts from his book, indigo: the color of grief. From the book’s description:

indigo is thejoy and lament of ahuman beingtheologianfather

fashioning new ideas about the divinewithin the painful loss of his daughterwithin the constraints of his own intelligencewithin the constraints of what religionhad been telling him his whole lifesome of which was good andsome of which wasn’tgood

it’s a way forwardwhere forward means theinteraction ofpast choicespast eventsand personal agencyin this momentand this momentand … yes, this moment

After the readings, chaplain Kathleen Reeves will respond, sharing thoughts and tools on our movement through grief.

About the facilitator:

Jonathan J. Foster, Ph.D., is the author of several books, including indigo: the color of grief, Questions About Sexuality that Got Me Uninvited from My Denomination, The Reconstructionist: People>Text, Mercy>Sacrifice, Love>Fear, and Theology of Consent: Mimetic Theory in an Open and Relational Universe. He’s the partner of one, and the father of three, who’s won some writing awards, reached #1 in multiple Amazon categories, has some degrees from NorthWind Seminary, podcasts, but mostly likes to hike.

About the Respondant:

Kathleen (Kat) Reeves, M.Div., is the leader of the Spiritual Integration group, and a fundraising and social media consultant. She is a writer, artist and published poet. She holds a Master of Divinity in interfaith theology, and is an ordained interfaith minister. She has been active in interfaith peace, and is a member of the Inland Valley Interfaith Working Group for Middle East Peace. She is the President of the Upland Interfaith Council, and has held leadership positions in Unitarian Universalists congregations. Her community interfaith ministry led her to volunteer with Syrian refugees as they settled into their new country. Her deep connection with one special family is captured in her series of stories she wrote for the Huffington Post. She is a student of Japanese tea ceremony through the international Chado Urasenke Tankokai associations of the Urasenke school in Kyoto, Japan. Kathleen has also trained in Restorative Practice, she follows an earth-based religion, and belongs to The Order of Bards, Ovates & Druids. She is working on ways to build a process-relational community through small group ministry.

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Collaborating Partners

Process & World-Building in Dune Messiah
2024-03-17 16:00 - 17:30, 2024-03-24 16:00 - 17:30, 2024-04-07 16:00 - 17:30, 2024-04-14 16:00 - 17:30
Through the intersections of environment, religion, self identity, and government, participants in this learning circle will explore themes of environment, terrain, and traveling through the religious life.

Our reading of Dune Messiah will consider process themes found in Whitehead’s Process and Reality, while engaging with care to not overlay process theology on Herbert’s work. Rather, the conversation series will consider elements of Herbert’s world-building that are shared with Whitehead’s philosophy of organism. In the consideration, careful attention will be paid to the impediments to process principles in the establishment of institutions of any type.

Some experience with Whitehead’s philosophy is preferred but not required. Dune Messiah will be read over four weeks, with excerpts from Whitehead coupled with each reading.

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Process Pop-Up: New Streams: Finding Faith Online
2024-03-21 17:00 - 18:30
Where do you find inspiration? In a house of worship? Or do you find your faith is fed more these days through online media?

In those halcyon days before Covid, most people never heard of podcasts, and almost no one listened to two to three hour conversations on YouTube, Apple, or Spotify. But the pandemic threw all of us into online spaces we didn’t even know existed. Podcasting is big news.

According to Nancy Marshall (also known as The PR Maven) in an article for Forbes magazine, “Nowhere is the podcast more popular than in the United States, which lays claim to the most podcast listeners in the world (over 100 million). The growth in recent years has been astounding. Nearly 80% of Americans over the age of 12 are now aware of podcasts—up more than 30% from a decade ago. Even in 2015, only a minority of Americans considered listening to podcasts in their day-to-day lives. So much has changed in less than a decade.”

Some of those podcasts and online experiences are now devoted to explorations around faith and spirituality. In the progressive space, podcasts like Homebrewed Christianity, (Re)Thinking Faith, Brew Theology, War Machine, Hunger for Wholeness, several from Richard Rohr’s Center for Action and Contemplation, and others are gaining new listeners every day.

Of course, churches had to respond to the fact that their doors were closed too, and worship streaming became the new norm, with varying degrees of success. But some organizations found a way to deliver high quality worship experiences via Zoom, Facebook, and YouTube.

This event will gather a panel of speakers who have been using new media to talk about and experience faith online. We’ll find out how this has impacted them and their listeners as we open our minds to new ways of being faithful.

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Matt Baker, War Machine

Matthew hosts War Machine, a podcast for theological nomads at the intersection of radical theology, philosophy, and western esotericism. He previously produced The Catacombic Machine, and Interrupted, the official podcast of the Westar Institute. Matthew is also a musician, professional graphic, sound, and instructional designer, and currently working as Organizational Change Management Lead for Veolia North America.

Kate Eaton, Mishkhah

Mishkhah was founded in January 2010 by Kate Eaton to reveal the mystery of Christ by stirring the senses and opening the heart. Through careful integration of music, images, textures, found objects, light, movement and prayer, we are invited to rediscover the landscape of our souls as we encounter the Holy. Kate brings her experience in directing the arts and music for the first 20 seasons of the Wilderness, a Sunday night service at Saint John’s Cathedral in Denver, CO. Since 2007, the Wilderness has drawn hundreds of new worshipers and regularly gathers a congregation of 100+. Since founding Mishkhah, Kate has partnered with churches, conventions, conferences and a seminary to share her experience in creating worship environments. Her passion lies in returning to the rhythm of the liturgy and to spiritual practices that have shaped people’s lives over centuries.

Robert Nicastro, Hunger for Wholeness

Robert Nicastro is a Ph.D. candidate in the Theology and Religious Studies program at Villanova University. He is also the producer of the Hunger for Wholeness podcast for the Center for Christogenesis. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Gannon University in Erie, Pennsylvania, and a Master of Arts in Theology from Saint Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore, Maryland. His research focuses on the interrelationship of cosmology, theology, and philosophy, and the implications of a coherent metaphysical worldview for addressing issues of social and enhancement technologies.

Josh Patterson, (Re)Thinking Faith

Joshua Patterson is the founder and host of the (Re)thinking Faith Podcast. He is a former pastor turned professional brewer with a deep love for theology and philosophy. Josh is a Process-Relational thinker who also finds deep resonances with the mystics. On his good days, Josh likes to describe himself as a Podcaster, Theologian, Philosopher, and Mystic. Josh is a published author with continued aspirations to write and speak about the beautiful world of Open and Relational Theology.

Janel Apps Ramsey, Brew Theology

Rev. Janel Apps Ramsey (MA), is an Interfaith Leader living in Denver, CO. She is Co-Director of Brew Theology, an interfaith organization that helps create communities of conversation, and hosts a podcast of the same name. She is also a community organizer working on Climate Justice in an interfaith setting. She was born and raised in the Church of the Nazarene, served in ministry for over 20 years in many positions. She published an edited volume of essays called Women Experiencing Faith. This volume asked women to reflect on what it means to be female and have faith. She is married and has two cats. She loves Fiona the Hippo, washi tape, moose watching, hanging out in the mountains, and doing many different arts and crafts.

Poetry for the Journey: Creating a Spiritual Space for People of All Paths
2024-03-27 10:00 - 11:30, 2024-04-03 10:00 - 11:30, 2024-04-10 10:00 - 11:30, 2024-04-17 10:00 - 11:30, 2024-04-24 10:00 - 11:30, 2024-05-01 10:00 - 11:30
We are delighted to present the spring 2024 session of Interfaith Explorations. Hosted by Bethlehem Centre in collaborative partnership with the Interfaith Center of Arkansas, the Cobb Institute and Process & Faith, “Poetry for the Journey” is a six week online series that will provide an inclusive environment for individuals from different religious traditions and spiritual independents to come together to share and discuss poetry.

The group’s primary focus is on “spiritual poetry”, a term inspired by Jane Hirshfield, an acclaimed poet, essayist, and translator with ten collections of poetry. On the Poetry Foundation’s website, Hirshfield shares 22 spiritual poems that delve into themes such as permeability, embracing life with a resounding ‘Yes,’ abundance, longing, spiritual dialogue, love, vibration, and meditation. These are the kinds of themes we will explore during the class sessions.

The selected poems will be ancient, classical, and contemporary works from diverse cultures and faith backgrounds. They will be presented in English to ensure accessibility for participants. The poems will serve as launching pads for reflection and discussion, allowing participants to contemplate on various aspects of everyday life, historical moments, and philosophical ideas.

The interfaith exploration series will be held on Wednesdays, with a guided exploration of three poems during each session. The three poems for each week will be distributed before the class so that participants can read them in advance if they wish.

Experienced facilitators of poetry explorations will lead each of these sessions. Zoom details will be sent to register participants.

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Process Pop-Up: Preaching the Uncontrolling Love of God
2024-04-30 17:00 - 18:00
Millions of people yearn for a profound relationship with the ever-present God who is loving, inclusive, persuasive, and uncontrolling. This understanding of God makes sense and aligns with the Bible, science, the inclusive love and justice of God, and with our lived experience.
From this reality, a new book has emerged, Preaching the Uncontrolling Love of God: Sermons, Essays, and Worship Elements from the Perspective of Open, Relational, and Process Theology, edited by Jeff Wells, Vikki Randall, Thomas Jay Oord, and Nichole Torbitzky. Three of those editors will join us for a conversation about the book and the hopes they have for its impact in the world.
This book is the first-of-its-kind—drawing together a rich and diverse compilation that explores how to preach, teach, and practice Open, Relational, and Process theological perspectives in local faith communities. It is a much needed resource for pastors, ministers of worship arts, lay church leaders, professors of preaching, worship, and practical theology, and anyone seeking a deep understanding of God that aligns with the Bible, science, and inclusive love and justice for all life on Earth.
Comments about the Book

Just about everyone knows that large numbers of people—especially younger and more educated people—are dropping out of church. To stop this trend, some focus on hot music or cool graphics or casual dress or catering to what people want politically. But more and more of us are coming to the conclusion that many people are leaving because they see deep and significant problems in what most Christians believe and preach. This book could help tens of thousands of churches and pastors imagine a better way forward… real-life sermons from the fresh and needed perspective of open, relational, and process theology. Enthusiastically recommended!

– Brian D. McLaren, author of Do I Stay Christian?

Anyone who ventures behind a pulpit is taking a risk, wagering there’s good news left in our ancient texts. Too often, the goodness of God is hidden under the bushel of Almighty dogma and a controlling tradition. In this timely and needed volume, you hear from a staggeringly diverse collection of proclaimers who haven’t escaped the call to preach but insist the goodness of God should not be compromised because the power of God is love. I’m thrilled to have a preaching book to recommend without hesitation!

– Tripp Fuller, host of Homebrewed Christianity

For far too long, classic Christianity has held to a view of God as unchanging and the nature of God’s interaction with the world as controlling. Scripture presents God as creative and responsive, however, intentional, initiating, and influenceable—a God who works in partnership with humans. This book demonstrates through the preaching of Scripture that God’s good, loving, dynamic power operates in process with the freedom of others. God takes risks that may lead to evil and suffering, as well as to the righteous work of cooperative partners.

– Karen Strand Winslow, author of Imagining Equity: The Gifts of Christian Feminist Theology
About the Facilitators

Jeff Wells is the lead pastor of the Church of the Village, a progressive, radically inclusive, and anti-racist community in New York City. He preaches, practices, and promotes process-relational and open & relational theology. He is a lifelong passionate advocate for social and economic justice and for the common thriving of humans and other-than-human beings. Jeff is an active member of the Alliance for Ecological Civilization, a gathering of activists and thought leaders from around the world. He co-edited (with Thomas Jay Oord, Vikki Randall, and Nichole Torbitzky) Preaching the Uncontrolling Love of God (SacraSage Press, April 2024), a collection of sermons, essays, and worship elements from the perspective of Open, Relational, and Process theology. In 2022, he helped found and co-chaired the Living Earth Movement. With theologian and environmentalist, John B. Cobb Jr., he authored the short book, Is International Cooperation Possible? A Bold Appeal for a Living Earth (2022).

Nichole Torbitzky is Associate Professor of Religion and University Chaplain at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, MO. Her current research investigates Whiteheadian notions related to Christian atonement theory. She serves as the editor for the lectionary commentary series sponsored by Process & Faith, a program of the Center for Process Studies. She also serves as editor for Lindenwood University’s student research journal, the Confluence.

Vikki Randall lives in Monrovia CA, and has 28 years of pastoral experience, serving large and small churches, mostly in PCUSA. She did her M.Div. studies at Fuller Seminary, and received a D.Min. in spiritual formation from Azusa Pacific Seminary, where she has served as adjunct faculty in undergrad theology for 20 years. She is founding pastor of Haven Fellowship, an intentionally inclusive and affirming faith community. She is passionate about transformation and experiencing God’s presence.

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Buddhist Process Explorations
2024-06-19 17:00 - 18:00, 2024-07-17 17:00 - 18:00, 2024-08-21 17:00 - 18:00, 2024-09-18 17:00 - 18:00, 2024-10-16 17:00 - 18:00
A Discussion Group About the Exploring, Sharing, and Practice of Buddhist Process-Relational Thought

At face value, the Buddha’s Dharma and Whitehead’s Process Philosophy seem to characterize reality in very different ways, and for different reasons. The Buddha taught that reality as we typically experience it is an impermanent, selfless and dissatisfying process of cyclic becoming continuously powered by compulsive attachment and aversion grounded in delusion. The Buddha prescribed various methods we could deploy in order to go beyond this painful and immiserated condition, methods which involve thorough analysis and deconstruction of our habituated and self-limiting assumptions about ourselves and the world as well as means of cultivating more purified states of awareness and embodiment so that we can awaken to the way things really are and unleash our core potential.
Whitehead elaborated a systematic philosophical scheme, replete with foundational metaphysical categories, that reconstructs reality as a cumulative process of concrescence whereby many diverse feelings creatively synthesize into a novel experience, aiming towards satisfaction and lured to completion through divine persuasion. For Whitehead, many of the issues in philosophy and society at large could be traced to various fallacious conceptions concerning nature, language, and experience which he sought to rectify with his panexperiential, process-relational Philosophy of Organism.

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Process Pop-Up: The God of Tomorrow: Whitehead and Teilhard on Metaphysics, Mysticism, and Mission
2024-06-26 17:00 - 18:00
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Can a holistic approach to theology and mission engage productively with science, culture, and the challenges of our time?
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Alfred North Whitehead came from very different religious backgrounds yet a study of their ideas shows a number of important and helpful synergies.
In this event, Dr. Bruce Epperly, a public theologian skilled at sharing process ideas in digestible ways, will examine these two important thinkers’ ideas. He’ll show the ways in which their themes converge and examine how this synergy can help us plan strategies to join God’s adventure of the universe in our own spheres.
In his recent book, The God of Tomorrow: Whitehead and Teilhard on Metaphysics, Mysticism, and Mission, Epperly argues that both thinkers call for a theological adventure that embraces change and evolution and sees God as a dynamic and transformative force in the universe. Whitehead’s metaphysics of love and Teilhard’s metaphysics of spiritual evolution offer a synthesis that challenges traditional notions of God and invites us to recognize the mystical and transformative potential within ourselves.
Check out this recent review of Bruce’s book by Dr. Jay McDaniel on his blog Open Horizons!
Quote from the Book

As pilgrims of the future, Whitehead and Teilhard charted a forward looking theological and cosmological vision that inspires an adventurous faith… Our hope to meet the challenges of the future can only be inspired by a God of Tomorrow, whose wise creativity enables us to meet the technologies and changes of the future with wisdom and compassion.

About the Speaker

Rev. Bruce Epperly, Ph.D., is a teacher, pastor, spiritual guide, writer, lecturer, retreat leader, and reiki teacher. He is the author of over 70 books, including Finding God in Suffering: A Journey with Job, Process Theology: Embracing Adventure with God, Become Fire: Guideposts for Spiritual Pilgrims, One World: Process Theology and the Lord’s Prayer, Piglet’s Process: Process Theology for All God’s Children, and Restless Spirit. He is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and United Church of Christ. He has served on the faculties of Georgetown University, Lancaster Theological Seminary, Wesley Theological Seminary, and Claremont School of Theology.

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Process Pop-Up: Hinduism, Ever-Evolving
2024-07-16 17:00 - 18:00
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How might process thought and Hindu traditions be in relationship?
In his video, “Evolution and Vedanta,” Swami Padmanabha talks about God or Love as the ultimate supreme reality, and how God along with all realities is dynamic, ever-evolving, and growing. Reality is not made up of fixed, changeless substances; rather, it is marked by what he calls “deep evolution” – a sacred evolution at the very depths of reality.
In this conversation, Dr. Jeffery Long, a practitioner and theologian in the Vedanta tradition of Sri Ramakrishna as well as a scholar of process philosophy and Asian studies, and Swami Padmanabha, a leader and teacher in the Gaudiya Vaishnavism tradition of Hinduism, will share their thoughts on resonances between their two Hindu traditions and process thought.
They’ll explore such areas as:

The dynamic nature of God and reality
Texts and tradition as “ever fresh,” especially in Vaishnava traditions and the tradition of Sri Ramakrishna
Human purpose, consciousness, and “radical personalism”
Astonishment and surrender; divine will, human choice, and grace

Quotes

“Far from being opposed, love and non-duality are two sides of the same coin. When you have one, you have the other.”
Jeffery Long, Ph.D.

“If divine love is a force of constant expansion, it must surely affect the Divine, who is love personified. A God affected by ever-evolving love becomes equally ever-evolving, inviting us to an ongoing, never-ending journey of progress and development.”
“We are to keep pace with an ever-evolving reality that we are part of, with an ever-evolving God we are tied to, and thereby with an ever-evolving tradition to which these very principles are revealed to us.”
Swami Padmanabha

About the Speakers

Swami Padmanabha

At an early age, Swami Padmanabha delved deeply into the theology of diverse mystical traditions. After taking up Gaudiya Vaishnavism in 1999 at the age of 19, he has dedicated himself to an extensive study of the Gaudiya scriptures under the guidance of his various mentors. Fluent in English and Spanish, Swami has written hundreds of articles in both languages, with his first two books published in English and in the process of being translated to other languages. For the past twenty years, he has traveled around the world and lectured in universities, ashrams, and yoga studios. All of his numerous talks and seminars are available online for free at swamipadmanabha.com. As a leader of spiritual retreats and communities, he inspires both practitioners and visitors with his penetrating teachings and personal example.

Jeffery D. Long, Ph.D.

Jeffery D. Long, Ph.D., Professor of Religion, Philosophy, and Asian Studies for Elizabethtown College, specializes in the religions and philosophies of India. He is the author of several books and numerous articles and editor of the series Explorations in Indic Traditions for Lexington Books. In 2022, his book Hinduism in America: A Convergence of Worlds received the Rajinder and Jyoti Gandhi Award for Excellence in Theology, Philosophy, and Critical Engagement. He has spoken in numerous venues, both national and international, including three talks at the United Nations, and he has been interviewed for a PBS documentary on the life and teachings of Swami Vivekananda and for the History Channel series Holy Marvels.

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Process Pop-Up: Pasts and Futures of Islamic Process Theology
2024-08-08 17:00 - 18:00
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In this Pop-Up, Jared Morningstar will present Islamic process theologies, overviewing resonances between existing Muslim philosophies and cosmologies with contemporary process perspectives, and also exploring the emerging forms of explicit Islamic process theologies.
Some topics to be explored in this pop-up include:

Intellectual and spiritual developments in Islamic history that are resonant with process thought
Muhammad Iqbal’s Islamic process theology and the influence of Alfred North Whitehead and Henri Bergson on his thought
Adis Duderija’s scholarship on progressive Islam and process thought
Recent Muslim engagement with Gilles Deleuze as another form of Islamic process thought

This conversation will introduce these different historic and contemporary forms of Muslim process thinking, exploring the possibilities for further development as well as the barriers to broader interest in Islamic process theology.

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“Process-relational thinking allows Muslim intellectuals to deconstruct dysfunctional ideas from both Western modernity and Islamic traditions while also encouraging the creative reconstruction and synthesis of material from both of these spheres, leading to more holistic and dynamic responses to the challenges of contemporary times.”
Jared Morningstar, “Process-Relational Thought and Islam: Proposing a Novel Framework for Constructive Engagement with Modernity” in Open and Relational Theology and its Social and Political Implications: Muslim and Christian Perspectives.

About the Speaker

Jared Morningstar

Jared Morningstar is an independent scholar living in Madison, Wisconsin with academic interests in philosophy of religion, Islamic studies, comparative religion, metamodern spirituality, and interfaith dialogue. His work in these areas seeks to offer robust responses to issues of inter-religious conflict, contemporary nihilism, and the “meaning crisis,” among other things. Jared graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College in 2018 with degrees in religion and Scandinavian studies and currently works for the Center for Process Studies, the Cobb Institute, and the Psychedelic Medicine Association. You can find him at https://jaredmorningstar.com.

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Process Pop-Up: Faith & Feeling
2024-10-01 17:00 - 18:00
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For both Schleiermacher and Whitehead, God is not “up there somewhere.” Rather, God is most readily found by looking inward, to where God is experienced.

In theological circles, German philosopher Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834) may be best known for his text, On Religion: Speeches to Its Cultured Despisers, his effort to defend religion from Enlightenment skeptics. He’s also been a subject of interest to process thinkers like Philip Clayton, Thandeka, and, more recently, Chad Bahl. In his doctoral research, Chad has been putting Schleirmacher’s thoughts on faith and feeling into conversation with the work of Alfred North Whitehead.
He has found that “In both process thought and Schleiermacher’s philosophy, the essence of existence is not lifeless matter or dogmatic precepts. Rather, it is lived experience. In this lived experience, we are interconnected both as human beings and in fellowship with the Divine.”
Schleiermacher is known for talking about faith as a feeling of “absolute dependence.” Resonant with Whitehead’s thinking about God’s aims for every actual event, Chad describes this as a “natural result of being in tune with our deepest intuitions. It arises from our recognition of the presence and purpose of God in our lives.” As we cultivate our awareness of God—through spiritual practices like contemplation—this feeling naturally arises as a kind of “God-consciousness” that is “developed as we experience community with others, fellowship with the Divine, interaction with nature, the Gospel story, and much more.”
While each of us may experience the Divine differently, it is this “personal perception, (not reason, dogma, or scientific proof), which serves as the centering principle for faith.” According to Chad, attuning to this interior faith and feeling is crucial to human life. “We become fully actualized human beings when we realize fellowship with the Divine in our experiences of both Creator and creation.”

About the Speaker

Chad Bahl

Chad Bahl, DThM candidate at Northwind Theological Seminary, specializes in the study of Open and Relational Theology. Bahl is the author of God Unbound: An Evangelical Reconsiders Tradition in Search of Truth, the author/editor of Deconstructing Hell: Open and Relational Responses to the Doctrine of Eternal Conscious Torment, and, most recently, the author of Mornings with Schleiermacher: A Devotional Inspired by the Father of Modern Theology.

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Process & Presence
2024-10-22 16:00 - 17:00
An Exploration of the Intersection between Zen Buddhism and Process Philosophy

Led by Reverend Reirin Gumbel (resident priest, Milwaukee Zen Center) and Jay McDaniel (Chair, Center for Process Studies), this conversation will explore the synergies between Zen Buddhism and Process Philosophy, with a particular emphasis on Taoism as a foundational source for Zen.
Gumbel and McDaniel will use China Root: Taoism, Ch’an, and Original Zen by David Hinton (Shambhala Publications, 2020) as a springboard for discussion. Participants are encouraged to read selected short sections of the book in advance of each session to enrich the dialogue.

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Christian Process Explorations
2024-10-28 17:00 - 18:00
A Discussion Group About the Exploring, Sharing, and Practice of Christian Process-Relational Theology

This learning circle focuses on the exploring, sharing, and practice of Christian process-relational theology, as relevant to all age groups: children, teenagers, adults, senior citizens. We meet monthly to discuss process-relational ideas and practices in local settings like churches, religious education, hospitals, and recovery groups. Together we explore how to share those ideas, as well as how to embody their wisdom in daily life situations. This is co-sponsored by the P&F Christian Path Group.

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Interweavings: Sacred Practices, Dynamic Texts
2024-11-13 17:00 - 18:30
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We may be Muslim, Christian, Jew, skeptic, or non-believer, but we are each united in our humanity and the stories of the Bible bond us through that essential humanity…our very lives inform the way we enter the biblical text, and the biblical text ‘speaks’ to us through the context of our lives.
How might ancient texts speak to us afresh today? Can pre–modern practices be revitalized and re-imagined to address modern concerns?
Rabbi Leila Gal Berner and Sheri D. Kling strongly believe that there is still something life-giving in both ancient texts and pre-modern practices, and that both can be explored in dynamic ways while still being grounded in timeless wisdom.
Once Rabbi Berner was introduced to the Christian contemplative practice of lectio divina—a Latin phrase meaning “sacred reading”—she immediately fell in love with its ability to drop her into a living experience of biblical text. She wanted other Jews to have that same experience, and created a uniquely Jewish expression of lectio divina that she has named Kriat Hakodesh (Reading the Holy) reflected in her book, Listening to the Heart of Genesis: A Contemplative Path.
Sheri Kling has had similar experiences with Christian contemplative practices, and has refashioned three of them—lectio divina, praying with icons, and praying with the imagination—into a transreligious practice she calls Dream Divina. While the target of contemplation in her practice is one’s individual dream and its images, the underlying spiritual “technologies” of the Christian practices still carry the same power to reveal the presence of the Sacred.
In this event, Rabbi Berner and Dr. Kling will share their own experiences with reshaping traditional practices to reawaken modern sensibilities to potentially transforming encounters with texts and with God.
About the Speakers

Rabbi Leila Gal Berner

Rabbi Leila Gal Berner was ordained at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and holds a second ordination from Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (of blessed memory). She received her doctorate in medieval Jewish history from UCLA. She is Chair of the Bible Department of the ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal Ordination Program where she teaches biblical and medieval history, feminist thought, and midrash. Dr. Berner has taught in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at American University and George Washington and Emory universities, and Swarthmore and Reed colleges. She is the author of Listening to the Heart of Genesis: A Contemplative Path. You can find out more about Dr. Berner on her website www.rabbileila.com

Sheri D. Kling

Sheri D. Kling, Ph.D., is the director of Process & Faith with the Center for Process Studies and interim minister of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Bradenton, FL. Sheri earned her Ph.D. in Religion: Process Studies from Claremont School of Theology. She is a theologian, songwriter, and spiritual teacher, as well as a faculty member of the Haden Institute, adjunct faculty with Claremont School of Theology, and the author of A Process Spirituality: Christian and Transreligious Resources for Transformation. She regularly delivers dynamic “Music & Message” presentations to groups, and offers courses, concerts, and spiritual retreats. She may be found online at sherikling.com

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