Dr. William Myers

Interim ‘97

Religion in the Making, Alfred North Whitehead

Process Theology: An Introductory Exposition, by Cobb and Griffin

A Course Packet from the bookstore

From the very beginning, Christian thinkers have been almost obsessed with making the Christian faith into a coherent philosophical system. In the early days of Christianity, the philosophical system most often utilized to interpret Christianity was that of Plato, the ancient Greek philosopher. Plato’s philosophy was the primary interpretative tool for almost 1000 years, when the re-discovery of Aristotle precipitated a shift. From that time onward, Aristotle’s view of reality has served as the primary interpretative scheme, and this is still largely true, though many would argue that Christianity is no longer purely Aristotelian, but a mish-mash of Plato and Aristotle.

One might argue that the primary reason behind the consistent (relatively) use of the Aristotle’s metaphysics to interpret Christianity is that Aristotle’s system is the best one available. Indeed, this has been true up until the 20th century, when the first rival system emerged. In 1929, Alfred North Whitehead published Process and Reality in which he systematically set forth a completely new metaphysical system. Although Whitehead himself did not do a great deal of theological reflection, subsequent thinkers have. The resulting movment has come to be known as Process Theology.

The way we are going to approach this topic is the following. We’ll begin by getting a grasp on the role that metaphysics has played in the history of Christian thought. We’ll do this both by becoming familiar with the thought of Plato and Aristotle and by considering what affect their respective philosophies have had on a number of our religious notions. After getting ourselves situated, we’ll turn to Whitehead’s metaphysics and look at his system. Once we are comfortable with that, we’ll then look at the theological applications of it.

Presentation: 30%

Paper: 50%

Participation and attendance: 20%

All work at Birmingham-Southern College is done under the Honor Code. If you have any doubts or questions about the application of the code to this class, please ask me.

1/6 Introduction and questions

1/7 Plato, Aristotle and Christian thought

1/8 Continued

1/13 Whitehead and Religion

Reading: Religion in the Making, pp. 13-57

1/14 Whitehead and Religion

Reading: Religion in the Making, pp. 58-80

1/15 Whitehead and Religion

Reading: Religion in the Making, pp. 83-86; and Course Packet, "The World and God: A Process Perspective", by Delwin Brown

1/20 Whitehead’s metaphysics

Reading: Religion in the Making, pp. 86-105; and Course Packet, "Some Basic Concepts," pp. 20-30

1/21 Applications: The problem of evil

Reading: Course Packet: "Creation Out of Chaos and the Problem of Evil," by David R. Griffin

1/22 Applications: Man, Jesus and the Church, from What is Process Theology?, by Robert Mellert

Reading: Course Packet, pp. 64-98

1/27 Presentations

1/28 Applications: Sacraments, Morality and Immortality, from Mellert

Reading: Course Packet, pp. 99-129

1/29 Wrap up day

1/31 Papers due in my office by noon.