Process Theology And Politics

The movement of process theology is brought into creative interaction with political theology in this exciting new work by distinguished author John B. Cobb Jr. Confronted with the critical problems facing the global environment, the author seeks to overcome the abstractness that has kept process thought from achieving practical influence. Cobb reviews contemporary political theology in the works of major European theologians, Johann Baptist Metz, Jürgen Moltmann, and Dorothee Sölle, then surveys the movement in recent German theology. He examines the challenge of political theology in the tradition of the Chicago school and advocates broadening the horizons of political theology into the formulation of an ecological, rather than a sociological, theology. Process Theology as Political Theology responds to the challenge of providing a theological base for the Christian activist. Pastors, seminarians, and students will find it to be a stimulating evolutionary work, derived from the author’s concern for the planet earth.

Does process theology have something to say about political and social issues and our response to them? In this short book, Bruce Epperly says that it has much to say, and can shape not just the ethics and policies of a better world, but also the way in which we debate and decide those policies. Process theology invites discussion and even guides us toward acceptable and positive compromises. No major political issue of the western world is excluded from this discussion. From immigration to criminal justice, from abortion to reproductive health, from the environment to economic development, process thinking can help guide examination, shaping, and implementation of solutions for a troubled world. This book is suitable for individual reading by anyone who wants to take a fresh look at policy from an open-minded, progressive point of view. It can also be helpful in group studies for those who want to study how to apply prophetic proclamation to daily living.

This book fills a significant gap in current process scholarship by providing a detailed exposition of Whitehead's and Hartshorne's social and political writings, reconstructing their ideological commitments in depth, and placing them in their historical context. It focuses on four areas of inquiry: the individual and society; the ideals of freedom, equality, and democracy; the use of coercive force within and between societies; and the theory of social progress. As each feature of their political though is examined, Morris shows how Whitehead's and Hartshorne's political commitments are reflected in their metaphysical principles.

Amid melting glaciers, rising waters, and spreading droughts, Earth has ceased to tolerate our pretense of mastery over it. But how can we confront climate change when political crises keep exploding in the present? Noted ecotheologian and feminist philosopher of religion Catherine Keller reads the feedback loop of political and ecological depredation as secularized apocalypse. Carl Schmitt’s political theology of the sovereign exception sheds light on present ideological warfare; racial, ethnic, economic, and sexual conflict; and hubristic anthropocentrism. If the politics of exceptionalism are theological in origin, she asks, should we not enlist the world’s religious communities as part of the resistance? Keller calls for dissolving the opposition between the religious and the secular in favor of a broad planetary movement for social and ecological justice. When we are confronted by populist, authoritarian right wings founded on white male Christian supremacism, we can counter with a messianically charged, often unspoken theology of the now-moment, calling for a complex new public. Such a political theology of the earth activates the world’s entangled populations, joined in solidarity and committed to revolutionary solutions to the entwined crises of the Anthropocene.

Why process theology? Why now? In these eight essays, David Ray Griffin not only illuminates key ideas of process theology but offers compelling arguments for their importance in addressing the urgent issues of our time. Available for the first time in one place, these essays are the summation of a life¿s work, including Griffin¿s carefully developed arguments for the rejection of supernaturalism and divine omnipotence, and in favor of religious pluralism, panentheism, and the ¿neo-classical¿ theism of Charles Hartshorne. Always relevant, Griffin draws a direct line from a society¿s theology to its ideology, which in the U.S. includes the denial of climate change, the logic of war, and the loss of a moral center.

Using the insights of process theology, Gnuse explores the Old Testament beginning with the categories of classic Old Testament theology: revelation, suffering, creation, covenant, justice, law, and salvation.

This book offers an interpretation of the basic concepts of process philosophy and outlines a "process theology" based on it that will be especially useful for students of theology, teachers, ministers, and those interested in theological trends.