Process Theology with Dr. Blair

  Doesn't the fact that God cannot guarantee he divine aims will not always be actualized by creatures mean God is a is a major failure in many respects? The unique claim of process theology is that there is tragedy in God. Whereas classical theism would view such statement as abhorrent, process understands it as something positive, an affirmation of God's unfathomable love and empathic sensitivity with the joys sorrows, triumphs, tragedies, and failures of all creatures. Where matters get tricky is how and if we should peak of God's failures. We have to be careful here because referring to “God's failures,” strongly implies that God lacks imagination, has unrealistic explications, doesn't know that the possibilities really are. Attributing such traits to God is ridiculous. A God displaying those traits would be no God at all. Another issue here is by what standards, what criterion we would use to judge God a failure. It has become a theological cliche to speak of “

  What is being said about God and the Coronavirus, in the social media? What is your process response? God's relationship to the virus is currently a hot-button issue in he spiritual circles of the social media. It seems everyone has a definite opinion to share. However, definite patterns emerge. I will address of the more popular ones. This necessitates I repeat points from my previous columns. So if you missed any of them, here is your chance to get caught up. Ever popular is the classical notion of predestination. Before the foundations of the world were ever laid, God, thought of as a Ruling Caesar or Cosmic Dictator, came up with a plan for absolutely every detail, for the largest to the smallest, of all events in creation. Everything that happens, including the virus, is a part of that master plan, from which there is no deviancy. Hence, one poster wrote, “Sorry to beak up the big panic, but the Coronavirus will not take anyone outta this world unless that's the good Lor

How can we speak of anything truly holy, most especially God, as being literally present in our sick, polluted world? In process, God is the chief exemplification of all metaphysical principles. One major principle is relativity, so that Whitehead says one of his major goals is to explain what it means to be present in another entity, We are all incarnate in one another, but in a radically inferior sense. In sharp contrast, God is omnipresent in the richest and fullest sense. That means there is a direct, immediate flow of all creaturely feeling into God, and vice verse. And God is no fair-weather friend. God experiences all the tragedies of life as well as the triumphs. How else could we think of God as all-knowing? If God is not a spacio-temporal being who can suffer, how could God even begin to understand those of us who are? In process, the highest form of knowledge is direct experience, a Da Sein (being there). Do God must be omnipresent, or God cannot be fully God. In classical t

Recently, I called my favorite take-out restaurant to only one of their famous steak sandwiches, only to be told they are out of steak. I called another restaurant, only to be told they are out of Coca Cola, one of my favorite drinks. I had hardly hung up, when a friend, a geologist working in the field, called and told me he would be stuck for another month in a village out in the middle of nowhere, all air service having been canceled. These are just three examples of countless frustrations we have encountered as a consequence of the pandemic. But why? Why does the pandemic frustrate us so? Why cannot one simple say, "I am happy as a lark. I'm alive, surviving, still walking and talking, and that's enough for me”? It is a common myth that Darwin's is the only theory of evolution. Whitehead offered an alternative approach whereby the goal is more than mere survival. Rather he argued the trend has always been upward. First, there were relatively simple organisms, then

Now, I am well aware there are theologians, such as NT Wright, who are quite verbal in their insistence this is a time for lamentation, not explanation or insight. In a way, I agree. An important step in healing is verbalizing ones pain and suffering to a sympathetic listener. But I don't agree that this negates all insight. In moments of intense experience, we can become easily overwhelmed and confused. A kind of time-out where we can reflect on matters, gain insight is also essential to our healing. Otherwise, we end up but a flock of chickens with out heads cut off, running around, getting nowhere. So now is precisely the time to gain insight into pain and problems we all face with social distancing. How is it that something intended as a cure can be as devastating as the disease? My process response is that social distancing can be devastating right down to our core, for we are social-relational beings. All of reality is social, is interconnected. Quantum mechanics, for example

 Hello,every one.   I'd like to start with a discussion of process and COVID-19  I wrote about this in several previous newsletters and am wondering what you think.  My argument was that  it would be inappropriate to blame the pandemic on God or to expect God could have prevented it.  I also argued stay-at-home and social distancing were uncomfortable for all persons because these restrictions  threaten  the fundamental social-relational nature of our being.  In addition, I argued the virus is best depicted in human terms as analogous to a foreign invader.  I am wondering about your thoughts.