Is God Omnipotent? Process Theology Redux [#WhyPray]

Current kingmaker in the Christian blogosphere, Rachel Held Evans, posted a piece by Tripp and Bo of Homebrewed Christianity called, “Omnipotence:  A Compliment Jesus Wants You to Take Back.”  (Don’t think Rachel’s a kingmaker?  Well, the post currently has 295 comments.) Now Tripp and Bo have a follow-up post on HBC.

Process Theology provides some answers to many of the same questions that I’m asking in my current book project, Why Pray? As the guys make clear in the comments, Process Theology is different than Open Theism (Greg Boyd, et al).

Open Theism is fundamentally evangelical — it’s a way to solve a problem that evangelicalism has as a result of its biblical hermeneutic. It’s a solution to a problem that I don’t really have. A God to whom the future is foreclosed is not the God of the Bible, nor is that a God that anyone should want to worship or pray to.

Thanks in particular to HBC and the reinvigoration of Claremont School of Theology, Process Theology is enjoying a little resurgence right now. But, the question that lingers for me is this: Why didn’t Process Theology really take off when it was first introduced several decades ago?

If it’s because of political forces within academic Christianity, then I look forward to Process Theology Take Two.  However, if it’s because Process Theology as a system is fatally flawed, unbiblical, or in some other way wanting, then this resurgence will be short-lived. I honestly don’t know what the answer is, but David Opderbeck’s extensive comments on last week’s post should give us all pause.

I’m going to be thinking a lot about these very issues of God’s potency and God’s agency as I considering why we humans should pray.

(PS: I am very disappointed to be missing the Emergent Village Theological Conversation later this month, in which these issues will be discussed. It was scheduled over a Tuesday night. That’s the weeknight that I have my kids, and it’s sacrosanct — I only miss Tuesday nights very rarely. I asked the organizers of the conference if they would take this fact into account, but they could not. I’m not writing this to air dirty laundry, but instead to note two things: 1) Divorce has consequences, of which I am well aware; 2) I have no antipathy toward the people who are currently running Emergent Village, and I am not boycotting their events. I am simply unable to attend because of when they scheduled it.)