{"id":9686,"date":"2013-12-18T11:44:30","date_gmt":"2013-12-18T17:44:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/?p=9686"},"modified":"2015-03-13T16:42:28","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T21:42:28","slug":"five-honest-questions-for-process-theology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2013\/12\/18\/five-honest-questions-for-process-theology\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Honest Questions for Process Theology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/p>\n

This post should be properly titled, \u201cFive Questions for Process Theologians,\u201d because you cannot actually ask a question of a theology, only of a theologian. The problem, as Tripp and Bo explained in their recent and controversial podcast<\/a>, is that a lot of people whom I consider process theologians aren\u2019t. Or they deny that they are. Phil Clayton is influenced<\/em> by process, as is Bo. Tripp hedges on whether he\u2019s a process theologian, or whether he\u2019s an open-and-relational-baptist-who-has-proclivities-toward-process. Maybe John Cobb is the only truly process theologian.<\/p>\n

The back-and-forth over process started with a rather hamfisted post by Roger Olson<\/a>, in which he asserted that true process theologians aren\u2019t Christian and, conversely, true Christians aren\u2019t truly process theologians. When the pushback came his way, he responded<\/a> by saying, \u201cHey, I\u2019m writing for evangelicals exclusively. The rest of you can listen in, but this isn\u2019t about you.\u201d (He also unfortunately aired some of his personal dirty laundry in the comment section of the initial post.)<\/p>\n

Tripp and Bo rightly took up Olson\u2019s post, pointing out that it was both wrong at points and ungenerous in others. But I grew increasingly frustrated as I listened to the podcast because I thought that Tripp and Bo were taking potshots at more classical forms of theism. They even criticized other open and relational theologies as their temperatures rose. And, in so doing, I think they missed some of the more salient points of Olson\u2019s criticisms.<\/p>\n

If I had my druthers, I\u2019d go over to Tripp\u2019s garage, open a homebrew, light up a cigar, and talk this out with him in front of a live mic. Since that\u2019s not geographically possible, I offer these five questions and ask those guys and others to respond by whatever medium they see fit. I am definitely a full-fledged member of the \u201copen and relational theologies\u201d camp, and I\u2019m a hypertheist, so I offer these questions as a friend and teammate.<\/p>\n

1) Process theology has a single progenitor, Alfred North Whitehead<\/a>, an early-twentieth-century philosopher and mathematician. Other theological camps are conversant with many philosophers, but process comes exclusively from this one. And, in the pantheon of Western philosophers, Whitehead is a minor deity, at best. Does it ever worry you that your theology derives from one philosopher, and one who is not usually considered a giant in his field?<\/strong><\/p>\n

2) In Deacon Bill Walker\u2019s excellent and critical post<\/a> about the podcast, he asserted something very similar to what I\u2019ve written in the past: when it comes to theological innovation, the consensus of the past gets the benefit of the doubt in the conversation. The conciliar, creedal past need not be hegemonic, but there is a certain threshold that must be reached for it to be reconsidered. Bo replied<\/a> by writing that he doesn\u2019t need to know Aquinas, for instance, any better \u2014 his job is to do today what Aquinas did in the 13th century. I think this is a tragic response, but that\u2019s not my question. This is: By almost every measure, process theology is a radical rejection of what the church has believed for 1600 years, so what voice do you think the historic church and classical theism in our present situation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

3) In the podcast, Tripp read a quote from Whitehead (read it here on Brian\u2019s McLaren\u2019s blog<\/a>). The way that Tripp used this quote \u2014 and the way that Whitehead seemed to intend it \u2014 was that the very early church got Jesus right, but the message was very quickly corrupted by imperial power. The omnipotence of God, for instance, was not part of Jesus\u2019 life or message, but was superimposed on the gospel by Roman emperors. Do you seriously mean to imply that process theologians are the first people to get the gospel right since the first century?<\/strong><\/p>\n

4) The vast majority of Christians in the world \u2014 probably 99.9% of the 2.2 billion of us \u2014 think that God is ontologically distinct from the rest of creation. Process theology denies this. Process theology, it seems to me, is weak on God\u2019s uniqueness. I hear them saying that God is part and parcel of creation, but God is a unique part of that creation. This strikes me as a kind of modalism of the godhead \u2014 God is unique because of what God does<\/em>, not because of who God is<\/em>. But, more to the point, how do you argue with the experience of billions of Christians that God is Other?<\/strong><\/p>\n

5) Finally, a question that is both simple and seasonal: What, if anything, is special about the incarnation?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post should be properly titled, \u201cFive Questions for Process Theologians,\u201d because you cannot actually ask a question of a theology, only of a theologian. The problem, as Tripp and Bo explained in their recent and controversial podcast, is that a lot of people whom I consider process theologians aren\u2019t. Or they deny that they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,39],"tags":[88,299,724,652],"class_list":["post-9686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-philosophy","category-theology","tag-brian-mclaren","tag-homebrewed-christianity","tag-process-theology","tag-tripp-fuller"],"yoast_head":"\nFive Honest Questions for Process Theology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This post should be properly titled, "Five Questions for Process Theologians," because you cannot actually ask a question of a theology, only of a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2013\/12\/18\/five-honest-questions-for-process-theology\/\" \/>\n<meta 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