Re-imagining the Divine: God in Process

Five 2-hour sessions: Monday 2/3 – Friday 2/7 (3-5pm Eastern / 12-2pm Pacific) Religious language is an attempt to talk about what we cannot talk about. When talking about the divine, we are obliged to use inadequate images and metaphors, which risk a certain kind of falsehood. And yet, to say nothing risks a different…

Workshop Description

Five 2-hour sessions: Monday 2/3 – Friday 2/7 (3-5pm Eastern / 12-2pm Pacific)

Religious language is an attempt to talk about what we cannot talk about. When talking about the divine, we are obliged to use inadequate images and metaphors, which risk a certain kind of falsehood. And yet, to say nothing risks a different kind of falsehood: a de facto denial of the spiritual dimension of life. Metaphors elucidate spiritual truths, but at the same time, can obscure. But even if inadequate, we have no alternative but to speak of God, using a variety of metaphors and images.

This workshop will look at our images, metaphors, and models (“metaphors with staying power”) in talking about the divine. We will start by examining a traditional model of God as King (which most of us find inadequate); look at the strikingly different metaphors early Friends favored; and end with an in-depth exploration of contemporary “process-relational theology,” which is a model that turns much of our thinking about God upside down, and is in accord with modern science.

This workshop will involve a “deep dive” into some theological ideas that may stretch you, but may also revitalize the way you think about and experience God. It is common to have two simultaneous reactions to this way of “thinking about God”: “of course!” (i.e., this fits with all my intuitions), and “Holy cow!” (i.e., this changes everything).

The format will include informal lectures involving PowerPoint presentations with discussion (about an hour); small group discussion and/or worship sharing around specific queries; and closing each session with worship together as a group (20 minutes).

Suggested (highly recommended) reading before the workshop: Pendle Hill Pamphlet #422 (2013), Reclaiming the Transcendent: God in Process, by Thomas Gates

Tentative outline:

Day 1: We will discuss how we talk about God, by necessity using images, metaphors, and models, and why “all models are wrong, but some are useful.” We will explore the dominant biblical metaphor of God as king or patriarch, its limitations, and an alternative model of pan-en-theism, which imagines “the world as God’s body.” We will discuss the importance (and difficulty) of balancing God’s immanence and transcendence, which are often seen as in tension with each other.

Day 2: We will explore early Friends creative use of new metaphors, expressing God’s immanence or immediate presence: light, inward light of Christ, seed, inward teacher, inner witness, “truth in the heart.” Do these still speak to us today?

Day 3: We will introduce the process-relational model of “thinking about God.” In this model, the future is “open”(not predetermined or predestined by God, but “co-created”in cooperation with the creatures), and the world as intrinsically relational, including our intrinsic relation to the Divine. Process theology gives a coherent answer to the question: “How is it that God is present and active in the world?” We will see that God’s nature is never coercive or controlling, but works only by persuasion—beckoning, inviting, and wooing us into a future of mutual flourishing. This “call forward”from God strongly resonates with the Quaker experience of “leadings”that come from God, but always requiring our cooperation. The picture that emerges is of God as guide and companion, rather than all-powerful ruler.

Day 4: The process model leads to a broad view of the Incarnation: instead of seeing God’s incarnation in Jesus of Nazareth as a unique exception to God’s usual way of acting in the world, it can be seen as is the chief exemplification of God’s constant presence in the world. God is present (incarnate) in every “drop of experience”: “The world lives by the incarnation of God”(Whitehead). The Christian tradition has classically seen God as omniscient, omnipotent, and impassible or unchanging (all to be defined), but we will see how the process-relational view radically differs. In this model, God is intrinsically (i.e. necessarily) related to the world, experiences the world, suffers with the world, and changes and grows—evolves— as the world changes and grows.

Day 5: We will end with some practical applications. How does process thought help us to think more coherently about “the problem of evil?” What is the place of prayer? Does this help us to think about mystical experience? And what are the ecological implications of a process worldview? Resources for further learning. “

Leader Experience

Tom Gates is a member of Lancaster Friends Meeting, where he serves on Worship and Ministry. He is a retired family physician, and he and his family lived and worked at Friends Lugulu Mission Hospital in Kenya, from 1991-94. He has a ministry of the written word, is the author of several Pendle Hill Pamphlets, and is the 2024 Kenneth Carroll Biblical and Quaker Studies Scholar at Pendle Hill.