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Thomas Oord is like many Protestant theologians in the open and relational tradition. He doesn't like Augustine very much. Or at least Augustine's way of thinking about God. He writes:
A God who lacks nothing finds nothing in us to enjoy. So, God can’t love by enjoying us. A fully independent deity does not depend on us and finds nothing in us useful.For Augustine, God only loves himself. Augustine’s God is a complete narcissist. The very heart of how I understand the gospel — that God loves me, you, and all creation in the sense of wanting our salvation/well-being — collapses in Augustine’s logic.
As a process theologian, however, I find much in Augustine that is wise and worth learning from, even if I don’t share his understanding of God. And, truth be told, I'm not certain enough about God to know that process theologians are "right" and others "wrong." I am suspicious of any theologian, myself included, who is too confident about such matters. What I do know is that Augustine's philosophy and theology have many points of contact with process thinking, and that an Augustine-inspired Process Philosophy and Theology is readily imaginable. Here are fourteen points of contact:
- The Restlessness of the Heart
Augustine’s famous line from the Confessions, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you,” reflects a deep truth about the human condition. This restlessness can resonate with the process idea of the perpetual lure toward deeper satisfaction, relationality, and harmony. In process thought, this yearning reflects the divine call to become more fully ourselves in the unfolding adventure of life. - Interior Movements of the Heart
Augustine’s focus on the interior movements of the heart—the desires, aspirations, and struggles that define our inner lives—is deeply resonant with process theology. For Augustine, these movements are where the soul encounters God. Similarly, process thought emphasizes God’s persuasive presence in our inner life, felt as a lure toward beauty, goodness, and relational depth. Augustine’s attention to these subtle promptings invites a deeper exploration of how the heart’s movements shape our becoming. - Memory and the Inner Life
In Confessions, Augustine explores the mystery of memory as a repository of past experiences, shaping who we are. This aligns with the process understanding of how each moment of experience synthesizes the past while creatively advancing into the future. Augustine’s insights into memory enrich process thought’s appreciation of the complexity and richness of subjective experience. - Peace as the Consummation of the Soul's Journey
For Augustine, the ultimate goal of life is peace, a state of harmony with God and the world. In process thought, Whitehead describes peace as the consummation of a journey toward wholeness—a state where inner conflict is transformed into creative alignment with the divine lure. This peace is not a static or final state but an ongoing harmony that integrates the soul’s restlessness, struggles, and transformations into a deeper unity. Augustine’s vision of peace as the soul’s true home enriches process theology’s understanding of spiritual fulfillment as a dynamic and relational achievement. - God as an Object of Desire
Augustine’s belief that all human longing ultimately points toward God. For Augustine, the desire for God is not merely a religious or abstract yearning—it is the foundation of human existence, the wellspring from which our quest for meaning, love, and fulfillment flows. Similarly, in Process and Reality, Whitehead speaks of God in just this way: He is the lure for feeling, the eternal urge of desire. His particular relevance to each creative act, as it arises from its own conditioned standpoint in the world, constitutes him the initial ‘object of desire’ establishing the initial phase of each subjective aim. (Process and Reality, p. 344) - Finding God in Beauty
Augustine frequently emphasizes the importance of beauty as a pathway to encountering God. In Confessions, he describes being drawn to the beauty of creation, only to realize that its source is God. For process theology, beauty is central to divine activity, reflecting God’s lure toward harmony, intensity, and creativity. Augustine’s recognition of beauty as a sign of the sacred complements process thought’s affirmation of the aesthetic dimension of life. By contemplating beauty—whether in nature, art, or relationships—we are drawn closer to God’s presence and the ongoing creativity of the universe. - Timeless Ideas in the Mind of God
Augustine’s concept of divine ideas as eternal archetypes in the mind of God offers a framework for understanding the underlying order and intelligibility of the universe. These timeless ideas can be seen as a precursor to Whitehead’s concept of eternal objects, which are possibilities that guide the creative advance of the world. For both thinkers, these timeless realities provide a grounding for the beauty, order, and harmony evident in the unfolding of existence, pointing to a divine source of inspiration and creativity. - Different Kinds of Love
For Augustine, love is the defining orientation of human life. Whether rightly ordered (toward God) or disordered (toward lesser goods), love shapes the self and directs its ultimate aim. This resonates with the process idea of relationality and God’s lure toward richer and more harmonious experiences. Augustine’s focus on love as central to human life provides a complementary lens to explore how love connects us to others and to the sacred. - Community and the City of God
In The City of God, Augustine envisions human communities as shaped by their ultimate loves—whether self-centered or God-centered. While process thought doesn’t draw a strict line between earthly and heavenly cities, Augustine’s dynamic vision of overlapping allegiances invites reflection on how communities can embody divine values like justice, compassion, and creativity. His work aligns with the process emphasis on relational networks and the transformation of society toward the common good. - The Mystery of Time
Augustine’s reflections on the nature of time, particularly its fluidity and relationship to eternity, offer fertile ground for dialogue with process philosophy. His exploration of past, present, and future as dimensions of human experience aligns with Whitehead’s understanding of temporality and the ever-becoming nature of reality. For both Augustine and process thought, time is not static but dynamic and relational. - Humility and the Limits of Human Knowledge
Augustine’s recognition of the limits of human understanding, especially in theological matters, mirrors the process commitment to openness and humility. Both perspectives affirm that theology is an evolving journey of discovery, grounded in the acknowledgment that ultimate reality is beyond full comprehension. This humility fosters a spirit of curiosity and dialogue that enriches both traditions. - Sacred Reading
For Augustine, reading can be a sacred act—a way of encountering God and being encountered by God. When we approach texts with sensitive hearts, seeking wisdom that can transform us rather than merely entertain us, reading becomes a spiritual practice. This idea resonates with process theology’s emphasis on openness to the lure of new possibilities and the transformative power of ideas. Sacred reading invites us to engage deeply with words and concepts, allowing them to shape our lives and bring us closer to the divine. - Conversion as Creative Transformation
Augustine’s own dramatic conversion story demonstrates the power of transformation through divine encounter. His journey from a life of restless dissatisfaction to one of purpose and devotion illustrates how turning toward God can be an act of creative transformation. In process theology, conversion is not a one-time event but a continuous process of becoming, where individuals are lured by God toward richer, more fulfilling possibilities. Augustine’s narrative invites us to see conversion as an ongoing creative act, reshaping our lives in alignment with the sacred. - Grace as the Lure Toward Creative Transformation.In process theology, grace is the living presence of God within the human heart, originating in divine love. It is not something necessarily earned or asked for but is freely given—a perpetual act of divine generosity. This grace manifests as a gentle, yet persistent, lure toward creative transformation, calling us to rise above our limitations and co-create with the sacred. Grace is related to restlessness of the heart. In process thought, this restlessness reflects the ceaseless divine call toward deeper satisfaction, harmony, and relationality. This yearning is not a sign of deficiency but of possibility—a mark of our participation in the sacred adventure of becoming.
Conclusion: Beyond the Question of God
While open and relational theologians, including process thinkers, naturally emphasize the importance of understanding God as relational, loving, and responsive to the world, an overemphasis on how a theologian conceives of God can become a preoccupation that limits broader engagement. Augustine’s view of God as changeless and self-contained may seem irreconcilable with the relational God of process theology, but focusing too narrowly on this difference risks missing the depth and breadth of his insights.
There is so much more to learn from Augustine’s reflections on the human heart, memory, time, love, community, peace, beauty, sacred reading, and, for that matter, God as an object of desire discovered through truth, goodness, and beauty. These dimensions of his thought can deeply enrich a process perspective, offering wisdom and inspiration for those who value relationality, creativity, and openness. Augustine reminds us that theology is not only about getting God “right” but also about exploring the complexities of human experience and the ways we are drawn toward the sacred.
For process theologians and others, engaging with Augustine in a spirit of curiosity and appreciation can expand our understanding, not only of theology but of the richness of life itself. His work calls us to move beyond doctrinal boundaries and embrace the possibility of transformation, recognizing that the wisdom of the past continues to illuminate our present and future journeys.
Appendix: Whitehead on Peace
"I choose the term ‘Peace’ for that Harmony of Harmonies which calms destructive turbulence and completes civilization. Thus a society is to be termed civilized whose members participate in the five qualities—Truth, Beauty, Adventure, Art, Peace.
The Peace that is here meant is not the negative conception of anaesthesia. It is a positive feeling which crowns the ‘life and motion’ of the soul. It is hard to define and difficult to speak of. It is not a hope for the future, nor is it an interest in present details. It is a broadening of feeling due to the emergence of some deep metaphysical insight, unverbalized and yet momentous in its coordination of values. Its first effect is the removal of the stress of acquisitive feeling arising from the soul’s preoccupation with itself.
Thus Peace carries with it a surpassing of personality. There is an inversion of relative values. It is primarily a trust in the efficacy of Beauty. It is a sense that fineness of achievement is as it were a key unlocking treasures that the narrow nature of things would keep remote. There is thus involved a grasp of infinitude, an appeal beyond boundaries.
Its emotional effect is the subsidence of turbulence which inhibits. More accurately, it preserves the springs of energy, and at the same time masters them for the avoidance of paralyzing distractions. The trust in the self-justification of Beauty introduces faith, where reason fails to reveal the details.
The experience of Peace is largely beyond the control of purpose. It comes as a gift. The deliberate aim at Peace very easily passes into its bastard substitute, Anaesthesia. in other words, in the place of a quality of ‘life and motion’, there is substituted their destruction. Thus Peace is the removal of inhibition and not its introduction. It results in a wider sweep of conscious interest. It enlarges the field of attention. Thus Peace is self-control at its widest,—at the width where the ‘self’ has been lost, and interest has been transferred to coordinations wider than personality. Here the real motive interests of the spirit are meant, and not the superficial play of discursive ideas. Peace is helped by such superficial width, and also promotes it. In fact it is largely for this reason that Peace is so essential for civilization. It is the barrier against narrowness."
A Scholarly Discussion of
Augustine's Confessions
offered by BBC
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss St Augustine of Hippo's account of his conversion to Christianity and his life up to that point. Written c397AD, it has many elements of autobiography with his scrutiny of his earlier life, his long relationship with a concubine, his theft of pears as a child, his work as an orator and his embrace of other philosophies and Manichaeism. Significantly for the development of Christianity, he explores the idea of original sin in the context of his own experience. The work is often seen as an argument for his Roman Catholicism, a less powerful force where he was living in North Africa where another form of Christianity was dominant, Donatism. While Augustine retells many episodes from his own life, the greater strength of his Confessions has come to be seen as his examination of his own emotional development, and the growth of his soul. With Kate Cooper, Professor of History at the University of London and Head of History at Royal Holloway; Morwenna Ludlow, Professor of Christian History and Theology at the University of Exeter, and Martin Palmer, Visiting Professor in Religion, History and Nature at the University of Winchester. Producer: Simon Tillotson.
LINKS AND FURTHER READING
Kate Cooper at Royal Holloway, University of London
Morwenna Ludlow at the University of Exeter
Augustine of Hippo – website by James J. O’Donnell (University Professor at Georgetown University)
Augustine’s Confessions, translated by E.B. Pusey
Augustine’s Confessions - Wikipedia
READING LIST:
Saint Augustine (trans. by Henry Chadwick), Confessions (first published 1991; Oxford University Press, 2008)
Peter Brown, Augustine of Hippo (Faber and Faber, 2000)
Henry Chadwick, Augustine: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2001)
Gillian Clark, Monica: An Ordinary Saint (Oxford University Press, 2015)
Gillian Clark, Augustine: The Confessions (Liverpool University Press, 2005)
Robin Lane Fox, Augustine: Conversions to Confessions (Penguin, 2016)
Kim Paffenroth and Robert P. Kennedy, A Reader’s Companion to Augustine’s Confessions (Westminster John Knox Press, 2003)
Rowan Williams, On Augustine (Bloomsbury Continuum, 2016)
Kate Cooper at Royal Holloway, University of London
Morwenna Ludlow at the University of Exeter
Augustine of Hippo – website by James J. O’Donnell (University Professor at Georgetown University)
Augustine’s Confessions, translated by E.B. Pusey
Augustine’s Confessions - Wikipedia
READING LIST:
Saint Augustine (trans. by Henry Chadwick), Confessions (first published 1991; Oxford University Press, 2008)
Peter Brown, Augustine of Hippo (Faber and Faber, 2000)
Henry Chadwick, Augustine: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2001)
Gillian Clark, Monica: An Ordinary Saint (Oxford University Press, 2015)
Gillian Clark, Augustine: The Confessions (Liverpool University Press, 2005)
Robin Lane Fox, Augustine: Conversions to Confessions (Penguin, 2016)
Kim Paffenroth and Robert P. Kennedy, A Reader’s Companion to Augustine’s Confessions (Westminster John Knox Press, 2003)
Rowan Williams, On Augustine (Bloomsbury Continuum, 2016)