Open Horizons

Photo: Susannah Stubbs

Windows

into an open and relational (process)
outlook on life and way of living in the world

subjects

Art, Music, and Literature

Reflecting on Big Questions

Spirituality and Practice

Whitehead's Philosophy

Social Justice and Economics

God and Panentheism

Mysticism: Eight Forms

Miscellany for the Curious Mind

Process and Buddhism

Ecological Civilization

Interfaith Explorations

Science: Biology and Physics

East-West Explorations

Animals and Spirituality

Transpersonal Psychology

Process in China

Mental Health

People's Stories

Food and Food Culture

Film Reviews: Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

writers

Are you an artist? You might be interested in the becomings collective: the artistic wing of Open Horizons. With a webpage of its own, becomings is a new platform for emerging artists interested in the intersection of art and spirit, and dedicated to sharing in spiritual, emotional, intellectual and social growth. becomings is for emerging poets, artists, photographers, musicians of all ages. The deadline for submitting to the first issue is August 5. See: www.becomingscollective.org

Photo: Susannah Stubbs

new to the process world?

here are some pages that will help you get started

Relationships as the Spiritual Web of our Lives (Frederic Brussat)
Twenty Key Ideas in Process Thinking (Jay McDaniel)
A Whole Universe of Stories (Patricia Adams Farmer)
Beauty as a Spiritual Home (Patricia Adams Farmer)
The Numinosity of Rocks (Patricia Adams Farmer)
Whitehead, Jung, and Psychospiritual Wholeness (Sheri Kling)
Whitehead Video Series (video series for people serious about reading Process and Reality)
The Constellation of Process Theology (Bradley Artson)
God Almighty? No Way! (Bradley Artson)
Can a Muslim be a Panentheist? (Farhan Shah)
Whitehead's Theory of Value (John Cobb)
Emotional Intelligence and Embodied Wisdom: The Spiritual Side of Process Thinking
The New Process Theology: International, Multireleligious, Practical, Theopoetic (Jay McDaniel)
Building Ecological Civilizations: The Practical Side of Process Thinking
China's Ecological Civilization: Our Common Great Opportunity (Zhihe Wang)
A Biologist Looks at Process Thought (Charles Birch)
Comparing Whitehead and Chinese Thought (Jay McDaniel)

Photo: Susannah Stubbs

most recent posts

updated July 30, 2019

click here for more

Process Theology and Parkinson's Disease (video by Valerie Graham, commentary by Jay McDaniel)
Michaelene Miller: Process, Frisbee, and Prayer (video by Michaelene Miller)
Mitzvot from the Planet: Process Theology and Food (Jay McDaniel, Lealah Rosen)
How the Local Food Movement Can Transform Race Relations in America
"C" is for Compassion (Patricia Adams Farmer)
"D" is for Devotion (Patricia Adams Farmer)P
"E" is for Enthusiasm (Patricia Adams Farmer)
"F" is for Faith (Patricia Adams Farmer)
Perpetual Wonder as a Spiritual Virtue (Vivian Dong)
My Father (아빠): Filial Piety and a Daughter's Love (Jea Sophia Oh)
Time for Ilhan: Film Review
The Korean Haegum (奚琴) and Spirituality (Jea sophia Oh)
The Divinity of Rice (Jea Sophia Oh)
Chinese Tea Leaf Eggs: Sharing Recipes as an Open and Relational Practice (Vivian Dong, Jay McDaniel)
Relational Power in a Multi-Polar World (Les Muray)
Facing the Future Without Fear (Jonathan Sacks, Lexie Burleson)
In Praise of Earthism: Some Idolatries are So Much Better than Others (Jay McDaniel, John Cobb)
Hot-and-Dry Noodles in China: Where Whitehead's Philosophy Meets Chinese Food Culture (Xie Bangxiu)
Listening to Detained Migrant Children: Participating in God's Aims (NY Times video and commentary)
"O God of Love, Did You Have a Bad Week?" Request for a Hymn with this Title
Process Theology for Teens and Young Hearts (Kidspirit, Mister Rogers)
Give Us This Day our Daily Rage: A Nation Addicted to Anger
Islam and Christianity on Psychological Well-Being (Farhan Shah, Jay McDaniel)
Buffalos, Butterflies, and Borders (Teri Daily)
Revaluing the Values of Science, Religion, and Education (John B Cobb, Jr.)
Love in the Messiness of Real-Life Relationships (Teri Daily)
Eight Kinds of Mysticism (Jay McDaniel)
Sex Trafficking in the US: Review of "Skin in the Game"
Goodbye, Earth: The Failure of "Adults" to Care for the Planet (NY Times video and commentary)
"P" is for Play (Patricia Adams Farmer)
Neanderthal Pulsewave: Cradle of the Horizon (Primitive Motion)
Yes to Sex, Yes to Intimacy, and No to Pornography (Farhan Shah, Jay McDaniel)
Process Theology and Multifactorial Healing (Bruce Epperly)
Extravagant Colors as Healing Spaces: The Art of Marilyn Biles (Marilyn Biles)

Photo: Susannah Stubbs

an interfaith spiritual alphabet

For us "spirituality" is embodied cognition and emotional intelligence in everyday life. In the wheel of spirituality below, you will find thirty seven qualities of heart and mind that are part of spirituality. We borrow the list from one of our partner organizations: Spirituality and Practice. In the essays on the left, Patricia Adams Farmer and Jay McDaniel offer interpretations of some of the letters.

Photo: Susannah Stubbs

more about the website and community

Our format is varied. Some pages are scholarly, some popular, some text-based, some image-based, some long, some short. Some feature music and short videos. We like variety and believe in many ways of knowing.   We think there is much to learn from images and sound as well as text.

We are multi-religious in the broad sense.  We write for people who are religious, non-religious, and anywhere in between. We are interested in people who belong to faith traditions and also in people who are "secular" and "spiritual but not religious." We know that all can partake of the Open Horizons attitude.

We have two educational aims. We want to help introduce open and relatiional (process) outlooks on life to people unfamiliar with them, and we want to explore ways in which that outlook can be extended to heretofore under-addressed by process thinkers, including popular culture.

We want to be all-age-friendly.  We hope that most of what we publish is intelligible and interesting to non-specialists and we are especially interested learning from emerging generations.

We like the word "spirituality" even as we know it is problematic.  We think of spirituality, not as escape from the world or a separate compartment of life, but as embodied wisdom and emotional intelligence.  Spirituality consists of qualities of heart and mind. We work closely with an organization called Spirituality and Practice, which offers a "spiritual alphabet" we find immensely helpful. See below.

We want to become more diverse as a community. Our community now includes friends in different countries (China, Norway, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, for example) but we know we are limited. We are workiing on that, too.

We add new content all the time (almost every day).

Photo: Susanna Stubbs

ecological civilizations

the social ideal of Open Horizons

Ecological civilizatons are the world's best hope. We humans live within, not apart form, a larger web of life filled with value and beauty. Our responsibility is to care for the larger whole and for one another. The building blocks of ecological civilizations are local communities that are creative, compassionate, participatory, inclusive, diverse, humane to animals, good for the earth, and spiritually satisfying -- with no one left behind. The social aim of process thinkers is to help build these kinds of communities. Here are some links to get started:

Ecotheology in Theory and Practice (Jay McDaniel)
Three Needs: Organic Worldviews, Creation Stories, Creative Local Expressions (Mary Evelyn Tucker and others)
The Radical Vision of Ecological Civilization (Andrew Schwartz)
Five Foundations for an Ecological Civilization (John Cobb)
Ten Ideas for Saving the Planet (John Cobb)
Economic Justice and Process Philosophy (John Cobb and others)
China's Ecological Civilization (Zhihe Wang)
A Call to Deeper Places: The Owl as My Teacher (Nita Gilger)
Goodbye, Earth: The Failure of "Adults" to Care for the Planet (Patricia Adams Farmer)

Photo: Susannah Stubbs

interfaith cooperation

growing in religious literacy and
engaging in interfaith cooperation
as an open and relational practice

We encourage growing in religious literacy as a beginning, but not an end, to what is most important: interfaith cooperation.
We in the "process" world believe that friendships with people of other faiths, combined with joint projects aimed at helping bring about just, sustainable, and joyful communities, are what is most important.

Still, a degree of religious literacy is very important and a worthy aim. Very few people in the world are religiously literate in a complete sense; the very process of growing in such literacy is a lifelong endeavor and, for some, a spiritual practice. Let this page help you take first steps.

Click on the links to the left and you will be taken to the best resource you can find for understanding the world's religions today: On Common Ground from The Pluralism Project at Harvard University. These are the multiple "faiths" which can be an important part of a relational culture and community. Process philosophy offers a way of appreciating the best in each tradition and articulating the traditions from the inside, by those who practice them.