From Marcus and Sandra Lubarsky from Flagstaff College
Everything is interconnected.
Everything has value.
There is a profound relationship between beauty, creativity, and life.
Nature is not lifeless, insentient matter and reality is not fundamentally mechanistic.
Reality is emergent, evolutionary, creative, and social.
We live in a world of feeling beings in responsive relation to each other.
All beings aim to enjoy the vividness of life.
II.
From Jay McDaniel
Everything is in process; reality is flowing; nothing ever stays the same.
All things are interconnected; no human is an island; things are present in one another even as they have their autonomy.
The whole of nature has value; all live beings deserve respect; human beings are not the sole repository of value.
Human beings find happiness in sharing experiences with others; there are no isolated egos; all selves are selves-in-relation; humans become whole through reciprocity.
The essence of the universe is a continuous creativity of which all things are expressions; there is creativity in plants and animals, hills and rivers, trees and stars.
All beings seek harmony as their guiding ideal; harmony includes differences; the whole of the universe is a harmony of harmonies.
Thinking and emotion cannot be sharply separated; mind and body are not two; even thinking is a form of feeling; aesthetic wisdom and rational inquiry are complementary.
Every moment of human experience begins, not with projecting things onto the world or even acting in the world, but with feeling the presence of the world and being affected by it.
III.
From Lynn De Jonghe combining elements of the previous two
Everything flows–reality is a process; nothing ever stays the same.
The process of reality is creative, emergent, evolutionary, and social.
There is a profound relationship between creativity, beauty, and life.
All life deserves respect. Everything is connected; nothing in nature stands alone.
Thinking and feeling are connected; mind and body are not separate entities; aesthetic wisdom and rational inquiry are complementary.
Human experience begins by feeling the presence of the world and being affected by it.
Human happiness involves sharing experience with others and responding in harmony to these relationships.
Harmony includes differences as well as similarities; the entire universe is a harmony of harmonies.
IV.
one more from Jay McDaniel
Every moment in a person's life is an act of improvisation: creating something new out of a settled past.
Improvisation goes all the way down into the depths of matter.
We live in a universe of inter-becoming; each event in the universe carries the influence of, and influences, all the others.
The building blocks of the universe are moments and relationships -- not 'things.'
Each and every living being is a subject of its own life and not just an object for others, with intrinsic value.
Injustice lies in denying the value of other lives, other subjects; and it harms all involved.
Our human calling is to enjoy life as best we can and to help build communities that are creative, compassionate, participatory, multicultural, humane to animals, and good for the earth, with no one left behind.
As we seek to fulfill this vocation, we are beckoned by the ideal of Beauty: harmony and intensity of experience. Sensitivity to Beauty includes awe and wonder, zest for life, love, and meaning-making.
This ideal of Beauty, and its inwardly felt beckoning toward the fullness of life for each and all, is how Deep Listening of the universe -- God -- is present continuously in life on earth and the entirety of the cosmos.
Visual Snapshots
created by Susannah Stubbs
please copy and share any as desired no need for permission or citation
“Open and Relational Theology” is an umbrella label under which a variety of theologies and believers reside. This variety shares at least two ideas in common:
God experiences time moment by moment (open)
God, us, and creation relate, so that everyone gives and receives (relational)
Most open and relational thinkers also affirm additional ideas, such as the idea love is our ultimate ethic, creatures are free at least to some extent, all creation matters, life has purpose, genuine transformation is possible, science points to important truths theology needs to incorporate, and more." (the Center for Open and Relational Theology)
Today process theology is being developed by people of many faiths: Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Unitarian Universalist, and Nones who are "spiritually interested but not religiously affiliated," for example. Process theology is one form of open and relational theology. The Center for Open and The video below offers an excellent introduction to God as understood by those at the Center and many process theologians.
God in Whitehead's Process and Reality
Some process philosophers and theologians draw heavily on Whitehead's understanding of God in Process and Reality. The diagram below offers six "Whiteheadian" approaches. Some entail seeing God in personal terms and some in transpersonal terms.