Religion without a personal God
The Non-Theistic Strand of Process Theology
The multi-religious network Process and Faith relies upon the Harvard Pluralism Project's approach to religious diversity for its own understanding of faith. The Pluralism project lists seventeen paths of faith in the United States today, among which are Humanists. For the folks at Harvard and for Process and Faith, humanists include atheists and agnostic and also, importantly, some who call themselves eco-humanists. Eco-humanists take the natural world, humans included, as the framework for understanding faith. Some may find it meaningful to speak of nature itself as God while others avoid the word God altogether, because it so often suggests images of a being, a cosmic Person, separate from nature. When understood in this way, the "faith" of a humanist and eco-humanist is a religion without a personal God. Of course, this person's faith is personal, but here "personal God" means "connected with images of God as a cosmic Person."
To the seventeen paths of faith identified by Harvard, Process and Faith adds two more categories: Spiritual Independents who have no religious affiliation and Interfaith, consisting of people with multiple-religious identities or with no affiliation but for whom interfaith groups themselves function as a form of religious community. Many but not all spiritual independents likewise find something special, something sacred, in nature itself but are agnostic about a personal God. They, too, have religion without God. The hope of Process and Faith is that its network might be a home for all who are committed to the common good of people, animals, and the earth: theists, non-theists, agnostic, atheists, panentheists, monists, non-dualists, deep ecologists, and those who are none-of-the-above.
Within the world of process theology, one of the early leaders and mentors was Henry Nelson Wieman (1884-1975). He was an American philosopher and theologian. He became the most famous proponent of theocentric naturalism and the empirical method in American theology and catalyzed the emergence of religious naturalism in the latter part of the 20th century. His grandson Carl Wieman is a Nobel laureate, and his son-in-law Huston Smith was a prominent scholar in religious studies." (Wikipedia). In this essay C. Robert (Bob) Mesle explains Wieman's critique of Whitehead's concept of God. In Process and Reality Whitehead presented God as the mind of the universe (primordial nature) who lures creatures toward whatever well-being is possible in the situation at hand and as the heart of the universe (consequent nature) who lovingly receives all living beings with a "tender care that nothing be lost." This is a view of God that has shaped so much theistic process theology and which resonates with much of what is called "open and relational" theology, as developed by folks at the Center for Open and Relational Theology.
Wieman felt that this view of God was unnecessary to Whitehead's view of the universe and that, religiously speaking, it lapses into 'a merely pleasant idea of God which refused to face the cruel facts of reality" (Mesle, below).
Seeking a more honest understanding of the world and religious life, Wieman rejected this way of thinking about God and helped inaugurate a non-theistic understanding of religious life, sometimes called "religious naturalism." Religious naturalism of Wieman's kind represents one of three strands of process tradition in the past century: a speculative strand which is theistic or panentheistic (John Cobb, Marjorie Suchocki, David Griffin, Patricia Adams Farmer, Thomas Oord, Bruce Epperly and many others; a rationalist strand which is often represented by Charles Hartshorne's approach to God; and an empirical strand for which Henry Nelson Wieman, Bernard Meland, and Bernard Loomer are representative, along with, more recently, Bob Mesle and Terry Goddard,
The empirical strand can be described as non-theistic insofar as it rejects the image of God as a separate mind of the universe and as a loving consciousness of the universe. It may reject the image altogether or, as in the case of Goddard, be agnostic about the existence of such a God. It can alternatively be described as naturalistic, insofar as it uses the word "God" to name the creative process of the universe itself. See Bernard Loomer's idea that "the world is God," for example.
Truth be told, there are many forms of religious naturalism, of which the non-theistic alternative is but one. David Ray Griffin, for example, speaks of his own theistic approach as religiously naturalistic. And I think that the idea of a Love by which all things are gathered together, akin to Whitehead's notion of the consequent nature, is empirically based, especially when various forms of religious experience are included within what counts as empiricism. Moreover, when you consider traditions such as Daoism and Pure Land Buddhism, theistic Hinduism and many indigenous traditions, it seems to me that many forms of religion are "naturalistic" even as they include belief in spirits, ancestors, and a cosmic spirit. Along with Whitehead, I prefer a wide view of "empiricism."
Still, I want to honor and make sure space is provided for those like Goddard who are agnostic on the issue and also those who reject the image of a separate God altogether. A non-theistic form of process theology is certainly meaningful and important to many in the process tradition. They share with theists an organic understanding of the universe and human life, a commitment to compassionate communities and ecological civilizations, and an emphasis on practices such as deep listening, inter-faith dialogue, and working to create multi-faith communities that are good for all and grateful for differences.
This essay by Bob Mesle offers a helpful and evocative explanation of Wieman's version. For more on the non-theistic approach, see also Eight Great Ideas by Bernard Loomer, many essays in Open Horizons by Bob Mesle, and Terry Goddard's The Open and Relational Agnostic.
- Jay McDaniel, 11/16/2021
To the seventeen paths of faith identified by Harvard, Process and Faith adds two more categories: Spiritual Independents who have no religious affiliation and Interfaith, consisting of people with multiple-religious identities or with no affiliation but for whom interfaith groups themselves function as a form of religious community. Many but not all spiritual independents likewise find something special, something sacred, in nature itself but are agnostic about a personal God. They, too, have religion without God. The hope of Process and Faith is that its network might be a home for all who are committed to the common good of people, animals, and the earth: theists, non-theists, agnostic, atheists, panentheists, monists, non-dualists, deep ecologists, and those who are none-of-the-above.
Within the world of process theology, one of the early leaders and mentors was Henry Nelson Wieman (1884-1975). He was an American philosopher and theologian. He became the most famous proponent of theocentric naturalism and the empirical method in American theology and catalyzed the emergence of religious naturalism in the latter part of the 20th century. His grandson Carl Wieman is a Nobel laureate, and his son-in-law Huston Smith was a prominent scholar in religious studies." (Wikipedia). In this essay C. Robert (Bob) Mesle explains Wieman's critique of Whitehead's concept of God. In Process and Reality Whitehead presented God as the mind of the universe (primordial nature) who lures creatures toward whatever well-being is possible in the situation at hand and as the heart of the universe (consequent nature) who lovingly receives all living beings with a "tender care that nothing be lost." This is a view of God that has shaped so much theistic process theology and which resonates with much of what is called "open and relational" theology, as developed by folks at the Center for Open and Relational Theology.
Wieman felt that this view of God was unnecessary to Whitehead's view of the universe and that, religiously speaking, it lapses into 'a merely pleasant idea of God which refused to face the cruel facts of reality" (Mesle, below).
Seeking a more honest understanding of the world and religious life, Wieman rejected this way of thinking about God and helped inaugurate a non-theistic understanding of religious life, sometimes called "religious naturalism." Religious naturalism of Wieman's kind represents one of three strands of process tradition in the past century: a speculative strand which is theistic or panentheistic (John Cobb, Marjorie Suchocki, David Griffin, Patricia Adams Farmer, Thomas Oord, Bruce Epperly and many others; a rationalist strand which is often represented by Charles Hartshorne's approach to God; and an empirical strand for which Henry Nelson Wieman, Bernard Meland, and Bernard Loomer are representative, along with, more recently, Bob Mesle and Terry Goddard,
The empirical strand can be described as non-theistic insofar as it rejects the image of God as a separate mind of the universe and as a loving consciousness of the universe. It may reject the image altogether or, as in the case of Goddard, be agnostic about the existence of such a God. It can alternatively be described as naturalistic, insofar as it uses the word "God" to name the creative process of the universe itself. See Bernard Loomer's idea that "the world is God," for example.
Truth be told, there are many forms of religious naturalism, of which the non-theistic alternative is but one. David Ray Griffin, for example, speaks of his own theistic approach as religiously naturalistic. And I think that the idea of a Love by which all things are gathered together, akin to Whitehead's notion of the consequent nature, is empirically based, especially when various forms of religious experience are included within what counts as empiricism. Moreover, when you consider traditions such as Daoism and Pure Land Buddhism, theistic Hinduism and many indigenous traditions, it seems to me that many forms of religion are "naturalistic" even as they include belief in spirits, ancestors, and a cosmic spirit. Along with Whitehead, I prefer a wide view of "empiricism."
Still, I want to honor and make sure space is provided for those like Goddard who are agnostic on the issue and also those who reject the image of a separate God altogether. A non-theistic form of process theology is certainly meaningful and important to many in the process tradition. They share with theists an organic understanding of the universe and human life, a commitment to compassionate communities and ecological civilizations, and an emphasis on practices such as deep listening, inter-faith dialogue, and working to create multi-faith communities that are good for all and grateful for differences.
This essay by Bob Mesle offers a helpful and evocative explanation of Wieman's version. For more on the non-theistic approach, see also Eight Great Ideas by Bernard Loomer, many essays in Open Horizons by Bob Mesle, and Terry Goddard's The Open and Relational Agnostic.
- Jay McDaniel, 11/16/2021