Ch. 5 The Quest (continued)
Process Theology & Theistic Existentialism
Having wrestled with several of the great issues of the philosophy of religion, I cast my sights on two occasions when philosophy and religion seemed to merge. Like chocolate and peanut butter, I hoped these mergers would taste great and that, at very long last, I would have found that solid foundation that I had been desperately seeking.
Process Theology
“Every act leaves the world with a deeper or a fainter impress of God.” (Alfred North Whitehead, Religion in the Making) In process theology, God was not omnipotent or the source of creation. I was comfortable with God's possessing only the power of persuasion and not the power of coercion since I believed that God chose to give up power for the sake of our freedom. I did think of God as the source of creation and for that reason found the cosmological argument for God's existence to be persuasive but I was willing to entertain the possibility that the universe was eternal and needed no creator. The “process” in process theology referred to God's interacting co-creatively with a constantly changing, free-willing universe. So far so good, but I was a little nervous about where this might be heading. Process theologians believed in a dipolar God with a changing aspect that co-created with humans and an unchanging aspect not affected by humans. Now, we had traveled a bridge too far. There was something in me that was strictly monotheistic so this dipolar idea did not sit well but I was even more troubled by the idea that our decisions affected the nature, or part of the nature, of God. If anyone had asked me, which they never do, I would have suggested changing the “process” in process theology to refer to the process by which we come to better know God. I believed in a God who invited us to come in closer, to find out more, to better live out God's love, and in so doing to better love God. I believed that process was ongoing and creative but moved toward a God that was eternal. The process was our movement toward this eternal truth and love. God's participation was the invitation that kept on inviting.
Theistic Existentialism
"In the midst of our lives, of our freedom and our struggles, we have to make a radical, absolute decision... whether we have the absolute faith and trust to say yes." (Karl Rahner, Foundations of Christian Faith) Philosophical existentialists emphasized the importance of free individual choices in creating one's authentic life. Many philosophical existentialists chose not to believe in God but they did not concern me much at this time in my life when my desperate focus was to better understand God so I could build a stronger foundation. Soren Kierkegaard, a very famous theistic existentialist, chose to take a completely irrational leap of faith to God but I did not believe that God wanted me to abandon my brain so I did not concern myself much with Kierkegaard. I was willing to leap but my leaping would be transrationally beyond reason rather than irrationally against reason. Beyond reason meant that I might still be in the process of rational understanding but rational understanding still seemed possible. Against reason meant that reason had defeated faith but you were going to believe anyway which was a very, very dangerous precedent to set and certainly failed to reach the standard of the categorical imperative: "Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law." (Immanuel Kant, The Metaphysics of Morals) Did we really want to live in a world where everyone held on to whatever irrational belief they wanted to without any possibility of reasonable discussion? No, I, for one, did not and why would God have created such a system. Yes, God was a transrational mystery toward which I continually strived but did not wholly comprehend; but, I had not encountered a challenge to God which laid me flat so I kept on keeping on.
Theistic existentialists believed that the choice to believe or not believe in God would color the lens through which we would then interpret the world. Faith was a commitment to live in accordance with an attitude of trust or assent to God. Paul Tillich believed that the life of faith involved the passionate asking of the question of the meaning of existence and that God was the Ground of Being. Martin Buber viewed the God-human dialogue as the ground of all dialogue between human beings. Gabriel Marcel believed that a life of engagement with the Mystery called God would lead to a life lived with hope. Like the process theologians, Karl Jaspers stressed that Truth was always on-the-way but that expectant search was what made us fully human. I liked the theistic existential attitude. I felt at ease with Tillich, Buber, Marcel, and Jaspers; however, I thought they were describing a manner of relating to God rather than a solid something on which I could build my foundation. I still had not found what I was looking for.
