Process philosophy of religion

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‘Process philosophy’ here refers to the movement that has Alfred North Whitehead at its center, with William James and Charles Hartshorne as the main predecessor and successor, respectively. It is a philosophy of religion primarily by virtue of seeking to show how religion and science can be fused `into one rational scheme of thought’.1 Process philosophy of religion is often called ‘process theology’, but this latter term can also refer to the use of Whiteheadian categories for articulating the doctrines of a particular religion. To speak of process philosophy of religion is to refer to process theology insofar as it is a ‘natural theology’ discussing general ideas that could in principle be employed by the theologians of all religions. To make this distinction does not imply, however, that process philosophy is a ‘natural’ theology in the sense of occupying a neutral standpoint superior to the standpoints of all the particular religious traditions. When this question is in view, process philosophy must be called a Christian natural theology,2 to acknowledge the vision of reality by which it is shaped. It is, nevertheless, a philosophy, or a natural theology, because it bases its truth-claims not on the authority of any putative revelation but solely on the general philosophical criteria of adequacy and self-consistency.