Two process views of God

Abstract

When one thinks of ‘Process’ Theology, two names almost universally come to mind, the names of A. N. Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne. In the ‘Preface’ to his Creative Synthesis and Philosophic Method, which he published almost twenty-five years ago in 1970, Hartshorne tells us something which is often taken for granted, that ‘the closest parallel to and probably the strongest influence’ on his own philosophy is the philosophy of Whitehead. Despite Whitehead’s being his ‘Closest parallel’ and his ’strongest influence’, Hartshorne immediately adds: However, the doctrine of ‘eternal objects’ has always seemed to me… an extravagent kind of Platonism, a needless complication in the philosophy of process. Then, too, I question if God can be a single ‘actual entity,’ another doctrine which appears out of place in this philosophy. I am puzzled also by talk of ‘earlier’ and ‘later’ phases in the becoming of entities said to be devoid of actual succession. Finally, I explain — some would say explain away — Whitehead’s concept (or metaphor) of ‘perishing’ very differently than some leading expositors do.1