PROCESS

W I N TE R 2 0 17 P R O C E S S P E R S P E C T I VE S PAGE 1
ISSN 0360-618x

PERSPECTIVES
VOLUME 39
NUMBER 2
SUMMER 2017

...A RELATIONAL
WORLDVIEW
FOR THE
COMMON GOOD

NEWS MAGAZINE OF THE CENTER FOR PROCESS STUDIES

IMAGINING A PROCESS UNIVERSITY (6)

M IXED E
MIXED MOTIONS:: TTHE
EMOTIONS HE D
DICTIONARY OF O
ICTIONARY OF B S C U RE S
OBSCURE ORROWS (5)
SORROWS (5)

TTHE
HE C
CALLING
ALLING OF T HE P
OF THE HILOSOPHER (8)
PHILOSOPHER (8)

H
HIGHLIGHTS FROM P
IGHLIGHTS FROM RO C E S S W
PROCESS EEK::
WEEK
CPS
CPS A DVISORY B
ADVISORY O A RD M
BOARD EETING (3)
MEETING (3)
ROCESS-R
PPROCESS E L AT I O N A L T
-RELATIONAL HINKING T
THINKING OWARDS E
TOWARDS C O LO G I C A L C
ECOLOGICAL IVLIZATION (10)
CIVLIZATION ( 1 0)
C O M MO N G
COMMON OOD IINTERNATIONAL
GOOD NTERNATIONAL F ILM F
FILM ESTIVAL (18)
FESTIVAL (14)
N EW F
NEW FRONTIERS IN T
RONTIERS IN HEOLOGY (16)
THEOLOGY (16)

C ONFERENCES (16)
CONFERENCES (16)
SSEMINARS
EMINARS (20)
(20)
IINTERCONNECTIONS
NTERCONNECTIONS (22)
(22)
PAGE 2 P R O C E S S P E R S P E C T I VE S W I N TE R 2 0 17

Process Perspectives CONTENTS

The Newsmagazine of the Center for Feature Articles
Process Studies
...a relational worldview for the common good.
CPS Advisory Meeting Report 3

Congratualtions to Dr. Steve Hulbert 3

Volume 39.2
Summer 2017 The Mixed Emotions of Loving Hearts 5

Editor Imaginary Commencement at an Imaginary Process University 6

Katie Cloward Smith
The Calling of the Philosopher 8
Published by the
Center for Process Studies Building a Sustainable Future with Process-Relational Philosophy 10
1325 North College Avenue
Claremont, CA 91711-3154 Islam as Humanistic and Ecological 12

Individual Annual Subscriptions Events, Conferences & Seminars

USA: $21 Sheri Kling Benefit Concert 13
Elsewhere: $30
US Funds Only Common Good International Film Festival 14

Membership Rates New Frontiers in Theology 16

Subscriptions are included with membership,
along with a subscription to Process Studies — Iqbal and Whitehead: An Islam of Creativity 17
the academic journal devoted primarily to
11th International Forum on Ecological Civilization 18
Whiteheadian thought.
Automation-Caused Massive Unemployment? 20
For more information on membership call:
(909) 447-2533 Confronting Hard Problems of Unified Experience 20
Or visit our website: ctr4process.org
Why Race is More and Less Important Now 20
Email: process@ctr4process.org
Philosophical Foundations of Neurophysiology 21
Co-Directors:
Philip Clayton A New Doctrine of Initial Creation 21
John B. Cobb, Jr.
Monica A. Coleman Interconnections
Roland Faber
Report on the 2016 European Summer School 22
David Ray Griffin
Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki News Bites from Around the World 23
Executive Director: Wm. Andrew Schwartz EcoCiv Summary 24

Affiliations: WRP Update 26

CPS is a faculty center of
Claremont School of Theology Featured Works in Process Thought
and Claremont Graduate University's
Featured Works 28
Department of Religion
Announcements from the Center
Announcements 30

Calendar 30
W I N TE R 2 0 17 P R O C E S S P E R S P E C T I VE S
CPS Advisory Meeting Report
O
By Wm. Andrew Schwartz
n February 16, 2017 a group of about 30 dedicated members
of the process community gathered for a 5 hour advisory
meeting. Whereas previous meetings consisted largely of reports
and breakout groups focused on specific CPS programs, this year’s
meeting was a single group dedicated to open discussion about
the future of the process community and the role of CPS in that
broader picture.
The topic of fundraising was one of the main themes, as
financial sustainability is essential for CPS to continue its work in
the years to come. Yet discussion of finances was very much
connected to strategies for reaching a new generation and a wider
public audience. But while it will be important for CPS to explore
new directions, it cannot be done at the cost of its historical focus
and core mission. The process-relational worldview provides an
alternative framework to the mechanistic and dualistic framework
that dominates most disciplines. As such, it is important that CPS
continue, as it has for the past 45 years, to do constructive and
Congratulations Dr. Steve Hulbert!
O n behalf of the Center for Process Studies, I want to give
a special congratulations to Dr. Steve Hulbert! Steve recently
completed his PhD in Philosophy/Cultural Studies at Claremont
Graduate University, upon successful
defense of his dissertation titled: "From
Humors and Vapors to Words and
Naming: Naturalizing Madness and
Melancholy in Seventeenth-Century
Conceptions of the Mind-Body."
Steve did his undergraduate work at
Pittsburg State University, Pittsburg, KS in
Geography and Philosophy, where he
studied Philosophy under noted
Hartshorne expert, Donald Wayne Viney.
Steve completed an M.A. in Philosophy at
Claremont Graduate University in May
2007. Steve holds a general interest in
traditional approaches to process thought
broadly understood (both East and West)
as well as interests that include aesthetics,
philosophy of place, feminism and gender theory, the postmodern
condition, philosophical approaches to psychiatry, and critical theory.
PAGE 3
critical research on the cutting edges of a vast array of disciplines.
Additionally, many in the process family are increasingly interested
in moving beyond process as worldview, to process as a way of
being in the world. Such a shift in orientation could serve as a
foundation for a new stream of popular (in contrast to purely
academic) process work capable of infusing new life into the
process community.
Perhaps the most important development from this advisory
session was the recognition of all the great things being done
beyond CPS, in the process-relational network. The work of
individuals and organizations that make up the broader process
community is the most promising element for the future of the
process movement. As such, one of the most important duties
of CPS will be to find the best ways to nurture, enhance, and
support the work being done by process friends around the world.
All in all, the advisory meeting was insightful, instructive, and
inspiring. No doubt, the process movement has a strong future
and an important role to play in the days to come. ♦
Steve has worked at the Center for Process Studies for 11
years (beginning in 2005), with a special focus on the Library and
Archives. Though we are sad to loose Steve as a CPS student
worker, we are excited for his future as he enters
the job market "Steve Hulbert, Ph.D." It would be
difficult to overstate how grateful I am for Steve's
decade of commitment and service to the mission
of CPS. It is with Steve's help and expertise that the
CPS library has grown into the world's largest
collection of Process-Relational transdicisplinary
materials, including over 2,400 books, more than
750 dissertations, and over 12,000 articles. His
knowledge of the CPS library and archives is
unparalleled. Join me in thanking Dr. Hulbert for
his contributions to CPS! Correspondence can be
sent to Steve at steven.hulbert@cgu.edu
-Wm. Andrew Schwartz, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Center for Process Studies. ♦
W I N TE R 2 0 17 P R O C E S S P E R S P E C T I VE S PAGE 4
PAGE 5 P R O C E S S P E R S P E C T I VE S
The Mixed Emotions of Loving Hearts
By Jay McDaniel (Reprinted from jesusjazzbuddhism.org)
Wanting the best for all people,
and trying not to hate anybody, but
longing for the clarity of non-violent disaster,
after a glimpse of what might have been,
so that we can start over and grow closer to
love and justice, with no one left behind.
Liberals feel it and conservatives feel it. It is sometimes
disguised as a call for order but really it is a call for chaos and the
moral clarity brought about by chaos. It's a mixed up emotion that
is behind all apocalyptic thinking, ancient and contemporary. Look
for it at your local football game when your team starts losing
badly, and the fans on your side (yourself included) start quietly
rooting for the disaster to be complete and absolute, even though
they have sad looks on their faces, because then, at least, there will
be clarity about winners and losers, and maybe you can start over
the next season. Look for it at political rallies, too.
Its called lachesism and often it is the obverse side of a glimpse
of what might have been but was not: otherwise called a "moment
of tangency."
Lachesism is but one of the words in The Dictionary of
Obscure Sorrows, now online and soon to become a book. It is
created by John Koenig—artist, writer, photographer—and featured
in two TEDtalks. The purpose of the dictionary is to help us find
language for feelings and thoughts that are not yet in the English
dictionary but influential in us all. In many instances he creates
videos to help us understand the feelings and ideas more deeply.
His work enriches several key ideas in open and relational
LACHESISM
For a million years, we’ve watched the sky, and huddled in
fear. But somehow you still find yourself quietly rooting for
the storm. As if a part of you is tired of waiting, wondering
when the world will fall apart—by lot, by fate, by the will of
the gods—almost daring them to grant your wish.
ETYMOLOGY
Greek, from LACHESIS, "the disposer of lots." Lachesis is
the name of the second of the three fates in Ancient Greek
mythology. Clothed in white, Lachesis is the measurer of the
thread woven by Clotho's spindle.
-- John Koenig
W I N TE R 2 0 17
(process) theology. One is that our lives
are a series of unfolding events, each of
which is unique in itself, and at the heart
of each are emotions. Whitehead calls
them subjective forms. Koenig helps us
name the emotions so that we can become
aware of them, share them, and allow
them to be creatively transformed, if
needed.
Another is that we are all connected
one to another, even as we may not know
each other, and that these feelings and emotions are ways that we
are connected. Our feelings are both private and forms of
connection: both at the same time. Put
simply, new words help us get to know
each other and get to know ourselves.
They serve the interests of the deep soul
whose heart beckons us, all the time and in
every way, to become a community of
love. The lure within each of us to find
words, and create them if they do not yet
exist in dictionaries, is one way the spirit
of creative transformation is at work in the world.
And still another is that each moment is unique in itself, and
also an end in itself. John
Koenig calls it Ambedo: a
moment you experience for
its own sake. Whitehead
thinks that our lives consist
of just these moments, some
wonderful, some horrible,
some engaging, some boring,
some asleep, some awake, each unique. He calls them "actual
occasions of experience." John Koenig helps us understand the
emotional dimensions of
many occasions, inviting us to
make words of our own,
because, after all, the
dictionary is by no means
complete. ♦
*More information on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows can
be found at www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com. Videos of
many of the words can also be found on YouTube under the chan-
nel Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. John Koenig's two TEDtalks
are enttled "The Conquest of New Words" and "Deciphering the
Language of Emotion."
W I N TE R 2 0 17 P R O C E S S P E R S P E C T I VE S PAGE 6

Opening Remarks
Imaginary Commencement at an Imaginary Process University

By "The President" (Reprinted from jesusjazzbuddhism.org

We hope Process University has helped you learn how

to reinvent yourself, again and again, while
trusting in the availability of fresh possibilities.

We hope you sense a spirit of creative transformation

at work in the world and in your own life, and that you know
this spirit is on the side of all life, including your own.

We hope you name this spirit in a way that is right for you.
Call it Goodness or Truth or Beauty. Call it Life or God or Love.
If you don't have a name, that's fine, too. We're not picky.

We hope that, as you reinvent yourself again and again, you help bring about
communities that are creative, compassionate, participatory, egalitarian,
humane to animals, and earth-friendly, with no one left behind.

We also hope that you feel a little lost and bewildered,

not sure who you are or where you're going,
as if you are travelling without a compass.

If you think you've found your true self at process university,

and that your life will unfold like a well-rehearsed pageant,
we've failed miserably and we apologize.

If you know that there are parts of you yet to be found,

that some of them are quite beautiful, and
that you can cope with whatever happens,

we've done our job.

W I N TE R 2 0 17 P R O C E S S P E R S P E C T I VE S
Travelling without a Compass
Imaginary Commencement at an Imaginary Process University
By "The Jazz Instructor" (Reprinted from jesusjazzbuddhism.org
I
hope that college has taught you to travel without compass:
to venture into the unknown without knowing what it is and
who you will become. If we have succeeded as teachers, it is not
because we have made you more skilled and knowledgeable; it is
because we have made you more creative and playful. More open
to surprise. Our hope is that you can be surprised by the beauty
of the world, the face of the stranger, the call to justice, the miracle
of friendship, and that you can be surprised by yourself.
To be surprised by yourself is to have faith in yourself. It is
to know that whatever happens in your life, you can re-invent
yourself. In order to have faith in yourself, it helps to trust in the
availability of fresh possibilities. This is the heart of religious faith.
It is to venture into the unknown, without a compass, trusting
that fresh possibilities will come from an eternal Companion, even
though we may not have the foggiest idea what they are. The
Companion is not all-powerful. God can not change the past or
make everything perfect. But God is all-hopeful: a perpetual source
of possibilities for re-invention and creative transformation. This
is why, even if you find yourself without a compass, you can step
forward in faith. Faith in yourself and faith in God are two sides
of the same coin.
In order to travel without a compass you need to cultivate the
art of not-knowing. Sometimes it is good to know who you are,
and sometimes it is good to not-know who you are. At graduation
you may be asking yourself: Who in the world am I, anyway? The
very asking of this question, although painful, is likewise a blessing,
a portal into a more promising future. In the not-knowing there
is an opportunity to explore new possibilities; move past what has
become stale and predictable in your life; and improvise new ways
of thinking and feeling.
It is an illusion to think that we must always be true to ourselves:
as if our selves are reducible the things we've done, the ideas that
PAGE 7
have been important to us, the people we've known, the values
we've held, the concepts we've had of ourselves. Our selves are
also in the future, as yet undetermined. The greater wisdom lies
in being true to the best of who we have been, but also open to
the lure of who we can be, even though we don't know who that
person is. Even God doesn't know. God calls us to improvise our
lives into new forms of selfhood; to re-invent ourselves with each
new situation.
Class Motto:
"Not all those who wander are lost."
—JRR Tolkien,
Lord of the Rings
Graduation is one of these situations. It is a wonderful time
and a frightening time. We are in the situation of the Croatian jazz
musician, Matija Dedic, playing Ni Ti Ni Ja (neither you nor I.)
The notes we play, the sounds we make, are built upon past
melodies, but they also come to us as possibilities from an undecided
future. The possibilities are surprising to us; they are strange; they
are neither you nor I. Still they bring good news. They are saying:
Be not afraid. Step forward. Now is the time to say to the future:
Ready or not, here I come, without having the foggiest idea where
I am going, and glad for the journey.
This gladness, this zeal for life, is a form of faith, too: a faith
in life. To have faith in life is to be in love with the idea of living.
God has this kind of faith. That's why God called into existence
a self-creative universe out of chaos and decided to share in the
journey. We can have this kind of faith, too. We can share in God's
journey. We do so by letting go of the securities of our past and
facing the future with courage, humor, and love. It helps to have
some skills under your belt, too; but they are not essential. We can
acquire them after college. The only compass we really need is love. ♦
*Music for the Graduation Ceremony was provided by
Croatian Jazz Pianist Matija Dedic. His song "Ni Ti Ni Ja"
can be heard at youtu.be/r8rTnYt6fAk.
PAGE 8 P R O C E S S P E R S P E C T I VE S
The Calling of the Philosopher
in Muslim and Christian Perspective
By Farhan Shah and Jay McDaniel (Reprinted from jesusjazzbuddhism.org)
A
Qur'an-inspired philosophy draws upon the root meaning
of the word philosophy: a love of wisdom. Such love does
not begin in a spiritual vacuum. It recognizes that the universe as
a whole, and humans within it,
are gathered into the unity of
tawhid, the unity of God. If
atheism means not believing in
this deeper unity, then a Qur'an-
inspired philosophy is not
atheistic. Nevertheless, a Qur'anic
approach has room for
skepticism. It is skeptical of, and critiques, idols in the imagination
which might be confused with divine unity, and does the same for
idols in the public sphere: money, fame, power, and excessive
authority, including the authority
of clerics. If atheism means
criticizing false gods, then a
Qur'an inspired philosophy, like
a biblical philosophy, carries
within it a spirit of atheism. But
its skepticism is rooted in wonder.
Its posture of skepticism is
adopted in the interests of helping align our hearts and minds
with the tawhid of God, who can never be subsumed by false
gods, inner or outer.
Still there is an inner
dimension to Qur'an inspired
philosophy and, likewise, to
biblically inspired philosophy.
Both recognize that the divine
unity dwells within each of us as
a lure toward understanding and
love, wisdom and compassion.
The unity is not simply 'outside' us as something beyond; it is
'inside' us as a gift from the infinite. The philosopher responds
to the call toward wisdom and indeed loves wisdom as one of the
qualities of the infinite..
Responding to this call is a
creative act, a thoughtful act, and
a loving act. Philosophy is a love
of wisdom.
From a Qur'anic perspective
as from a biblical perspective,
the love is not for wisdom alone
but also for other human beings and the whole of creation. The
Qur'an evokes a sense of a living universe of which humans are
a part: a universe pulsating with action and activity, breathing forth
W I N TE R 2 0 17
its own creative energies as
expressed in the concreteness of
plants, animals, hills, rivers, trees,
stars, and, of course, human beings. Many of the Psalms in the
Bible do the same.
A Qur'an inspired philosophy and a biblically inspired philosophy
begin with this sense of a vibrant
universe worthy of respect and
awe, and of human beings, God's
vicegerents, who are called by God
to care for and protect the earth,
with special care for those who are
vulnerable. Genuine philosophy
loves wisdom, to be sure, and it loves the world, for God's sake.
The act of reflecting upon general principles is a form of vicegerency
and discipleship; and thus, a deeply noble calling. It is a form of faith.
Much of what is called
"philosophy" in the modern
western academy is not
philosophical in this sense. It can
seem to an outsider as if it is an
intramural dialogue among elites
trying to impress one another with
their cleverness, but not overly
concerned with how we live in the
world. And it can get lost in
questions of logical consistency at
the expense of being adequate to experience. This impression
can be mistaken; there may be many exceptions. Still we can
wonder if philosophy has ceased to be philosophical.
Accordingly, as Muslims and
Christians, we look for mentors
who might provide a more viable
and genuine image of philosophy.
Two to whom we turn are
Muhammad Iqbal and Alfred
North Whitehead, whose
philosophies, though difficult to grasp for the "uninitiated", have
profound and practical humanistic dimensions, along with theoretical
dimensions. Their philosophies are a synthesis between theory
and praxis developed by the
refined principle of
interdependence. Both were
holistic in orientation, sensing a
reciprocal relation between what
we do in the world and how we
think. Our doing influences our
thinking and our thinking
W I N TE R 2 0 17 P R O C E S S P E R S P E C T I VE S PAGE 9

influences our doing. The fact

that our thinking influences our
doing means that behind our
"external acts" there is also a
"thought" classified as an
"internal act," i.e., the motives and intentions behind our acts.
Whitehead called them subjective aims.
A healthy philosophy, based on permanent moral principles,
ought to elevate the cognitive
Doctor of Ministry (DMin)
consciousness of humans; that
- Mentoring Doctor of Ministry
is, it should make us more aware
of our thought-processes and
- Doctor of Ministy in Practical Theology of
patterns, thus raising our level Healing, Reconciliation, and Transformation
of self-consciousness as in Korean Contexts
autonomous subjects and "world- - Doctor of Ministy in Spiritual Renewal,
creators." The question of a philosophy`s greatness lies not in the Contemplative Practice and
question, "Is it logically stringent?," rather, the right question to Strategic Leadership (Hybrid/Online)
pose ought to be: "Can I live by it?" Or, "Can I become wiser by it?"
Therefore, philosophy Doctor of Philosophy in Practical Theology
should be a love of that which - Education and Formation
is liveable, humane, tender and - Spiritual Care and Counseling
all-embracing. It should not only
make us clever and Doctor of Philosophy in Religion
knowledgeable, but also wiser - Comparative Theology and Philosophy
and more compassionate in our - Hebrew Bible and Jewish Studies
interpersonal dealings. It should
- New Testament and Christian Origins
activate and consolidate our
- Religion, Ethics, and Society
humane sensibilities and make
- Process Studies
us deeply aware of our sacred
errand on planet Earth.
Therefore, amidst the agents of Master of Divinity
cruelty, chaos, and all that strips human beings of their natural - Ministerial Leadership (On-campus and Online)
rights, the role of the philosopher ought to be to encourage those - Interfaith Chaplaincy
modes of thinking and activity which will protect humanity`s - Islamic Chaplaincy
ontological equality and further
unite us in our common Master of Arts in Religion
humanity. This is one of the - Concentration in Theological Studies
"initial aims" provided by God, - Concerntation in a Theological Discipline
the ultimate source of creative - Concentration in Interdisciplinary/
transformation. And this was Comparative Studies
also the noble earthly mission
of two world personalities whose Master of Theological Studies
lives reflect the highest ideal of
- Spiritual Care and Counseling
a "viable philosophy." that is, a
- Ethics and Social Change
life of profound practical wisdom translated into compassionate,
- Interreligious Studies
kind, justice-based, altruistic and creation-unifying actions: Prophet
Jesus and Prophet Muhammad. It is from them that we also take - Religious Education
our inspiration, peace be upon - Spiritual Formation
both. In fidelity to their witness, - Biblical Studies
we find ourselves beckoned, - Ministry
indeed even called, to engage in - Theology
that deep and promising act:
philosophy. ♦
W I N TE R 2 0 17 P R O C E S S P E R S P E C T I VE S PAGE 10

Building a Sustainable Future with

Process-Relational Philosophy

I
By Wm. Andrew Schwartz
journey at the intersection of process thought and the creation
t’s no secret that we are in the midst of an environmental crisis of a better world.
with potentially catastrophic consequences. As many scholars, Course
activists, change makers, and visionaries are searching for a way participants came
forward toward sustainability, the need for large scale change on from a variety of
a fundamental level is becoming ever clearer. We need a new form backgrounds,
of civilization. We need an ecological civilization. bringing their own
This vision has gained prominence in China, where the search experience and
for a post-modern way of sustainable living has brought many in insights to bear on
conversation with the constructive, postmodern, organic philosophy the course
of Alfred North Whitehead. What is process-relational thinking? content, making it
How can Whitehead’s philosophy help us build a more sustainable a truly mutually
and just world? What might it look like to "put philosophy to beneficial learning Guest lecturers included Philip Clayton
work," toward the creation of an ecological civilization in specific opportunity for (above) and Zhihe Wang (below)
contexts? all. The course
featured top-level
guest lecturers,
including John
Cobb, Philip
Clayton, Zhihe
Wang, and Jay
McDaniel, as well
as a trip to see
ecological
civilization in
action at the
John Cobb delighted the class Uncommon Good site in Claremont.
While the course content focused on the application of process
Over 4 days, a group of more than 10 people gathered for an thought to the ecological crisis, the course experience involved
intensive CPS-sponsored course to explore these questions. The the development of a small community of diverse individuals
course, "Process-Relational Thinking Toward Ecological Civiliz- around a shared vision. If you would like to learn more about
ation," was taught by CPS Executive Director, Andrew Schwartz, process thought and take part in the cultivation of a process
in conjunction with the first annual Process Week (February 13- community, consider joining the 2018 Process Week course next
16). As a dual introduction to both process-relational philosophy February. Details forthcoming. Online participation will be available. ♦
and ecological civilization, the course was an interactive intellectual

Course Participants
PAGE 11 P R O C E S S P E R S P E C T I VE S W I N TE R 2 0 17
PAGE 12 P R O C E S S P E R S P E C T I VE S
Islam as Humanistic and Ecological:
Whitehead, Iqbal, and the Future of Islam
M
By Farhan Shah and Jay McDaniel (Reprinted from jesusjazzbuddhism.org
any Muslims today are trapped between two realities: a
rising tide of Islamophobia on the one hand, and a stagnant,
rule-based version of Islam that inhibits freedom of thought and
creativity on the other. The Islam they know and love is not militant
Islam nor is it the stagnant, legalistic version too often promulgated
by clerics. It is something more dynamic and alive: an ongoing
process of living in the world with a respect for each and every
human being in a humble way and also living with respect and
care for the entire community of life.
It is also an Islam that is
future centered. Islam is not
reducible to the achievements of
the past; instead it arrives in the
human imagination as an invitation
to creativity: that is, to realize the
deepest potentials for fulfillment
that are part of the human
endowment. Muslims who feel the
promise of this humanistic and
ecological Islam believe that that
they have the Qur’an on their side.
The Qur’an itself, when freed from
the shackles of sterile interpretation, points toward a liberating
view of human potential that is respectful of the dignity of each
and every perspective, awed by the beauty of the natural world,
and encouraging of an "integral ecology" that lives with respect
and care for life.
In support of this vision, and as a result of environments
shadowed by fear and suspicion, a growing number of Muslims
are turning to the writings of the spiritual father of modern
Pakistan, Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938). He was a philosopher,
scholar, jurist, social reformer, educationist and didactic poet who,
as it happens, was also an informal student of Alfred North
Whitehead, agreeing with Whitehead that the very energy of the
universe, found in human life and nature, is creative. For Iqbal as
for Whitehead, God works with, not against, this creativity.
Of course for Iqbal as for Whitehead there is more to God
than this working with creativity. There is also a side of God which
is timeless or permanent. Whitehead speaks of it as the primordial
nature of God and proposes that it contains an infinity of pure
potentialities (eternal objects) that can be actualized in the ongoing
history of the universe. They are potentialities for connectedness
and subjective feeling. Relative to given historical situations on
Earth, some are relevant and some are not. According to Iqbal,
as interpreted by Farhan Shah, the potentialities for connection
that are relevant to life on Earth, and adumbrated are those which
foster respect for:
W I N TE R 2 0 17
•the innate dignity of every member of the human
species,
•the inalienable rights of human beings (freedom of
religion/thought/expression, education, shelter,
ontological equality of male and female, socio-
political justice, equality before the law, sufficient
scope for self-actualization and self-determination),
•the preservation of nature, along with humanity`s
organic relation to its natural surroundings.
These are the particular
potentialities toward which we
are lured by God, relative to our
particular social and historical
contexts. They are also those
which help us realize our creative
potential as human beings.
Thus we discern two ways
that a creative Islam will unfold.
One way invites Muslims to
reclaim the idea the purpose of
Islam is to participate in eternal
potentialities residing in the mind
of Allah which lead to gentleness of soul and humane, sustainable
community, with the earth understood as a primordial mosque.
The other invites Muslims to respond to a call from the future,
the call of Allah, as it beckons Muslims to realize their creative
potential for adding beauty to the world, respectful of the dignity
of each person and adding novelty to the world. We might call
these, respectively archetypal Islam and forward-looking Islam.
Muhammad Iqbal is important, among many other reasons,
because, in his joint emphasis on permanence and change, he
encourages both approaches. Whitehead is important because he
provides a conceptual context, complementary to Iqbal, which
helps make sense of the idea that there are, after all, timeless
potentialities in God’s mind (pure potentialities, eternal objects)
and that God calls from the future (initial aims).
The call of God is to creatively participate in potentialities,
some of which have been actualized in the past, in the best of
tradition, and some of which are experienced in human life as
novel possibilities never before realized. One of them, carrying
aspects of both, is the possibility of creating communities that
are creative, compassionate, participatory, multi-cultural, humane
to animals, good for the earth, with no one left behind. With help
from Whitehead and Iqbal we can speak of a kind of Islam that
truly is hopeful, not for Muslims alone, but for everyone and for
the earth. We call it Humanistic, Ecological Islam. ♦
PAGE 13 P R O C E S S P E R S P E C T I VE S W I N TE R 2 0 17

It is a mistake to think of words as primarily the vehicle of thoughts...

The word ‘forest’ may suggest memories of forests; but equally the sight of a forest,

or memories of forests, may suggest the word ‘forest’...

But we do not usually think of the things as symbolizing the words correlated to them...

In general the symbols are more handy elements in our experience than are the

meanings...The same means which are handy for procuring the immediate

presentation of a word to oneself are equally effective for presenting it to another person.

—Alfred North Whitehead

CPS Events

Sheri Kling Benefit Concert

By Wm. Andrew Schwartz

Upon finishing a PhD in religion/theology and process studies

at the Claremont School of Theology (CST), Sheri Kling held a
farewell musical event entitled "Let It Unfold: Songs and Stories
from a Life in Process" as a benefit concert for the Center for
Process Studies. As the concert demonstrated, Dr. Kling is a rare
talent. Kling inspired the audience through song, story, and process
thought. Using only a guitar and a beautiful voice, she told vivid
stories through song--having written most (if not all) of the songs
performed. Kling also shared selected readings from her book
Finding Home.
As advertised, Kling’s musical stylings truly ranged from
"introspective acoustic ballads to more freewheelin’ honky-tonk
throwdowns!" It was a delightful event full of energy. And if fun-
filled entertainment wasn’t enough, Sheri also led the audience in
singing an original song which serves as an engaging musical crash-
course in process philosophy and theology!
Kling is moving to Tennessee to begin working at the University
of the South. Congrats Dr. Kling! ♦
W I N TE R 2 0 17 P R O C E S S P E R S P E C T I VE S PAGE 14

A Film Festival for the

Common Good
Our 16th international film festival introduced decidedly new
elements, at the same time retaining its effectiveness as a program
of the Center for Process Studies and Claremont School of Theology.
What’s new? Our name, for one thing! We inaugurated the
festival in 2002 as a way to make Whitehead’s name and philosophy
known to a wider audience. And in those early days we featured
not only films, but lectures by John Cobb on various aspects of
Whitehead. But over time the festival focused more on the films Opening banquet with special guest Maxime Motte,
themselves. Instead of offering lectures, we asked our audiences, director of the film How I Met My Father.
"how does this film promote or celebrate the common good?" It
seems that our subtitle, “Celebrating Films that Promote the evidence through these wonderful films.
Common Good,” became the best entry for discussing Whiteheadian A fun element was that the audience, the Millennial Jury and
ideas. So this year we reversed our titles, dubbing ourselves, "The the Faith & Film jury all voted for the very same film to receive
Common Good International Film Festival," with a subtitle of the 2017 Whitehead award: the Irish film set in Cuba, Viva. That
‘Celebrating the Wisdom of Alfred North Whitehead.’ We think answered our question about the universality of the films! Viva is
it works! the story of a young man of about 18 in Havana, who has been
Also, we changed our date. For years we had settled on the on his own for most of his life; he earns enough to live by taking
Martin Luther King, Jr. three-day weekend in January. But as our care of the wigs in a transvestite club, but he longs to perform as
host school introduced more and more hybrid classes in the first well: he becomes Viva. His dying macho father shows up, released
weeks of January, they found that they need even the theater to from prison. Through twists and turns, the son, who always thought
accommodate the large classes: we had to move! Luckily, February himself weak, discovers his strength, and his father, who always
offers another three-day holiday weekend, President’s Weekend. thought of himself as tough and strong, discovers his tenderness.
Unluckily, the nearby Claremont colleges also host their Parent’s Through my work on a jury for Filmfest D.C. in April, I have
Weekend on those same dates, which creates a problem with hotels already identified ten films that work perfectly for us in 2017,
for our out-of-area attendees. Nonetheless, it’s not possible to go promising another outstanding year of exploring the common
back to January, so February it is—and to our relief, our audiences good, and connecting it with Whitehead’s passion for the deep
not only held, but actually grew. interdependence that undergirds all existence. Save the weekend:
And we added a new jury! Noticing a lack of young people February 16-19—and make your hotel reservations early!
in our audiences, we wondered if millennials would value the films
differently from our Faith & Film class jurors—voila! The Millennial –Yours for good film AND good philosophy/theology,
Jury joined the audience as a whole and the F&F class in judging Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki ♦
the films.
What has not changed is the
quality of the event. We screened
films from France, Ethiopia,
Poland, China, Italy, Cuba,
Netherlands, U.S., and the Czech
Republic, with settings that
included the war in Afghanistan
and a pilgrimage through the
Himalayan mountains. Subject
matters dealt with migrants,
trafficking, cerebral palsy,
transvestites, native American
issues, cultures in the process of
rapid transformation, and
different forms of spirituality.
The common good was in ample Writer and producer Enrico Tessarin leads
the discussion on his film The Habit of Beauty.
W I N TE R 2 0 17 P R O C E S S P E R S P E C T I VE S
A New Point of View on a Good Story
By Katie Cloward Smith
"This is what you’ll miss. When you get into the real world
and get a job, you won’t get to sit around talking about ideas like
this anymore."
So said my college Hebrew professor to the six of us seated
around a conference table—our class was too small to use one of
the traditional desk-filled classrooms. This President’s Day weekend
I was privileged to again be in a thought-provoking, discussion-
filled, idea-challenging environment: I
was a member of the brand-new
Millennial Jury for the Common Good
International Film Festival. Gathered
around a table in an upper room at the
Mudd Theatre, the six of us (five
millennials and our fearless leader,
Damian Geddry) spent four days
watching and discussing a slew of
films that challenged, inspired, and
confused us.
The idea for the Millennial Jury
was to add new points of view from
the usual attendees of Marjorie
Suchocki’s Faith and Film class. And
new points of view we got. Even
among our own ranks, our differing
backgrounds provided ample
discussion points. We identified with the immigrant, the controlling
spouse, the troubled teen, and the disabled man trapped in his
own mind. We often agreed on what movies were good, but
disagreed about why. At the end of the Festival, though, there was
agreement across the board: Viva, a movie about a young boy in
Cuba struggling with self-expression, acceptance, and family, won
the Whitehead award by a landslide. And rightly so. Viva perfectly
captured the balance between seeking the common good by
sacrificing for others and knowing when to stand up for your own
needs, all while maintaining a vivid, high-quality film experience.
In between the phenomenal feature films, short films like
"D.E.U.S." and "The Seamstress" made us laugh and cry. A personal
favorite of mine was "Light is Calling." Director Bill Morrison
took film from the 1926 movie The Bells that was extremely
damaged, and brought it back to life. But not as a traditional movie.
As I struggled to see through the scars and ash to understand the
original story, I realized that wasn’t the point. The content of the
original film mattered less than the simple fact that it was being
seen again. "Light is Calling" was about giving modern-day audiences
a chance to see a film that hadn’t been seen in almost 100 years.
Combined with an emotive soundtrack, "Light is Calling" is not
so much a film to be watched as an insight to be experienced.
Watching a movie may sound like a relaxing activity, but
PAGE 15
digesting 10 thought-provoking films in 4 days is no simple feat.
Discussions at the Festival required attendees to consider the
implications of common good, sacrifice, and transformation. We discussed
things like "the cost of inflexibility" and "the personal risk of
seeking the common good." And we had our assumptions challenged
by people with different viewpoints. I left the Film Festival reminded
of the value of discussing important ideas with new people,
recommitted to living my best life, and believing that even an old,
broken story is worth telling.
All in all, while certainly not a relaxing weekend, I can think
of no better way to spend a holiday than in such an invigorating
environment. ♦
2017 Awards:
Jury Award for Whitehead Award for Outstanding Achievement:
VIVA (2015) Cuba, Director Paddy Breathnach
Jury Award Whitehead Award for Best Feature Film:
VIVA (2015) Cuba, Director Paddy Breathnach
Millennial Jury Award Whitehead Award for Best Feature Film:
VIVA (2015) Cuba, Director Paddy Breathnach
Audience Award:
VIVA (2015) Cuba, Director Paddy Breathnach
From whiteheadfilmfestival.org:
"Our top choice gives us a film whose artistry in light and
color offer vibrant cityscapes as well as rich internal scenes. The
creative transformations in this film are multiple: A father learns
to own his own weakness, a son learns to own his strength; through
both of these transformations a new family comes into being. But
perhaps the greatest creative transformation occurs in us the
audience, as we see with new eyes a community too often undervalued
and despised. We see instead communal care for one another’s
well being, sensitivity to the human situation and above all, human
dignity. We give the Whitehead award for the common good to
the Irish film set in the Cuban culture: Viva." ♦
PAGE 16 P R O C E S S P E R S P E C T I VE S
Conferences
New Frontiers in Theology
By Chase Kirkham
During the weekend of February 16-18, 2017, prominent
theologians and academics from all over the United States gathered
at the Claremont School of Theology for an ambitious conference
on the future of theology. Entitled "New Frontiers in Theology:
The Most Important Schools and Innovations for the Future of
Theology," this conference ambitiously sought to identify today’s
most important theological frontiers.
Nearly thirty theologians and academics spoke in eight panel
sessions over the weekend. Three of those speakers, John B. Cobb,
Jr., Kwok Pui Lan, and Amos Yong, also delivered the evening
plenary addresses. What was especially noteworthy about this
conference was its interactive format. The Center for Process
Studies is already known for its innovative conferences, one of
the most successful of these being the 2015 conference on ecological
civilization. Whereas academic conferences usually proceed with
a panel of presenters speaking at an audience and then fielding
questions, this conference was discussion centered. Instead of
coming to the conference with a prepared paper, conference
presenters were asked to begin their session by each commenting
on their panel’s topic and the conference goal with a seven- to
ten-minute quasi-impromptu reflection. Prior to the conference,
panelists were given a set of questions that were particular to their
panel. After their reflections, the panel moderator used these
questions to lead a twenty-minute discussion with the panelists
about their topic. Afterwards, the moderator continued the
discussion by inviting the audience to contribute. One of the
successes of this conference was this interactive format that united
presenters and attendees.
Kwok Pui Lan and John Cobb
The first panel, "Public Theologies," featured Brad Artson,
Jeremy Fackenthal, Hamid Mavani, and Joerg Rieger. These panelists
were asked to analyze how the public sphere and theology should
interact. Additionally, they were to consider the opportunities and
W I N TE R 2 0 17
John Cobb delivers the opening address
obstacles for theology today. In "A Rich Past for a Positive Fu-
ture," panelists John B. Cobb, Jr., Gary Dorrien, Paul Knitter, and
Kwok Pui Lan were asked to look back on their careers and reflect
on how contemporary and future theologians could benefit from
the theological developments in the past. Roland Faber, S. Mark
Heim, Jeffery Long, Wesley Wildman, and John Thatamanil spoke
in the "Transreligious Theologies" panel. They were asked to reflect
on the interaction of pluralism and transreligious theologies along
with the possibilities for and challenges in this field. The final
session on Friday included Clayton Crockett, C. Robert Mesle, and
Zach Simpson who spoke on "Materialist and Naturalist Theolo-
gies." These panelists were asked to consider how materialism,
naturalism, and theology interact and whether or not theology is
even needed by these philosophies.
Saturday opened with the "Theology and the Planet" panel.
Presenting on this panel were Catherine Keller, Whitney Bauman,
Philip Clayton, and Jay McDaniel. These panelists were asked to
consider how ecological and planetary issues affect theology as
well as how a planetary theology can engage and interact with
other fields and religions. The "Spirit Centered Theologies" panel
featured Anselm Min, Amos Yong, and Frank D. Macchia. They
were asked to elaborate on the popularity of pneumatology as
well as explain why the human condition seems to be so well
accounted for by a theology of the Spirit. Monica A. Coleman,
Ignacio Castuera, and Timothy Murphy spoke on the "Inter-
sectional and Liberative Theologies" panel. The panelists were
asked to explain how dominant powers and systems are best
critiqued by liberation theology. They were also asked to reflect
on the relationship of intersectionality and theology. The final
panel was entitled "Theological Methods for a Digital Age." Thomas
W I N TE R 2 0 17 P R O C E S S P E R S P E C T I VE S
Jay Oord, Tripp Fuller, and Heidi Campbell discussed how
contemporary theology is affected by digital technology. They
were also asked to consider if a new kind of theology is developing
due to the influence of digital technology.
While the conference has ended, the conversation on new
theological frontiers has not. Conference organizers Philip Clayton
and Andrew Schwartz are currently working with panelists to
develop these important discussions into a book. It is anticipated
that this publication will stand as a benchmark work on the state
of the field for both current and future theologians. ♦
Iqbal and Whitehead: An Islam of
Creativity
By John Becker
On April 1, 2017, the Center for Process Studies held a
conference entitled "Iqbal and Whitehead: An Islam of Creativ-
ity." Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938) was a philosopher, scholar,
jurist, social reformer, educationist and didactic poet who, as it
happens, was also an informal student of Alfred North Whitehead,
agreeing with Whitehead that the very energy of the universe,
found in human life and nature, is creative. The crux of this unique
conference revolved around two papers exploring an Islam of
creativity inspired by Iqbal and Whitehead, and envisioned by
Farhan Shah, a scholar of Islam and process philosophy attending
the University of Oslo, Norway, and Jay McDaniel, professor of
religion at Hendrix College in Arkansas. Farhan Shah's application
of process thought via Muhammad Iqbal's lively intellectual agenda
engendered a relational humanistic vision of Islam, constantly
being reassessed in light of novelty that springs forth from every
moment. One aspect stressed by Shah was reassessing the attributes
of God. Far from being a God of compulsion, he developed a
concept of God built upon a persuasive framework thereby allowing
for human creativity to manifest in response to the divine invitation
in the hope of transforming ourselves and others.
Jay McDaniel's paper explored what it means to be a Christian
"muslim." The inspiration driving this investigation was his
Conference participants
P A G E 17
Speakers Jay McDaniel and Fahan Shah,
and panelists Ignacio Castuera and Ruqayya Kahn
multilayered understanding of what is means to be a Muslim. If,
as McDaniel suggests, being a Muslim may generally be characterized
as one who submits to the guidance of God as revealed through
the prophets, then he is quite comfortable in exploring his Christian
identity as a muslim with a lower case "m." His identification as a
muslim does not merely point to a set of proscriptions to be
maintained, but as one who fully and experientially submits to the
prophet Jesus in navigating the ups and downs of life. These papers
sparked insightful responses from a distinguished panel including
Ruqayya Y. Khan, associate professor and the Malas Chair of
Islamic Studies in Claremont Graduate University’s Religion
Department, Mustafa Ruzgar, associate professor of religious
studies at Cal State University of Northridge, Aslam Abdullah,
Osher Lifelong Learning Center (OLLI), among others. Their
unique responses explored Islamic cosmology, poetry, the varying
socio-political contexts, and other themes that resonated with an
Islamic understanding imbued with a process disposition. The
positive responses from both the panelists and the audience attests
to the importance of Farhan Shah's work in continuing the legacy
of Muhammad Iqbal in envisioning an Islam of creativity. ♦
*More of Shah and McDaniel's discussion on Islam can be found
on pg. 12 and at jesusjazzbuddhism.org.
PAGE 18 P R O C E S S P E R S P E C T I VE S
11th Eco-Forum and Regaining Healthy
Communal Perspectives
By Attila Grandpierre
"And yet the manner of life customary among us has spread
almost every where, and brought about a change for the worse,
effeminacy, luxury, and over-great refinement, inducing extortion
in ten thousand different ways…which may indeed appear to
promote civility of manners, but do doubtless corrupt the morals
and lead to dissimulation." (Strabo: Geography. Transl. by Hamilton,
1854, p.462). Based on such a modernity, the West lost its way.
Illnesses of civilization like greed, corruption, wars, alienation and
narrow-mindedness have increased since then. Time is out of
joint. All coherence has gone. There is no more time to wait since
we have arrived now to planetary limits. This is why the fact that
China has not been blinded by the successes and the failures of
the West, and has decided to build up an ecological civilization is
a welcome turn of historical importance.
The 11th International Forum on Ecological Civilization,
cosponsored by the Institute for Postmodern Development of
China (IPDC), the Center for Process Studies (CPS) and Toward
Ecological Civilization (Eco-Civ), was held on April 28-29 in
Claremont, California and attracted more than 100 participants,
mostly Chinese and Americans.
Patrick Mason, Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities
at Claremont Graduate University, has proposed to go beyond
material self-interests, find deeper understanding and common
solutions. Meijun Fan, one of the main organizers of the conference
and the program director of IPDC as well as the co-director of
the China Project of CPS, in her welcome remarks noted that we
are in an endangered situation, but history has shown that consciously
directing our life is of basic importance, and as even mountains
cannot block the journey of rivers to the sea, the development of
ecological civilization is on its way.
Yuan Li, President of South China Institute of Environmental
Science, Ministry of Environmental Protection, and Xiuyu Zhang,
Vice Director of Center for Ecological Civilization at SCIES,
pointed out in their plenary speech, entitled "Ecological and
Community Shared Destiny," that although there are a great many
different interest groups, faiths, ideologies, and social systems in
the world today, ecological civilization could help us all live together
peacefully and reasonably, keeping in mind our common future
since we and others—including the earth—are one organic
community with a shared destiny.
In his speech, John B. Cobb, member of the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences, emphasized that today we are faced with
vital questions concerning the fate of the community. Humans
and the earth form one intertwined community with a shared des-
tiny. Now, when we are suffering from global problems causing
troubles with our planet, the way out of crisis is to help each oth-
er; people around the world should join hands to build ecological
civilization. In this situation, China's interest in process philosophy
W I N TE R 2 0 17
and ecological civilization is the most hopeful event on this planet.
One factor of the current crisis could be that modernity
alienates us from fully appreciating the communities of life we
live in. In her talk, Mary Evelyn Tucker reexamined the western
understanding of Confucian values of communitarian ethics and
pointed out that a broader understanding that extends to cosmological
foundations is necessary. The cosmological connection grounds
one in communitarian ethics of self, society, and nature. Appreciating
our life and mind as gifts of Heaven, we recognize a natural lead-
ership regarding how to live our life and how to think with our
mind in the natural context of the common good of the Cosmos,
society, and family. We are in genealogical connection with the
living Cosmos. Our cosmic genealogy holds great place among
Confucian values; cosmic filiality was the basis of the Confucian
system of values. This outlook is of primary importance for an
ecological civilization.
In her talk, Wang Ping, Founder and Chairperson of China
Social Entrepreneur Foundation, proposed that we consider social
values among the most fundamental values. The more social values
made prominent and esteemed, the better our conditions to build
a healthier future.
Clifford Cobb pointed out that new cultural norms based on
a constructive postmodern philosophy put modern thought in a
new, critical, and long-term ecological context, one that incorporates
the values of diversity and complexity and the importance of
historically-rooted wisdom.
Dr. Attila Grandpierre outlined a comprehensive scientific
worldview based on the fundamental principle of the Universe,
offering a postmodern science that may serve as one of the most
powerful tools in building up the ecological civilization, the text
of which can be found on his website: www.grandpierre.hu/site/
wp-content/uploads/2012/09/GrandpierreEcoCiv.pdf.
Chunyi Wang, vice president of China Ecological Civilization
Research and Promotion Association (CECRPA), and Yongxin
Jin, Director of Development Department of CECRPA, reported
that more than ten thousand institutes popularize ecological
Attendees of the 11th International Forum on Ecological Civilization
W I N TE R 2 0 17 P R O C E S S P E R S P E C T I VE S
civilization in China. The construction of an "Ecological Civiliz-
ation" has been in the Constitution of China since 2012.
Sharon Snowiss, Professor of Political Studies at Pitzer College
and CGU argued in her speech that our picture about Nature as
a whole determines our picture about mankind and society. This
means that the whole precedes the part in regards to the most
fundamental questions.
Dr. Zhihe Wang, director of IPDC, and director of the China
Project of CPS, pointed out that all of us can change the world.
We do not have to wait for others, or government actions, because
everybody can do something: change himself for the better, develop
an ecological lifestyle and contribute to smaller or larger communities.
He noted that nowadays 7 million students graduate college every
year, and nearly half of those graduates fail to find the kind of
job they thought they would find. Consequently they do not know
what to do and lose direction in life. Moreover, the number of
divorces increases. He suggested "Tongren education" instead of
the American model of a "value free" education is needed—an
education of cultivating students’ ability to break through barriers,
to communicate with others, to get through the great wall separating
learning from life, in order to nurture and transform students’
lives and thus to nurture and transform society. "Tong" here refers
to establishing deep connections with nature, with society, with
practice, with tradition, and with others. Tongren education is an
integrative education, an education of becoming human, a
compassionate education, whose aim is to cultivate problem solvers
as well as empathic persons.
Jay McDaniel shed important light to the human side of the
ecological civilization. Modernity conceptualized our mind as pure
intellect lacking emotions. Such a move alienates ourselves from
our own personal and natural identity. Studies of embodied minds
have shown that thinking includes emotion, intuition, imagination
and empathy. We need emotional intelligence, spiritual literacy and
sensitivity in order to live our life as healthy, non-alienated human
beings. These constructive postmodern skills are developed most
effectively from early childhood within our families; such education
lasts a lifetime.
He Xianglin and Jiang Li from Hubei University, China,
reported that in 2015, China decided to make the values of
ecological civilization become mainstream. Ecological civilization
is defined, in short, as controlling the relationship between the
population, resources and environment in a moderate range to
keep society developing in a healthy, orderly and sustainable way.
The four levels of these mainstream values are, in respect to their
priority order, truth seeking (top value), resources saving and
environment protection, green economy, and, fourthly, ecological
excellence and sustainable development.
The ancient traditions of each of China’s nationalities include
highly useful knowledge and wisdom helpful for building an
PAGE 19
ecological civilization. As Zhou Hong from Yunnan University,
China, mentioned, almost all ethnic groups have the tradition of
deeply adoring Nature, of revering life as a kind of original religion
standardizing human behavior. This is also important in protecting
biodiversity. Unilateral liberalism that ignores vital long-term
interests and values endangers our common future. Learning from
ancient wisdom may be very helpful. In Sandu Shuizu autonomous
county of Guizhou province, according to the village rules, any
villager who cuts the trees in Fengshui Forest will be fined 100
RMB yuan, 100 kg of meat, and 100 days of work as a forest
guard. This can be understood as an ecological obligation and
ecological justice. Ancient wisdom differs from modern "value-
neutral" knowledge, which can usually serve harmful aims at least
as much as good ones, in that it teaches us that all knowledge
should be utilized for the sake of life, humanity and Nature.
Philip Clayton has worked out the theory of the Common
Good Principle stating that political power should be used for the
good of society to secure consistency with long-term needs of
life on this planet. In this regard, too, it is worthwhile to keep in
mind the wisdom of some of the Native peoples in North America:
act today such that the seventh generation after you (your great-
great-great-great-great grandchildren) will prosper. Our best
interests and values are the ones that make our life more meaningful,
joyful, and good, and all these connect us with the community of
all life. Even as individual persons it is better, healthier, and more
beneficial for us to develop harmony with our communities and
Nature. Organic thought understands our life as profoundly
intertwined with Nature, rich in reciprocal relations.
As Jia Weilie enlightened us, the idea of "sustainable devel-
opment," when conceived within the conceptual framework of
modernity, is a mistaken attempt to amend the old-fashioned
industrial civilization that should instead be replaced by green
development as conceived within the conceptual framework of
ecological civilization. Only such an ecological green development
can guide us towards the long-term harmony of civilization and
Nature as a primary commitment.
In her closing speech, Meijun Fan called attention to the
importance of keeping practice and vision in balance. When
someone gets too much into practice, the vision may be lost. We
need profound vision to serve as a long-term guiding principle in
our daily activities, otherwise we may get lost, as so frequently
occurs in societies dominated by modernity.
Qiuhua Chen, Professor and Dean of Fujian Agriculture and
Forestry University concluded with the following touching words:
while the conference participants proposed different points of
view, and the understandings of ecological civilization by the
Western and Chinese scholars are also diverse, we can sense
something in common among us: an enthusiasm, a passion for
creating an ecological civilization. That provides us with hope. ♦
Attila Grandpierre, Ph. D., astrophysicist is the retired senior research
fellow of Konkoly Observatory of the Hungarian Academy of
Sciences, working on the comprehensive scientific foundation for the
ecological civilization; he is also a musician, writer and speaker.
PAGE 20 P R O C E S S P E R S P E C T I VE S
Seminars
Automation-Caused Massive
Unemployment?
By Vern Visick
Dr. George Strawn, a longtime associate of the Center for
Process Studies, gave an excellent lecture on developments in the
area of information technology and their meaning for our common
life.
After updating the audience on advances in information
technology presently taking place or in the works, Strawn turned
to the ethical implications of these developments.
In his opinion, matters of personal privacy and information
security have become increasingly important in the last few years,
and it is not surprising that they have become matters of public
debate on the current political scene. In the long run, however,
the more important impact of developments in information
technology may well be in the area of robotics, with the resulting
phenomenon of technological unemployment.
Technological unemployment is already an important matter
in the area of industrial production, with a resulting negative
impact on the lives of working class Americans. Furthermore,
information technology is becoming increasingly important in the
service and educational sectors of our economy, thus potentially
posing a threat to the lives of middle-class Americans who
disproportionately work in these areas.
(In the discussion following Strawn's lecture, it was mentioned
that a computer has already been programmed to engage in
Rogerian-style therapy, thus involving a machine in the sacred per-
son-to-person relationship once thought impervious to the invasion
of mechanical devices. The ethically amazed individual can only
ask: what next?)
Strawn's session ended with a discussion of the prospects for
a guaranteed annual income (GAI). A guaranteed annual income
was first proposed as a possibility in the late 1960s during the
Nixon administration, with support from the economist Milton
Friedman. More recently, it has been advocated by a number of
thoughtful technological leaders, including Elon Musk. Might the
GAI be a topic for a future Center for Process Studies seminar?
Confronting Hard Problems of Unified
Experience
By John Quiring
Professor Eric LaRock gave a CPS seminar titled "Confronting
Hard Problems of Unified Consciousness" on March 8, 2017.
LaRock is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Oakland University
and Affiliate Faculty at the Center for Consciousness Science,
University of Michigan. He studies problems at the intersection
W I N TE R 2 0 17
of philosophy of mind and neuroscience, such as the hard problem
of consciousness, the relationship between persons and brains,
neural binding and the unity of consciousness, the nature of agent
causation, and free will.
LaRock began by reminding us that neuroscience indicates
that properties of an object are represented in separate areas of the
brain. Yet these representations of an object’s properties come
together as a single, unified object of experience. These observations
raise questions about the unity of experience. How do properties,
like shape, color, and motion, appear to be a single, unified object,
if such properties are said to correlate with activity in different parts
of the brain’s visual cortex? Again, how do an object's properties
appear as a single, unified object over time, if its properties are
correlated with distributed and transient neuronal activities? How
can our experience of what LaRock labels “diachronic object
unity” be possible—from the standpoint of neurology—since
experience of "a property-unified object" persists beyond the immediate
neuron-firings?
LaRock then took the problem from the other side—that of
subject unity. How could phenomenal properties correlated with
different modalities of the brain explain subject unity? How does
a the ‘singularity’ of an experience relate to the modalities of the
brain? He noted a subject’s "point of view" as a "singularity" in
relation to the object’s phenomenal properties. There might be
properties of hearing (e.g., music) or of vision (e.g., a falling star)
that together are part of a total experience.
LaRock suggested that mechanisms such as "neuronal synchrony
and attention" may be components, but don’t provide a complete
answer. He concluded by proposing a nonreductive
hypothesis—emergent subject dualism—which is a species of
naturalistic dualism. On this view, as the brain generates phenomenal
properties of an object, it also generates a subject that binds those
properties across "its brain’s" modalities. Thus, a subject’s relation
to phenomenal properties makes an explanatory difference to the
unity of experience across modalities of its brain.
Why Race is More and Less Important
Now: Eco-villages and the Resisitance
Movement
By John Cobb
Thandeka's workshop/seminar ended up on a somewhat
different topic from the expectations aroused by the title. She calls
her position "affective theology," and her talk developed that
thinking in relation to the issues she sees us working with. This
makes for a challenge to our accustomed way of thinking and acting.
Affective theology might be described as theology that takes
subjective feelings seriously, indeed, as primary and decisive. Liberal
W I N TE R 2 0 17 P R O C E S S P E R S P E C T I VE S
Protestants and many others have good goals and values, but by
neglecting affects they lose out to others. When they gather in
worship, they are presented with good ideas, but the flow of the
service does not move them emotionally in a coherent and effective
way. Indeed, they are critical of those who appeal directly to the
emotions. Thandeka wants us to use the power of worship to
shape and move our feelings to make the experience of worship
deeply satisfying and effective.
Music is the language of emotions and should play the primary
role. However, her point is not that we should change our musical
styles to others that are attractive to youth. Her point has to do
with the flow of emotion within the service. This can be done for
different groups of people with different styles of music.
Since many younger people are turned off by "worship" and
"church," we need to find other ways for building healthy communities
among them. Thandeka believes she can contribute to this by
using music in much the same way among others that she advocates
for liberal Protestants. This can contribute to the development of
urban eco-villages.
Philosophical Foundations of
Neurophysiology: Interoception &
Whitehead's Modes of Perception
By Thandeka
Jesse Bettinger translated a set of Whitehead’s key claims
into contemporary neuroscientific terms through accompanying
use of a geomodal logic.
This translation process proved that Whitehead was not
only prescient to the neurovisceral axis qua perception and
interoception, but also explained why this complex axis must
be given a full account. Whitehead, of course, could only go
so far in his analysis because his inchoate neuro-conceptual
insights were decades ahead of his times. Bettinger showed us
how to complete this process Whitehead began.
The translation project’s key terms are listed below:
Namely, his three-fold logic of perception re: causal efficacy, presentational
immediacy and symbolic reference; plus propositions and conceptual reversion.
As well as positive/negative contrasts, initial aim, prehension, concrescence,
satisfaction, superject and objective immortality.
The key to this entire project was Bettinger’s delineation of
interoception, defined as the differential awareness of physiological
changes in the body, underwriting perception, affect, emotion and
intuition.
A lively discussion ensued as John Cobb, Jr., Philip Clayton
and Thandeka explored with Bettinger the differences between
"experience" and "awareness" in the systems of Whitehead and
Most CPS seminars are available to view via our webiste. Simply go to ctr4process.org/publications/audio-video
PAGE 21
various neuroscientific perspectives. Of critical importance here
was the discussion of whether Jaak Panksepp’s distinction between
affective experience and cognitive awareness could be explained
in terms of Whitehead’s notions of causal efficacy and presentational
immediacy. More discussion is required here. But a firm foundation
was established for this work, thanks to Bettinger’s keen delineation
of the anatomy of the brain in neuroscientific and Whiteheadian
terms.
A New Doctrine of Initial Creation
By Wm. Andrew Schwartz
Thomas Jay Oord is perhaps the leading figure in Open-
Relational Theology. On April 18, Oord challenged us with his
unique open-relational theology of creation, in a CPS seminar
titled: "A New Doctrine of Initial Creation." With a room full of
students, faculty, and community members at Claremont School
of Theology, and a large group watching online via Facebook Live,
Oord proposed an alternative to the traditional Christian doctrine
of creatio ex nihilo. He argued that the idea of creation out of
nothing has little, to no, biblical support, and that the doctrine
mistakenly supports a view of omnipotence that makes the problem
of evil unsolvable. According to Oord, creation out of nothing
implies a unilateral act of God that would require coercive, not
cooperative, power. In short, if God could act unilaterally to create,
then God should also have the capacity to act unilaterally to prevent
innocent suffering today. And since God’s nature is love, God
should want to prevent innocent suffering. Therefore, Oord argues,
the doctrine of creation out of nothing runs contrary to God’s
nature as love, and God’s power as persuasive.
Alternatively, by beginning with an open-relational view of
God as love, Oord develops a new doctrine of creation. He
proposes that God does not create the world out of nothing, but
out of the stuff of previous creations—a cooperative process of
co-creation all the way down. This, Oord argues, is an explanation
of creation that retains God’s nature as love because God’s power
is persuasive and not coercive, which means God is not culpable
for the problem of evil.
Oord’s seminar is an extension of the work he developed in
his award-winning book The Uncontrolling Love of God where he
argues that "God can’t" do certain things because God is necessarily
limited by God’s own nature, which is love. The Facebook video
of this seminar has already received more than 1600 views—a
testament to Oord’s creative constructive theology and his ability
to present complex ideas in an accessible way.
*Watch the Facebook recording of Oord’s seminar here.
More of Oord's commentary on creatio ex nihilo and his alternative
theory of creation can be read on his blog at thomasjayoord.com. ♦
PAGE 22 P R O C E S S P E R S P E C T I VE S W I N TE R 2 0 17

Interconnections
Conference Report on the
4th European Summer
School in Process Thought,
2016
The 4th European Summer School in
Process Thought of the European Society for
Process Thought took place in Sofia, Bulgaria
August 1-6, 2016. Host and organizer of the
conference was Prof. DSc. Vesselin Petrov, vice
director of the Institute for the Studies of
Societies an Knowledge at the Bulgarian
Academy of Science and executive director of
the International Process Network. The
Philosophy Department at the University St.
Kliment Ohridski kindly provided the
beautiful, historical conference room of the
university council, in which the conference
took place.
The tight schedule from Monday morning
August, 2016: The Fourth European Summer School
till Friday afternoon and the (necessarily
consistent) moderation of Vesselin Petrov allowed a total of five teaching and learning in accordance with process thought.
lectures, five seminars, and 13 presentations to be held. The lectures, Due to the common schedule and shared meals, the group
which would start every day with an extended presentation, were of conference participants was soon acquainted with each another,
held by Maria-Teresa Teixeira, Marcus Ford, Michel Weber, Helmut which led to interesting and ever-changing conversation topics
Maassen, and Franz Riffert. Overall the presenters represented an and partners throughout the week. With the number fluctuating
international assembly of universities from—in order of around twenty it was possible to share thoughts and ideas with
everyone at some point of the week. The discussions after the
presentations as well as during breaks were especially rich, due to
the large range of ages and levels of academic experience; hence
there was—to speak with Whitehead—enough "freshness of liv-
ing" from younger scholars balancing out the "order and precision"
emerging from decades of experience.
The conference also contained room for a member’s meeting

appearance—Portugal, UK, Poland, Bulgaria, USA, Germany,

Belgium, Ukraine, and Austria. Whilst the superordinate topic of
this conference was the application of Process Thought to the
field of Education, the approaches which were presented offered
a wide variety of different emphases and foci, ever enriching the
issue in question from different perspectives. Amongst the variety
of presentations, recurring sub-topics ranged from metaphysical
and ontological investigations via more general perspectives on
education and the role of aesthetics to empirical questions of
PAGE 23 P R O C E S S P E R S P E C T I VE S W I N TE R 2 0 17

News Bites from Process Around the

World

of the European Society for Process Though, in which Helmut
Maaßen was reelected president of the society, and a meeting to
plan the next European Summer School, which will presumably
take place in Budweis, Czech Republic. For those who could stay
until Saturday a delightful day excursion to the famous Rila
Monastery added some cultural background from our host country
and concluded this intense, but rich and insightful week.
Africa
Dr. Fr. David Ongombe continues the work of process in
Africa. Alongside teaching his Whiteheadean lessons to two classes,
he has given three public presentations. The first presentation
concerned a kind of synthesis of comparison between Whiteheadean
and François d’Assise Intuitions, the next addressed
panexperientialism and paranormal phenomenon in the African
Context, and the last introdced Process Thought as a post-modern
paradigm for a “non-violent society.” In addition to these activ-
ites, the construction work of the CESUR center is ongoing.
Ongombe is Professor of Philosophy and Theology at the Catholic
University of Congo and National Pedagogic University in Kinshasa.
China
Last year Sheri Liao celebrated the 20th anniversary of the
Global Village of Beijing NGO and was named one of 2016
China's top ten social workers and 2016 China’s top ten society
promoters for her work. This year she launched LOHO Academy,
a community-based institution which aims to train personnel for
building LOHO communities and promoting ecological civiliza-
tion. The Academy, of which John B. Cobb was named honorary
president, held a successful training in March at Qufu, the homet-
own of Confucius.

USA
We at CPS would like to acknowledge the work of Anne
Pomeroy, contributor to Socialism in Process and President of the
Stockton Federation of Teachers at Stockton University in New
Jersey. She has been working tirelessly in the fight for a fair con-
tract after years of pay freezes, cost increases, and expired contracts.
Keep up the good work, Anne! ♦

Philosophy begins in wonder.

And at the end when philosophic thought has done its best
the wonder remains.
—Alfred North Whitehead
PAGE 24 P R O C E S S P E R S P E C T I VE S
Summary of Activity for EcoCiv
By Trisha Famisaran
Claremont Energy Vision EcoCiv led an event titled Claremont
Energy Vision on April 13, 2017 on the campus of Harvey Mudd
College. The convening  was co-sponsored with partners Claremont
Home Energy Retrofit Project, Inc. (CHERP), the Hixon Center for
Sustainable Design at Harvey Mudd College, and the Environmental
Analysis program at Pomona College. Using the framework of the
pressing crisis and the need to move toward an ecological civilization,
the event featured CHERP’s "Claremont Locally Grown Power"
project as a case study in local sustainability efforts. Featuring speakers
who were among local leaders and politicians, government officials
and advocates, business executives and cutting edge researchers, the
conversation welcomed the audience into learning about the exciting
work being done in their own backyard. Following time to interact
with questions, the audience was invited to engage the speakers in
informal discussions of how the aspects of the project work together
and opportunities moving forward.
Instead of focusing on a singular and compartmentalized
issue, Claremont Energy Vision demonstrated how both EcoCiv
and CHERP aim to bridge "silos" by integrating the critical elements
of job creation, local economic stimulus, economic social justice,
and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. Through the expert
speakers, the discussion began to construct the groundwork for
a grassroots movement. There was unanimous agreement across
federal, state, and city leaders that local communities are the true
catalyst for instituting an ecological civilization – working within
a "bottom-to-top" paradigm empowers citizens and subsequently
local officials, allowing them to diffuse the efficient and replicable
CHERP innovations from city-to-city.
Ongoing Dialogue with Local Entities Sustainable Claremont, a
local non-profit organization, and EcoCiv have collaborated on
several events for the Sustainability Dialog Series, a monthly meeting
sponsored by Sustainable Claremont, Claremont Heritage, the League
of Women Voters, the Interfaith Sustainability Council, and Pomona
College. EcoCiv participated in "Seeds of Hope" on April 17, 2017,
discussing education and the environment, brainstorming ways for
the local community to support the school district in infusing
environmental education into the curriculum. EcoCiv also participated
in "Permaculture in an Urban Context" on Monday, May 1, 2017,
which featured Larry Santoyo, a Permaculture Design teacher and
practitioner for over twenty-eight years. EcoCiv also joined the
Sustainability Dialog Series for "Where’s It All Heading?" on June
5, 2017. EcoCiv President Philip Clayton summarized initiatives,
nationally and internationally, that are now bringing to light what an
ecological society will look like.
11th International Forum on Ecological Civilization EcoCiv co-
hosted the 11th International Forum on Ecological Civilization on
April 28-29, 2017 in Claremont, California along with the Institute
W I N TE R 2 0 17
for Postmodern Development of China and the Center for Process
Studies. The theme was "Ecological Civilization and Community of
Shared Destiny" and speakers included John B. Cobb, Jr., Sharon
Snowiss, Ping Wang, Mary Evelyn Tucker, Yuan Li, Philip Clayton,
Cliff Cobb, Eugene C. Hargrove, and others. More information
about the International Forum for Ecological Civilization meeting
series is available at www.postmodernchina.org. (A summary of this
event can also be found on pg. 16.)
Divestment A Divestment Convening on May 18, 2017 explored a
shift of values at the intersection of sustainable investing and higher
education. When business executives, grassroots organizers, scholars,
and community leaders brainstorm together, they discover ways to
build productive partnerships, find common cause, and begin to
develop concrete plans that coordinate across the whole range of
society. This convening, initiated and hosted by EcoCiv, brought
together institutions that have already reached the decision to divest
with other leaders who work in roles that help achieve these goals.
Conversation partners at the invitation-only meeting represented
Pitzer College, Grinnell College, the Intentional Endowment Network,
the Divestment Student Network, the Office of the Chief Investment
Officer for the University of California Regents, and the Evangelical
Lutheran Church of America’s Division of Education. Together,
they shared commitments to developing action plans and searched
for positive impacts at the college and university level. A follow-up
convening is being planned for Fall 2017.
EcoLabs What does an ecological civilization look like? EcoCiv
features ecological laboratories—EcoLabs—on its website in an
attempt to answer this very question, and to highlight the ways
concrete action is being implemented all around us. Studying ongoing
projects and emerging organizations, telling their stories and describing
innovations, is an important step in creating new partners and
nurturing important conversations. EcoCiv is in the process of
documenting these models of on-the-ground-action in the following
areas: agriculture, business, economy, education, eco villages, and
energy. But these are not the only ecological laboratories. A new
ecological civilization is being born in many places around us. Share
your own story with us and with the world.
Visit www.EcoCiv.org for more information and to learn
about upcoming events. ♦
PAGE 25 P R O C E S S P E R S P E C T I VE S W I N TE R 2 0 17
W I N TE R 2 0 17 P R O C E S S P E R S P E C T I VE S
A
By Joseph Petek
fter more than ten years of work, the Whitehead Research
Project has produced the first volume in the Edinburgh
Critical Edition of the Complete Works of Alfred North Whitehead:
The Harvard Lectures of Alfred North Whitehead, 1924-1925: Philosophical
Presuppositions of Science, edited by Paul Bogaard and Jason Bell. We
think it entirely appropriate to mark the occasion with a conference
that will explore this volume’s significance.
The 9th International Whitehead Research Project Conference
will be held in Claremont, California from November 30th –
December 2nd, and is titled "Whitehead Revealed: Examining
Whitehead’s First Year of Harvard Lectures." Convened by the
co-editors of the Critical Edition, the conference will gather leading
Whitehead scholars from North America and Europe and invite
them to engage in a critical discussion of the significance of
Volume 1, especially what this newly discovered material reveals
about the received interpretation of the meaning and genesis of
Whitehead's thought. For instance, do these materials confirm
Lewis Ford's compositional thesis or challenge it? What is revealed
by Whitehead's drawings of actual occasions and other concepts?
What should we make of concepts and terms that were introduced
in these lectures but were never incorporated into subsequent
publications?
PAGE 26
Our hope is that this conference will help to demonstrate the
importance of this volume and future volumes of the Critical
Edition of Whitehead, as we believe that they can and should
become new centerpieces for discussion among Whitehead scholars.
In the meantime, the other volumes of the Critical Edition
remain in process. George Lucas and Brian Henning continue to
work on editing student notes from 1925–27, while materials for
a third volume covering 1927–29 have only recently been turned
over to co-editors Helmut Maaßen, Dennis Sölch, and Aljoscha
Berve. Materials for a fourth volume currently slated to cover
1930–33 are still being transcribed, and include notes from W.V.O.
Quine.
An important date for the Critical Edition is fast approaching.
Harvard holds Whitehead’s grading notebook, which—besides
the ultimately unimportant grades themselves—of course includes
a list of the students who attended Whitehead’s classes (at least
for those who were officially registered or officially auditing).
Access to the notebook is restricted until June 30th, 2017—eighty
years after Whitehead’s retirement following the Spring 1937
semester. Our hope is that the list of names will help us to locate
even more original materials.
Finally, a book based on papers delivered at the 7th International
Whitehead Research Project Conference has entered the final
stages of proofing and indexing, and should be released before
the end of the year. Co-edited by Roland Faber, Jeffrey Bell, and
Joseph Petek, it will be published by Edinburgh University Press
with the title Rethinking Whitehead’s Symbolism: Thought, Language,
Culture.
Digitizing, transcribing, and editing these exciting original
materials is time-consuming and resource-intensive. If you are
able to support the Edition through a financial contribution, it
would be most appreciated. Consider donating today to support
this important work: whiteheadresearch.org/forms/donate.php. ♦
Joseph Petek studied Philosophy of Religion at the University of
Chicago, and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Process Studies at
Claremont School of Theology.He is WRP's Chief Archivist, Assistant
Series Editor for the Critical Edition of Whitehead, and English
Coordinator for the Balkan Journal of Philosophy.
W I N TE R 2 0 17 P R O C E S S P E R S P E C T I VE S PAGE 27

&

&
PAGE 28 P R O C E S S P E R S P E C T I VE S W I N TE R 2 0 17

Featured Works in Process Thought

The Harvard Lectures of Alfred North Whitehead, 1924-

1925: Philosophical Presuppositions of Science
By Paul A. Bogaard and Jason Bell, eds
Edinburgh University Press, 624 pages (February 2017)

Beginning in September of 1924, Alfred North Whitehead presented a regular course of 85

lectures which concluded in May of 1925. These represent the first ever philosophy lectures he
gave and capture him working out the philosophical implications of the remarkable turns physics
had taken in his lifetime. This volume finally recreates these lectures by transcribing notes by W. P.
Bell, W. E. Hocking and Louise Heath taken at the time – many of which have only recently been
discovered and including hundreds of sketches of Whitehead's blackboard diagrams. This is a
unique insight into the evolution of Whitehead’s thought during the months when he was drafting
his seminal work, Science and the Modern World.

•Includes transcriptions of the lecture notes, a chronology, over 300 line

drawings of Whitehead’s blackboard sketches, a bibliography of referenced
works and an index to the lectures
•Gives an overview of the content of the 85 lectures
•Clarifies how these lectures represent Whitehead’s philosophical insights
•Describes the circumstances that preserved the three sets of notes

This is Volume 1 of The Edinburgh Critical Edition of the Complete Works of Alfred North Whitehead ♦

New Cover, Timeless Wisdom

Replanting Ourselves in Beauty has a new cover, with another one of Tom
Oord’s stunning landscape photos. In the midst of challenging events
consider the advice of author Patricia Adams Farmer and “take a
beauty break” with these eloquent essays.

New Spanish Edition

Organic Marxism, by Philip Clayton and Justin Heinzekehr, is now available

to Spanish readers. Translated by Gorgias Romero, Marxismo Orgánico has
two new prefaces by Whiteheadian scholars Xavier García-Raffi and
Tobies Grimaltos.
W I N TE R 2 0 17 P R O C E S S P E R S P E C T I VE S PAGE 29

Socialism in Process
By Justin Heinzekehr and Philip Clayton, eds
Process Century Press, 262 pages (March 2017)

Is it finally time for a broad-based socialist movement in the United States?

This collection of essays envisions an alternative economic system that preserves democratic, pluralistic values
while avoiding consumerism and wealth disparity. Drawing on classic socialist texts such as Marx’s Capital, as
well as the ecological philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead, the authors explore the merging features of a
distinctively American socialism. Both theoretical foundations and practical applications are considered. In
particular the authors demonstrate the strong and tragic connections between contemporary capitalism and the
global climate crisis. ♦

The Becoming of God: Process Theology, Philosophy, and

Multireligious Engagement
By Roland Faber
Wipf and Stock Publishers, 256 pages (April 2017)

How should we believe in God today? If we look beyond our little lives to the vast cosmos, we may even ask:
Why all that? And even if we spiritually feel the universe: Why believe any religion? After all, there are many; and
haven't they contributed to the predicament of humanity? Process theology gives provocative answers to these
questions: how we are bound by the organic cycles of this world, but how in this web of life God shines even in
the last, least, and forgotten event as the Eros of its becoming and as its mirror of greatness; why anything
exists: because it is from beauty, for harmony and intensity, and through a consciousness of peace rising from
our deepest intuitions of existence. We can change: not only in our thoughts and lives, but even in the way we
experience this world. This book introduces such a new way of experiencing, thinking, and living. Based on the
fascinating work on cosmology, religion, and civilization of Alfred North Whitehead, this book develops the
main theses of process theology and elucidates it as a theopoetics of mutual care for the unexpected, the
excluded, the forgotten, and a future society of peace. ♦

The Philosophical Foundations of Ecological

Civilization: A Manifesto for the Future
By Arran Gare
Routledge, 260 pages (April 2017)

How should we believe in God today? If we look beyond our little lives to the vast cosmos, we may even ask:
Why all that? And even if we spiritually feel the universe: Why believe any religion? After all, there are many; and
haven't they contributed to the predicament of humanity? Process theology gives provocative answers to these
questions: how we are bound by the organic cycles of this world, but how in this web of life God shines even in
the last, least, and forgotten event as the Eros of its becoming and as its mirror of greatness; why anything
exists: because it is from beauty, for harmony and intensity, and through a consciousness of peace rising from
our deepest intuitions of existence. We can change: not only in our thoughts and lives, but even in the way we
experience this world. This book introduces such a new way of experiencing, thinking, and living. Based on the
fascinating work on cosmology, religion, and civilization of Alfred North Whitehead, this book develops the
main theses of process theology and elucidates it as a theopoetics of mutual care for the unexpected, the
excluded, the forgotten, and a future society of peace. ♦
PAGE 30 P R O C E S S P E R S P E C T I VE S W I N TE R 2 0 17

Announcements from the Center

11th International Whitehead Conference

will be at the University of the Azores
July 25-28, 2017

Hosted by the University of the Azores, the 11th International Whitehead Conference
will address the topic Nature in Process: Novel Approaches to Science and Metaphysics.

Discount on airfare available through SATA: 75% off for conference registrants
Late Registration begins June 1

More information and registration can be found on whitehead2017.com

Call for Papers

The Society for the Study of Process Philosophies is issuing a call for papers
for its meeting at the APA-Pacific convention in San Diego from March 28-April 1, 2018.
Papers can be in any area of process thought.

Please submit papers or abstracts by August 31, 2017

to Daniel Dombrowski at ddombrow@seattleu.edu.

Calendar

June 5-8: Process Summer Institute
The Process Theology Summer Institute is a 4-day intensive
course designed to introduce basic issues in the theory and
application of process theology. Courses will be taught by Mon-
ica Coleman, Wm. Andrew Schwartz, and Herbert Robinson Marbury.
September 11-13: The Francis Effect: Living in Harmony with
Creation
Co-sponsored by EcoCiv and Oblate School of Theology,
The Francis Effect: Living in Harmony with Creation conference
will focus on implementation of the Pope’s encyclical Laudato Si’.
The conference will be held at Oblate School of Theology in San
Antonio, Texas.
November 30-December 2: WRP Conference
The 9th International Whitehead Research Project Conference
will gather leading Whitehead scholars from arond the world to
engage in a critical discussion of the significance of Volume 1 of
the Edinburgh Critical Edition of the Complete Works of Alfred
North Whitehead: The Harvard Lectures of Alfred North Whitehead,
1924-1925: Philosophical Presuppositions of Science, edited by Paul
Bogaard and Jason Bell.
We continually update our calendar with new events. You can
find out what is happening by going to our website ctr4process.org,
liking our Facebook page, or following us on Twitter @ctr4process. ♦
Please send correspondence to:
Center for Process Studies
1325 North College Avenue
Claremont, California 91711
Telephone (909) 447-2533
W I N TE R 2 0 17 P R O C E S S P E R S P E C T I VE S PAGE 31

Make checks payable to CST/Center for Process Studies and mail to: Center for Process Studies, 1325 North
College Avenue, Claremont, CA 91711. U.S. dollars only, and drawn on a U.S. bank, please. VISA and Master-
Card are also accepted.

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 The Center for Process Studies
c/o Southern California School of Theology
1325 North College Ave
Claremont, California 91711-3154

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OUR PURPOSE...
The Center for Process Studies seeks to promote the common good by means of
the relational approach found in process thought, which emphasizes the reality of
becoming and change over static being. Process thought helps to harmonize moral,
aesthetic, and religious intutions with scientific insights, grounds discussion between
Eastern and Western cultural traditions, and brings issues of human justice together
with a concern for ecology.

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