God in Process Thought: A Study in Charles Hartshorne’s Concept of God

154 Pages·1985·3.091 MB·English

by  Santiago Sia (auth.)

GOD IN PROCESS THOUGHT
STUDIES IN PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION
1. FREUND, E.R. Franz Rosenzweig's Philosophy oj Existence: An Anal
ysis oj The Star of Redemption. 1979. ISBN 90 247 2091 5.
2. OLSON, A.M. Transcendence and Hermeneutics: An Interpretation oj
the Philosophy oj Karl Jaspers. 1979. ISBN 90 247 2092 3.
3. VERDU, A. The Philosophy oj Buddhism. 1981. ISBN 90 247 2224 1.
4. OLIVER, H.H. A Relational Metaphysic. 1981. ISBN 90 247 2457 O.
5. ARAPURA, J.O. Gnosis and the Question oj Thought in Vedanta. 1985.
ISBN 90 247 3061 9.
6. HOROSZ, W. and CLEMENTS, T. Religion and Human Purpose. 1985.
ISBN 90 247 300b 7.
7. SIA, S. God in Process Thought. 1985. ISBN 90 24731038.
GOD IN PROCESS THOUGHT
A Study in Charles Hartshorne's Concept of God
SANTIAGO SIA
with a postscript by
CHARLES HARTSHORNE
1985 MARTINUS NIJHOFF PUBLISHERS ...
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Sia, Santiago.
God in process thought.
(Studies in philosophy and religion; v. 7)
Bibliography: p.
1. Hartshorne, Charles, 1897- --Theology.
2. Cod--History of doctrines--20th century. I. Title.
II. Series: Studies in philosophy and religion
(Martinus Nijhoff Publishers) ; v. 7.
B945.H354S5 1985 211 84-22686
ISBN-13.978-94-009-5069-6
ISBN-13: 978-90-247-3\56-5 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-009-5069-6
DOl: 10.1007/978-94-009-5069-6
Copyright
© 1985 by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht.
Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1s t edition 1985
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of
the publishers,
Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, P.O. Box 163, 3300 AD Dordrecht,
The Netherlands.
DEDICATION
To my wife,
MARIAN
a source of joy,
a reason for hope,
and
a constant inspiration
VII
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Abbreviations ix
Introduction
Part I
Hartshorne's Approach
1. The Religious Term "God" 9
I. Religion as Source 9
II. "God" in Religion 12
2. Hartshorne's Method 19
I. Metaphysics 19
II. Our Knowledge of God 26
Part II
Hartshorne's Concept of God
3. God's Reality 35
I. God's Perfection 35
II. God's Relativity 38
III. God's Absoluteness 42
IV. The Law of Polarity 46
V. Existence and Actuality 49
4. God's Knowledge 57
I. The Divine Attributes 57
II. Knowledge 58
III. God's Concrete Knowledge 60
IV. Divine Knowledge and Time 62
V. Omniscience and Infallibity 67
5. God'sPower 73
I. Creativity 73
II. Supreme Power 77
III. Panentheism 85
6. God's Goodness 91
I. God's Love 91
VIll
II. The Problem of Evil 96
III. Immortality 101
Concluding Remarks 111
Postscript by Charles Hartshorne 113
Selected Bibliography 125
Index 149
IX
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
Reference to Hartshorne's books will be made by means of an abbreviation
(see below) followed by page numbers. His articles and other writings will be
cited by their full titles and page references. Details regarding these publica
tions are given in the bibliography.
PPS - The Philosophy and Psychology of Sensation, 1934
BH - Beyond Humanism: Essays in the New Philosophy ofN ature, 1937
MV - Man's Vision of God and the Logic of Theism, 1941
DR - The Divine Relativity: a Social Conception of God, 1948
WMW - Whitehead and the Modern World: Science, Metaphysics, and
Civilization, Three Essays on the Thought of Alfred North
Whitehead, 1950
RSP - Reality as Social Process: Studies in Metaphysics and Religion,
1953
PSO - Philosophers Speak of God, 1953
LP - The Logic of Perfection and Other Essays in Neoclassical Meta-
physics, 1962
AD - Anselm's Discovery, 1967
NTOT - A Natural Theology for Our Time, 1967
CSPM - Creative Synthesis and Philosophic Method, 1970
WP - Whitehead's Philosophy: Selected Essays, 1935 -1970, 1972
A W - Aquinas to Whitehead: Seven Centuries of Metaphysics of
Religion, 1976
WVR - Whitehead's View of Reality, 1981
lOOT - Insights and Oversights of Great Thinkers: an Evaluation of
Western Philosophy, 1983
OOTM- Omnipotence and Other Theological Mistakes, 1984
CAP - Creativity in American Philosophy, 1984
1
INTRODUCTION
One of the controversial issQes which have recently come into prominence
among philosophers and theologians is how one should understand the term
God.l It seems that, despite the fact that a certain idea of God is assumed by
many, if not most, people, there is a degree of disagreement over the meaning
of the term. "God" is generally taken to refer to a supreme Being, the
Creator, who is perfect and self-existent, holy, personal and loving. This
understanding of "God" corresponds to what many have either been brought
up to believe in or have come to accept as the meaning of this word. Neverthe
less, theists appear to be defending a particular idea of God and to be
accusing atheists of attacking another, one which does not tie in with the
theistic interpretation. Cardinal Maximos IV, for instance, is quoted as
saying, "The God the atheists don't believe in is a God I don't believe in
either."2 On the other hand, atheists have been challenging believers to
explain clearly what they mean by "God" because these critics cannot see
how that idea can have any acceptable meaning. Furthermore, theists them
selves seem to be divided over the issue. H.P. Owen in his book Concepts of
Deity shows quite convincingly that there is "a bewildering variety of
concepts of God" among theists.' One has only to ask around for confirma
tion of this observation.
This shift in emphasis from debating whether or not God exists to eval
uating the meaningfulness of the term God is probably due to the influence of
linguistic analysis, which insists that the words we use ought to be clarified. In
fact, it has been argued that the task of clarifying what is meant by "God"
must be undertaken first before we can set about the apparently fruitless
work of proving whether there is a God or not." Moreover, irrespective of the
question of God's existence, the fact that people continue to use and have
some basic understanding of this term means that there is need to probe
further into the logical sense of "God" .
Another possible reason for this state of affairs is that many are becoming
aware of a discrepancy between our basic experience of God and the con
ceptualization of that experience. Obviously, in articulating a fundamental
intuition or direct experience, one always runs the risk of failing to do full
justice to it. Hence, sometimes what results at the conceptual stage is quite
different from what took place at the experiential level. When this happens,
there can be a conflict between experience and conceptuality. Pascal had felt
2
this when he remarked that the God of the philosophers was not the God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. For Pascal there was a marked contrast between
the philosophers' concept and the believers' concrete experience of God.
There is an increasing number of people who claim that traditional attempts
to formulate what we believe God to be do not lead to a concept which
matches our basic beliefs, and is therefore inadequate.
A contemporary thinker who has spent considerable time exploring the
God-problem is Charles Hartshorne.s He has attempted to provide a philo
sophical framework with which one can logically, consistently and adequate
ly understand what religiously is meant by "God" . Hartshorne is an original
thinker who, in a number of books and articles, has set out and elaborated a
concept of God which has recently been referred to as a process concept of
God and which has become very influential in philosophy of religion and in
theology. He has persistently maintained that the classical view of God as
absolute, perfect, infinite and immutable is an incorrect translation into
philosophical categories of a central religious insight. Accordingly, he is
proposing an alternative way of rendering intelligible what religion means by
"God" .
Hartshorne's efforts may be compared with those of the early Christian
Jews who sought the help of philosophy in expressing their religious beliefs.
These Jews who had come to accept Christianity turned to Hellenistic
thought for categories which would enable them to articulate their personal
and communal experience of God. Thus, the expression and amplification of
their beliefs were influenced by Greek thinking. In reformulating their
scriptural view of God philosophically they hoped to make it fully intelligible
to themselves. At the same time they wanted to communicate with the Greek
gentiles and to show them that their faith was fully compatible with reason.
Thus, they carried out their theologizing with a view to satisfying the
demands of philosophical speculation."
Hartshorne has embarked on a similar undertaking in that what he has
worked out is a conceptuality that aims to make sense of the religious idea of
God just as what the early Christian Jews wished to formulate when they
resorted to Hellenistic philosophy was a concept that fulfilled their demand
for logical sense. That the combination of Jewish religious insights with
Greek categories was, however, not entirely successful has led many to agree
with Pascal that there is a vast difference between the God of the philosophers
and the God of faith. It has also prompted Hartshorne to construct a concept
of God which in his opinion reflects religious insights more faithfully.
This book examines Hartshorne's concept of God. For practical reasons it
has been necessary to exclude his work on the proofs for the existence of God