Larrison - The Cycle of Soteriology: A Process-Reformed Dialogue, Total Depravity,Providence, and Election.

2020·1.1 MB·English

by  Thomas Larrison

THE CYCLE OF SOTERIOLOGY:
A PROCESS-REFORMED DIALOGUE ON SOVEREIGNTY, TOTAL DEPRAVITY,
PROVIDENCE, AND ELECTION

A Dissertation
presented to
the Faculty of
Claremont School of Theology

In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Doctor of Philosophy

by
Thomas Larrison
May 2020
Copyright © 2020 by Thomas Larrison
This Dissertation completed by
Thomas Larrison
has been presented to and accepted by
the Faculty of the Claremont School of Theology
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
of the degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Faculty Committee
Roland Faber, Chairperson
Philip Clayton
Donna Bowman

Dean of the Faculty
Sheryl Kujawa-Holbrook
May 2020
ABSTRACT

THE CYCLE OF SOTERIOLOGY: A PROCESS-REFORMED DIALOGUE ON
SOVEREIGNTY, TOTAL DEPRAVITY, PROVIDENCE, AND ELECTION
by
Thomas Larrison
Claremont School of Theology, 2020

The Reformed tradition of Christian theology emphasizes several doctrines that are
becoming increasingly problematic for people living in today’s interrelated, globalized world.
Chief among these problematic doctrines are divine sovereignty, total depravity, divine
providence, and election. At the same time, process thought has rightfully rushed to rid theology
of concepts and philosophies that are not adequate for the world we experience. Unfortunately,
this can sometimes result in neglecting traditional theological doctrines that still have insights to
offer. By bringing process thought and the Reformed tradition into a dialogue in these
problematic areas, each provides a corrective for the other as they learn from one another and are
mutually transformed. In this project, the soteriological movements of God and the world in
relationship with one another are explored, with the result that both process and Reformed
theologies are seen as portraying the same movements of a cycle, albeit with differing emphases
that allow them to learn from one another.
In order to accomplish this, the relevant concepts are explored through the writings of
major theologians from process thought and Reformed theology. The process thought concepts
of the primordial nature of God, the lure toward novelty, sin, novelty itself, the consequent
nature of God, and Christology are all examined. The works of many process theologians are
considered here, especially Alfred North Whitehead and John Cobb. Next, the Reformed
doctrines of divine sovereignty, total depravity, providence, Christ, and election are analyzed.
Here, the works of John Calvin, Karl Barth, and Shirley Guthrie figure prominently among other
Reformed theologians. After the traditions have been individually explored and analyzed, they
are then brought together in order to show their points of agreement, similarity, and
irreconcilable difference.
Taking the heart of the God-world relationship from the Reformed doctrines of
sovereignty, total depravity, providence, and election and interpreting them using the framework
of process philosophy rather than substance metaphysics to create a process-Reformed
understanding of the cycle of soteriology allows for these two divergent traditions to find points
of agreement and learning in one another. Through this project’s work on bringing together these
two theologies in their cycles of soteriology, the Reformed tradition is able to have a more
adequate understanding of the God-world relationship in how it applies to the world we
experience, and process thought can reclaim classical Christian doctrines while also emphasizing
aspects of God that are often neglected by mainstream process theologians. This project shows
that by bringing the process thought exemplified by Alfred North Whitehead into dialogue with
Reformed theology as seen in Karl Barth and Shirley Guthrie, the problematic Reformed
soteriological concepts of divine sovereignty, total depravity, divine providence, and election can
be understood in more adequate terms for the world in which we live through the lens of process
thought’s conceptions of novelty and divine natures, while also providing process thought with
points of commonality and with unique emphases through dialogue with the Reformed tradition
since they are both reflecting the same soteriological cycle of movements in the God-world
relationship.
Contents

Introduction 1

Chapter One
Interrelated, Ongoing, and Unique: The Cycle of Soteriology in Process Theology 30

Chapter Two
God’s Free Choice: The Cycle of Soteriology in Reformed Theology 81

Chapter Three
Movements of God and the World: A Process-Reformed Cycle of Soteriology 136

Chapter Four
Objections to a Process-Reformed Cycle of Soteriology 205

Conclusion 227

Bibliography 241

vi
Introduction

Process thought is a school of philosophy and theology that can be characterized by the
twofold emphases of creativity and relationality. Reality is seen as an ongoing creative process
wherein creativity is “the universal of universals characterizing ultimate matter of fact,” which
“is the advance from disjunction to conjunction, creating a novel entity other than the entities
given in disjunction.”1 And reality is also seen as inherently relational, with every moment
internally related to every other moment since “every item in its universe is involved in each
concrescence.”2 Alfred North Whitehead has been the primary shaping force for process thought,
and can rightly be regarded as a foundational figure in process theology, to the extent that the
word foundational can be applied in process philosophy. Process thought, guided by Whitehead
and his successors, represents a significant change from the substance metaphysics that has
dominated theology for centuries. Instead of the static and mostly isolated beings that can be
found in substance metaphysics, especially when it comes to the divine, in process thought we
instead find profoundly interrelated entities moving together in the ongoing advance of
creativity.
Given its focus on creativity and relationality as an alternative metaphysics, process
philosophy has successfully engaged with many religious traditions over the decades. Within the
Christian tradition, the lens of process thought has been used by the Methodist tradition most
significantly, but also by Catholicism and other Protestant traditions. This is due not only to
certain resonances with these traditions, but also because influential process theologians have
come from them. One Christian theological tradition that has not seen much dialogue with

1 Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology, ed. David Ray Griffin and Donald W.
Sherburne, corrected ed. (1978; repr., New York: The Free Press, 1985), 21.
2 Whitehead, Process and Reality, 22.
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process thought but deserves more attention is the Reformed tradition, including John Calvin and
Karl Barth as major historical figures and Shirley Guthrie as a recent representative. In this
project, the Christian Reformed tradition is brought into dialogue with process thought.
One of the most significant obstacles to this dialogue is the problem that takes center
stage. The Reformed tradition is characterized by a wide diversity of theological figures, almost
all of whom share “a pervasive focus upon the trinitarian God, particularly his sovereignty and
salvific work on behalf of humankind.”3 On the surface this is at odds with the chief
characteristics of process thought, since God’s sovereignty and one-way relationship with
humanity are not necessarily relational nor an ongoing creative process. Particularly problematic
for process theology are the Reformed concepts of divine sovereignty, the total depravity of
humanity, divine providence, and election. These problematic doctrines are traditionally
understood as follows.
Divine sovereignty is viewed as “God’s ultimate Lordship and rule over the universe so
that the divine will is supreme over all else.”4 Through this Reformed concept of the divine, God
is understood as unique in all of reality through God’s superiority over everything else. God is
separate from the rest of reality in being above all creation and guiding it through God’s will.
God is not influenced or impacted by the world, but rather it is the divine will that has power
over all things. This relationship is a one-way relationship of God having power over the world.
The total depravity of humanity is the idea that “sinfulness pervades all areas of life or
the totality of human existence.”5 This concept of theological anthropology, emphasized more
heavily by the Reformed tradition than by most other Christian traditions, claims that humanity

3 W. David Buschart, Exploring Protestant Traditions: An Invitation to Theological Hospitality (Downers Grove:
InterVarsity Press, 2006), 103.
4 Donald K. McKim, Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press,
1996), 117.
5 McKim, Dictionary, 284.
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(and by extension all of creation) is completely permeated by sin. The presence of sin fully
corrupts humanity so that it is incapable of doing anything good in thought or action, except with
God’s help. On its own, this concept paints a very bleak picture of reality, but the total depravity
of humanity is only one side of the coin, the fallen side of creation, which is complemented by
God’s sovereign providence.
God’s providence is “God’s continuing action by which all creation is preserved,
supported, and governed by God’s purposes and plans for human history and human lives.”6 The
doctrine of divine providence, one shared by a majority of Christian traditions to varying
degrees, is the claim that God guides or controls the world. The continued and reliable existence
of the world is attributed to God’s actions. Every occurrence within history is considered to be
part of God’s ongoing plan for reality, since God is in charge and uses divine power to determine
events accordingly.
And election is “God’s choosing of a people to enjoy the benefits of salvation and to
carry out God’s purposes in the world.”7 Election has a place of prominence in Reformed
thought, where it can be understood that God makes a decree determining those individuals who
will receive salvation, and in turn be empowered to overcome their total depravity in order to be
a force for God’s will in the world. The timing of this decree, and the possibility of a secondary
decree electing some individuals towards damnation, varies among Reformed theologians. But
these concepts (sovereignty, total depravity, providence, and election) are all interrelated and
find a prominent place in the Reformed tradition as it is traditionally and historically understood.
If these problematic doctrines are understood by their traditional definitions, then the Reformed

6 McKim, Dictionary, 226.
7 McKim, Dictionary, 88.
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tradition seems to be no more than a reinforcement of the classical theism that uses substance
metaphysics, and which process theology seeks to oppose and to transform.
As these concepts are traditionally understood, they do in fact help to support the
construct of theology based on substance metaphysics and can be problematic in the world in
which we live. The traditional Reformed understanding of God’s sovereignty sees God as
removed from the world and completely independent from it, neither reliant on anything in the
world nor influenced by it in any way. This is clearly the opposite of process thought’s
understanding of the profound relational nature of reality. The total depravity of humanity, as
seen in the classical Reformed understanding above, claims that humanity on its own is unable
ever to do anything good, with a fallen state of existence severed from God. This doctrine
reinforces the divide between God and humanity and limits human freedom, both of which are
opposed by process thought. As often understood, divine providence requires that God determine
events and actions within the world in accordance with God’s will. Process thought conceives of
God’s power in very different ways from this version of divine power, as a power of influence
rather than the power of control and determination seen here. Election also reinforces
substantialist theology when understood as above, since it is a unilateral choice of God that
determines not only states of salvation, but also actions within the world. As already seen in
divine providence, this uses and reinforces the understanding of God’s power from substance
metaphysics, one that seems dissonant from how we actually experience reality.
The underlying substance metaphysics of classical theism, opposed by process thought, is
clearly present in each of these traditional understandings of the central soteriological concepts
of sovereignty, total depravity, providence, and election. But it is only through difference that
true learning can take place. If process thought is only in dialogue with traditions in which it can
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