Transforming Process Theism: (SUNY series in Philosophy)

Traces variations of theism in Whitehead's principle works, identifying a major problem in conventional understanding of process theism and constructing an original and provocative solution.

Table of Contents:
Foreword Preface Abbreviations Introduction The Intelligibility of Future Activity I. Meanings of the Future Appropriate to God 1. Meanings of the Future 2. Ways in Which God Is Future 3. Ways in Which God Is Not Future II. Three Ways Whitehead Revises Traditional Expectations 1. Divine Persuasion Replaces Classical Omnipotence 2. God Need Not Be Conceived as Creator Ex Nihilo 3. Becoming Is Primary; Being Is Derivative III. Toward a New Conception of the Future 1. Modes of Actuality 2. The Future as Actually Indeterminate 3. The Future as the Source of Creativity 4. The Future as the Source of Aim 5. The Nature of the Future as Actual IV. The Plan of This Book Part One Whitehead's Successive Concepts of God Chapter One: The Principle of Limitation I. Background II. Criticisms III. Types of Limitation Chapter Two: Deconstructing Theism I. Introduction II. The Final Concept: God as Temporal and Concrescent III. The Middle Concept: God as Nontemporal and Concrescent IV The Early Concept Chapter Three: Reconstructing Nontemporal Theism I. A Comparison of Concepts 1. The Initial, Minimal Concept 2. The Final Concept 3. The Middle Concept II. Possible Solutions to the Riddle 1. Natural and Experiential Theology 2. The Role of Religion 3. Temporalist Implications III. A Possible External Influence 1. Henry Nelson Wieman 2. Whitehead's Reaction IV. The Initial Concept of God 1. Actual Entity 2. Transcendence 3. Self-Causation 4. Instance of Creativity 5. The Ontological Principle V. The 1926 Metaphysical Principles 1. The Principle of Solidarity 2. The Principle of Creative Individuality 3. The Principle of Efficient Causation 4. The Ontological Principle 5. The Principle of Esthetic Individuality 6. The Principle of Ideal Comparison VI. The 1927 Metaphysical Principles VII. The Middle Concept of God 1. Preconditions for the Middle Concept 2. Precipitating Factors Chapter Four: Reconstructing Process Theism I. Preliminary Considerations 1. Exemplifying the Metaphysical Principles 2. Nontemporal Subjectivity II. Precipitating Factors 1. Temporal Subjectivity 2. Locus of Integration 3. Is 'Consciousness' the Reason for Process Theism? 4. Is 'Everlastingness' the Reason for Process Theism? 5. What about the Provision of Subjective Aim? 6. The Intensification of Process III. Whitehead's Problematic Legacy 1. How God Affects the World 2. The Fourth Phase 3. Apparent Responsiveness and Nontemporal Valuation 4. Later Writings Part Two The Search for the Prehensibility of God Chapter Five: The Divine Power in the Present I. William A. Christian II. Marjorie Suchocki III. Palmyre Oomen IV. Jorge Nobo V. Elizabeth M. Kraus VI. Lewis S. Ford Chapter Six: The Power of the Past I. Nancy Frankenberry and the Power of the Past II. Hartshorne and the Objectification of God 1. The Principle of Prehension 2. Objections Based on Hartshorne's Own Position Objection 1 Divine Occasions are Exceptions to the Metaphysical Principles Objection 2 Alternation and Asychronicity Objection 3 Divine Occasions Are Not Persuasive Objection 4 Divine Occasions Limit Creaturely Freedom Objection 5 It Undercuts Nontemporal Subjectivity Objection 6 How Is Creativity Transmitted within God? 3. Divine Occasions with Initial Aims Objection 7 How Can the Initial Aims Be Selected? Objection 8 Eternal Objects Become Everlasting Objection 9 An Objection from Mathematics 4. The Objection from Relativity Physics Chapter Seven: Process Nontemporality I.Bowman Clarke II. Uncreated Eternal Objects III. The Metaphysical Principles IV Nontemporal Decision and Determination Part III The Imprehensibility of God Chapter Eight: The Power of the Future I. God and Future Creativity: Some Preliminary Objections 1. God and Creativity 2. God and Being 3. God and Eternity 4. God As Future Actuality 5. God As Becoming II. The Identification of God with Future Creativity 1. God As Personal 2. Divine Responsiveness 3. Perfect Power 4. God as Empty III. The Infusion of Creativity 1. Modes of Actuality 2. Prehension and the Infusion of Creativity 3. Aim 4. The Interdependence of Creativity and Aim Chapter Nine: Persistence and the Extensive Continuum I. Persistence and Perception 1. Diremption 2 Emergence of Persistence 3. Atrophy 4. Inclusive Occasions 5. Physical Perception and Prehension 6. Future Physical Perception 7. Divine Consciousness II. The Extensive Continuum 1. The Ontological Status of the Extensive Continuum 2. The Extensive Continuum and Societies 3. Relativity Physics 4. In Unison of Becoming 5. The Locus of all Locations 6. Locus and Passage 7. Divine Privacy and Publicity Chapter Ten: Creativity and Contingency I. Creativity 1. Present and Future Creativity 2. Eschatological Actuality II. Contingency 1. Contingency and Interdependence 2. Rationalist and Empiricist Process Theology 3. Uniqueness and Primacy 4. Divine Satisfaction III. Concluding Objections Objection 1 If God Is Future Creativity, How Can God Also Be Personal and Individual? Objection 2 Is My Claim That Creativity Is Derived from God, Too Much Biased in the Direction of Western Monotheism? Objection 3 Isn't It Blasphemous to Suppose That Our Own Subjectivity Is Simply a Continuation of God's? Isn't This Simply a Kind of Temporalistic Pantheism? Objection 4 Does Not the Ontotheological Stricture Exclude the Possibility of God as Future Creativity? Notes Index

About the Author :
Lewis S. Ford is Louis I. Jaffe Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, Old Dominion University. He is the author of The Emergence of Whitehead's Metaphysics, 1925-1929, also published by SUNY Press, The Lure of God: A Biblical Background for Process Theism, and he is coeditor (with George L. Kline) of Explorations in Whitehead's Philosophy. From 1971-1996, he was the editor of the scholarly quarterly, Process Studies.

Review :
"This book will likely prove most helpful to persons who have first studied Whitehead." - CHOICE "An important book." - David Ray Griffin, editor of Physics and the Ultimate Significance of Time "If Ford's vision carries the day, all future authors in process philosophy and theology will have to take account of this book." - C. Robert Mesle, author of Process Theology: A Basic Introduction "Any philosopher who has read seriously in Whitehead's metaphysics will need to buy Ford's book." - George Allan, author of Realizations of the Future