New Worldview: A Century of Process | In Person (Ryan Ranch)

Course Description:

These revealing seminars introduce process thought in the context of contemporary theology. In contrast to both traditional theological formulas and the anti-metaphysical tide of twentieth-century thought, Alfred North Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne boldly proposed an organic new worldview in which God changes and all things are in process. The 2024 death of their student John Cobb Jr., shortly before his 100th birthday, brought the long first generation of American process philosophy to a close. As a movement organizer, Cobb founded the Center for Process Studies to promote global interest in neoclassical theism and his hoped-for ecological civilization of the future. We will read Cobb's autobiographical "Theological Reminiscences" (2014) where he recounts a life lived from the center of contemporary Christian theology under the shadow of these intellectual giants. In addition, we will study Hartshorne's classic summation of his philosophic teaching: "A Natural Theology for Our Time" (1967).