Process Theology

Definition and Meaning

Process theology is a theology built on a philosophy that views the world not as a collection of unchanging "substances" but as a flow of "events" that arise and pass away while influencing one another. From this perspective, God too is understood not as a being who stands apart from the world and remains unchanged, but as one who is affected by the events of the world and changes along with it.

Its principal claims are as follows:

• The dipolar God: God is held to have both an eternal aspect that contains all possibilities (the primordial nature) and an aspect that receives the experiences of the world (the consequent nature).
• The persuasive God: God is held to work not by coercing the world but by luring and persuading it toward better possibilities. Accordingly, process theology revises the traditional understanding of divine omnipotence.
• Panentheism: Process theology holds that the world is in God, yet God is greater than the world. This view is distinguished from pantheism, which identifies the world with God.

Biblical and Historical Background

The starting point of process theology is generally identified as Process and Reality (1929) by the British-born philosopher Alfred North Whitehead. Charles Hartshorne developed these ideas into a theological doctrine of God, and John B. Cobb Jr., David Ray Griffin, Schubert M. Ogden, and others systematized them as Christian theology. With the founding of the Center for Process Studies in Claremont, California, Claremont became the principal hub for research in the field.

Process theologians point to biblical passages in which God relents and responds to human actions (Genesis 6:6; Jonah 3:10; and others) and argue that the doctrine of divine immutability, shaped by ancient Greek philosophy, fails to do justice to the living God of Scripture. Critics, by contrast, cite passages such as Malachi 3:6 and James 1:17 to emphasize God's immutability and sovereignty, and they contend that process theology weakens the doctrines of creation out of nothing and of God's final victory. Because it rethinks God's knowledge of the future, process theology is sometimes compared with open theism; open theism differs, however, in that it generally retains divine omnipotence and creation out of nothing.

Practice in the Korean Church

In Korea, process theology is chiefly a subject of study in theological schools and academic circles and is rarely addressed directly in the preaching or educational programs of ordinary congregations. Some scholars at progressive seminaries such as Methodist Theological University and Hanshin University have introduced Whitehead's philosophy and process theology and have studied them in connection with discussions of ecotheology and religious pluralism.

Presbyterian denominations and seminaries in the Reformed tradition frequently present process theology critically, regarding it as a strand of liberal theology that undermines the sovereignty of God and the authority of Scripture. Evangelicals likewise generally regard it as a movement that alters the core of the doctrine of God. Those who study process theology, on the other hand, argue that it offers meaningful answers to the problem of suffering and evil and contributes meaningfully to the dialogue between science and faith.