The message of this book is not new, but the book represents a way of understanding God that is now coming of age and moving into the mainstream. The dozens of contributors are mostly ordained clergy serving Protestant churches in North America.
Michael M. Rose, a spiritual director in Alberta, Canada, writes an excellent essay in Part One called “Faith Rescued: How Process Theology Saved My Faith in God.” Rose introduces a way of understanding God as a relational, loving presence who looks upon human beings as co-creators “capable of participating in the divine nature, contributing to the flourishing of ourselves, others, and the planet.” Rather than an omnipotent being who stands apart from creation, or us, Rose’s God is “always seeking the most well-being possible — even in the tragic situations God never desired in the first place.”
Rose concludes: “Rather than offering pat answers, process theology invites us into deep participation. It reminds us that the world is unfinished and so are we. But God, who has been lovingly luring creation forward for billions of years, is still at work today. And we are invited to join in that work.”
That’s what the dozens of other contributors to this creative, inspiring, albeit somewhat repetitive and unstructured, book set out to do. They point to some of their forebearers of thought and practice as John Cobb, Sallie McFague, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, and Ilia Delio.
After Part One focuses on “Renewing Faith” — meaning Christianity as expressed in churches, Parts Two, Three, and Four aim at “Renewing God” and then “Jesus” and “Spirit,” to round out the traditional Trinity in a process theology way. In her chapter on “Transforming Jesus,” Sheri D. Kling writes how process and relational ways of thinking challenge what’s taught in most churches: “The concept of salvation has become so twisted in the Christian faith. In the biblical narrative, salvation has little to do with the individual soul and where it goes after death. Instead, it has everything to do with wholeness, communal bonds, and the flourishing of the earth and all its creatures. This is the kingdom of God that is ‘within us,’ or ‘at hand,’ as Jesus taught. To be saved is to participate in the divine life now.”
Final Parts on the renewal of theology, worship, and community, follow.
There are a few contributors to the book who will be known to our community of readers, for instance Bruce G. Epperly and Jay McDaniel of the Living Spiritual Teachers Project. Epperly is the author of six of the essays in the book. (See the excerpt accompanying this review.)
