THEOSIS

PROCESS THEISM, PROGRESSIVE CHRISTANITY, PROTESTANTISM, and THEOSIS

Jennie Fowler Willing opened the New York Evangelistic Training School and Settlement House in the Hell's Kitchen area of New York in 1895. Willing, a Methodist laywoman, required students at the Training School who were preparing for mission careers to spend one hour a day working among the poor and to assist in the evangelistic services conducted nightly. These are her words, “We read the Bible through spectacles blurred by tradition…God be praised, we are out of the controversial belt. We have left behind the highways where theologians marched and countermarched. We study the book now, not for clubs with which to beat each other’s theological brains, but for food to make us strong to fight the common enemy.”

I hope I have not been doing that and I certainly hope this is not seen as such. I simply feel the need to attempt to define some terms and give some notion of my purpose and reason for even wanting to be part of this community. My purpose is because I enjoy the sharing of ideas and even the debating of them. The reason is that I need and want community.

I am not going to try to define Process Christianity. I will leave that to those who know far more than I do about it, but I would like to share a simple fact about process theism, which I found in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. “Process theism typically refers to a family of theological ideas originating in, inspired by, or in agreement with the metaphysical orientation of the English philosopher-mathematician Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) and the American philosopher-ornithologist Charles Hartshorne (1897-2000).” If you agree to the above as being accurate, then process theism is about God not being a finished product, but rather is in the process of becoming. Do not complain I have made it too simple. I already know it is a much more complex philosophical argument than that, but that is my ‘Reader’s Digest’ version. Since process means becoming, I am at a loss at how anyone could define Process Christianity or theism in any real terms.

If we start with the proposition that Progressive Christianity is more of a multifaceted movement than a theology in the strictest since of the word, then we may have a better chance of understanding each other. The Center for Progressive Christianity on their about us page claims in 1994 Jim Adams, the founder of the center and at the time the rector at St. Mark’s church on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC started using the term “progressive Christianity” at a time when no other “known organization, scholar, or church leader” was doing so. It seems to me that if I had to sum up the folks that might fall under this label they would be people who tend to be inclusive, accepting, participatory, concerned about social justice, and building a community where spiritual growth can be nourished. As has been pointed out in comments to a previous blog of mine Jim Wallis and Tony Campolo are folks who might agree they are progressive Christians. Wikipedia even listed John Wesley as a Notable Progressive Christian. The reason being he did take on the social issues of his day.

Protestantism is one of the main divisions of Christianity, which emerged from Roman Catholicism at the Reformation, a movement that questioned and ‘protested’ against the teachings and authority of the Roman Catholic Church. Protestantism takes its name from the protest of the German Protestant reformer Martin Luther and his supporters during the Reformation, in particular their protest at the Diet of Spires (1529) against the decision to reaffirm an edict against the Reformation made at the Diet of Worms (1521). So our claim to fame is that we are protesters and we still are, but do we know against what?

On the website of The Claremont School of Theology, we find these words “As a theological school of The United Methodist Church, Claremont has deep roots in the progressive Protestant tradition. Today, Claremont is building on this heritage and broadening its scope by transforming into an inter-religious university, a place for people of all traditions and perspectives to study, train and be transformed together. People around the world are taking notice ... and so should you.” So maybe I have found a new term. Progressive Protestant. What does that mean? They call it a “Pioneering Vision.”

Theosis is the understanding that human beings can have real union with Christ, and to some degree that we participate in the divine nature. This does not imply that we become gods, but rather, that we are to come into the fullness of the "divine image" in which we were created. It may be related to the Protestant concept of sanctification. It may also be seen as something akin to the John Wesley’s idea of "entire sanctification". It is defined by Frederica Matthews-Green in her book “The Illumined Heart: The Ancient Christian Path of Transformation” as “the process of being more and more in Christ”. I think I like the idea of theosis because it seems to be “food to fight the common enemy.”