Process theology or process thought is a school of thought influenced by the metaphysical process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) and further developed by Charles Hartshorne (1897–2000). While there are process theologies that are similar, but unrelated to the work of Whitehead (such as Pierre Teilhard de Chardin) the term is generally applied to the Whiteheadian/Hartshornean school. Process theology is unrelated to the Process Church.

History[link]

The original ideas of process thought are found in the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead. Various theological and philosophical aspects have been expanded and developed by Charles Hartshorne (1897–2000), John B. Cobb, Jr., and David Ray Griffin. A characteristic of process theology each of these thinkers shared was a rejection of metaphysics that privilege "being" over "becoming," particularly those of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas. Hartshorne was deeply influenced by French philosopher Jules Lequier and by Swiss philosopher Charles Secrétan who were probably the first ones to claim that in God liberty of becoming is above his substantiality.

Process theology soon influenced a number of Jewish theologians including Rabbis Max Kadushin, Milton Steinberg and Levi A. Olan, Harry Slominsky and, to a lesser degree, Abraham Joshua Heschel. Today some rabbis who advocate some form of process theology include Bradley Shavit Artson, Lawrence A. Englander, William E. Kaufman, Harold Kushner, Anton Laytner, Michael Lerner, Gilbert S. Rosenthal, Lawrence Troster, Donald B. Rossoff, Burton Mindick, and Nahum Ward.

Alan Anderson and Deb Whitehouse have attempted to integrate process theology with the New Thought variant of Christianity.

The work of Richard Stadelmann has been to preserve the uniqueness of Jesus in process theology.

Major concepts[link]

• God is not omnipotent in the sense of being coercive. The divine has a power of persuasion rather than coercion. Process theologians interpret the classical doctrine of omnipotence as involving force, and suggest instead a forbearance in divine power. "Persuasion" in the causal sense means that God does not exert unilateral control.^[1]
• Reality is not made up of material substances that endure through time, but serially-ordered events, which are experiential in nature. These events have both a physical and mental aspect. All experience (male, female, atomic, and botanical) is important and contributes to the ongoing and interrelated process of reality.
• The universe is characterized by process and change carried out by the agents of free will. Self-determination characterizes everything in the universe, not just human beings. God cannot totally control any series of events or any individual, but God influences the creaturely exercise of this universal free will by offering possibilities. To say it another way, God has a will in everything, but not everything that occurs is God's will.^[2]
• God contains the universe but is not identical with it (panentheism, not pantheism or pandeism). Some also call this "theocosmocentrism" to emphasize that God has always been related to some world or another.
• Because God interacts with the changing universe, God is changeable (that is to say, God is affected by the actions that take place in the universe) over the course of time. However, the abstract elements of God (goodness, wisdom, etc.) remain eternally solid.
• Charles Hartshorne believes that people do not experience subjective (or personal) immortality, but they do have objective immortality because their experiences live on forever in God, who contains all that was. Other process theologians believe that people do have subjective experience after bodily death.^[3]
• Dipolar theism, is the idea that God has both a changing aspect (God's existence as a Living God) and an unchanging aspect (God's eternal essence).

Relationship to liberation theology[link]

C. Robert Mesle, in his book Process Theology, outlines three aspects of a process theology of liberation:^[4]

1. There is a relational character to the divine which allows God to experience both the joy and suffering of humanity. God suffers just as those who experience oppression and God seeks to actualize all positive and beautiful potentials. God must, therefore, be in solidarity with the oppressed and must also work for their liberation.
2. God is not omnipotent in the classical sense and so God does not provide support for the status quo, but rather seeks the actualization of greater good.
3. God exercises relational power and not unilateral control. In this way God cannot instantly end evil and oppression in the world. God works in relational ways to help guide persons to liberation.

Relationship to pluralism[link]

Process theology affirms that God is working in all persons to actualize potentialities. In that sense each religious manifestation is the Divine working in a unique way to bring out the beautiful and the good. Additionally, scripture and religion represent human interpretations of the divine. In this sense pluralism is the expression of the diversity of cultural backgrounds and assumptions that people use to approach the Divine.^[5]

Relationship to the doctrine of the incarnation[link]

The Christ of process theology does not represent a hypostasis of divine and human persona. Rather God is incarnate in the lives of all humans when they act according to a call from God. Jesus fully and in every way responded to the call of God and so the person of Jesus is theologically understood to be “the divine Word in human form.” Jesus was not God-man in essence, but fully identified with God at all moments of life.^[6]

Process theologians[link]

Further reading[link]

• Bruce G. Epperly Process Theology: A Guide for the Perplexed (NY: T&T Clark, 2011, ISBN 978-0-567-59669-7) This is "perhaps the best in-depth introduction to process theology available for non-specialists."
• Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki's God Christ Church: A Practical Guide to Process Theology, new rev. ed. (New York: Crossroad, 1989, ISBN 0-8245-0970-6) demonstrates the practical integration of process philosophy with Christianity.
• C. Robert Mesle's Process Theology: A Basic Introduction (St. Louis: Chalice Press, 1993, ISBN 0-8272-2945-3) is an introduction to process theology written for the layperson.
• Jewish introductions to classical theism, limited theism and process theology can be found in A Question of Faith: An Atheist and a Rabbi Debate the Existence of God (Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1994, ISBN 1-56821-089-2) and The Case for God (St. Louis: Chalice Press, 1991, ISBN 0-8272-0458-2), both written by Rabbi William E. Kaufman. Jewish variations of process theology are also presented in Harold Kushner's When Bad Things Happen to Good People (New York: Anchor Books, 2004, ISBN 1-4000-3472-8) and Sandra B. Lubarsky and David Ray Griffin, eds., Jewish Theology and Process Thought (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995, ISBN 0-7914-2810-9).
• Christian introductions may be found in Schubert M. Ogden's The Reality of God and Other Essays (Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1992, ISBN 0-87074-318-X); John B. Cobb, Doubting Thomas: Christology in Story Form (New York: Crossroad, 1990, ISBN 0-8245-1033-X); and Charles Hartshorne, Omnipotence and Other Theological Mistakes (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1984, ISBN 0-87395-771-7). In French, the best introduction may be André Gounelle, Le Dynamisme Créateur de Dieu: Essai sur la Théologie du Process, édition revue, modifiée et augmentee (Paris: Van Dieren, 2000, ISBN 2-911087-26-7).
• For essays exploring the relation of process thought to Wesleyan theology, see Bryan P. Stone and Thomas Jay Oord, Thy Nature and Thy Name is Love: Wesleyan and Process Theologies in Dialogue (Nashville: Kingswood, 2001, ISBN 0-687-05220-3).
• The most important work by Paul S. Fiddes is The Creative Suffering of God (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992); see also his short overview "Process Theology," in A. E. McGrath, ed., The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Modern Christian Thought (Oxford: Blackwell, 1993), 472–76.
• Norman Pittenger's thought is exemplified in his God in Process (London: SCM Press, 1967, LCC BT83.6 .P5), Process-Thought and Christian Faith (New York: Macmillan Company, 1968, LCC BR100 .P615 1968), and Becoming and Belonging (Wilton, CT: Morehouse Publications, 1989, ISBN 0-8192-1480-9).
• Constance Wise's Hidden Circles in the Web: Feminist Wicca, Occult Knowledge, and Process Thought (Lanham, Md.: AltaMira Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-7591-1006-9) applies process theology to one variety of contemporary Paganism.

See also[link]

• Conceptions of God
• Existence of God
• Names of God
• New Thought Movement
• Open theism
• Postmodern Christianity
• Theopoetics
• Theodicy
• Process Philosophy

References[link]

External links[link]

• The Center for Process Studies
• Process and Faith

Reference works

• Donald Viney, "Process Theism," Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• John B. Cobb, Jr., "Process Theology," Religion-Online
• An encyclopedic-type article

This article may rely too heavily on sources with too close a tie to the subject to be verifiable and neutral. Please help improve it by replacing them with more appropriate citations to reliable, independent, third-party sources. (July 2011)

Doug Pagitt (July 5, 1966) is an author in the Emerging Church movement and head pastor of Solomon's Porch in South Minneapolis.

Pagitt is also a Senior Fellow with Emergent Village: a generative friendship of missional church leaders around the world and a leading architect of the emergent church discussion.

In 2010 Pagitt launched the Doug Pagitt Radio Program on AM950 to discuss theology and culture.

Bibliography[link]

• Webber, Robert E. Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches: Five Perspectives (Zondervan, 2007) ISBN 978-0-310-27135-2
• Preaching Re-Imagined: The Role of the Sermon in Communities of Faith, ISBN 0-310-26363-8.
• Church Re-Imagined: The Spiritual Formation of People in Communities of Faith, ISBN 0-310-26975-X.
• BodyPrayer : The Posture of Intimacy with God, ISBN 1-4000-7148-8.
• A Christianity Worth Believing: Hope-filled, Open-armed, Alive-and-well Faith for the Left Out, Left Behind, and Let Down in us All, (Jossey-Bass, 2008) ISBN 0-7879-9812-5

References[link]

External links[link]

• dougpagitt.com Doug Pagitt's personal blog/website
• electdougpagitt.com Doug Pagitt's campaign website

This Christianity-related biographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

John B (born John Bryn Williams, 1977, Maidenhead, Berkshire, England) is an English DJ and electronic music producer. He is widely recognised for his eccentric clothing and wild hair and his production of several cutting edge drum and bass tracks.

John B ranked #76 in DJ Magazine 's 2010 Top 100 DJs annual poll, announced on 27 October 2010.^[1]

Biography[link]

Williams started producing music around the age of 14,^[2] and now is the head of drum and bass record label Beta Recordings, together with its more specialist^[3] drum and bass sub-labels Nu Electro,^[4] Tangent, and Chihuahua. He also has releases on Formation Records, Metalheadz and Planet Mu.

Williams was ranked 1st drum and bass DJ on the 2009 DJMag's top 100.^[5] and #92 on the DJ List as of October 3, 2009.^[6]

He attended Durham University.

Style[link]

While his trademark sound has evolved through the years, it generally involves female vocals and trance-like synths (a style which has been dubbed "trance and bass", "trancestep" and "futurestep" by listeners). His most recent concentration is an 1980s electroclash influenced fusion of electro and drum and bass, which was dubbed 'electrostep'. At first (around early 2002), this style seemed odd and comical to some in the drum and bass community.^[7] However, this move has given John the ability to carry his style of drum and bass forward. He has dabbled in darkstep, jazzstep and various other styles in his time. When he DJs, he is known to spin both drum and bass and electrohouse, sometimes with other genres such as disco and rock, in the same sets.

Discography[link]

• Visions (1997)
• Catalyst (1999)
• Future Reference (2001)
• Brainstorm (2002)
• In:transit (2004)
• American Girls (2004)
• Electrostep (2006)
• To Russia With Love (2008)
• Light Speed (2012)

References[link]

External links[link]

• John B Official Homepage
• John B Podcast
• Beta Recordings' Website
• John B on Myspace
• John B discography at Discogs
• John B at rolldabeats

James "The Rev" Sullivan
James "The Rev" Sullivan in 2007
Background information
Birth name	James Owen Sullivan
Also known as	The Rev, Rat Head,The Reverend Tholomew Plague
Born	(1981-02-09)February 9, 1981 Huntington Beach, California, United States
Died	December 28, 2009(2009-12-28) (aged 28) Huntington Beach, California, United States
Genres	Hard rock, heavy metal, progressive metal, metalcore, avant-garde metal
Occupations	Musician
Instruments	Drums, guitar, bass, piano, vocals
Years active	1999-2009
Labels	Warner Bros., Good Life, Hopeless,Bucktan
Associated acts	Avenged Sevenfold, Pinkly Smooth, Suburban Legends

James Owen Sullivan (February 9, 1981 – December 28, 2009),^[1] more commonly known by his stage name The Reverend Tholomew Plague, generally shortened to The Rev, was an American musician, best known as the drummer for the American heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold. He was also the lead vocalist/pianist in Pinkly Smooth, a side project where he was known by the name Rat Head, with fellow Avenged Sevenfold member, guitarist Synyster Gates, and the drummer for Suburban Legends from 1998 to 1999.

Career[link]

Sullivan grew up and lived in Huntington Beach California.^[2] He got his first pair of drum sticks at the age of four and received his own drum set at the age of ten.^[3] In high school, he started playing in bands. Before leaving to join Avenged Sevenfold as one of the band's founding members, Sullivan was the drummer for the third wave ska band Suburban Legends. At the age of eighteen he recorded his first album with Avenged Sevenfold titled Sounding the Seventh Trumpet. His early influences included Frank Zappa and King Crimson. The Rev said in a Modern Drummer Magazine interview that "I was raised on that stuff as much as rock and metal."^[3]

Later in life he was influenced by drummers Vinnie Paul, Mike Portnoy, Dave Lombardo, Lars Ulrich, and Terry Bozzio.^[4] He even had a "visual influence", Tommy Lee, on which he commented that "I never thought I'd have one of those."^[3] Sullivan's signature ability which he called " double-ride , just for lack of a better definition, because no one does it,"^[5]is a technique that can be heard on tracks such as "Almost Easy", "Critical Acclaim", and "Crossroads" in which Sullivan doubles up at a fast tempo between the double bass and ride cymbals.

Sullivan spoke to DRUM! Magazine about recording "Crossroads": “The second fill that goes into the verse, and the fill that goes into the chorus, just happened in the studio. We knew there’s a break right before the first verse starts and the guitar’s doing an open chord, so there obviously needed to be a fill there to keep the energy there, and I just came up with a little tom-over-double-bass fill. That was just spur of the moment. And right before the solo, there’s another fill that’s kind of similar to the intro fill, and that was written out. But everything else is pretty much spontaneous"

The Rev was also a vocalist, songwriter, and pianist for Avenged Sevenfold. His piano-playing can be heard on the tracks "Seize the Day", "Fiction" and "Save Me". His vocals are featured in Avenged Sevenfold's "A Little Piece of Heaven", "Brompton Cocktail", "Critical Acclaim", "Crossroads", "Gunslinger", "Lost", "Scream", "Afterlife", "Save Me", "Eternal Rest", "Flash Of The Blade", "Bat Country", "Almost Easy", and "Fiction". He also wrote the songs "Almost Easy", "A Little Piece of Heaven", "Afterlife", "Brompton Cocktail", "Welcome to the Family, "Save Me", "Demons", "Fiction", and more.

Avenged Sevenfold also announced that they will be releasing a demo version of "Nightmare" including The Rev on an electric drumset and his vocals.

At the second annual Revolver Golden God Awards, The Rev won the award for Best Drummer. His family members and Avenged Sevenfold received the honor on his behalf.^[6]

Death[link]

The Rev was found dead in his home on December 28, 2009. Police ruled out foul play and noted his death appeared to be from natural causes. An autopsy performed on December 30, 2009 was inconclusive, However toxicology results revealed to the public in June revealed he died from acute polydrug intoxication due to the combined effects of Oxycodone ^[1](Percocet), oxymorphone (a metabolite of oxycodone), diazepam (Valium), nordiazepam (a metabolite of diazepam) and alcohol. The coroner noted Cardiomegaly (enlarged heart) as a "significant condition" that may have played a role in Sullivan's death.^[7]

On January 6, 2010, a private funeral was held for Sullivan,^[8] and a day later he was buried in Huntington Beach, California.^[9] Shortly after his death, Good Charlotte dedicated their single, "The River", to him^{[citation needed]}, and Avenged Sevenfold dedicated their song "So Far Away" to him.

Discography[link]

With Suburban Legends[link]

• Origin Edition (1999)

With Pinkly Smooth[link]

• Unfortunate Snort (2001)

With Avenged Sevenfold[link]

• 1999 Demo (1999)
• 2000 Demo (2000)
• Sounding the Seventh Trumpet (2001)
• Warmness on the Soul (2001)
• Waking the Fallen (2003)
• City of Evil (2005)
• All Excess (2007)
• Avenged Sevenfold (2007)
• Live in the LBC & Diamonds in the Rough (2008)
• Nightmare (2010) (Posthumous)
• Welcome to the Family (2010) (Posthumous)

References[link]