A Christian Natural Theology, Second Edition: Based on the Thought of Alfred North Whitehead

by John B. Cobb Jr.

Overview

When the first edition of A Christian Natural Theology appeared in 1965, it was a groundbreaking work that incorporated Alfred North Whitehead's metaphysical philosophy as a framework for developing a Christian natural theology. The work was so significant it helped to launch process theology as a leading alternative to neo-orthodox theology and has since become a classic in the literature of process theology. This new edition by one of America's preeminent theologians is an essential work for all those interested in process theology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780664230180
Publisher:	Westminster John Knox Press
Publication date:	09/19/2007
Edition description:	2nd ed.
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	914,985
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

John B. Cobb Jr. has held many positions including Ingraham Professor of Theology at the Claremont School of Theology, Avery Professor at the Claremont Graduate School, Fullbright Professor at the University of Mainz, and Visiting Professor at Vanderbilt, Harvard, and Chicago Divinity Schools. His writings include Christ in a Pluralistic Age: God and the World; and, with coauthor Herman Daly, For the Common Good, which was cowinner of the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order.

Table of Contents

Key to References     ix
Preface to the Second Edition     xi
Preface     xv
An Introduction to Whitehead's Philosophy     1
Whitehead's Philosophy and the Problem of Dualism     1
The Analysis of an Actual Occasion     4
Societies of Actual Occasions     13
The Human Soul     18
The Soul as Social     18
The Distinctiveness of the Human Soul     25
Life after Death     30
Personal Identity     35
The Unconscious     41
The Locus of the Soul     43
Humans as Responsible Beings     50
Freedom as Self-Determination     50
Intrinsic Value as Beauty     54
Goodness as Moral Value     62
An Ethical Theory     65
Duty, Love, and the Initial Aim     74
Peace     78
Whitehead's Doctrine of God     81
Science and the Modern World     81
Religion in the Making     87
Process and Reality: The Primordial Nature of God     92
Process and Reality: The Consequent Nature of God     99
The Later Writings     106
The Character of the Argument     106
Further Reflections on Whitehead's Doctrine of God     112
Changing Perspectives     112
Creativity and God     113
God and Time     120
How God Saves     125
A Particular Providence     128
Three Technical Issues     132
The Religious Availability of Whitehead's God     139
Whitehead's Religious Sensibility     139
Religious Belief and Religious Experience     146
The Religious and the Ethical     160
The Theological Task     165
What Is Theology?     165
What Is Natural Theology?     170
Relativism     178
Other Tasks of Theology     183
Index     191