Abstract
This paper will present an overview of a Hindu process theology. The specific problem it will address, utilizing this theological model, is whether there is only one ultimate reality, or more than one. A source of recent controversy among process thinkers is the approach to religious pluralism that has been developed by John Cobb and David Ray Griffin. This approach operates with the idea that there is more than one ultimate reality. But does this not contradict the very notion of what an ultimate reality is? Or do Cobb and Griffin use an understanding of the term ultimate different from conventional understandings? This paper will suggest that Cobb’s and Griffin’s basic thesis can be preserved with the idea of a single, but internally complex, ultimate reality, and that this concept is available from within the Vedānta tradition.
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Notes
- 1.
Hick has presented his “pluralistic hypothesis” in a number of works published throughout the course of his long and distinguished career. The most thorough and complete statement of his perspective, I think, is that presented in his Gifford Lectures, published as An Interpretation of Religion (Hick 1989).
- 2.
I should probably note, too, that when I use the term “universe” in this essay I am referring to the totality of that which is, both possible and actual, and not to the universe in the sense of scientific cosmology–the roughly 14 billion year old expanding product of the Big Bang, which may only be one of many of its kind. Better terms might be “cosmos,” “multiverse,” or “reality”–or better yet, the Sanskrit tattva, or “that which is.”
- 3.
This has been the case in a number of my writings on the topics of Hindu process theology and religious pluralism, the primary statement of which is my first book (Long 2007).
- 4.
This is the main function of God as personified by Viṣṇu, the preserver of the cosmic order from the forces of chaos, or adharma, themselves personified as various demonic beings that Viṣṇu must combat.
- 5.
John Cobb, personal communication.
References
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Suggested Readings: Process Theology
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2.Cobb, John. 2007. A Christian natural theology. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press.
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6.Faber, Roland, and Andrea Stephenson (eds.). 2011. Secrets of becoming. New York: Fordham.
7.Ford, Lewis. 2000. Transforming process theism. Albany: State University of New York.
8.Griffin, David Ray, and John Cobb Jr. (eds.). 1976. Process theology: An introductory exposition. Philadelphia: Westminster Press.
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10.Hartshorne, Charles, and Mohammad Valady (eds.). 1997. The zero fallacy: And other essays in neoclassical philosophy. Chicago: Open Court.
11.James, William. 2005. A pluralistic universe. Whitefish: Kessinger Publishing, LLC.
12.Keller, Catherine. 2003. Face of the deep. New York: Routledge.
13.Keller, Catherine. 2008. On the mystery: Discerning God in process. Minneapolis: Fortress.
14.Kraus, Elisabeth. 1998. The metaphysics of experience. New York: Fordham.
15.Lucas, George. 1989. The rehabilitation of Whitehead. Albany: State University of New York.
16.McDaniel, Jay, and Donna Bowman (eds.). 2006. Handbook of process theology. Atlanta: Chalice.
17.Mesle, Robert. 1993. Process theology. Atlanta: Chalice.
18.Mesle, Robert. 2008. Process-relational philosophy. West Conshohocken: Templeton Foundation.
19.Rose, Philip. 2002. On Whitehead. Florence: Wadsworth.
20.Suchocki, Marjorie. 1988. The end of evil. Albany: State University of New York.
21.Suchocki, Marjorie. 1995. God-Christ-Church. New York: Crossroad Publishing Company.
22.Viney, Don. 1985. Charles Hartshorne and the existence of God. Albany: State University of New York Press.
23.Weber, Michel. 2006. Whitehead’s pancreativism. Frankfurt: Ontos Verlag.
24.Whitehead, Alfred North. 1979. Process and reality (Corrected Edition). New York: Free Press.
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Long, J.D. (2013). Ultimate Complexity: A Hindu Process Theology. In: Diller, J., Kasher, A. (eds) Models of God and Alternative Ultimate Realities. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5219-1_30
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