Conversations in Process

On this episode of Conversations in Process, Jay is joined by the Cobb Institute’s operations assistant, Jared Morningstar. Jared is a writer and educator with academic interests in philosophy of religion, Islamic studies, comparative religion, metamodern spirituality, and interfaith dialogue whose work in these areas seeks to offer robust responses to issues of inter-religious conflict, contemporary nihilism, and the "meaning crisis" among other things. He has BAs in Religion and Scandinavian Studies from Gustavus Adolphus College, where he graduated in the spring of 2018. 

In this wide-ranging conversation, Jay and Jared discuss the issues of navigating religion in modernity and some intellectual and philosophical resources that could be helpful to this end. Jared begins by sharing his personal spiritual journey, growing up in a culturally Christian context which he rejected in his adolescence before discovering traditional religion for the first time through an encounter with Buddhism. 

This transitions into a discussion of religious pluralism in modernity, which Jared claims is distinct from the pluralism one could find in pre-modern times, so developing a sophisticated response to this phenomenon is critical. To this end, Jared discusses the problems of religious exclusivism and exceptionalism, both of which he argues present serious challenges to living peacefully in the landscape of contemporary pluralism.

Jared claims that various forms of “traditionalist” religious identity have weak philosophical bases and can lead to various dysfunctions. Here he distinguishes between the “Traditionalist school”—a 20th century school of philosophy of religion with representatives such as Frithjof Schuon and Seyyed Hossein Nasr—who have a robust understanding of religious pluralism, and a more general “traditionalist” attitude that has been gaining steam particular amongst young Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Muslims which is often very intolerant of other faiths and modernity more generally.

In response to this precarious situation, Jared shares two philosophies which he has found personally helpful in this context. The first is the Japanese Buddhist existentialist philosophy of the Kyoto School. These Buddhist thinkers gracefully weave together Western religious and philosophic sources with traditional Zen ideas to arrive at deep answers to life’s perennial questions and to the unique problems of our age. 

The second is the Sufi-inflected imaginal philosophy of Henry Corbin. A 20th century orientalist-philosopher, Corbin draws on the insights of Sufi and Shi’i mystics, putting these Muslim sages into conversation with contemporary phenomenology, existentialism, and depth psychology. Like the Kyoto School, Cobin’s cross-cultural thought offers robust perspectives for navigating the variety of religious forms of our day.

The conversation closes with Jay drawing connections between these two perspectives and the process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead. While there are a number of points where these thinkers may be synthesized and integrated into a cohesive hole, Jay stresses that these philosophies can also stand on their own and need not be reconciled for their intellectual contributions to have profound impact.

Kyoto School Resources:

• YouTube Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW5F4Z2xe27hX7BC3eQcodVHL8c1BaSAf
• The Kyoto School of Philosophy website: https://thekyotoschoolofphilosophy.wordpress.com 
• Keiji Nishitani’s Religion and Nothingness: https://bookshop.org/books/religion-and-nothingness-1/9780520049468  

LINKS:

• Jared’s website: https://jaredmorningstar.com
• ‘Alif: Traditional Wisdom in Review: https://alifreview.com
• The Cobb Institute: https://cobb.institute
• Open Horizons: https://www.openhorizons.org

On this episode of Conversations in Process, Jay is joined by his former student Ellen Rowland to discuss her experience as a youth minister and the values and religious perspectives of the teenagers with which she works.

Ellen Rowland is Minister to Youth & Families at Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church in Little Rock Arkansas where she works directly with teenagers in a religious context, giving her unique insights into the younger generation’s thoughts and feelings about religious topics.

In this conversation, Jay questions Ellen on a wide range of topics relating to the experience of teenagers. She begins by sharing how the process perspective is one which is often resonant for the youths in her congregation, stating that it provides a relieving alternative to Evangelical perspectives on God which can often be heavy-handed. She explains that process theologies offer effective language for discussing hard issues and confronting suffering—things which are certainly important in teenage life.

Next, Jay asks Ellen about the common assumption that younger generations are uninterested in traditional organized religion, and she explains that there is definitely some truth to this notion, but she puts it in a more positive light, showing how teenagers are very interested in religious institutions that are honest, transparent, and which can provide resources for navigating difficult experiences and growing in discipleship through social action. Ellen also explains that a theology which can effectively and compassionately navigate diversity is very important for young people, mentioning that the teens with whom she works are more concerned about the question of heaven and hell for their friends from different backgrounds than they are for themselves.

Ellen and Jay conclude this discussion by focusing on the passions of teenagers—music, television, film, etc—which show their deep engagement with life and even have a spiritual character. Ellen closes the conversation with a suggestion to view process as something which is internal as much as external—a perspective which she says has had a significant impact in her own life.

LINKS:

• Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church: https://phumc.com
• Conversations in Process: https://cobb.institute/conversations-in-process/
• The Cobb Institute: https://cobb.institute
• Open Horizons: https://www.openhorizons.org

On this episode of Conversations in Process, Jay is joined by Professor Matthew Segall to discuss the finer details of Alfred North Whitehead’s process philosophy and theology, and to draw connections between Whitehead’s thought and other important thinkers and religious traditions. 

Matt is Assistant Professor in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program at California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco where he teaches graduate level courses on process philosophy and German Idealism. His recent book, Physics of the World-Soul: Alfred North Whitehead’s Adventure in Cosmology, put Whitehead’s process cosmology into conversation with various contemporary scientific theories, such as general relativity and quantum theory. This book is exemplary of much of Matt's recent work, which puts ideas from process philosophy into conversation with the natural sciences.

In this conversation, Matt begins by sharing a bit of his own intellectual journey, telling how he came to Whitehead through Terence McKenna. He talks about his own spiritual background, growing up in a mixed religious family and coming to appreciate eastern religious sensibilities at a young age. Along with guidance from mentors, he eventually discovered that the spiritual insights from dharmic religions which had captivated him in his adolescence actually had equivalents within Western spiritual and religious traditions. Discovering these sources of Western wisdom was what eventually led Matt to encountering Whitehead’s own work, first exploring Adventures of Ideas before diving into Process and Reality. 

At this point, Matt and Jay dive into some of the finer details of Whitehead’s philosophical vision, spending some time dwelling on his conception of God, considering how this differs from previous understandings of the divine and subverts certain Western philosophical tendencies generally. he also shares his perspectives on God as both the divine lure and the divine companion in Whitehead’s thought, and also emphasizes how Whitehead’s God is something that may appeal to more scientifically-minded folks due to the strong empirical emphasis in Whitehead’s thought. Another important aspect to Whitehead’s philosophy is his insistence on “organic realism,” which Matt presents as an alternative to either idealism or materialism.

Matt and Jay conclude this conversation with a discussion of how Whitehead’s thought interfaces with other important traditions such as Neoplatonism, shamanism, Buddhism, and Jung’s depth psychology. Matt and Jay both emphasize that these two-way dialogues are always fruitful and that these are areas ripe for further research and conversation. Matt will be returning to Conversations in Process later this season to continue this dialogue and explore the ways in which process thought can contribute to contemporary social, cultural, and ecological issues. Stay tuned!

LINKS:

• Matt’s Blog Footnotes2Plato: https://footnotes2plato.com
• Physics of the World-Soul: Alfred North Whitehead's Adventure in Cosmology: https://www.amazon.com/Physics-World-Soul-Whiteheads-Adventure-Cosmology/dp/1948609363/
• Conversations in Process: https://cobb.institute/conversations-in-process/
• Cobb Institute: https://cobb.institute
• Open Horizons: https://www.openhorizons.org

On this episode of Conversations in Process, Jay is joined by Professor Jeffery D. Long to discuss the relationship between Hinduism and process thought, and also to hear Jeffery’s own journey in faith and how he came to Hinduism as an American.

Jeffery is a professor of religion and Asian studies at Elizabethtown College and a prolific writer who has published widely in the field of religions and philosophies of India. In his academic work, he endeavors to put Hindu philosophy and theology into conversation with process thought, showing the resonances between these two distinctive intellectual and spiritual traditions. In his most recent book, Hinduism in America: A Convergence of Worlds (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020), he explores how this Indian spirituality has taken root in this far away content, tackling difficult topics such as Orientalism, Hindu influence on the American consciousness, and political Hinduism in the United States.

In this conversation, Jeffery talks at length about his own spiritual and religious background, dwelling on how the early loss of his father spurred questions to which he was unable to find answers in his inherited Catholic tradition, despite immense respect and appreciation for this religion. When he was eventually exposed to the Hindu tradition he was immediately struck by the profound consonance between the perspectives of these eastern scriptures and views he had come to on his own through independent spiritual exploration. This exposure eventually culminated in his conversion to Hinduism following a deep engagement with the sources of the tradition.

Jeffery also discusses the relationship between Hinduism and process thought, particularly as it pertains to Alfred North Whitehead’s metaphysical formulations, mentioning how Whiteheadian notions such as creativity have equivalents within a Hindu framework, and how certain theological language from the Hindu tradition lends itself to a process-relational perspective. In addition to these speculative theological topics, he explores questions of lived religion such as how Hindus are able to navigate pluralism and how one can find the Divine in “the muddiness of life” from a Hindu perspective. The conversation draws to a close with Jeffery sharing his perspective on Huston Smith’s two visions of life after death in Hinduism: the individual as a drop of water returning to the ocean, or the play of life continuing on and retaining individuality.

LINKS

• Hinduism in America: A Convergence of Worlds: https://bookshop.org/books/hinduism-in-america-a-convergence-of-worlds/9781474248457
• Jeffery Long’s page on academia.edu: https://etown.academia.edu/JefferyLong
• Conversations in Process: https://cobb.institute/conversations-in-process/
• The Cobb Institute: https://cobb.institute
• Open Horizons: https://www.openhorizons.org

Maybe we’re not lost in the cosmos after all. Years ago the novelist Walker Percy wrote a book called Lost in the Cosmos, in which he showed how, overly shaped by a rigidly scientistic approach to life, we humans lack any rich connection with the universe of which we are a part and, by implication, with ourselves and our neighbors. We know a lot about the periodic table and the laws of thermodynamics, but not a lot about how to live and love, creating societies of creativity and compassion. Richard Tarnas, known for his The Passion of the Western Mind and Cosmos and Psyche, presents a needed alternative. He invites us to imagine the universe as an unfolding journey, filled with multiple dimensions, both physical and archetypal; and to recognize our own embeddedness in this beautiful and dynamic whole. We are journeying within a cosmic journey. In conversation with Matthew Segall and Jay McDaniel, Tarnas shows how Whitehead influenced his thinking. He invites us to consider how the movements of the planets, no less than the movements of our hearts, can help us find our way in a vast and creative universe. We can be found, not lost, in the cosmos.

In a time of skepticism concerning religious belief, let's talk about God and Love. Is it true that there really is a loving God, but that God does not know the future in advance? Is it true that God cannot control what happens in the world, but that God can indeed lure or guide the world into well-being if the world responds? Is it true that God shares in the experiences of each and all, as a fellow sufferer who understands? Is it true that God is Love: not human love, but rather a cosmic love within us and beyond us, everywhere at once, flowing from a personal being, beyond specific location, who listens to us, hears our prayers, and cares for us and all creatures, all of the time? Thomas Oord answers "yes" to all of these questions. The author of many books on God and love, and a talented photographer as well, he is a key leader in the "open and relational theology" movement. We spend an hour with him talking about his life, his work, his ideas, and his hopes for the future.

Are you drawn to the beauty of music and the call to social justice, neither to the exclusion of the other? You're not alone. Rebecca Parker weaves them together into a single life, a single aspiration, with help from the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead. She draws upon his idea that "the many become one" in the depths of each experience, and that God is the poet of the world and fellow sufferer who understands. She is a teacher, a pastor, a former seminary president, an author, a poet, and a cellist. Hers is a mature process theology available to all who love art and all who love justice―and to the many who feel that, deep down, these are the same love, both human and divine.

What do you know about paganism? The Harvard Pluralism Project lists Paganism as one of the seventeen prominent religious pathways in America. And yet Paganism is one of the least understood of today's spiritual paths. Like Native American and indigenous traditions, it is an earth-centered and earth-sensitive tradition with multiple expressions, open to many ways of understanding the Divine and seeing the earth itself as sacred. In this conversation, Kathleen Reeves talks about ideas, communities, and rituals that shape her journey into paganism, as well as her special connection with trees. Living near Claremont, California, she’s a member of the Board of the Cobb Institute, the leader of their work in spiritual integration and the arts, as well as an interfaith minister, process philosopher, and Druid priestess.

Charles Eisenstein knows that something more is possible. As you listen to him you might think: “He articulates a lot of what process philosophers like Whitehead believe, but he says it even better.” Eisenstein takes us into a world of inter-becoming, mutual immanence, and sensitivity to the intrinsic value of all life, inviting us to live with reverence and care for one another and the whole of life. He offers a metaphysics for ecological civilization, and does so with grace and clarity, humor and honesty, passion and insight. One of his most important books is “The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know is Possible.” He takes us into that world.

Let’s say you go to seminary in the mid-80s; that your sense of spirituality has always been connected with nature, especially water; that you love music and the arts; that you are theologically engaged, although you don’t quite believe in the “gotcha” God who is always judging you. You were away from the church and from religion for 35 years, but these days are different. You sense that a love of nature, a concern for justice, and a love of God can be part of a single whole. People tell you that “you think like a process theologian.” You begin to learn more and more about process theology, and how that might feed your soul and nourish a local Christian congregation, both theologically and liturgically. If your journey is anything like this, or even if it’s not, you’ll find Jeanyne Slettom’s story engaging and inspiring. She is a pioneer in the Process and Faith movement and editor of Process Century Press.