Prehension

In order to understand the concept of God in the world without the need of the supernatural, the term Naturalismppp has been developed by Griffin. Three philosophical ideas (the three “p“s) with theological overlap can describe God in such a setting — prehension, panentheism, and panexperientialism.

It is completely reasonable to believe in supernatural events as seen in miracles described in the word’s religions. However, as science has progressed and more of nature is understood and explained, it is important to consider a concept of God being present IN NATURE as a theological explanation of the world and our existence.

Prehension: This term means the totality the possible. I like to consider it the pre-cognitive possibilities of outcomes over time. Thus, in the world of process philosophy and process theology (as well as the theological cousin, open and relational theology), time is the essential unit of reality and not matter. On a grander scale, change itself is the ultimate reality.

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Prehensions (or possibilities) come together / solidify over time in a process known as “concrescence” to form an actual occasion. The occasion is present and then passes. The universe moves on with prehension –> concrescence –> occasion –> repeating eternally.

I like to think of each occasion from the quark to the galaxy to have an eternal presence in God’s memory. In many ways, I find such a idea comforting.

One religious idea to add to the eminence of time is to consider a “divine lure“. Namely, God never forces an outcome but quietly suggests or lures for the good of all creation. Good could be characterized as creativity (not necessarily involving destruction), and creativity could be described as love. Bruce Epperly has described this type of divine love as majestic, overpowering in its love of creativity, and intertwining throughout all of nature. He states clearly:

“Love neither rules, nor is it unmoved; also it is a little oblivious as to morals. It does not look to the future; for it finds its own reward in the immediate presence.”

This is God expressed as eternal creativity in all of nature — all of it. This is pure love — beyond morals, beyond evil, beyond ethics, beyond absolutes. It may sound terrifying at first, but upon thinking that God wants the best of all entities in nature, this idea provides a theological foundation of God who wants (but does not force) the good.

In future posts, I will describe panentheism and panexperientialism.

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