I’ve been preparing for teaching a class on the thought of an important American philosopher named Alfred north Whitehead and found myself very moved by some of the things he wrote so I thought I would share them with you folks. The name of his book is Process and Reality and he develops a complex theory about the nature of reality being basically the result of a vast, complex interaction amongst the events, not things, that interact with one another and thus make up the world we know, both personally and cosmically. He says that events are the results of the interaction between and amongst persons as agents of energy interacting in time and space across the universe. Here’s some of the things he says:
Speaking of the Roman, Jewish, Greek, and Christian religions he says “There is, however, in the Galilean origin of Christianity yet another suggestion which does not fit very well with any of these main strands of thought. It does not emphasize the ruling Caesar, or the ruthless moralist, or the unmoved mover. It dwells upon the tender elements of the world, which slowly and in quietness operate by love; it finds purpose in the present immediacy of a kingdom not of this world. 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 present.”(p.343) God’s role is not the combat of productive force with productive force, of destructive force with destructive force; it lies in the patient operation of the overpowering rationality of his conceptual harmonization. He does not create the world, he saves it; or more accurately, he is the poet of the world, with tender patience leading it by his vison of truth, beauty, and goodness.” (p.346)
“For the kingdom of heaven is with us today. The action of the Fourth Phase is the love of God for the world. It is the particular providence for the particular occasions. What is done in the world is transformed into, and the reality in heaven passes back into the world. By reason of this reciprocal relation, the love in the world passes back into the love of the world. It is the particular providence for the particular occasions. By reason of this reciprocal relation the love in the world passes into the love in heaven, and floods back again into the world. In this sense, god is the great companion – the fellow sufferer who understands.“ (p. 351)
I can make no claim to understand all of the innuendoes gathered in such sentences, but I admit that I find them both moving and suggestive of truth.
I trust that this sharing may be of some value to all. Thanks for listening. Jerry