Collage Design by Jesse Turri

Bill Eckert:
Do any of you hold a non-personal view of God? If so, is your worldview distinct from naturalism?

Jay McDaniel:
Bill, my own view is that God can meaningfully be conceived in both personal and transpersonal terms, and that there is a continuum between the two poles. I myself sometimes speak of God as You and sometimes as the Arc of Compassion. The first is more personal than the second. Viewing God in personal terms involves a sense that God feels or apprehends the universe and responds in a loving way; viewing God in transpersonal terms involves a sense that God is a connective thread that holds things together and a primordial lure toward novelty and order, partly composed of the universe itself. I see wisdom on both sides,and I think it is fine to move from one way of speaking to another, depending on context. Interestingly, from a process perspective, both views are naturalistic, inasmuch as both see God as an expression of, not an exception to, the dynamics and patterns of “nature,” deeply understood. The dichotomy between the natural and supernatural is not one that process thinkers accept. For them — for me as well — nature is the evolving web of concrescing subjects, and God is the unifying life (personal) or connective pattern (transpersonal) in whom the web unfolds, and by which it is animated. I like the way that Rabbi Bradley Artson puts it; he says that the universe is ‘marinated’ in God. Hope this helps a bit…

This is a conversation between Bill Eckert and Jay McDaniel that took place recently in the Facebook group Process Philosophy for Everyone.

Tags:Jay McDanielnaturalismpanentheisimprocess philosophywhitehead