RETREAT  TALKS  2009  -  Number 4

THE PRACTICE OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD – A modern view

The Rev Dr Brian Harding, St Alban’s LCC, Brisbane

We have looked at the Presence of God in a medieval theology, in Sufism and even in Buddhism.  Now I want to introduce you to Process Philosophy.  The generally acknowledged founder of this movement was the English mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead.  His key books were published in the 1920s.

However, many ideas in Process Philosophy have a long history which can be traced back to pre-Socratic philosophers such as Heraclitus, and the Egyptian sage, Hermes Trismegistus, founder of what became known as the Hermetic Tradition.  This thinking, which has been called the Third Tradition, has come down to us through such people as Paracelsus, Bruno, John Dee, and later philosophers such as William James and Henri Bergson.  One may even include Alan Watts in the list.

The Third Tradition can be described as organic as opposed to materialist/mechanistic.  Whitehead’s writings gave rise to Process Theology, developed by American Charles Hartshorne.  (Note, as an aside, that this has something in common with faith traditions such as Buddhism – so we have a link with the last talk given by Noel.)

So what is Process Philosophy?  This is difficult to explain in a few words and, indeed, we don’t need to go into too much academic detail here.  Charles Birch, a retired evolutionary biologist from Sydney University, presents a relatively easy summary in his most recent book, Science and Soul (2008), for those who wish to read further.

Birch groups his account of Process Philosophy under two main headings – Pansubjectivism and Panentheism.

Pansubjectivism

This is a big word but the idea behind it is straight forward.  Instead of regarding material things such as atoms as the basis for understanding nature, Whitehead looked to living organisms as his starting point.

He reasoned thus: the only entity we know from the inside is ourselves and we know there is more to us than a collection of atoms and molecules.  We have an “inside” as well as an “outside.”  We “experience.”  So Whitehead extended this idea to other “entities” right the way down to quarks – they too have an “inside,” they too “experience.”  Note the parallel with Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.  He also held that all entities have an “inner aspect” as well as an outer one.  His work was published in The Phenomenon of Man in 1955.

So Whitehead saw all entities as possessing what he called “mentality.”  All entities from humans down to quarks are seen as centres of subjective experience and not simply as objects of experience for others; hence the name “pansubjectivism” or “panexperientialism.”  Whitehead believed that mentality existed right from the beginning, from the Big Bang.  I am reminded of one of my favourite books – Intelligence Came First, by E Lester Smith.  Note, however, that for Whitehead, mentality is not the same as consciousness.  He says: “consciousness evolves from a mentality that is not conscious in atoms to one that is conscious in higher organisms.”

This sounds all very academic, but the existence of an “inner life” in all things is more important than you may realize at first.  If creation is made up of these “units of experience,” which become “units of consciousness” in higher organisms, what happens as we study more and more complex living forms?  What happens when these units of experience combine together and evolve into more complex units?

Whitehead’s answer: “The many become one, and are increased by one.”  That is, one plus one makes three.  Charles Birch says “The experience of consciousness is not made up of neuronal events added together, one to the other.  They are integrated into a single coherent “unit of experience” with its own memory and its own anticipations … The new unity is no mere arrangement of old units.  It is a new singular actuality.”

In simple terms, the whole is more than the sum of its parts.  If we extend this process of complexification to the ultimate, surely we arrive at Unity, the One, the Ultimate Experience, the Universal Consciousness – which is surely God, remembering what we said last night?  In a somewhat similar way, Teilhard saw all things as evolving towards an ultimate Unity which he called the “Omega Point.”

Panentheism

We come now to the next big word – “panentheism.”  In contrast to classical theism, which separates God from the world, the theism of process thought is known as panentheism meaning “everything is in God.”  God is everywhere and permeates the world (including us) but is not identified with it.  God is in creation but is more than creation.

Panentheism is very much an aspect of Liberal Catholicism.  Remember the beautiful passage in our Liturgy when the priest makes the sign of the cross with the large wafer over the chalice three times as he says “…by Him were all things made, yea, all things both in heaven and earth; with Him as the indwelling life do all things exist and in Him as the transcendent glory all things live and move and have their being.”

But there is more.  We also say, in the beautiful Longer Form, “…thou dost continually uphold all creation, resting not by night or day, working evermore through that most august hierarchy of thy glorious saints…” and again in the next paragraph, we read of “the enduring sacrifice by which the world is nourished and sustained.”

Have we ever really thought what these passages mean?  St Paul in his letters repeatedly refers to the followers of Christ as “the saints.”  To him, they were not people whom the Catholic Church has decided worked two miracles (or is it three?) but ordinary Christians.  So, in his thought, we are “the saints.”  So our Liturgy is clearly saying that God continually upholds all creation working through us.  We are co-creators with God.

The writer Charles Kingsley said “God makes things that make themselves.”  This idea is now known in science as the principle of self-organisation.

Whitehead puts it beautifully: “God is in the world, … creating continually in us and around us.  …In so far as man partakes of this creative process, he partakes of the divine, of God … His true destiny as co-creator of the universe is his dignity and his grandeur.”

So we partake of the divine.  For Whitehead, Jesus fully reveals the divine in the human.  He says: “The centrality of Jesus for Christians is not that he is a God who is to control our lives but that he reveals the divine possibilities of human life.  The more fully God is present in human life the more fully we are humans.  The divinity that was in Jesus is the same divinity that is in us.”

Is this not precisely the view of all mystics?  Remember the exclamations of the “intoxicated” Sufis?

The Presence of God in the world and God’s activity in the world.

In Whitehead’s view, God’s activity in the world is one of persuasion and compassion, as we see in the life of Jesus.  “Behold I stand at the door and knock” is the image of God’s relation to human beings.  “There is no forced entry, just patient persuading,” says Birch.  “We have our own degree of freedom to respond or not respond.”

In every event and happening in life, we are addressed by God’s compassionate love as is the whole of creation.  God is the “lure of the world,” says Birch.  God’s power is not the power to do anything at all, to manipulate things and people.  It is the power of persuasive love working in the world of entities endowed with a degree of self determination.  However, for Birch, our “only adequate response to God’s love is infinite passion; with all of one’s heart and mind and strength.”

Here I have to introduce another important process idea.  Whitehead says that God has two natures – his primordial nature and his consequent nature.  God is unchanging, unmoved, only in His primordial nature – in His love and compassion, His justice, His urging us on always towards the good.

However, in God’s consequent nature, God reacts to the world – He is moved by the world – as it is created moment to moment.  In God’s consequent nature, God suffers with the world.  God works in us in the struggle for justice and mercy; He also shares our sufferings.  “God is the Great Companion – the fellow sufferer who understands,” says Whitehead.

Process theologian John Cobb writes: “What happens is not a moment of private feeling that occurs and is then forever lost.  Instead, it is forever a contribution to the divine life.  God suffers with us in our suffering and rejoices with us in our joy.  When we inflict pain on an animal, we inflict pain forever on God.  When we ease the thirst of a neighbour, God’s thirst is forever eased as well.”

Whatever we do, then, is a contribution to the divine life.  Should we therefore not do exactly as Brother Lawrence says?  We should do everything for the love of God, whether it be a small task or a big one.

Cobb’s words bring to mind the story in Mark 25:34-40:

Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’  Then the righteous will answer him; ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink?  And when was it we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing?  And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’  And the king will answer them; ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’

Process theologians see God as being so intimately involved in the world that no experience is ever lost.  This follows from what I said about the addition of units of experience in the evolutionary process – that we arrive eventually at the Ultimate Experience which is God who therefore embraces all experience.  Thus, says Birch, “what is of value in all existence is somehow saved as memory forever in the life of God.  Our own feelings [experiences] are added to God’s ocean of feeling,” [God’s ocean of experience if you like].  (What comes to mind? - “the dewdrop slides into the shining sea” or “we are God experiencing the world”).

I recall my mother’s favourite hymn, especially the last three lines:

O love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in Thee,
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in Thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.

[repeat last three lines]

We therefore see that the ideas of Process Philosophy lead us to a realization of the nearness of God, a realization that all we do matters to God, all we do is shared by God.  For me, as I said just now, it adds a further dimension to Brother Lawrence’s teaching, that we should do everything for the love of God.  We should do it with love so that our love is added to God’s ocean of love.  Remembering that we are co-creators with God, then we should endeavour at all times to Practice the Presence of God.

Reading from Spiritual Maxims: “Of the Presence of God” p77ff

Meditation – using the method of St Ignatius.

Relax as before.  Take a few deep breaths; centre yourself in stillness.

Now visualise a scene from the Bible – one that maybe is a favourite of yours.  It may be the “Entry into Jerusalem” on Palm Sunday.  Maybe the “Healing of the Woman with a Haemorrhage” as she touched His clothes; maybe the “Healing of the Lame Man” lowered by his friends through the roof into Jesus’ presence; maybe the “Feeding of the 5000,” or the “Woman Caught in Adultery.”  Or the story of the “Good Samaritan.”.  Or the “Raising of Lazarus.”  There are so many.  So focus attention on one of these.  Build the scene in your mind.

Now visualise yourself as being there.  Maybe you’re a key player – one of the Disciples perhaps, or a Centurian; maybe just one of the bystanders who have come to see this man, Jesus.  Picture Him surrounded by crowds of excited people.  You are right there in His real-time Presence.  Hear the sounds, maybe feel the sand or the grass beneath you feet, or experience the crush in a house or street, or the hot Palestinian sun.

Use all your senses to enter into the scene.  Fasten your eyes on this man Jesus, who some are calling Elias, or John the Baptist, even the Son of God.

Stay with the scene, feel His Presence right there, now – you can almost reach out and touch Him.  Focus on Him, stay with Him.

Close with a prayer:  O my God, since Thou art with me, and I must now, in obedience to Thy commands, apply my mind to outward things, I beseech Thee to grant me the grace to continue in Thy presence; and to this end do Thou prosper me with Thy assistance, receive all my works, and possess all my affections.  Amen.

Open eyes, return to the room/present.