ABSTRACT
Process thought Process thought, developed by Whitehead and his followers, especially Hartshorne, is an important voice in the rejection of the classical tradition and represents a distinctive subset within modern Western theism. Many variants of process thought and theology have developed, but they all have a common core position, using a distinctive terminology (e.g. Griffith 1997: 136-42; Ward 1996: 304-9). An important force behind the development of process thought is the desire to accommodate a theistic account with modern developments in scientific worldviews. The basic process understanding of reality involves a rejection of a classical metaphysics based on permanent substances and a conception of the whole of reality being made up instead of events or ‘actual occasions’, all of which are part of a temporal process. These are causally affected and depend on each other to realise their potential, although it is also central to the system to emphasise the real freedom and autonomy of each event.
