What if God isn't a finished substance standing outside the world, but a living process we participate in?
In this Silk Road Seminar, John Vervaeke is joined by process philosophers Andrew M. Davis and Matt Segall. John opens with the core moves of Seeing God Again for the First Time and the Philosophical Silk Road: dissolving modernity's dichotomies, renewing our sense of the sacred, and moving between traditions as a pilgrim rather than a tourist. From there, the three bring Whitehead's process thought into dialogue with Neoplatonism, Daoism, and Buddhism. Together, they explore:
- Process perennialism vs. propositional perennialism
- Primordiality, ultimacy, and the consequent nature of God
- Why God is not an individualized substance, and what that means for theism and atheism
- Hartshorne's dipolar theism and a dynamic view of perfection
- Anatheism, non-duality, and the inexhaustible sacred
- Faith as disposition rather than propositional assent, and the criteria for judging deeper framings of reality
Andrew M. Davis leads research and conference programming at the Center for Process Studies. He is the author of Mind, Value, and Cosmos: On the Relational Nature of Ultimacy and the forthcoming Whitehead's Universe: A Prismatic Introduction (Orbis Books).
Matt Segall is a professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies, where he teaches process philosophy and German idealism, approaching philosophy as a transformative practice.
Center for Process Studies | Andrew M. Davis | Matt Segall (Footnotes2Plato)
00:00 Welcome to the Silk Road Seminar
01:44 Matt Segall and Andrew Davis introduce themselves
05:00 Seeing God Again for the First Time
11:09 The Philosophical Silk Road as pilgrimage
15:50 Cobb, Whitehead, and Buddhist-Christian dialogue
17:59 Process perennialism
24:19 Primordiality, ultimacy, and Zen Neoplatonism
27:53 The consequent nature of God
39:45 God is not an individualized substance
51:16 Hartshorne and dipolar theism
01:00:44 Rethinking omniscience and omnipotence
01:08:27 Anatheism: returning to God after God
01:12:06 The sacred obligation to pilgrimage
01:18:50 Propositional vs. dispositional faith
01:25:20 "It's more important that a proposition be interesting than that it be true."
01:31:42 Q&A: Fidelity to tradition and openness to others
01:42:36 How do we judge one framing of reality as deeper?
01:49:55 Collective individuation
02:02:31 Closing words
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Thank you for listening!
