It is difficult to choose which class I enjoyed most this semester. However, Process Theology at Pacific School of Religion is definitely near the top of the category I image to be called: "favorite seminary classes thus far." In Process Theology we explored, among other things, the concept of a co-creative God that lures us to the greatest experiences of beauty with each other and within creation. One of our main texts was Process and Reality by Alfred North Whitehead. I have to tell you, that sh*% is dense- it is the work of a theologian who is more of a mathematician and writing for himself more than to communicate ideas to anyone else. Though I was pleased and surprised when, at the end of the semester, I went to review the materials for my paper and project and it started to make sense! (Key work in that last sentences: "started.") Amazing! Here are a few of gems from the text:
“He [God] 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 vision of truth, beauty and goodness.” -Whitehead.
“The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order. Life refuses to be embalmed alive.” -Whitehead.
One aspect of Process Theology speaks to the importance of creativity and creation in the world and the interconnectedness of all creation (which makes it, I think, especially interesting for anyone interested in ethics.) In our conversation about my final paper topic, I suggested to Dr. Hutchins (Process professor at Pacific School of Religion) that I would like to write a short story to illustrate the overlap between literature and theology from a Process Theology perspective. Dr. Hutchins supported the idea and with that decision seemingly settled I started blabbing on about how much I enjoy reading to my niece. After a few minutes of discussing how important it is to read to children, etc, Dr. Hutchins suggested that instead of writing a short story, perhaps I could write a children's book that discussed themes of Process Theology- and that is exactly what I did. For the next few weeks I toyed with this idea and that about plot of the story. I had a feeling it would just arrive in my mind one day if I was patient, but it needed to happen before finals week. Then it hit me- one morning while reading some Hafiz out of Love Poems to God (edited by Danial Landinsky (seriously go get this book- it is great,) I became reacquainted with an Hafiz poem called "Lousy at Math" which you can read in the blog post just below.
It was the idea of trying to "dissect the indivisible one" in this poem that struck me as acutely applicable to Process Theology. Because Process focuses so much on the interconnectedness of all creation, Process Theologians would have similar critiques of limiting relationship with God that I read into the end of Hafiz's poem. After several drafts, the story that you read below is the finished product. I also wrote a paper to accompany the little hand-painted and assembled book, but I am not going to post that on this blog. There are no pictures in the essay :) There are a few places where the text is cut off because of my shoddy-hurry-you-have-to-turn-this-in-like-now camera work, but you get the idea. It might take some imagination to sort out the pictures in relationship to the text with my limited technological skills, this is the best I could do. I am confident that you will sort it out. If not, well, I'll read it to you in person! Enjoy!
The Many Become One and Are Increased By One
By: Rachel Eskesen
By: Rachel Eskesen
The End!Bring on summer time! :D
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