From Force to Persuasion: Process-Relational Perspectives on Power and the God of Love

At the heart of process-relational theology in the tradition of Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) and Charles Hartshorne (1897-2000) is the rejection of coercive omnipotence and the embrace of divine persuasion as the patient and uncontrolling means by which God works with a truly self-creative world. According to Whitehead, Plato’s conviction that God is a persuasive agency and not a coercive agency constitutes ＂one of the greatest intellectual discoveries in the history of religion.＂ According to Hartshorne, omnipotence is a ＂theological mistake.＂ What is behind these claims? Why do process-relational philosophers and theologians reject divine omnipotence? How have they justified a commitment to divine persuasion, and what kind of theoretical and practical implications are involved? Featuring contributions from key process-relational thinkers, this book situates a shift ＂from force to persuasion＂ across multiple thresholds of discourse, from philosophy and theology to spirituality and politics to pluralism, axiology, and apocalypse. It aims to reawaken attention to the operations of divine persuasion as ever-loving and inherently noncoercive, but always at risk in an open and relational universe.

Andrew M. Davis is program director for the Center for Process Studies. He is author, editor, and coeditor of several books including Mind, Value, and Cosmos (2020) and Metaphysics of Exo-Life (2023).