Date

4-27-2016

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

Because of the work of process philosophers Alfred North Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne, a view of God has emerged as being in a constant state of flux. The power and knowledge of the process God are much more restricted than the power and knowledge of the classical God, but such diminutions supposedly safeguard divine goodness from tyrannical implications. In this paper, I defend the classical divine attributes against process philosophers. More specifically, I argue that God’s omnipotence does not diminish divine goodness and that a deity with such restricted power would not function as a proper object of worship. In the first section, there is a presentation of the historical and philosophical basis of process theology. The second section reveals the ways in which process theology has been applied to mysticism, gender equality, and environmentalism. In the third section, I demonstrate the weaknesses of the process God and argue for the superiority of the classical notion of God.

Department

Philosophy

Thesis Comittee

Matthew R. Dasti (Thesis Director)

Laura McAlinden

James Pearson

Copyright and Permissions

Original document was submitted as an Honors Program requirement. Copyright is held by the author.

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