The Divine Decision

by Bowman, Donna; Cobb, John B.

• ISBN13: 9780664224943
• ISBN10: 0664224946
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-04-01
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Pr

Summary

Donna Bowman utilizes the work of process thinker Alfred North Whitehead to develop a doctrine of election that dialogues with the view of Reformed theologian Karl Barth. Taking seriously Barth's contention that election is the best of all words that can be spoken about God, Bowman reinterprets Whitehead's description of God's provision of the initial aim to each entity as the central cosmological and theological fact of universal election. By combining Barth's concerns with process categories, she concludes that both systems are aimed at common theological and philosophical enemies.

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
Acknowledgments	xi
Abbreviations	xii
Introduction	1	(12)
Karl Barth's Doctrine of Election	13	(62)
The Centrality of the Election Doctrine	16	(3)
The Act of the Electing God	19	(32)
The Response of the Elected	51	(20)
Conclusion	71	(4)
Whitehead's Concept of the Initial Aim	75	(48)
The Initial Aim in Whitehead's Process Philosophy	78	(26)
The Initial Aim as Election	104	(17)
Conclusion	121	(2)
Convergence and Divergence: What Process Theology Affirms and Denies	123	(24)
What Process Theology Denies about Election	124	(6)
Reinterpretation of Election by Process Theology	130	(14)
Conclusion	144	(3)
The Process Doctrine of Election: God's Call and the Creature's Response	147	(72)
The Divine Act	148	(43)
The Response of the Creature	191	(23)
Conclusion	214	(5)
Epilogue	219	(10)
Notes	229	(42)
Sources Cited	271	(6)
Index of Names and Topics	277