Process & Faith Classes

Whitehead International Film Festival/Faith & Film class
This annual festival, held in January, includes ten feature films selected for their artistic excellence and their promotion of the common good. Each film celebrates human dignity, probes human problems, and offers hope for creative transformation. 

The Faith & Film class that accompanies the festival teaches film analysis and the theological interpretation of films. The class also serves as a jury and selects recipients (feature and short film categories) of the Whitehead Award.

Both the festival and the class acknowledge that:

• Films have enormous power to shape the conscience of their respective cultures.

• They demonstrate and develop the acceptable mores of a culture.

• Their power is based upon the resonance between the viewer and the portrayal of the human situation depicted in the film’s story. 
  Resonance is affected by the psychological depth of the story, the universality of its themes, and the artistic excellence of its visual imagery, music, and technical sophistication. 

• By creating a film festival that particularly honors those films that meet our criteria, the International Process Network can raise public conscience concerning the importance and power of films, and add a voice to those who encourage film makers to use their power toward the common good.

Offered every January in Claremont, CA, usually the week before Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Summer Process Institute
A week-long immersion in process theology, including several class offerings, such as:

• Introduction to Process Theology

• Advanced Seminar in Process Theology (e.g., the problem of evil)

• Process Biblical Interpretation

• Practical Process Applications (e.g., preaching, counseling)

Instructors have included Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki, John B. Cobb, Jr., David Ray Griffin, C. Robert Mesle, Ronald L. Farmer, Robert and Adrienne Brizee, Paul Lance, and Rick Marshall.

Classes are taught in the morning, followed by a communal meal and afternoon film that addresses issues covered earlier, ending with class discussion of the films.

Offered in June in Claremont, CA.

Exploring the Mystery: Dialogues between Science & Religion
What can pastors and interested laypersons learn from science and theology about the origin of the universe? Can a scientific understanding inspire and deepen Christian faith?

All levels of the physical world share three fundamental characteristics: creativity, openness to alternative possibilities, and interconnection. Science shows us these characteristics in the natural world. Religions find them in process philosophy, making process theology a unique bridge for people of science and people of faith. 

This class assumes no expertise, only curiosity!

• 2005: The Big Bang

• 2006: Evolution

• 2007: Zombies in the Midst

Offered in October in Claremont, CA.

For more information about any of these classes, contact Process & Faith.

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Process & Faith is a program of the Center for Process Studies, an affiliated program of the Claremont School of Theology.
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