Presence, Power and Prayer: Process-Relational Spirituality
Kairos, Luther Seminary, July 28-August 1, 2008

Why do Christians pray? One traditional view is that in prayer we come into the presence of a transcendent and all-powerful God, in order to make supplications for our needs and the needs of others. But this view raises difficult questions. Does it encourage us to think of God as a wish-granting “genie in a bottle” or as a “heavenly secretary,” whose function is to record and meet our desires? Does it encourage us to think of God as a divine egotist who, even having already foreknown and fore-ordained all things, still “likes to be asked” for believers’ daily needs? Perhaps most troubling is the question why an all-powerful God appears to grant some prayers and to refuse others. Process-relational theology can offer an alternative view of prayer: in prayer we come to more conscious involvement in the always-present immanence of God, who empowers us to co-create with God actualities of beauty, justice, and peace. Prayer is at root the process of offering ourselves as the “receptacle” or “place” in which God’s aims can be embodied. This view raises questions in its turn: If God is always already present, then what distinguishes God’s presence in prayer from God’s presence in any other kind of activity? If we do not think of God as omnipotent in the traditional sense, then what power does God have? Does prayer make a real difference in the world, or is it only a representation of an inner dialogue, a sort of motivational “talking to ourselves”? In this course we will address these questions by exploring how a process-relational spirituality can encompass practices of verbal prayer, meditation, liturgy, and action for the creative transformation of power relationships and inspired work in the world. [Schedule]  [Register]

Instructors

Rev. Dr. David Fredrickson, Professor of New Testament, Luther Seminary

Rev. Mary Halvorson, Pastor, Grace University Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, MN

Ms. Linda Kelsey, Actress, stage and television

Ms. Kirsten Mebust, Department of Religion, Augsburg College; Ph.D. candidate, Claremont Graduate
University

Rev. Dr. Paul Nancarrow, Rector, St. George’s Episcopal Church, St. Louis Park, MN; canon theologian of
the Episcopal diocese of Minnesota

Sr. Mary Frances Reis, Sisters of the Visitation, Minneapolis, MN.

Rev. Dr. Paul Sponheim, Professor emeritus of Systematic Theology, Luther Seminary; academic credit
adviser

Mr. Glenn Strand, Vice-president of Information Technology, the Resco Company; graduate student,
Geography, University of Minnesota

Mr. Charles Yancey, Design engineer and entrepreneur

Recommended reading

John B. Cobb, Bruce G. Epperly and Paul S. Nancarrow, The Call of the Spirit: Process Spirituality in a
Relational World (Process & Faith Press, 2005)

Paul R. Sponheim, Speaking of God: Relational Theology (Chalice, 2006)

Marjorie Suchocki, In God’s Presence: Theological Reflections on Prayer (Chalice, 1996)

Alfred North Whitehead, Religion in the Making (Fordham, 1996)

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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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