Faculty: Ann Kline, BCC (Profile)
ABOUT THE COURSE
Prerequisites
Students must already have completed Introduction to Christian Process Theology with Dr. Kling
Course Description:
This course examines one of theology’s most enduring and consequential questions: What does it mean to speak of divine power? Beginning with the process-relational critique of classical omnipotence, students will explore alternative understandings of God’s relationship to the world grounded in relationality, love, persuasion, and creaturely freedom. Particular attention will be given to philosophical and theological challenges to traditional conceptions of divine power, the implications of evolutionary and relational worldviews, feminist critiques and constructive proposals, and the problem of evil and suffering. The course culminates in engagement with the contemporary proposal of “amipotence,” or the power of uncontrolling love. Through sustained engagement with Hartshorne, Case-Winters, and Oord, weekly critical reflection, individual conversation with the professor, and a final integrative essay, students will evaluate competing understandings of divine power and develop their own constructive theological account of how divine love and power may be understood in a relational universe.