The Christian Church As Social Process

One of the most important movements in recent philosophy and theology is the “process thought” associated with the name Alfred North Whitehead, the distinguished Cambridge thinker who died in 1947. In North America this conceptuality is increasingly being used by Christian theologians for the restatement of Christian faith, worship, and practice. The present book is the first attempt, by a British theologian, to apply this kind of thinking to the interpretation of the church itself. In an earlier book, “The Last Things” in a Process Perspective, Dr. Pittenger interpreted death, judgement, heaven, and hell in this new way. Now he turns to the church, its nature, its purpose, its ministry, its concern for the world, its interest in social issues, and seeks to show how the Christian fellowship is a “social process” in which the Love which is God and which was incarnate in Jesus is continuing to work in the affairs of men through the community which took to Jesus as its Lord and Master. “Process thought” is at last receiving its due recognition in Britain. In this book the reader will find an application of that conceptuality to the institution which all too often has been looked upon as wooden and static. The contention of the author is that the church, rightly understood, is a dynamic, living, vital, and forward-looking fellowship. He believes that acceptance of this truth will revitalize the discipleship of Christians and will attract and interest those who hitherto have dismissed the church as an outworn and dead “establishment.”