This post contains three responses from ChatGPT with the first being to summarize the article by John B. Cobb, Jr., with the same name as the title of this post. The second extracts Cobb’s key quotes and the third his bible citations.
Cobb’s Bio: John B. Cobb, Jr., Ph.D. is Professor of Theology Emeritus at the Claremont School of Theology, Claremont, California, and Co-Director of the Center for Process Studies there. His many books currently in print include: Reclaiming the Church (1997); with Herman Daly, For the Common Good; Becoming a Thinking Christian (1993); Sustainability (1992); Can Christ Become Good News Again? (1991); ed. with Christopher Ives, The Emptying God: a Buddhist-Jewish-Christian Conversation (1990); with Charles Birch, The Liberation of Life; and with David Griffin, Process Theology: An Introductory Exposition (1977). He is a retired minister in the United Methodist Church.
The three prompts are:
- 1st Prompt – Summarize the article at https://www.religion-online.org/article/wesley-the-process-theologian/
- 2nd Prompt – key quotes from “Wesley the Process Theologian” by John B. Cobb, Jr. on religion-online.org that capture the article’s main ideas directly from the author’s text
- 3rd Prompt – Pull specific citations in ASV/NRSV wording (with scripture parallels) when the article references biblical themes directly.
Here’s a summary of the “Wesley the Process Theologian” article from Religion Online by John B. Cobb, Jr.:
Core Claim:
John B. Cobb argues that John Wesley’s theology functionally resembles process theology—not because Wesley was influenced by modern process philosophers like Alfred North Whitehead, but because Wesley emphasizes God’s relational work with human beings through time and change. (religion-online.org)
1. What “Process” Means Here
- Cobb uses “process” to contrast with Greek substance thinking (focused on static things).
- A “process” is a sequence of events—e.g., a person’s life—rather than unchanging substances.
- He suggests the Bible itself is more about dynamic narratives and events than static entities. (religion-online.org)
2. Wesley’s Theological Emphasis
- Wesley focuses on real-time interaction between God and individuals: how faith emerges, love grows, and sin recurs.
- This approach portrays salvation and spiritual life as unfolding dynamically, not pre-determined from eternity.
- God’s activity is relational and responsive within human experience. (religion-online.org)
3. Comparison With Other Traditions
- Greek philosophical influence (e.g., substance theology) dominated early Christian doctrine, leading to views of God as unchanging and unaffected by history.
- Calvin’s theology, while emphasizing God’s will rather than substance, still maintained an eternally fixed divine determination of everything.
- Wesley’s theology differs by attending to ongoing, lived change and human cooperation with grace. (religion-online.org)
4. Wesley’s Middle Way on Grace and Human Freedom
- Wesley affirms human responsibility without excluding the primacy of grace.
- Grace is present within human experience, shaping choices, but not coercing them.
- Human decisions influence how grace acts in subsequent moments, creating a genuinely interactive process. (religion-online.org)
5. Parallels With Process Philosophy
- Cobb acknowledges that Wesley did not explicitly adopt process philosophy, but that modern process thought provides a conceptual framework that resonates with Wesley’s dynamic, relational view of God and human life.
- Whitehead’s model describes experience as interaction between past influences and creatively open present choices—something Cobb sees reflected in Wesley’s approach. (religion-online.org)
6. Implications for Theology Today
- Process thought offers tools for engaging science, pluralism, and worldly complexity without abandoning the activity of God in history.
- It can critique the modern scholarly tendency to exclude God from explanations of events.
- Cobb suggests that Wesley would likely appreciate efforts to integrate faith and reason across disciplines. (religion-online.org)
7. Challenges and Cautions
- Modern process theology has often been associated with liberal theology, which can downplay the personal and evangelistic dimensions Wesley emphasized.
- Critics from evangelical or liberationist traditions sometimes resist process theology, but Cobb argues there’s room for Wesleyans to engage it constructively. (religion-online.org)
In Short:
Cobb reinterprets Wesley’s theology through a process lens, showing that Wesley’s emphasis on divine-human interaction, spiritual growth, and dynamic change mirrors key features of process theology—even though Wesley himself predated and did not use modern process philosophical language. (religion-online.org)
If you want, I can also extract key quotes from the article in ASV/NRSV style.
2nd Response – Here are key quotes from “Wesley the Process Theologian” by John B. Cobb, Jr. on religion-online.org that capture the article’s main ideas directly from the author’s text: (Religion Online)
🔹 On Wesley’s Process-Oriented Theology
“Wesley sees God as working with each human being through the course of our lives — a process. Wesley pays close attention to the actual changes that occur: the emergence of faith, growth in love, falling back into sin… It is worked out in a real process of interaction between the individual and God.” (Religion Online)
🔹 On the Biblical Basis for Process Thinking
“Most Biblical talk of God locates God as an actor in a story… There is very little reflection about objects and their attributes. There is a great deal of story telling and history.” (Religion Online)
This emphasizes that Wesley’s thought comes out of a narrative, dynamic view of reality more akin to process than static “substance” categories. (Religion Online)
🔹 On Wesley and Greek Philosophical Categories
“If a process theologian is one who has been influenced by philosophers such as Alfred North Whitehead… Historical influence does not work backwards in time. But…process thought is more characteristic of the Bible than substance thought of the Greeks.” (Religion Online)
Cobb acknowledges Wesley didn’t explicitly use later process philosophy, but theologically, his emphasis aligns with process categories. (Religion Online)
🔹 On Human Responsibility, Grace, and Decision
“Wesley changed this picture by locating the working of God within the human being… an actual human being makes choices that result from the particular way in which grace and nature are united in that person. This choice is constantly affecting the way in which grace can function in the next moment.” (Religion Online)
Here Wesley’s dynamic interplay of grace and human action aligns with a process-style interaction rather than deterministic models. (Religion Online)
If you’d like, I can also pull specific citations in ASV/NRSV wording (with scripture parallels) when the article references biblical themes directly.
3rd Response – Below are key biblical passages (quoted in your preferred translations) that John B. Cobb Jr.’s argument implicitly relies on, paired with how each text supports Wesley’s “process-like” theology as described in “Wesley the Process Theologian” (Religion-Online, John B. Cobb Jr.).
I [ChatGPT] quote Old Testament from the ASV and New Testament from the NRSV, and I explain the theological connection directly after each text.
1. God Acts Within Ongoing History (Process, Not Static Being)
Exodus 3:12 (ASV)
“And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be the token unto thee, that I have sent thee: when thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.”
Connection:
Cobb emphasizes that Scripture portrays God as an actor in unfolding events, not a detached substance. God’s promise is future-oriented and contingent on a developing historical process—precisely the narrative dynamism Cobb says aligns Wesley more with process categories than Greek metaphysics (Cobb, Wesley the Process Theologian).
2. God Responds to Human Action
Exodus 32:14 (ASV)
“And Jehovah repented of the evil which he said he would do unto his people.”
Connection:
Cobb highlights that biblical faith assumes real interaction between God and human beings. This passage reflects divine responsiveness, a key point in Cobb’s claim that Wesley’s theology fits a relational, process-oriented view of God rather than an immutable, unaffected deity.
3. Salvation as an Ongoing Process
Philippians 2:12–13 (NRSV)
“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
Connection:
Cobb describes Wesley’s theology as tracking actual changes over time—faith emerging, love increasing, sin recurring. This text captures the interactive process Wesley stresses: God works within human willing, not apart from it, which Cobb explicitly identifies as process-like.
4. Grace That Precedes, Accompanies, and Responds
1 Corinthians 3:6 (NRSV)
“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.”
Connection:
Cobb argues Wesley rejects both determinism and human self-sufficiency. Growth occurs through multiple moments of cooperation, where divine grace works through changing circumstances—mirroring process theology’s emphasis on cumulative influence rather than unilateral control.
5. Transformation Over Time, Not Instant Fixity
2 Corinthians 3:18 (NRSV)
“And all of us… are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.”
Connection:
This passage reflects the gradual transformation Wesley emphasized in sanctification. Cobb explicitly notes that Wesley’s theology pays attention to real spiritual development over time, aligning with a process understanding of human life as successive events rather than static states.
6. Human Choice Matters in God’s Work
Deuteronomy 30:19 (ASV)
“I have set before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse: therefore choose life, that thou mayest live, thou and thy seed.”
Connection:
Cobb stresses that for Wesley, human decisions genuinely affect what happens next—including how grace functions in subsequent moments. This text grounds that claim biblically, reinforcing Cobb’s argument that Wesley’s theology assumes a future that is not fully fixed in advance.
7. God’s Nearness Within Human Experience
Acts 17:27–28 (NRSV)
“So that they would search for God… though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being.’”
Connection:
Cobb notes Wesley’s insistence that God’s work occurs within lived experience, not merely in eternal decrees. This passage supports Cobb’s claim that Wesley’s theology is relational, experiential, and dynamically interactive.
Bottom Line (Tied Directly to Cobb)
Cobb’s central claim is not that Wesley was a process philosopher, but that Wesley’s theology naturally fits a process framework because Scripture itself presents:
- God acting in time,
- genuine interaction with human choices,
- salvation as lived development,
- grace as dynamically operative.
All of the passages above illustrate the biblical logic Cobb argues Wesley faithfully preserved, making Wesley a natural dialogue partner for process theology (Wesley the Process Theologian, John B. Cobb Jr., Religion-Online).
If you want next, I can contrast these texts with classical “immutability” prooftexts and show how Cobb implicitly re-reads them through Wesley’s lens.
