Abstract
In today’s society, models of God are challenged to account for more than the postmodern context in which Western Christianity finds itself; they should also consider the reality of religious pluralism. Non-monotheistic religions present a particular challenge to Western theological and philosophical God-modeling because they require a model of Gods. This paper uses an African tradition religion as a case study to problematize the effects of monotheism on philosophical models of God. The desire to uphold the image of a singular God tends to invalidate religious experiences that deviate from a given scientifically-verifiable norm. It also mischaracterizes the concept of divinity in religions that maintain divine multiplicity. That is. scholars of African traditional religions affirm that “polytheism” is not an accurate naming of their traditions; rather these religious affirm a community of gods. I propose a Whiteheadian process model that describes a community of gods that has active interaction with the temporal world. Such a model not only broadens conversations of religious pluralism for Western-trained religious scholars, but also acknowledges the Western context in which many practitioners of African traditional religions lives.
This article is a republication of the original under the same name in Philosophia vol. 35, nos. 3–4, September–December 2007, pp. 329–340.
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Notes
- 1.
Sallie McFague (1987), Models of God, x.
- 2.
Ibid., xii.
- 3.
McFague (1982) outlines this in greater depth in Metaphorical Theology.
- 4.
Schneider is one of McFague’s former students – and in the interest of full disclosure, I am a former student of McFague as well.
- 5.
Laurel Schneider (2006), “When Hell Freezes Over: Feminism, Ontology and Multiplicity”.
- 6.
Ibid., 12.
- 7.
Ibid.
- 8.
Ibid.
- 9.
Ibid., 11.
- 10.
Ibid., 13.
- 11.
- 12.
Many òrìşà in Yoruba religion have multiple names although they signify the same force. This is partly attributable to the distribution of the religion throughout Yorubaland, and the Yoruba-based religions in the New World. This paper may refer to Olódùmarè/Olorun, Obatala/Orişa-nla, Orunmila/Ifà, Èşù/Elegba/Elegbara. This paper will also use the “ş” to indicate the sound of “sh.” There is no consistency in scholarship (usually because of the capability of word processors and attempts to translate into English) so “àşę” is also “ashe” and “òrìşà” is also “orisha.” Note òrìşà is the same in the plural or singular usage.
- 13.
A. Okechukwu Obannaya (1994), On Communitarian Divinity, 21.
- 14.
Ibid., 21.
- 15.
E. Bolaji Idowu (1994), Olodumare.
- 16.
Phillip J. Neimark (1993), The Way of the Orisa.
- 17.
Benjamin Ray (2000), African Religions, 25. Ray defines pantheism as “an underlying notion of sacred ‘force’ or ‘power’ that permeates the gods, humans and the natural world.”
- 18.
Ibid.
- 19.
Ibid., 27.
- 20.
Ogbonnaya, 13–22. He also recapitulates the monotheism/polytheism debate within African traditional religions.
- 21.
Ibid., x.
- 22.
Ibid., 23.
- 23.
Jacob K. Olupona (2001), “To Praise and to Reprimand”, 51.
- 24.
Ibid.
- 25.
Ibid.
- 26.
Ibid., 58.
- 27.
Ogbonnaya, 26
- 28.
For a concise explanation of eschatology in classical theism, see David Basinger (1988), “Eschatology: Will Good Ultimately Triumph in the Process System?” For a more thorough explanation, see Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki, End of Evil.
- 29.
Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki (1988), The End of Evil, 122.
- 30.
Alfred North Whitehead (1978), Process and Reality, 350.
- 31.
Ibid., 347.
- 32.
Ibid., 351.
- 33.
Suchocki (1988), The End of Evil, 96.
- 34.
This (inside the consequent nature of God) is where one might locate an “ancestral realm” wherein ancestors commune with one another and God while “looking in” on the activity of the temporal world.
- 35.
Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki (1994), The Fall to Violence, 60.
- 36.
Robert Farris Thompson (1983), Flash of the Spirit, 5.
- 37.
Sallie McFague (1975), Speaking in Parables.
- 38.
John B. Cobb, Jr. (1982), Beyond Dialogue.
- 39.
Tracey E. Hucks (2001), “Burning with a Flame in America,” 89–90.
- 40.
McFague (1987), Models of God, xiv.
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Coleman, M.A. (2013). From Models of God to a Model of Gods: How Whiteheadian Metaphysics Facilitates Western Language Discussion of Divine Multiplicity. In: Diller, J., Kasher, A. (eds) Models of God and Alternative Ultimate Realities. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5219-1_29
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