Lewis S. Ford is Louis I. Jaffe Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, Old Dominion University. He is the author of The Emergence of Whitehead's Metaphysics, 1925-1929, also published by SUNY Press, The Lure of God: A Biblical Background for Process Theism, and he is coeditor (with George L. Kline) of Explorations in Whitehead's Philosophy. From 1971-1996, he was the editor of the scholarly quarterly, Process Studies.

• ForewordPreface Abbreviations IntroductionThe Intelligibility of Future Activity I. Meanings of the Future Appropriate to God 1. Meanings of the Future2. Ways in Which God Is Future3. Ways in Which God Is Not Future II. Three Ways Whitehead Revises Traditional Expectations 1. Divine Persuasion Replaces Classical Omnipotence2. God Need Not Be Conceived as Creator Ex Nihilo3. Becoming Is Primary; Being Is Derivative III. Toward a New Conception of the Future 1. Modes of Actuality2. The Future as Actually Indeterminate3. The Future as the Source of Creativity4. The Future as the Source of Aim5. The Nature of the Future as Actual IV. The Plan of This Book Part OneWhitehead's Successive Concepts of God Chapter One: The Principle of Limitation I. BackgroundII. CriticismsIII. Types of Limitation Chapter Two: Deconstructing Theism I. IntroductionII. The Final Concept: God as Temporal and ConcrescentIII. The Middle Concept: God as Nontemporal and ConcrescentIV The Early Concept Chapter Three: Reconstructing Nontemporal Theism I. A Comparison of Concepts1. The Initial, Minimal Concept2. The Final Concept3. The Middle Concept II. Possible Solutions to the Riddle 1. Natural and Experiential Theology2. The Role of Religion3. Temporalist Implications III. A Possible External Influence 1. Henry Nelson Wieman2. Whitehead's Reaction IV. The Initial Concept of God 1. Actual Entity2. Transcendence3. Self-Causation4. Instance of Creativity5. The Ontological Principle V. The 1926 Metaphysical Principles 1. The Principle of Solidarity2. The Principle of Creative Individuality3. The Principle of Efficient Causation4. The Ontological Principle5. The Principle of Esthetic Individuality6. The Principle of Ideal Comparison VI. The 1927 Metaphysical Principles VII. The Middle Concept of God 1. Preconditions for the Middle Concept2. Precipitating Factors Chapter Four: Reconstructing Process Theism I. Preliminary Considerations 1. Exemplifying the Metaphysical Principles2. Nontemporal Subjectivity II. Precipitating Factors 1. Temporal Subjectivity2. Locus of Integration3. Is 'Consciousness' the Reason for Process Theism?4. Is 'Everlastingness' the Reason for Process Theism?5. What about the Provision of Subjective Aim?6. The Intensification of Process III. Whitehead's Problematic Legacy 1. How God Affects the World2. The Fourth Phase3. Apparent Responsiveness and Nontemporal Valuation4. Later Writings Part TwoThe Search for the Prehensibility of God Chapter Five: The Divine Power in the Present I. William A. Christian II. Marjorie Suchocki III. Palmyre Oomen IV. Jorge Nobo V. Elizabeth M. Kraus VI. Lewis S. Ford Chapter Six: The Power of the Past I. Nancy Frankenberry and the Power of the Past II. Hartshorne and the Objectification of God 1. The Principle of Prehension2. Objections Based on Hartshorne's Own Position Objection 1Divine Occasions are Exceptions to the Metaphysical PrinciplesObjection 2Alternation and AsychronicityObjection 3Divine Occasions Are Not PersuasiveObjection 4Divine Occasions Limit Creaturely FreedomObjection 5It Undercuts Nontemporal SubjectivityObjection 6How Is Creativity Transmitted within God? 3. Divine Occasions with Initial AimsObjection 7How Can the Initial Aims Be Selected?Objection 8Eternal Objects Become EverlastingObjection 9An Objection from Mathematics 4. The Objection from Relativity Physics Chapter Seven: Process Nontemporality I.Bowman Clarke II. Uncreated Eternal Objects III. The Metaphysical Principles IV Nontemporal Decision and Determination Part IIIThe Imprehensibility of God Chapter Eight: The Power of the Future I. God and Future Creativity: Some Preliminary Objections 1. God and Creativity2. God and Being3. God and Eternity4. God As Future Actuality5. God As Becoming II. The Identification of God with Future Creativity 1. God As Personal2. Divine Responsiveness3. Perfect Power4. God as Empty III. The Infusion of Creativity 1. Modes of Actuality2. Prehension and the Infusion of Creativity3. Aim4. The Interdependence of Creativity and Aim Chapter Nine: Persistence and the Extensive Continuum I. Persistence and Perception 1. Diremption2 Emergence of Persistence3. Atrophy4. Inclusive Occasions5. Physical Perception and Prehension6. Future Physical Perception7. Divine Consciousness II. The Extensive Continuum 1. The Ontological Status of the Extensive Continuum2. The Extensive Continuum and Societies3. Relativity Physics4. In Unison of Becoming5. The Locus of all Locations6. Locus and Passage7. Divine Privacy and Publicity Chapter Ten: Creativity and Contingency I. Creativity 1. Present and Future Creativity2. Eschatological Actuality II. Contingency 1. Contingency and Interdependence2. Rationalist and Empiricist Process Theology3. Uniqueness and Primacy4. Divine Satisfaction III. Concluding Objections Objection 1If God Is Future Creativity, How Can God Also Be Personal and Individual? Objection 2Is My Claim That Creativity Is Derived from God, Too Much Biased in the Direction of Western Monotheism? Objection 3Isn't It Blasphemous to Suppose That Our Own Subjectivity Is Simply a Continuation of God's? Isn't This Simply a Kind of Temporalistic Pantheism? Objection 4Does Not the Ontotheological Stricture Exclude the Possibility of God as Future Creativity? Notes Index

"This book will likely prove most helpful to persons who have first studied Whitehead." — CHOICE"An important book." — David Ray Griffin, editor of Physics and the Ultimate Significance of Time"If Ford's vision carries the day, all future authors in process philosophy and theology will have to take account of this book." — C. Robert Mesle, author of Process Theology: A Basic Introduction"Any philosopher who has read seriously in Whitehead's metaphysics will need to buy Ford's book." — George Allan, author of Realizations of the Future

Lewis S. Ford is Louis I. Jaffe Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, Old Dominion University. He is the author of The Emergence of Whitehead's Metaphysics, 1925-1929, also published by SUNY Press, The Lure of God: A Biblical Background for Process Theism, and he is coeditor (with George L. Kline) of Explorations in Whitehead's Philosophy. From 1971-1996, he was the editor of the scholarly quarterly, Process Studies.

• ForewordPreface Abbreviations IntroductionThe Intelligibility of Future Activity I. Meanings of the Future Appropriate to God 1. Meanings of the Future2. Ways in Which God Is Future3. Ways in Which God Is Not Future II. Three Ways Whitehead Revises Traditional Expectations 1. Divine Persuasion Replaces Classical Omnipotence2. God Need Not Be Conceived as Creator Ex Nihilo3. Becoming Is Primary; Being Is Derivative III. Toward a New Conception of the Future 1. Modes of Actuality2. The Future as Actually Indeterminate3. The Future as the Source of Creativity4. The Future as the Source of Aim5. The Nature of the Future as Actual IV. The Plan of This Book Part OneWhitehead's Successive Concepts of God Chapter One: The Principle of Limitation I. BackgroundII. CriticismsIII. Types of Limitation Chapter Two: Deconstructing Theism I. IntroductionII. The Final Concept: God as Temporal and ConcrescentIII. The Middle Concept: God as Nontemporal and ConcrescentIV The Early Concept Chapter Three: Reconstructing Nontemporal Theism I. A Comparison of Concepts1. The Initial, Minimal Concept2. The Final Concept3. The Middle Concept II. Possible Solutions to the Riddle 1. Natural and Experiential Theology2. The Role of Religion3. Temporalist Implications III. A Possible External Influence 1. Henry Nelson Wieman2. Whitehead's Reaction IV. The Initial Concept of God 1. Actual Entity2. Transcendence3. Self-Causation4. Instance of Creativity5. The Ontological Principle V. The 1926 Metaphysical Principles 1. The Principle of Solidarity2. The Principle of Creative Individuality3. The Principle of Efficient Causation4. The Ontological Principle5. The Principle of Esthetic Individuality6. The Principle of Ideal Comparison VI. The 1927 Metaphysical Principles VII. The Middle Concept of God 1. Preconditions for the Middle Concept2. Precipitating Factors Chapter Four: Reconstructing Process Theism I. Preliminary Considerations 1. Exemplifying the Metaphysical Principles2. Nontemporal Subjectivity II. Precipitating Factors 1. Temporal Subjectivity2. Locus of Integration3. Is 'Consciousness' the Reason for Process Theism?4. Is 'Everlastingness' the Reason for Process Theism?5. What about the Provision of Subjective Aim?6. The Intensification of Process III. Whitehead's Problematic Legacy 1. How God Affects the World2. The Fourth Phase3. Apparent Responsiveness and Nontemporal Valuation4. Later Writings Part TwoThe Search for the Prehensibility of God Chapter Five: The Divine Power in the Present I. William A. Christian II. Marjorie Suchocki III. Palmyre Oomen IV. Jorge Nobo V. Elizabeth M. Kraus VI. Lewis S. Ford Chapter Six: The Power of the Past I. Nancy Frankenberry and the Power of the Past II. Hartshorne and the Objectification of God 1. The Principle of Prehension2. Objections Based on Hartshorne's Own Position Objection 1Divine Occasions are Exceptions to the Metaphysical PrinciplesObjection 2Alternation and AsychronicityObjection 3Divine Occasions Are Not PersuasiveObjection 4Divine Occasions Limit Creaturely FreedomObjection 5It Undercuts Nontemporal SubjectivityObjection 6How Is Creativity Transmitted within God? 3. Divine Occasions with Initial AimsObjection 7How Can the Initial Aims Be Selected?Objection 8Eternal Objects Become EverlastingObjection 9An Objection from Mathematics 4. The Objection from Relativity Physics Chapter Seven: Process Nontemporality I.Bowman Clarke II. Uncreated Eternal Objects III. The Metaphysical Principles IV Nontemporal Decision and Determination Part IIIThe Imprehensibility of God Chapter Eight: The Power of the Future I. God and Future Creativity: Some Preliminary Objections 1. God and Creativity2. God and Being3. God and Eternity4. God As Future Actuality5. God As Becoming II. The Identification of God with Future Creativity 1. God As Personal2. Divine Responsiveness3. Perfect Power4. God as Empty III. The Infusion of Creativity 1. Modes of Actuality2. Prehension and the Infusion of Creativity3. Aim4. The Interdependence of Creativity and Aim Chapter Nine: Persistence and the Extensive Continuum I. Persistence and Perception 1. Diremption2 Emergence of Persistence3. Atrophy4. Inclusive Occasions5. Physical Perception and Prehension6. Future Physical Perception7. Divine Consciousness II. The Extensive Continuum 1. The Ontological Status of the Extensive Continuum2. The Extensive Continuum and Societies3. Relativity Physics4. In Unison of Becoming5. The Locus of all Locations6. Locus and Passage7. Divine Privacy and Publicity Chapter Ten: Creativity and Contingency I. Creativity 1. Present and Future Creativity2. Eschatological Actuality II. Contingency 1. Contingency and Interdependence2. Rationalist and Empiricist Process Theology3. Uniqueness and Primacy4. Divine Satisfaction III. Concluding Objections Objection 1If God Is Future Creativity, How Can God Also Be Personal and Individual? Objection 2Is My Claim That Creativity Is Derived from God, Too Much Biased in the Direction of Western Monotheism? Objection 3Isn't It Blasphemous to Suppose That Our Own Subjectivity Is Simply a Continuation of God's? Isn't This Simply a Kind of Temporalistic Pantheism? Objection 4Does Not the Ontotheological Stricture Exclude the Possibility of God as Future Creativity? Notes Index

"This book will likely prove most helpful to persons who have first studied Whitehead." — CHOICE"An important book." — David Ray Griffin, editor of Physics and the Ultimate Significance of Time"If Ford's vision carries the day, all future authors in process philosophy and theology will have to take account of this book." — C. Robert Mesle, author of Process Theology: A Basic Introduction"Any philosopher who has read seriously in Whitehead's metaphysics will need to buy Ford's book." — George Allan, author of Realizations of the Future

Lewis S. Ford is Louis I. Jaffe Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, Old Dominion University. He is the author of The Emergence of Whitehead's Metaphysics, 1925-1929, also published by SUNY Press, The Lure of God: A Biblical Background for Process Theism, and he is coeditor (with George L. Kline) of Explorations in Whitehead's Philosophy. From 1971-1996, he was the editor of the scholarly quarterly, Process Studies.

• ForewordPreface Abbreviations IntroductionThe Intelligibility of Future Activity I. Meanings of the Future Appropriate to God 1. Meanings of the Future2. Ways in Which God Is Future3. Ways in Which God Is Not Future II. Three Ways Whitehead Revises Traditional Expectations 1. Divine Persuasion Replaces Classical Omnipotence2. God Need Not Be Conceived as Creator Ex Nihilo3. Becoming Is Primary; Being Is Derivative III. Toward a New Conception of the Future 1. Modes of Actuality2. The Future as Actually Indeterminate3. The Future as the Source of Creativity4. The Future as the Source of Aim5. The Nature of the Future as Actual IV. The Plan of This Book Part OneWhitehead's Successive Concepts of God Chapter One: The Principle of Limitation I. BackgroundII. CriticismsIII. Types of Limitation Chapter Two: Deconstructing Theism I. IntroductionII. The Final Concept: God as Temporal and ConcrescentIII. The Middle Concept: God as Nontemporal and ConcrescentIV The Early Concept Chapter Three: Reconstructing Nontemporal Theism I. A Comparison of Concepts1. The Initial, Minimal Concept2. The Final Concept3. The Middle Concept II. Possible Solutions to the Riddle 1. Natural and Experiential Theology2. The Role of Religion3. Temporalist Implications III. A Possible External Influence 1. Henry Nelson Wieman2. Whitehead's Reaction IV. The Initial Concept of God 1. Actual Entity2. Transcendence3. Self-Causation4. Instance of Creativity5. The Ontological Principle V. The 1926 Metaphysical Principles 1. The Principle of Solidarity2. The Principle of Creative Individuality3. The Principle of Efficient Causation4. The Ontological Principle5. The Principle of Esthetic Individuality6. The Principle of Ideal Comparison VI. The 1927 Metaphysical Principles VII. The Middle Concept of God 1. Preconditions for the Middle Concept2. Precipitating Factors Chapter Four: Reconstructing Process Theism I. Preliminary Considerations 1. Exemplifying the Metaphysical Principles2. Nontemporal Subjectivity II. Precipitating Factors 1. Temporal Subjectivity2. Locus of Integration3. Is 'Consciousness' the Reason for Process Theism?4. Is 'Everlastingness' the Reason for Process Theism?5. What about the Provision of Subjective Aim?6. The Intensification of Process III. Whitehead's Problematic Legacy 1. How God Affects the World2. The Fourth Phase3. Apparent Responsiveness and Nontemporal Valuation4. Later Writings Part TwoThe Search for the Prehensibility of God Chapter Five: The Divine Power in the Present I. William A. Christian II. Marjorie Suchocki III. Palmyre Oomen IV. Jorge Nobo V. Elizabeth M. Kraus VI. Lewis S. Ford Chapter Six: The Power of the Past I. Nancy Frankenberry and the Power of the Past II. Hartshorne and the Objectification of God 1. The Principle of Prehension2. Objections Based on Hartshorne's Own Position Objection 1Divine Occasions are Exceptions to the Metaphysical PrinciplesObjection 2Alternation and AsychronicityObjection 3Divine Occasions Are Not PersuasiveObjection 4Divine Occasions Limit Creaturely FreedomObjection 5It Undercuts Nontemporal SubjectivityObjection 6How Is Creativity Transmitted within God? 3. Divine Occasions with Initial AimsObjection 7How Can the Initial Aims Be Selected?Objection 8Eternal Objects Become EverlastingObjection 9An Objection from Mathematics 4. The Objection from Relativity Physics Chapter Seven: Process Nontemporality I.Bowman Clarke II. Uncreated Eternal Objects III. The Metaphysical Principles IV Nontemporal Decision and Determination Part IIIThe Imprehensibility of God Chapter Eight: The Power of the Future I. God and Future Creativity: Some Preliminary Objections 1. God and Creativity2. God and Being3. God and Eternity4. God As Future Actuality5. God As Becoming II. The Identification of God with Future Creativity 1. God As Personal2. Divine Responsiveness3. Perfect Power4. God as Empty III. The Infusion of Creativity 1. Modes of Actuality2. Prehension and the Infusion of Creativity3. Aim4. The Interdependence of Creativity and Aim Chapter Nine: Persistence and the Extensive Continuum I. Persistence and Perception 1. Diremption2 Emergence of Persistence3. Atrophy4. Inclusive Occasions5. Physical Perception and Prehension6. Future Physical Perception7. Divine Consciousness II. The Extensive Continuum 1. The Ontological Status of the Extensive Continuum2. The Extensive Continuum and Societies3. Relativity Physics4. In Unison of Becoming5. The Locus of all Locations6. Locus and Passage7. Divine Privacy and Publicity Chapter Ten: Creativity and Contingency I. Creativity 1. Present and Future Creativity2. Eschatological Actuality II. Contingency 1. Contingency and Interdependence2. Rationalist and Empiricist Process Theology3. Uniqueness and Primacy4. Divine Satisfaction III. Concluding Objections Objection 1If God Is Future Creativity, How Can God Also Be Personal and Individual? Objection 2Is My Claim That Creativity Is Derived from God, Too Much Biased in the Direction of Western Monotheism? Objection 3Isn't It Blasphemous to Suppose That Our Own Subjectivity Is Simply a Continuation of God's? Isn't This Simply a Kind of Temporalistic Pantheism? Objection 4Does Not the Ontotheological Stricture Exclude the Possibility of God as Future Creativity? Notes Index

"This book will likely prove most helpful to persons who have first studied Whitehead." — CHOICE"An important book." — David Ray Griffin, editor of Physics and the Ultimate Significance of Time"If Ford's vision carries the day, all future authors in process philosophy and theology will have to take account of this book." — C. Robert Mesle, author of Process Theology: A Basic Introduction"Any philosopher who has read seriously in Whitehead's metaphysics will need to buy Ford's book." — George Allan, author of Realizations of the Future