Process theology’s relational vision overcomes the critique that hopes for survival after death is an impediment to social justice. Indeed, process theology affirms that our vision of the afterlife must reflect, rather than contradict, the fundamental principle characterizing our experience of reality in this lifetime. Our current experiences of relatedness, adventure, novelty, continuity, creativity, and openness to God’s presence are carried forth into any future experiences we may have beyond the grave. With its emphasis on the universality of God’s aim at wholeness and beauty; process theology asserts that alignment with God’s vision requires us to seek the well-being of all creation, within the context of the basic needs of ourselves and our communities.
While faith in Christ shapes what we experience and opens us to an array of divine possibilities in this lifetime and the next, Buddhist meditation and Hindu yoga also opens us to divine possibilities that will shape our afterlife. Wall Street Journal suggests, “The continuity of this life and the next is not just restricted to persons of faith: if there is an afterlife, the experiences and actions of atheists and agnostics will also condition their post-mortem experience.”
Jesus’ proclamations on God’s loves suggest that fundamentalists, progressives, evangelicals, moderates, agnostics and atheists alike are subjects of divine care, inspiration, and the invitation to larger visions of God and the world. The subject of divine judgment and possibility of heaven and hell is refuted in some religions, since they contend that God’s love continues to work within our lives at the moment of death and in whatever experience we may have in the afterlife. God’s aim at beauty and wholeness does not end with death but continues in any possible future we might imagine or experience. Whether we live or die, we are part of God’s ever-evolving and truly intimate shaping of our lives through the ongoing interplay of the concrete experience and divine possibility,
Works Cited
Thompson, Phillip M. “Grappling with faith and the death penalty.” Wall Street Journal., 28 May 2015. Web. July 16 2015.