JUNE NEWS

Claremont Eco Forum Goes Virtual

The 14th International Forum on Ecological Civilization and 3rd International Forum on Ecological Civilization was a major success. With roughly 100 participants joining each day, these multi-lingual discussions covered a wide range of complex social-environmental challenges, and explored innovated solutions for the long-term wellbeing of people and the planet. In collaboration with Peking University Alumni Association, recordings from our conference have received more than 45,000 views in China. Many famous Chinese news agencies also covered the forum. Here are some links: Xinhua News Agency, International Daily, Beijing Daily, SINO US Times (Report 1), SINO US Times (Report 2), Toutiao (Report 1), Toutiao (Report 2), Green China, Chinese Society for Urban Studies. You can watch Chinese and English recordings of all plenary sessions and the John Cobb Common Good Award ceremony here.

Whitehead Reading Group: 14 May 2021, "Al Smith toast and 80th birthday remarks"

The Whitehead Research Project hosted the Whitehead Reading Group. During this session on 14 May 2021, participants discussed two different documents. The first is a toast to U.S. Presidential candidate Al Smith at a testimonial dinner on 14 May 1929, held for Smith by a group which included forty Harvard Professors who endorsed his candidacy for president. The second is notes for a speech that Whitehead delivered at his 80th birthday celebration on 15 February 1941. In case you missed it, watch the recording here.

July 6-10: Process Studies Summer Intensive

The 2021 Process Studies Summer Intensive is a 1-week exploration that includes three different adventures in process studies. The first segment (taught by Dr. Andrew Davis) explores the philosophical foundations of process thinking. The second segment (taught by Dr. Karen Baker-Fletcher) explores the key contributions of process theology to particular theological and religious issues. The third segment (taught by Dr. Jon Gill) explores the implications of process thought to art, social justice movements, and efforts of liberation. Learn More

July 20-24: An open & Relational Theology Conference

ORTCON21 brings together scholars, leaders, and activists to explore vital issues in open and relational theology. The conference provides workshops, lectures, and social activities to deepen relationships and present new ways of imagining God and the universe. In addition to lectures from Karen Winslow and Thomas Jay Oord, try out your big ideas on leading thinkers and make some helpful relationships at ORTCON21. Learn More

Physics of the World-Soul: Alfred North Whitehead's Adventure in Cosmology

by Matthew David Segall

Alfred North Whitehead was among the first initiates into the twentieth century’s new cosmological story. In this newly revised and expanded edition, Segall both sets Whitehead’s philosophy of organism in historical context and brings it into conversation with key elements of contemporary scientific cosmology—including relativistic, quantum, evolutionary, and complexity theories. It lays bare the inadequacy of the materialistic-mechanistic metaphysical interpretation of these theories and exemplifies the contributions Whitehead’s cosmological scheme can make to the urgent transdisciplinary project of integrating natural science with the presuppositions of human civilization. The latest scientific discoveries reveal a universe that is nearly crying aloud for an ensouled reinterpretation, one in which, for example, physics and chemistry would no longer be merely descriptions of the meaningless motion of molecules to which biology is ultimately reducible, but rather themselves become studies of creative self-organization at ecological scales other than the biological. Learn More