Religion in the Making

by Alfred North Whitehead

Religion in the Making, written by the renowned philosopher and mathematician Alfred North Whitehead, is a thought-provoking exploration of the origin and evolution of religion. Whitehead argues that religion is not simply a collection of beliefs and practices handed down from generation to generation, but rather a dynamic process that is constantly being shaped by the experiences and interactions of individuals and communities. Drawing on insights from philosophy, psychology, and anthropology, Whitehead offers a unique perspective on the role of religion in human society. He argues that religion is not only a source of comfort and guidance for individuals, but also plays a crucial role in shaping social norms and values. Throughout the book, Whitehead challenges conventional wisdom about religion, offering a fresh and innovative perspective on topics ranging from the nature of God and the meaning of prayer, to the relationship between religion and science. He also examines the ways in which religion has been used to justify violence and oppression, while also acknowledging its potential to inspire love, compassion, and social justice. Written in Whitehead's trademark clear and accessible style, Religion in the Making is a must-read for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the role of religion in human society. Whether you are a believer, a skeptic, or somewhere in between, this book will challenge your assumptions and expand your perspective on one of the most fundamental aspects of human experience.

Genres: Philosophy, Religion, Nonfiction, Theology, Classics, Spirituality, History

79 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1926

About the author

Alfred North Whitehead, OM FRS (15 February 1861 – 30 December 1947) was an English mathematician and philosopher. He is best known as the defining figure of the philosophical school known as process philosophy, which today has found application to a wide variety of disciplines, including ecology, theology, education, physics, biology, economics, and psychology, among other areas.

In his early career Whitehead wrote primarily on mathematics, logic, and physics. His most notable work in these fields is the three-volume Principia Mathematica (1910–13), which he co-wrote with former student Bertrand Russell. Principia Mathematica is considered one of the twentieth century's most important works in mathematical logic, and placed 23rd in a list of the top 100 English-language nonfiction books of the twentieth century by Modern Library.

Beginning in the late 1910s and early 1920s, Whitehead gradually turned his attention from mathematics to philosophy of science, and finally to metaphysics. He developed a comprehensive metaphysical system which radically departed from most of western philosophy. Whitehead argued that reality was fundamentally constructed by events rather than substances, and that these events cannot be defined apart from their relations to other events, thus rejecting the theory of independently existing substances. Today Whitehead's philosophical works – particularly Process and Reality – are regarded as the foundational texts of process philosophy.

Whitehead's process philosophy argues that "there is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have consequences for the world around us." For this reason, one of the most promising applications of Whitehead's thought in recent years has been in the area of ecological civilization and environmental ethics pioneered by John B. Cobb, Jr.

Isabelle Stengers wrote that "Whiteheadians are recruited among both philosophers and theologians, and the palette has been enriched by practitioners from the most diverse horizons, from ecology to feminism, practices that unite political struggle and spirituality with the sciences of education." Indeed, in recent decades attention to Whitehead's work has become more widespread, with interest extending to intellectuals in Europe and China, and coming from such diverse fields as ecology, physics, biology, education, economics, and psychology. However, it was not until the 1970s and 1980s that Whitehead's thought drew much attention outside of a small group of American philosophers and theologians, and even today he is not considered especially influential outside of relatively specialized circles.

In recent years, Whiteheadian thought has become a stimulating influence in scientific research.

In physics particularly, Whitehead's thought has been influential, articulating a rival doctrine to Albert Einstein's general relativity. Whitehead's theory of gravitation continues to be controversial. Even Yutaka Tanaka, who suggests that the gravitational constant disagrees with experimental findings, admits that Einstein's work does not actually refute Whitehead's formulation. Also, although Whitehead himself gave only secondary consideration to quantum theory, his metaphysics of events has proved attractive to physicists in that field. Henry Stapp and David Bohm are among those whose work has been influenced by Whitehead.

Whitehead is widely known for his influence in education theory. His philosophy inspired the formation of the Association for Process Philosophy of Education (APPE), which published eleven volumes of a journal titled Process Papers on process philosophy and education from 1996 to 2008. Whitehead's theories on education also led to the formation of new modes of learning and new models of teaching.

Reviews

[robin friedman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whitehead's Religion In The Making

With his former student, Bertrand Russell, Alfred North Whitehead (1861 -- 1947) wrote the three-volume "Principia Mathematica" (1910 -- 1913), an important work which attempted to show that mathematics could be reduced to the truths of logic. In 1923, age 63, Whitehead was called to Harvard University to become professor of philosophy. In America and in his old age, Whitehead's thought took a different direction. Rather than practicing an analytical philosophy which tried to reduce, say, mathematics to simpler components. Whitehead became a highly speculative, synoptic thinker who tried to build outwards from basic human experience. His thought became highly metaphysical, at a time when systematic thinking was and remains out of fashion among both analytical thinkers and existentialists. He developed a difficult way of thought known as process philosophy which argued for the interconnectedness of reality and tried to harmonize science, religion, and philosophy.

Whitehead's book "Religion in the Making" is based upon a series of lectures he delivered in 1926 at the Lowell Institute. The title aptly suggests the main theme of the book: religion and the search for God are not static or fixed but rather are in a process of continuous change and development. This book does not present the difficulties of some of Whitehead's other works. It is short, consisting of four brief chapters, and makes little use of a specialized vocabulary. Much of the book is beautifully written, eloquent, and quotable. Portions of the book, expecially in the two final chapters, develop Whitehead's speculative metaphysics and are highly dfficult. The book will bear several close readings, and I struggled with it. Still, "Religion in the Making" is a remarkable, suggestive work. The book is well worth reading for those with a strong interest in religion and in philosophy.

In the opening chapter, "Religion in History", Whitehead offers the first of several related definitions of religion, which emphasize its source in individual subjectivity. This is approach which owes much to William James, but it needs to be taken carefully as, for Whitehead, subjectivty cannot be separated from human, and indeed cosmic, community. Whitehead sees religion as progressing through four stages: ritual, emotion, belief, and rationalization. The last stage is the most important as religion become a matter for the intellect and of a universal scope.

In chapter 2, "Religion and Dogma" Whtehead traces what he sees as the growth of reason in religion, which he equates with both universality and individuality with the struggle to deal with among other things the problem of evil and the nature of wisdom Whitehead sees Buddhism and Christianity as the two leading representatives of universal religion and has many valuable things to say in comparing and contrasting their approaches to metaphysics and to the particular facts of human life.

In part 3, "Body and Spirit", Whitehead argues eloquently that metaphysics is necessary for a full understanding of religion. He defines "metaphysics" as "the science which seeks to discover the general ideas that are indispensably relevant to everything that happens." Then Whitehead develops his own view of metaphysics, a complex difficult system involving the interpenetration and interrelationship of God and the world and mind and matter. Although rationality is critical to Whitehead, his thought is based, he claims, on feeling, on the immediacy of experience, on its flow, and on its development towards good or evil and on the role of creativity or chance.

The difficult final part of the book, "Truth and Criticism" continues the development of Whitehead's metaphysics, which begins with a rejection of the substance-based thought derived from Descartes. He argues that reality is a flow and a process of change which lacks fixity. Dogma and belief result from reflection on immediate experience and are necessary and valuable; but they are always subject to change. Whitehead again turns to Buddhism and Christianity as showing two poles for understanding religious experience and the nature of God. He finds that both have become static due to their failure to learn from each other and due to their failure to accomodate the teachings of science. There is a need for reflection by each person and each group on the nature of experience for an increasing understanding of God. A key concept for Whitehead in this is individual sincerity and honesty.

The book works to an eloquent four-paragraph conclusion which begins:

"God is that function in the world by reasons of which our purposes are directed to ends which in our own consciousness are impartial as to our own interests. He is that element in life in virtue of which judgment stretches beyond facts of existence to values of existence. He is that element in virtue of which our purposes extend beyond values for ourselves to values for others. He is that element in virtue of which the attainment of such a value for others transforms itself into values for ourselves."

Americans have written more in the way of thinking about God and about questions of metaphysics than is sometimes realized. Whitehead's book while obscure in places offers a moving creative insights into the nature of religion.

Robin Friedman

[عبد المجيد · Rating 2 out of 5]

هوايتهد رجل الرياضيات والمنطق الذي سعى محاولاً لمنطقة الدين في كتابه هذا، والذي أعتقد أنها كانت محاولة غير موفقة أبداً. وكذلك الكتاب عكس عنوانه، لا يصلح كمدخل للدين لأنه أقرب لمجموعة من الخواطر حول الأديان، موغره في الغموض والتخبط في عرضها من كونه كتاب علم وتاريخ. كذلك محورية البوذية والمسيحية واتخاذها كمقياس تقاس عليه بقية الأديان غير عادل وغير (منطقي). ومع هذا فتلك الخواطر لا تخلوا من بعض الملاحظات الجميلة التي أعطتني قليلاً من الحماس لأكماله حتى النهاية.

[Ahmed Ezzeldien · Rating 2 out of 5]

تحديث بعد قراءة ثانية في ديسمبر 2023: لا زالت العيوب التي ذكرتها في القراءة الأولى موجودة، لكن في الفصول الأولى كانت هناك فقرات وملاحظات مفيدة ومثيرة للاهتمام.

مراجعة القراءة الأولى في يوليو 2018: لم أتفاعل مع هذا الكتاب مطلقاً رغم حماسي لقراءته .. لا أعلم هل الخطأ في أسلوبه أم في الترجمة ! .. في موضوع مثل تكون الدين انتظرت أن يكون الأسلوب سلساً مع الأفكار والنظريات الفلسفية التي تتخلل الحقائق التاريخية والاقتباسات من الكتب المقدسة، لكن لم أجد هذا .. ولم يكن عندي مانع مطلقاً لو كان الكتاب معقداً ولكني أجده فقط جامد الأسلوب وسردي كأنه نشرة أخبار، وغير جذاب...

[Stuart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite several poor analyses of Christianity, Alfred North Whitehead's 'Religion in the Making' is a further elucidation of Whitehead's genius system of philosophy which he has developed.

The book is a series of four lectures Whitehead gave at the King's Chapel in Boston in 1926. In the first he offers an analysis of the history and development of religions, in the second he analyzes dogma as a concept and dogmas of particular religions, in the third he describes the contribution of religious knowledge to metaphysics and elucidates something of his process ontology, and in the fourth he critiques religion and refines the Doctrine of God.

The first lecture can be largely ignored. It is full of Historical-Critical speculative conclusions circa the late 19th century. It is also prior to the re-interpretations of Christianity given for the 'modern man' by neo-orthodoxy and the 'demythologization' project. Whitehead therefore stands over 'religion' and gives analyzes it in terms of 'progress' and completely botches the application of his system to Christianity. In short, even the non-Christian has a biblical theology, and Whitehead's is deficient.

The second lecture is more useful, but the particular historical errors which evidence the failure of his analysis in the first lecture become even more apparent in the second. Characteristic of all these errors is the dating required for his analysis of the book of Job. According to his paradigm, the book of Job represents a later stage in the development of religion; it is characteristic of the beginnings of the rational stage. However, Job is easily seen to be one of the earliest compositions in the entire Old Testament. If his analysis be true, Judaism has been in the rationalizing stage since its inception. On the other hand, his analysis of dogma is somewhat useful. He contrasts the respective abilities of Buddhism and Christianity to deal with the problem of evil, but he defines evil, also, in terms of his progressive process. He does give the occasional deep insight, such as when he says that, "Any proof [for God] which commences with the consideration of the character of the actual world cannot rise above the actuality of this world" (69, though he later defines God as an actual entity). Finally, he attempts to show how the emergence of dogma occurs in a 'purified' or 'rational' religion. This analysis shares some harmonies with Christianity, but in the end will likely prove to be foundation ally dissonant.

His third lecture is his best. In it he outlines the contribution of religion to metaphysics. That contribution, he says, is primarily the 'bigness' of the view religions take on the world. They attempt to see the whole in light of the one. From this he describes a metaphysic in the rest of the chapter that was quite enjoyable to read, though it was written in Whitehead's typically impenetrable style. The only obvious problem (and it is an unacceptable doctrine), was his definition of God as one of the formative principles for the actual temporal world. God, for Whitehead, is the third of these formative principles, and is an actual entity which is the limitations placed on the first formative principle, creative force, which prevents absolute freedom in creativity, and thus prevents purely arbitrary consequents to their respective grounds among causal processes and produces a 'novelty' among consequent world states. This is a clearly non-Christian doctrine of God, and should be entirely disregarded by the theologian.

In the final lecture, Whitehead critiques the doctrines of religion and refines the doctrine of God. He defines God as di-polar, the ideal in which each causal process finds its 'novelty,' either unto a lower form or a higher one. In this way he overcomes objections which reason from the already established nature of Classical Theism, by arguing that, since God is creative direction, those who believe that Classical Theism's doctrine of God has any 'finality' to it are simultaneously arguing that Greek Philosophy is 'final,' and are therefore idolatrous. He defines idolatry as the belief that one has 'arrived' at a final doctrine, showing again his penchant for progression.

Whitehead's philosophy of religion here explained is immensely valuable. He is an extremely perceptive thinker who offers the Christian theologian valuable critiques that they must avoid falling into. He is a useful conversation partner for developing rigor and accuracy in theology. However, this work contains two fundamental errors which merit its 3-star rating. First, Whitehead anachronistically analyzes theistic theories in terms of immanence and transcendence. In this way he completely misses the important Trinitarian shape of Christian theology. His conception of Christian theism collapses simply back into 'Semitic Theism.' He allows only the Apostle John the space for conceiving of Christianity as more immanent than transcendent, before he sees the Church Fathers lapsing back into a 'Semitic theism.' This is an entirely poor account of Christian theism and cannot be taken seriously except in reference to a general monotheism. Second, Whitehead's accounts of history are repeatedly poor. His handling of the history of religions does little to shake the faith of even the layman believer today, though at the time it may have done more. His accounts of the formation of Christianity from Judaism are simplistic an in many cases simply wrong. Therefore, while his metaphysical system is useful and he provides important critiques for the philosophy of religion, his tale of how religions form should be more or less disregarded and his criticisms of Christian theism in particular should found lacking apart from philosophical problems presented by the concept of theism in general.

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whitehead, co-author with Bertrand Russell of the Principia Mathematica, is remarkable as a philosopher strongly interested in religion who attempted to relate theology to the contemporary fields of particle physics and cosmology.

[Mohammed · Rating 1 out of 5]

قد يكون الإقتباس الآتي أجمل ما قرأته في هذا الكتاب:
"إن عمق وجود الله يتجاوز عدميات الثناء والقوة. هو يبعث في كل الآلام معنى القيمة، إنه الرفيق المثالي الذي يحوّل كل ضياع إلى حقيقة حية بداخل طبيعته. إنه المرآة التي يكتشف فيها كل مخلوق قيمته واعتباره."

التقييم الدقيق: 1.5/5

[Leyla · Rating 5 out of 5]

4 yıl sonra ikinci kez okumama rağmen ilk kez okuyormuş hissine kapıldığım kitap..Fikirler, hissiyatlar, zihin; durmak bilmez gelişim ve değişim, nasıl tuhaf!

[Nasser Abdullah · Rating 1 out of 5]

سيئ جداً ، محاولة فاشلة لمنطقة الدين.

[Mohammed Hmood · Rating 3 out of 5]

أن أنت قمت بكتابة إسم مترجم هذا الكتاب (رضوان السيد) فسيظهر لك العم غووغل سيرة ذاتية تجعلك أمام قامة علمية لست أنا من يمكنه تقييمها. لكن ما يعيبنا نحن العرب هو عدم إيماننا ب"
التخصص". فرضوان السيد ليس بمترجم محترف وأنما تظهر سيرته الذاتية بأنه يترجم كهواية أو إعجاب بعناوين بعض الكتب. هفوات المترجم واضحة وفادحة، خصوصا لمن درس الترجمة وتخصص بها، وهذا ما جعل قراءة هذا الكتاب تفتقر في كثير من الصفحات إلى الإنسيابية، ناهيك عن بعض المصطلحات غير المناسبة.
أما فيما يتعلق بالكتاب، فإنه يتكون من أربعة محاضرات هي كالتالي:
1. الدين في التاريخ
2. الدين والإعتقاد
3. الجسد والروح
4.الحقيقة والنقد
يتناول الكاتب مبحاث عديدة ضمن هذه المحاضرات، ولكن أشعر ببعض من الخيبة حول الإنطباع الذي يمنحه عنوان الكتاب والذي تجده غير مكتمل عندما تنهي الكتاب.

[Hamza Razzak · Rating 4 out of 5]

يتحدث الكاتب عن كيف تشكل الحس الديني لدى الأفراد، ولكن اسلوبه الصعب يجعل قراءة الكتاب عسيرة جدا

إذ يصر هوايتهد على مقاربة الموضوع بالاستعانة بزوايا معرفية مختلفة مثل التاريخ والميتافيزيقا والأخلاق

غير ان هذا التعقيد لا ينفي حقيقة ان الكاتب يطرح في ثنايا الكتاب بعض الاراء العميقة التي لا تكتسي طابع الغموض والتي يدعو من خلالها الى رؤية دينية منفتحة تخدم الغايات الاخلاقية الكبرى للانسان

[Filippo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply great

[Nuha_fareed · Rating 1 out of 5]

فشل مزدوج.

لا الكاتب أفلح في فكرته، ولا المترجم في ترجمته.

[Braden · Rating 4 out of 5]

best i’ve read from whitehead

[Rizal Nova Mujahid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Menyenangkan akhirnya bisa menemukan buku ini. Sangat susah nyarinya. Tau-tau ada edisi bahasa Indonesianya aja. Sayang udah nanggung baca. Coba tau ada versi bahasa Indonesianya. Hm....

Belum selesai, jadi summary juga belun mateng. :)

Tidak seperti dalam aritmatika, tidak ada kesatuan definisi untuk menyatakan kebenaran suatu agama. Yang pasti, karakter seseorang berkembang sesuai dengan arah keyakinannya. Agamalah yang menyucikan kehidupan batin. Karenanya, kebaikan religius pertama adalah sincerity yang mendalam. Sedang pada intinya, agama adalah solitariness. Dari sini, yang diharapkan dari agama adalah karakter yang layak. Yang penting dari agama ialah makna transendennya, hal ini bias dilihat dari bukti-bukti sejarah.

Walau tidak memberi dampak yang sama dalam kurun sejarah, pun urutannya bisa berbeda, tapi dari ekspresi lahiriahnya dalam sejarah, agama memiliki empat faktor penting. Ialah ritual, emosi, keimanan, dan pertanggungjawaban rasional. Pada tahap, keimanan dan rasionalitas mau tidak mau harus kita kesampingkan, sedangkan emosi hanyalah efek samping dari ritual. Perlahan emosi dianggap lebih penting, hingga ritual dijalankan untuk membangkitkan emosi tertentu. Lalu muncul kesaksian keimanan yang berusaha menjelaskan ritual dan emosi. Dengan munculnya keimanan, benih rasionalitas telah ditanamkan dalam agama. Zaman para martir dan syuhada dimulai dengan munculnya kecenderungan yang lebih rasional.

Tahap awal dari agama secara hakiki bersifat sosial, sedang tahap akhirnya mengenalkan manusia pada kesendirian. Dari komunalisme—praktek agama yang berhasil mempertahankan struktur sosial dan membentuk masyarakat menjadi lebih maju—agama kemudian bergeser dengan berupaya mengangkat makna hidup dan relijiusitas individual.

Agama rasional adalah buah dari munculnya kesadaran religius yang bersifat universal, bukan kesukuan, pun sosial. Namun, karena agama adalah apa yang dilakukan individu dengan kesendiriannya, ia harus mengambil jarak dari lingkungan sosial dan berefleksi terhadap kehidupan untuk menarik prinsip-prinsip umum dan menyelesaikan masalah yang dihadapi manusia.

Problematika evils--kejahatan moral, penderitaan, dan kesengsaraan—misalnya, walaupun diselesaikan dengan cara yang berbeda-beda, semua agama berupaya membebaskan diri dari kungkungan ini. Namun, bisa dikatakan, jalan yang ditempuh niscaya serupa. Mengangkat hidup ke tingkat yang lebih tinggi dengan cara mengalahkan kejahatan dalam diri.
Problem favorit lain dari agama ialah upaya mencapai kebijaksanaan. Refleksi atas pengalaman aktual merupakan jalan utama untuk menyimpul prinsip-prinsip umum. Kadang disampaikan dalam bentuk pepatah atau kalimat yang jenaka, bersahaja, sederhana, dan tentu saja reflektif. Namun, bukan berarti emosi diabaikan begitu saja, hanya agama tidak membatasi diri pada momen-momen yang melulu emosional. Sehingga, seringkali kebijakan bukan merupakan sebuah hasil formulasi pemikiran, semata deskripsi langsung dari “insight” dan intuisi.

Agama dibangun berdasar kemunculan—secara bersama dalam satu momen—tiga konsep serumpun.
Nilai individu bagi diri sendiri;
Nilai antar individu dan hubungan satu sama lain;
Nilai dunia objektif, ialah hasil hubungan antar individu yang merupakan syarat eksistensi tiap-tiap individu.

Kesadaran religius merupakan pengembaraan refleksi diri untuk menemukan nilai hidup. Perjalanan yang bermuara pada kepasrahan pada klaim universal namun sekaligus merengkuhnya bagi diri, sehingga bisa mewujudkan karakter ideal. Tidak dimungkiri kesesuaian ini tidak mungkin tercapai sedetil-detilnya. Namun, seluruh intuisi kesesuaian dan perbedaan itu membentuk kontras yang kemudian dicurahkan pada pengalaman religius. Dan selama kesesuaian itu belum tercapai sepenuhnya, evil tidak mungkin musnah dari dunia.

Dalam berbagai hal, pemahaman akan Tuhan bisa ditarik dari tiga konsep. Imanensi, transendensi, dan monisme. Walau menghadapi masalahnya masing-masing, namun bisa dikatakan ketiga konsep itu melihat Tuhan sebagai sesuatu di luar mereka yang memiliki kemahaan dan seringkali harus mengabaikan rasionalitas.

[Chase · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting ideas laid out in a relatively cohesive way that seems to fall apart and contradict itself in its conclusion. Toward the end, it became quite reminiscent of Huxley's Perennial Philosophy and his metaphysics started to reek of the same simplicity he claimed was an arbitrary solution to the problem. After making the claim that "all simplifications of religious dogma are shipwrecked upon the rock of the problem of evil," he describes an (arguably) simplified metaphysical view of God while attempting to sneakily sidestep this Shipwreck Rock by placing God one step below the infinite, claiming, "The limitation of God is his goodness." He goes on to state this God cannot be infinite because then "he would be evil as well as good," which would "mean mere nothingness."
Pick a stance, bubbalou.
Ultimately, to Whitehead, an ordered world could be no other kind and demands, not necessarily an author, but a sort of mediator of creation and synthesis among formative elements, acting as the "ground antecedent to transition."
Yeah, I had to read that like five times too, don't worry.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

A COMPANION VOLUME TO “SCIENCE IN THE MODERN WORLD”

Alfred North Whithead: (1861-1947) was an English mathematician [he is credited as co-writer with Bertrand Russell of Principia Mathematica] and philosopher, best known for developing Process Philosophy. He wrote many other books such as 'Process and Reality,' 'Modes of Thought, etc.

He wrote in the Preface, “This book consists of four lectures on religion delivered in King’s Chapel, Boston, during February, 1926. The train of thought which was applied to science in my Lowell Lectures of the previous year, since published under the title, 'Science and the Modern World,' is here applied to religion. The two books are independent, but it is inevitable that to some extent they elucidate each other by showing the same way of thought in different applications.

"The aim of the lectures was to give a concise analysis of the various factors in human nature which go to form a religion, to exhibit the inevitable transformation of religion with the transformation of knowledge, and more especially to direct attention to the foundations of religion on our apprehension of those permanent elements by reason of which there is a stable order in the world, permanent elements apart from which there could be no changing world.”

He states in the first lecture, “A religion, on its doctrinal side, can thus be defined as a system of general truths which have the effect of transforming character when they are sincerely held and vividly apprehended.” (Pg. 15)

In the second lecture, he observes, “The main difficulties which the Semitic concept has to struggle with are two in number. One of them is that it leaves God completely outside metaphysical rationalization. We know, according to it, that He is such a being as to design and create this universe, and there our knowledge stops. If we mean by his goodness that He is the one self-existent, complete entity, then He is good. But such goodness must not be confused with the ordinary goodness of daily life…

"The second difficulty of the concept is to get itself proved. The only possible proof would appear to be the ‘ontological proof’ devised by Anselm, and revived by Descartes… Most philosophers and theologians reject this proof.” (Pg. 68-69)

The second lecture concludes by stating, “Religion is the direct apprehension that, beyond such happiness and such pleasure, there remains the function of what is actual and passing, that it contributes its quality as an immortal fact to the order which informs the world.” (Pg. 77-78)

In the third lecture, he explains, “God… must include in himself a synthesis of the total universe. There is, therefore, in God’s nature the aspect of the realm of forms as qualified by the world, and the aspect of the world as qualified by the forms. His completion… must mean that his nature remains self-consistent in relation to all change. Thus God is the measure of the aesthetic consistency of the world… If we trace evil in the world to the determinism derived from God, then the inconsistency in the world is derived from the consistency of God. Also the incompletion in the world is derived from the completion of God.

"The temporal world exhibits two sides of itself. On one side it exhibits an order in matter of fact, and a self-contrast with ideals, which show that its creative passage is subject to the immanence of an unchanging actual entity. On the other side its incompletion, and its evil, show that the temporal world is to be construed in terms of additional formative elements which are not definable in the terms which are applicable to God.” (Pg. 95-96) He adds, “The purpose of God is the attainment of value in the temporal world.” (Pg. 97)

He concludes the third lecture on the note, “The order of the world is no accident. There is nothing actual which could be actual without some measure of order. The religious insight is the grasp of this truth. That the order of the world, the depth of reality of the world, the value of the world in its whole and in its parts, the beauty of the world, the zest of life, the peace of life, and the mastery of evil, are all bound together---not accidentally, but by reason of this truth: that the universe exhibits a creativity with infinite freedom, and a realm of forms with infinite possibilities, but that this creativity and these forms are together impotent to achieve actuality apart from the completed ideal harmony, which is God.” (Pg. 114-115)

In the final lecture, he states, “The limitation of God is his goodness… It is not true that God is in all respects infinite. If He were, He would be evil as well as good… He is something decided and is thereby limited. He is complete in the sense that his vision determines every possibility of value… The kingdom of heaven is God. But these forms are … realized by him … as elements in the value of his conceptual experience.” (Pg. 147-148)

He continues, “The kingdom of heaven is not the isolation of good from evil. It is the overcoming of evil by good... God has in his nature the knowledge of evil, of pain, and of degradation, but it is there as overcome with what is good… Every event on its finer side introduces God into the world… He adds himself to the actual ground from which every creative act takes its rise.

"The world lives by its incarnation of God in itself… He is the realization of the ideal conceptual harmony by reason of which there is an actual process in the total universe---an evolving world which is actual because there is order... Apart from God, there would be no actual world; and apart from the actual world with its creativity, there would be no rational explanation of the ideal vision which constitutes God… God in the world is the perpetual vision of the road which leads to the deeper realities.” (Pg. 149-151)

This short book will be of most interest to persons studying Process Philosophy, or Whitehead’s philosophy in general; but other persons interested in progressive forms of spirituality may find much in it to appreciate.

[Ulysse]

Part One is remarkably dated and so pretty bad. But it constitues an nice introduction to what will become the extensive continuum.
Part Two is forgettable imo.
Part Three and Four are very interesting in themselves and as introduction to Process and Reality. I might actually recommend part Three as a quick intro to Whitehead in general !

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as a ~45 page file I printed; it seemed to be all 4 lectures in their entirety, which are one of those things that confused and losed more than anything though I imagine (hope) I am better for trying to understand...

[Fatima العليلي · Rating 3 out of 5]

هذا الكتاب عبارة عن أربع محاضرات ألقاها هوايتهد عن الدين. ويشرح فيها كيف يتمظهر الدين في التاريخ الإنساني من خلال أربعة تعبيرات هي: الشعائر والطقوس، المشاعر والأحاسيس، الإيمان ، والعقلنة.
الله عند هوايتهد ليس هو العالم مثلما تقول الرؤية الشرق آسيوية. ولكنه هو قيمة العالم ومعناه.

[Callum Parkes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like all Philosophy books, it can be confusing. The early sections are exactly what I set out to find in a religious philosophy text, while the later half seems to focus in on philosophical topics on basic subjects.
If you're after religious philosophical text, you've come to the right book.

[Hajar Masrour · Rating 1 out of 5]

ترجمة رديئة جدا للآسف

[Abdulsattar · Rating 1 out of 5]

كتاب معقد من 4 محاضرات يحتوي كم هائل من المناقشات المركزة بلغة رياضية معقدة. الترجمة سيئة و غير سلسة , قد يحتاج الشخص لقراءة الجملة ثلاث مرات ليفهم ما المقصود منها

[John Ohno · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't agree with basically anything in this book, but I kept thinking about it for weeks after finishing it, and that's pretty rare for a book that can be consumed in an hour or two.

[Ahmadov · Rating 2 out of 5]

" الدين هو دائما ظاهرة اجتماعية "

[Fuat Gökçe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Söylediği neredeyse her şey yanlış hatta saçma, arapların hepsi 1 basmış diye 2 verdim

[Esin Esendemir · Rating 4 out of 5]

Started reading this in 2020, finished it in 2026 - new questions, new insights, same me?

[Geoffreyjen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Four essays on religion. The first focuses on the evolution of religion from earlier, more emotive, to later, more rational forms. The second focuses on the solitary character of the experience of more advanced religious forms. The third links this conception of religion into a concept of God and of moral order, and then back into his philosophy of process. The fourth comes back to the question of dogma, doctrine and truth. What Whitehead does is lay out religious experience as a necessary part of the universe. However, his idea of religion embraces "science as a religion". Furthermore, he is not so interested in proving the existence of God, but rather in making some statements about what God is and isn't. His approach is therefore fundamentally Spinozan. As someone who has spent a year struggling with Whitehead's cosmology, I am familiar with many of the basic tenets of his philosophy of process. I therefore enjoyed this little book as it takes his ideas and repackages them in relation to religion. He is a very cogent thinker. The reader unfamiliar with his philosophy will find the third essay more diffivult, but overall the book is much simpler to read and understand than Process and Reality.

[Francis Kilkenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't have a whole lot to say about Alfred North Whitehead's 'Religion in the Making.' It's a recording of a series of lectures he gave in 1926 about his perspective on how, why and for what purpose religion arises, as well as how he believes religion might progress in the future. As lectures, I would say they are pretty good and I think I would have enjoyed attending them. But as philisophical literature they are a bit lacking. The reason for this, I think, is that humans convey meaning in speaking and through non-verbal cues that can't be recorded in the written word. As such, written works necessarily need to be a little fuller, with a little more explanation and examples, to convey the meaning of the author. Essentially, this book feels sparse and it is not always easy, especially in certain sections, to understand what Whitehead is trying to say. That said, I do think there were insights here that one could sit with and are worthy of pondering, and re-readings are likely to enhance understanding of Whitehead's perspective.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am sure this was ground-breaking philosophy in its day, but I did not feel like I was treading new ground with it, here in 2013. The book is transcription of Whitehead's lectures, and that leaves a little to be desired in the reading, though it is not a hard read, just dense and a bit meandering. I think this is a good foundational book and an excellent resource text, but it was not a work that I felt gave me a ton of new ideas. And that is not Whiteheads fault. It was new when he lectured on it, but has since become cannon that everyone else has built on. That being said, its always good to go back and read the original author, and Whitehead is certainly that.

[Michael David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really should stop reading philosophy books.

Although I didn't really appreciate the latter portions of the book, it's enjoyable how Whitehead tries to explain the evolution of religion and the existence of God. The conclusion is particularly good:

'He (God) is that element in virtue of which our purposes extend beyond values for ourselves to values for others. He is that element in virtue of which that attainment of such a value for others transforms itself into value for ourselves.'