Topic: The Biblical Narrative and Universal God Identity

Presenter(s): Sheri D. Kling and Doug King

Sheri D. Kling, director of Process & Faith and the John Cobb Legacy Fund, is working on an exciting project with Doug King, CEO of Presence International, a growing network that engages emergent, integral, and interspiritual organizations and idea leaders to facilitate a “global conversation for a new earth.” Sheri and Doug are offering a course called “The Biblical Narrative and Universal God Identity: Integral Theology and Process Approaches,” co-sponsored by Process & Faith and the Cobb Institute. The course will be on Zoom, begins September 13, and will run for six consecutive Tuesdays at 4:30pm Pacific/7:30pm Eastern.

Doug King is steeped in biblical scholarship and worked alongside his father, Max King, to develop Presence to offer events, a podcast, and other teaching resources. He uses Spiral Dynamics (a developmental model of human consciousness that considers Alfred North Whitehead one of its forerunners) to approach the biblical narrative, and has developed what he calls “integral theology.” In their discussion with John Cobb & Friends, Sheri and Doug will provide a brief overview of the exciting material they plan to cover in their upcoming course.

From their perspectives, both process thought and integral consciousness provide a developmental approach to the evolution of human consciousness. Process philosophy and theology have been used as life-giving tools in interpretation of the biblical narrative and in their teaching together, Sheri and Doug will investigate the use of integral consciousness models as complementary to biblical interpretation as well. Their primary question will be whether the biblical narrative has always been evolving toward and into universal God identity. The implications of the possible answers to that question can dramatically affect the future of long held Christian views of identity. This is especially true if the biblical narrative points to something beyond separation thinking with regard to identity. For our gathering, they will introduce the use of models like Spiral Dynamics to trace biblical history, finding meaning both in its original setting and as a process story of the evolution of spiritual consciousness with regard to God identity.

To learn more about Doug King’s organization and its work, visit https://www.presence.tv/. From there you can explore videos and the Presence podcast (available on iTunes and other podcast platforms).

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Can’t make it to the live session? Click here to access our archive of Cobb & Friends recordings.