Marjorie Suchocki wrote the first drafts of what became God Christ Church in 1979. But her teaching career actually began five years earlier, when she was hired by Wichita State University to teach introductory courses in eastern religions. There was no intentional overlap between what she learned through her studies in eastern, and eventually western, religions, including Judaism and Islam, and how she developed a process theology. But some important resonances emerged.

In 2001, she wrote Divinity and Diversity, which explored the implications for religious pluralism within various Christian doctrines. In this course, more than twenty years later, she tackles the issue again, this time working from and focusing on a process understanding of divine omnipresence. The central question of our study will thus be the following: What are the theological and practical implications of interpreting religions through the lens of divine omnipresence? The first and foremost suggestion is the near-universal importance of compassion as an essential element of religions.

‘Omnipresence” has fared poorly in the Christian triumvirate of omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence, usually interpreted as something like the authority of a ruler’s laws throughout the realm regardless of where the ruler actually is. But what if, as process thought suggests, God is necessarily present to each and every occasion of experience? Could we not expect to see some universal quality as a sort of “residue” of God in the various religions of the world? I am suggesting that the near universal value of compassion in all the world’s religions is a kind of “divine residue,” a sort of footprint of the presence of God.

But if compassion is considered a “footprint” of God’s presence, then shouldn’t all expressions of Christian doctrine reflect this attribute?  What happens to “Christology” if compassion is central?  “Salvation”?  “Ecclesiology”?  “Missiology"?  “Eschatology"?   For that matter, dare we explore what compassion implies for Christian notions of God as triune?

Yes, of course we dare. This course presents the process of doing so by looking for answers as we consider Christian doctrine through its historical development, its process formulation, and religious pluralism. We conclude each morning with the role of compassion in Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Jainism, and Taoism.