Customer Reviews

Process-Relational Philosophy: An Introduction to Alfred North Whitehead

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Prof. Mesle has accomplished an amazing feat by making one of the most important 20th Century philosophers (Alfred North Whitehead) accessible, relevant, and lively. Followers of Whitehead often have found it difficult to interpret process philosophy to those outside the field. With a minimum of technical language, Dr. Mesle has overcome this barrier.

Whitehead's cosmology is the only one that does not separate the universe into separate realms of matter, mentality, and spirituality. Instead, he provides a way to bring together the material view of reality with the non-material view of reality.

Because of this, Whitehead's ideas matter profoundly as scientists, religious practioners, political leaders, mental health specialists, and many others look for solutions to our divided, anxious and potentially deadly world. Dr. Mesle's work will help many more people gain access to these important ideas. (For more information on process philosophy, see [...].)

May 22, 2010: One addendum to respond to Mr. Riding: It is noteworthy that Prof. Mesle actually is not a theist (unlike many process thinkers). He makes this clear in his previous book, Process Theology: A Basic Introduction. He considers himself to be a process naturalist and leaves it to theologian John B. Cobb Jr to explain process theism (all of this is in the last section of the book on process theology).

My first introduction to process theology was a podcast interview on [...] back in June 2008 with Robert Mesle. I immediately connected to this theology/philosophy - it made total sense. At this time, my mother was dying from Alzheimer's and I just could not understand a God that would "allow" this to happen - why did he "heal" some people and not others? The "omnipotent God" I grew up with just did not make sense in the world around me. Since that time I have read anything I could find on process theology. Much of the material seemed to be over my head, but Mesle's books are written in a way that makes them accessible to "lay folk". His first book, Process Theology: A Basic Introduction, was a great intro, and his latest book goes a little deeper. BUY THIS BOOK! And I also suggest checking out his podcast interviews on the above link (do search on the page). He has an interview on this latest book as well!

Funny how perception constitutes a prominent factor...

The previous opinion critics the fact that the author infiltrates too much of his God oriented vision of reality....

On my side, this book left me for the first time in my life with a certain "comfort" facing the possibility of no sort of God on the driving seat of this reality.

Why? Maybe because the "relationnal" aspect of the process is so well discussed, it feels less cold since...
The word "alone" doesn't mean anymore the same (or anything at all, in fact...)...

Beside, this book contribues to heal the endemic dichotomy between body and soul, it encourages incarnation.

Responding to the previous critic again, I'm allergic to pop psychology's books, and it is not because this one is accessible, that he deserves this pop title according to me.

This author is tremendous. He has a visionary perspective to offer the field of process thought.

Contrary to the earlier reviewer, I found Mesle's book to be a light and insufficient account of Whitehead's philosophy. Mesle seems to work from a god-believer's point of view and it saturates his account of Whitehead. This is more of a pop psychologist's reading of Process and Reality, and the only helpful chapter is at the very end, the appendix. The book could have been a pamphlet had Mesle stuck to the word "process" rather than using the term "process-relational" to repetitively describe every single thing on every single page when the simpler, traditional "process" would have sufficed. We get it. But just in case you don't think he uses it enough, here's a one page sample (90):

' process-relational thought
' process-relational conferences (on process thought)
' process-relational theology
' process-relational thinking
' process-relational thinking
' process-relational thinking
' process-relational vision
' process-relational thinking
' process-relational compassion

and I didn't list that the author uses every single form of the word "relational." It's sophomoric writing to say the least. Mesle -- just as Whitehead himself does -- correctly asks the reader to suspend common notions of ordinary words like experience, but then doesn't take his own advice with regard to his own use of "relational." The Appendix describes a portion of Whitehead's technical terms in plain English, but since it's only a start, it and the rest of the book turn out to be deeply disappointing. Stick with John Cobb and David Ray Griffin.