Charles Hartshorne

Charles Hartshorne (June 5, 1897 – October 9, 2000) was a prominent American philosopher and theologian who concentrated primarily on the philosophy of religion and metaphysics. He developed a neoclassical concept of God and a modal argument for the existence of God that was a development of St. Anselm's ontological argument. Hartshorne is also noted for developing Alfred North Whitehead's process philosophy into process theology. His unique ideas about the nature of God and human life were both highly praised and harshly criticized. He did not believe in an omnipotent and unchanging God, but an omnibenevolent Creator who shares in the feelings and suffering of His creation.

Early Life

Charles Hartshorne (pronounced, "harts-horn") was born in Kittanning, Pennsylvania in 1897 as the son of a minister, Francis Cope Hartshorne, and Marguerite Haughton. He had an older sister and four younger brothers. Hartshorne became interested in philosophy while reading the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Matthew Arnold in high school. These authors convinced him to break away from the orthodox Christianity of his parents and discover a more reasonable theology.

He attended Haverford College from 1915 to 1917, where he continued his philosophical studies and read Josiah Royce's The Problem of Christianity. This book also had a profound effect on Hartshorne as it led him to reject the theory of psychological egoism and see human existence as something dependent on a greater whole. This was an important idea in Hartshorne's later theology.

Hartshorne left Haverford and spent two years in the Army as a hospital orderly in France during World War I. After returning to the United States, he studied at Harvard University, where he obtained three degrees in only four years: he earned his B.A. in 1921, his M.A. in 1922, and his Ph.D. in 1923. He wrote his doctoral dissertation, a 300-page work entitled "The Unity of Being," in only 35 days. While at Harvard, he also became acquainted with the renowned British philosopher Alfred North Whitehead.

After earning his doctoral degree, Hartshorne pursued further studies in Europe. He attended the University of Freiburg, where he studied under the phenomenologist Edmund Husserl, and the University of Marburg, where he studied under the existentialist philosopher Martin Heidegger. In 1925, he returned to Harvard as a research fellow. There, he and Paul Weiss edited the collected works of Charles Sanders Peirce and spent a semester assisting Whitehead. Hartshorne was more influenced by Peirce's work than by any other philosopher.

Professional Career

In 1928, after he finished his work at Harvard, he became a professor in the philosophy department at the University of Chicago. However, his philosophy of religion was out of place in that department, and he was later appointed to teach at the Divinity School, where he developed his highly influential theories of process theology. While in Chicago, he married Dorothy Cooper, with whom he would have one child, Emily. His wife Dorothy would help him throughout his career as an editor and bibliographer.

In 1955, he accepted a position at Emory University, where he remained until his retirement in 1962. He then moved to the University of Texas at Austin, where he continued to teach for many years as a professor emeritus. He remained in Austin until his death in 2000.

In addition to these universities, Hartshorne was also appointed as a special lecturer or visiting professor at Stanford University, University of Washington, Yale University, University of Frankfurt, University of Melbourne, and Kyoto University.

Hartshorne also had a lifelong interest in ornithology. He recorded bird songs and published a book on his research into the life and songs of birds entitled, Born to Sing: An Interpretation and World Survey of Bird Song.

Philosophy of Religion

Hartshorne's contributions to the philosophy of religion are unique in both his reliance on the traditional arguments of medieval philosophers, such as St. Anselm, and his unorthodox views, such as process theology. He was one of the few modern philosophers to defend theism and develop a wholly theocentric philosophy throughout his career.

The Existence of God

Throughout his career Hartshorne argued for the existence of a benevolent God. Although he preferred the ontological argument for the existence of God, he saw all the various arguments (ontological, cosmological, teleological, etc.) as mutually reinforcing, rather than competing, theories.

Hartshorne argued against those who denied the existence of God based on a lack of scientific evidence. Referring to Karl Popper's definition of a hypothesis as a theory which can be disproven, not one which can be confirmed, he argued that there are no facts which are incompatible with the existence of God. Therefore the question of God's existence is beyond scientific experimentation. It is rather the study of philosophy and metaphysics, he said, which can shed light on theological problems and the various arguments for or against God's existence.

Hartshorne focused his metaphysical discussion on the distinction between "necessary" beings and "contingent" beings made by St. Anselm in Chapter Three of his Proslogion. According to Anselm, there are certain things which must exist and certain things which may or may not exist. According to Hartshorne, it is impossible to conceive of a preeminent being, such as God, existing only contingently, because such a being is necessary, not contingent. Therefore, if God's existence is at all possible, it is necessary; He must exist.

The Nature of God

The intellectual movement with which Hartshorne is associated is generally referred to as process thought. The roots of process thinking can be found in the Greek philosopher Heraclitus. Contemporary process philosophy arose from the work of Alfred North Whitehead, while Hartshorne is identified as the seminal influence on process thought and process theology that emerged after World War II.

While Hartshorne acknowledges the importance of Whitehead's philosophy on his own ideas, he did not entirely agree with Whitehead. In Hartshorne's process theology God and the world exist in a dynamic, changing relationship. God is a di-polar deity. By this Hartshorne meant that God has both abstract and concrete poles. The abstract pole refers to those elements within God that never vary, such as God's self-identity. While the concrete pole refers to the organic growth in God's perfect knowledge of the world as the world itself develops and changes. Hartshorne did not accept the classical theistic claim of "creatio ex nihilo" (creation out of nothing), and instead held to "creatio ex materia" (creation out of pre-existent material).

One of the technical terms Hartshorne used is panentheism, which must be differentiated from pantheism. In Hartshorne's theology, God is not identical with the world, but God is also not completely independent from the world. God has his self-identity that transcends the earth, but the world is also contained within God. A rough analogy is the relationship between a mother and a fetus. The mother has her own identity and is different from the unborn, yet is intimately connected to the unborn. The unborn is within the womb and attached to the mother via the umbilical cord.

Hartshorne accepts that by definition God is perfect. However Hartshorne maintains that classical Christian theism has held to a self-contradictory notion of perfection. He argues that the classical concept of God fails. Hartshorne posited that God's existence is necessary and is compatible with any events in the world. In the economy of his argument Hartshorne has attempted to break a perceived stalemate in theology over the problem of evil and God's omnipotence. For Hartshorne perfection means that God cannot be surpassed in his social relatedness to every creature. God is capable of surpassing himself by growing and changing in his knowledge and feeling for the world.

Hartshorne acknowledged a God capable of change, as is consistent with pandeism, but early on he specifically rejected both deism and pandeism in favor of panentheism, writing that "panentheistic doctrine contains all of deism and pandeism except their arbitrary negations".

Other Ideas

Hartshorne did not believe in the immortality of human souls as identities separate from God, but explained that all the beauty created in a person's life will exist for ever in the reality of God. This can be understood in a way reminiscent of Buddhism, namely that a person's identity is extinguished in one's ultimate union with God, but that a person's life within God is eternal.

Criticism

Hartshorne's philosophical and theological views have received criticism from many different quarters. Positive criticism has underscored that Hartshorne's emphasis on change and process and creativity has acted as a great corrective to static thinking about causal laws and determinism. Several commentators affirm that his position offers metaphysical coherence by providing a coherent set of concepts.

Others indicate that Hartshorne has quite properly placed a valuable emphasis on appreciating nature (even evidenced in Hartshorne's hobby for bird-watching). His emphasis on nature and human-divine relationships to the world, has goaded reflective work on developing theologies about pollution, resource degradation and a philosophy of ecology. Allied to this has been Hartshorne's emphasis on aesthetics and beauty. In his system of thought science and theology achieve some integration as science and theology provide data for each other.

Hartshorne has also been an important figure in upholding natural theology, and in offering an understanding of God as a personal, dynamic being. It is accepted by many philosophers that Hartshorne has made the idea of perfection rationally conceivable, and so his contribution to the ontological argument is deemed to be valuable for modern philosophical discussion.

It has been said that Hartshorne has placed an interesting emphasis on affirming that the God who loves the creation also endures suffering. In his theological thought the centrality of love is very strong, particularly in his interpretation of God, nature and all living creatures. Hartshorne is also appreciated for his philosophical interest in Buddhism, and in stimulating others in new approaches to inter-religious co-operation and dialogue.

Langdon Gilkey questioned Hartshorne's assumptions about human reasoning experiences. Gilkey pointed out that Hartshorne assumes there is an objective or rational structure to the whole universe, and he then assumes that human thought can acquire accurate and adequate knowledge of the universe.

In Hartshorne's theology there is no literal first event in the universe, and the universe is thus regarded as an actually infinite reality. This has led some to point out that as Hartshorne has emphasized that every event has been partly determined by previous events, his thought is susceptible to the fallacy of the eternal regress.

Other critics question the adequacy of panentheism. The point of tension in Hartshorne's theology is whether God is really worthy of worship since God needs the world in order to be a complete being. Traditional theism posits that God is a complete being before the creation of the world. Others find that his argument about God's perfection is flawed by confusing existential necessity with logical necessity.

In classical Protestant and Evangelical thought, Hartshorne's theology has received strong criticism. In these theological networks Hartshorne's panentheist reinterpretation of God's nature has been deemed to be incompatible with Biblical revelation and the classic creedal formulations of the Trinity. Critics such as Royce Gruenler, Ronald Nash and Norman Geisler argue that Hartshorne does not offer a tripersonal view of the Trinity, and instead his interpretation of Christ (Christology) has some affinities with the early heresy of the Ebionites. It is also argued that Hartshorne's theology entails a denial of divine foreknowledge and predestination to salvation. Hartshorne is also criticized for his denial or devaluing of Christ's miracles and the supernatural events mentioned in the Bible.

Other criticisms are that Hartshorne gives little attention to the classical theological concepts of God's holiness, and that the awe of God is an undeveloped element in his writings. Alan Gragg criticizes Hartshorne's highly optimistic view of humanity, and hence its lack of emphasis on human depravity, guilt and sin. Allied to these criticisms is the assertion that Hartshorne over emphasizes aesthetics and is correspondingly weak on ethics and morality. Others have indicated that Hartshorne failed to understand traditional Christian views about petitionary prayer and survival of the individual in the afterlife.

Hartshorne's works

• Beyond Humanism: Essays in the New Philosophy of Nature, Chicago/New York: Willett, Clark & Co, 1937, (also published as Beyond Humanism: Essays in the Philosophy of Nature by University of Nebraska Press, 1968)
• The Divine Relativity: A Social Conception of God, (Terry Lectures), New Haven: Yale University Press, 1948, reprint ed. 1983: ISBN 0-300-02880-6
• The Logic of Perfection and other essays in neoclassical metaphysics, La Salle: Open Court, 1962, reprint ed. 1973: ISBN 0-87548-037-3
• Philosophers Speak of God, edited with William L. Reese, University of Chicago Press, 1963, Amherst: Humanity Books, reprint ed. 2000: ISBN 1-57392-815-1, fifty selections spanning the breadth of both eastern and western thought
• Man's Vision of God and the Logic of Theism, Hamden: Archon, 1964
• Anselm's Discovery, La Salle: Open Court, 1965
• A Natural Theology for our Time, La Salle: Open Court, 1967, reprint ed. 1992: ISBN 0-87548-239-2
• The Philosophy and Psychology of Sensation, Port Washington, New York: Kennikat Press, 1968
• Creative Synthesis and Philosophic Method, S.C.M. Press, 1970, ISBN 0-334-00269-9
• Reality as Social Process, New York: Hafner, 1971
• Whitehead's Philosophy: Selected Essays, 1935-1970, University of Nebraska Press, 1972, ISBN 0-8032-0806-5
• Aquinas to Whitehead: Seven Centuries of Metaphysics of Religion, Marquette University Publications, 1976, ISBN 0-87462-141-0
• Whitehead's View of Reality, with Creighton Peden, New York: Pilgrim Press, rev. ed. 1981, ISBN 0-8298-0381-5
• Insights and Oversights of Great Thinkers: : An Evaluation of Western Philosophy, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1983, ISBN 0-87395-682-6
• Creativity in American Philosophy, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1984, ISBN 0-87395-817-9
• Omnipotence and Other Theological Mistakes, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1984, ISBN 0-87395-771-7
• Wisdom as Moderation, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1987, ISBN 0-88706-473-6
• The Darkness and The Light: A Philosopher Reflects upon His Fortunate Career and Those Who Made It Possible, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990, ISBN 0-7914-0337-8
• Born to Sing: An Interpretation and World Survey of Bird Song, Indiana Univ Press, 1992, ISBN 0-253-20743-6
• The Zero Fallacy: And Other Essays in Neoclassical Philosophy, edited with Mohammad Valady, Open Court, 1997, ISBN 0-8126-9324-8

Biographical and intellectual sources

• Randall E. Auxier and Mark Y. A. Davies, eds. Hartshorne and Brightman on God, Process, and Persons: The Correspondence 1922-1945 (Nashvile: Vanderbilt University Press, 2001).

• John B. Cobb and Franklin I. Gamwell, eds. Existence and Actuality: Conversations with Charles Hartshorne (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984), ISBN 0-226-11123-7, online edition

• William L. Reese and Eugene Freeman, eds. Process and Divinity: The Hartshorne Festschrift (La Salle: Open Court, 1964).

• Dombrowksi, Daniel (2001). Hartshorne, Charles. In E. Craig (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. London: Routledge. Retrieved May 23, 2007, from http://www.rep.routledge.com/article/K114SECT1

• Donald Wayne Viney, "Charles Hartshorne," Published online by permission of Thomson Gale, Detroit 2003 from American Philosophers Before 1950, Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 270.

Interpretations and influences

• William A. Beardslee, "Hope in Biblical Eschatology and in Process Theology," Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 38 (September 1970), pp. 227-239.
• Charles Birch, "Participatory Evolution: The Drive of Creation," Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 40 (June 1972), pp. 147-163.
• Charles Birch, On Purpose (Kensington: New South Wales University Press, 1990).
• Delwin Brown, Ralph E. James and Gene Reeves, eds. Process Philosophy and Christian Thought (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1971).
• John B. Cobb, God and the World (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1969).
• George L. Goodwin, Ontological Argument of Charles Hartshorne, Scholars Press, 1978, ISBN 0-89130-228-X, published dissertation
• Schubert Ogden, The Reality of God and Other Essays (New York: Harper & Row, 1966).
• Norman Pittenger, Christology Reconsidered (London: SCM Press, 1970).
• Donald W. Viney, Charles Hartshorne and the Existence of God, forward by Charles Hartshorne, State University of New York Press, 1985, ISBN 0-87395-907-8 (hardcover), ISBN 0-87395-908-6 (paperback)
• Santiago Sia, editor, Charles Hartshorne's Concept of God: Philosophical and Theological Responses, Springer, 1989, ISBN 0-7923-0290-7
• Santiago Sia, Religion, Reason, and God: Essays in the Philosophies of Charles Hartshorne and A.N. Whitehead, Peter Lang Publisher, 2004, ISBN 3-631-50855-7

Critical assessments

• Gregory A. Boyd, Trinity and Process: A Critical Evaluation and Reconstruction of Hartshorne's di-polar theism towards a Trinitarian Metaphysic (New York: P. Lang, 1992).

• Robert J. Connelly, Whitehead vs. Hartshorne: Basic Metaphysical Issues (Washington DC: University Press of America, 1981).

• Daniel A. Dombrowski, Hartshorne and the Metaphysics of Animal Rights (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988).

• Daniel A. Dombrowski, Analytic Theism, Hartshorne, and the Concept of God (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996).

• Langdon Gilkey, Naming the Whirlwind (Indianapolis:Bobbs-Merrill, 1969).

• Alan Gragg, Charles Hartshorne (Waco: Word Publishing, 1973).

• Royce G. Gruenler, The Inexhaustible God: Biblical Faith and the Challenge of Process Theism (Grand rapids: Baker, 1983).

• Lewis Edwin Hahn, The Philosophy of Charles Hartshorne (La Salle: Open Court, 1991).

• Bernard M. Loomer, "Process Theology: Origins, Strengths, Weaknesses," Process Studies, 16 (Winter 1987), pp. 245-254.

• Ronald H. Nash, ed. Process Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1987).

• Douglas Pratt, Relational Deity: Hartshorne and Macquarrie on God (Lanham: University Press of America, 2002).

• Edgar A. Towne, Two Types of Theism: Knowledge of God in the thought of Paul Tillich and Charles Hartshorne (New York: P. Lang, 1997).

See also

• Veterans of the First World War who died in 2000

External links

• Charles Hartshorne by Dan Dombrowski, from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
• Hartshorne's collected papers are archived at the Center for Process Studies
• Hartshorne's ornithological works are housed at Florida Museum of Natural History
• Charles Hartshorne: The Einstein of Religious Thought with a short biography, photos, and sayings.

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

• Charles Hartshorne  ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

• History of "Charles Hartshorne"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.