Culp, John. “Modern Thought Challenges Christian Theology: Process Philosophy and Anglican Theologian Lionel Thornton.” Anglican Theological Review 76, no.3 (1994): 329-351.

Abstract

Culp reviews the work and theological background of Anglican theologian Lionel Thornton in order to understand the manner and extent of Thornton’s use of Whitehead in explicating his own theology. Culp details how and where Thornton uses Whitehead and examines other factors that influenced his writing. He finds that the Anglican acceptance of evolution and the desire to speak to people of his time facilitated Thornton’s appropriation of many of Whitehead’s concepts. On the other hand, Thornton’s faithfulness to the Anglican tradition concerning the immutability and independence of God from creation were dominant factors in his thought, factors that forced him to reject a number of ideas inherent in Whitehead’s theism. Their differences also occurred because many of Thornton’s positions were formulated before Whitehead presented his more developed concept divinity in Process and Reality. Thornton utilized Whitehead’s concept of organism, applying it to his doctrines of the Incarnation and Revelation. However, when organism brought him into tension with the catholic tradition relating to the salvation of humanity, which Thornton judged could only be brought about by an immutable God independent of the universe, he rejected those portions of Whitehead’s philosophy which suggested a limited God, and those which had no acceptable view of immortality or worship, and what Thornton called “no ascending scale,” no increase in being as organisms became  increasingly complex. Yet, moved by Anglican interest at the time to affirm a suffering God -- the suffering not being necessary, but accepted by God out of love -- Thornton put himself into the position of supporting contradictory concepts, a suffering but immutable God. Culp sees Thornton as providing helpful suggestions to theologians today by demonstrating how they can speak to people using concepts from modern philosophers, and by explicating the faith without letting a philosophical system collapse Christianity.  (Jerry D. Korsmeyer, McMurray, Pennsylvania)