Journal of European Baptist Studies, Volume 9, Number 2, January 2009

iety this relationship implies (hierarchical or relational). This also includes the questions: what is to be thought, what is to be learned, and why. The theoretical framework for the analyses is the process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead and its pedagogical implications (John B. Cobb, Mary Elisabeth Mullino Moore). Major elements of Whitehead’s metaphysics are: the oneness of reality as well as its dynamism and variability, and the integration of apparent antagonisms and contradictions into a single whole. The chief tenets of process theology - pragmatism, panexperimentalism, the relationality of God and other beings, and their correspondence to the nature of the world, the atomistic concept of time - are the background of the specific understanding of religious doctrine, the concept of God and man, and the nature of the world, which have a great impact on the quality of religious education in the context of today’s world. Actually, we live in a world where we have to reformulate theological instruction due to the o closeness of other religions and cultures. Doctrinal formulations are not perceived here as an absolute determinant of faith but rather as a socially construed result of its connection with a given culture. Process theologians see the justification of this conviction not only in philosophical analyses but also in the biblical text, particularly in the Old Testament differentiation between priests (preserving the social and theological status quo) and prophets (who demanded a change). Therefore, the role of a theologian is about a responsible (i.e. non-revolutionary) transformation of reality through a reinterpretation of the functioning religious symbols in the context of the changing culture. This is how the activity of Moses and Jesus is viewed; this is also the task of their followers because ‘where there is no prophecy, the people cast off restraint’ (Proverbs 29:18, NRSV). God is seen as the source of love and the exemplification of metaphysical principles; in Him the a-temporal eternals become facts, which means that the reality is not created by Him ex nihilo but rather conditioned by Him (creatio ex Deo). Cobb, after Whitehead, depicts God as a relational being constantly participating in complementation processes: His creative activity is an example to all other beings. Man’s humanity, therefore, should not be considered as a given but as a task because freedom is linked to the responsibility for co-creating history through active multiplication of an individual experience. Significantly, process theologians stress the necessity of the dialogue between religion and science, hence their approval of the evolutionary model of the origins of the world. 3 David R. Griffin, Process Theology and the Christian Good News. A Response to Classical Free Will Theism , in John B. Cobb, Clark H. Pinnock (eds.). Searching for an Adequate God. A Dialogue between Process and Free Will Thei