Sean Donovan, Presenter

Annie Morris, Service Associate

Sean traces his theology to an unlikely source — editing a church newsletter in Knoxville for minister Kathleen Rolenz, where he slipped in Whitehead and Boehme. He distinguishes evil (a moral category requiring an agent) from suffering (which doesn’t), arguing neither is explained by a God who is all-powerful and all-good.

Process theology resolves this by redefining God’s nature: a God who persuades rather than coerces, since genuine love cannot coexist with unilateral control. Auschwitz becomes a real catastrophe God grieved, not a hidden plan. He weighs the hardest objection — that such a God is barely distinguishable from no God — through philosopher Hans Jonas, who proposed a God who contracted to make room for creation. Sean closes without resolution: the framework refuses to answer cheaply, and that refusal is the beginning.

Topics: Spiritual Paths