Griffin, David Ray 1939–

(David Griffin)

PERSONAL:

Born August 8, 1939, in Wilbur, WA; son of Troy A. (a driller of water wells) and Ella Griffin; married Carolyn Bartell, June 16, 1963 (divorced, 1978); children: Lydia Beth. Education: Northwest Christian College, B.A., 1962; University of Oregon, M.A., 1963; Claremont Graduate School, Ph.D., 1968. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Protestant.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Claremont, CA. Office—Department of Philosophy of Religion, School of Theology at Claremont, Claremont, CA 91711.

CAREER:

Writer, philosopher, theologian, and educator. University of Dayton, Dayton, OH, assistant professor of philosophy of religion, 1968-73; School of Theology at Claremont, Claremont, CA, associate professor of philosophy of religion and codirector of Center for Process Studies, 1973—. Center for a Postmodern World, founder.

MEMBER:

American Academy of Religion, Society for the Study of Process Philosophies.

WRITINGS:

A Process Christology, Westminster Press (Philadelphia, PA), 1973, reprinted, University Press of America (Lanham, MD), 1990.

God, Power, and Evil: A Process Theodicy, Westminster Press (Philadelphia, PA), 1976, reprinted, Westminster John Knox Press (Louisville, KY), 2004.

(With John B. Cobb, Jr.) Process Theology: An Introductory Exposition, Westminster Press (Philadelphia, PA), 1976.

(With Huston Smith) Primordial Truth and Postmodern Theology, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), 1989.

(With William A. Beardslee and Joe Holland) Varieties of Postmodern Theology, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), 1989.

God and Religion in the Postmodern World: Essays in Postmodern Theology, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), 1989.

Sacred Interconnections: Postmodern Spirituality, Political Economy, and Art, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), 1990.

Evil Revisited: Responses and Reconsiderations, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), 1991.

Founders of Constructive Postmodern Philosophy: Peirce, James, Bergson, Whitehead, and Hartshorne, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), 1993.

Parapsychology, Philosophy, and Spirituality: A Postmodern Exploration, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), 1997.

Unsnarling the World-Knot: Consciousness, Freedom, and the Mind-Body Problem, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1998.

Religion and Scientific Naturalism: Overcoming the Conflicts, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), 2000.

Searching for an Adequate God: A Dialogue between Process and Free Will Theists, edited by John B. Cobb, Jr. and Clark H. Pinnock, Eerdmans (Grand Rapids, MI), 2000.

Reenchantment without Supernaturalism: A Process Philosophy of Religion, Cornell University Press (Ithaca, NY), 2001.

The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions about the Bush Administration and 9/11, foreword by Richard Falk, Olive Branch Press (Northampton, MA), 2004.

Two Great Truths: A New Synthesis of Scientific Naturalism and Christian Faith, Westminster John Knox Press (Louisville, KY), 2004.

The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions, Olive Branch Press (Northampton, MA), 2005.

The American Empire and the Commonwealth of God: A Political, Economic, Religious Statement, Westminster John Knox Press (Louisville, KY), 2006.

Christian Faith and the Truth behind 9/11: A Call to Reflection and Action, Westminster John Knox Press (Louisville, KY), 2006.

Debunking 9/11 Debunking: An Answer to Popular Mechanics and Other Defenders of the Official Conspiracy Theory, Olive Branch Press (Northampton, MA), 2007.

Whitehead's Radically Different Postmodern Philosophy: An Argument for Its Contemporary Relevance, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), 2007.

9/11 Contradictions: An Open Letter to Congress and the Press, Olive Branch Press (Northampton, MA), 2008.

Contributor to periodicals and scholarly journals.

EDITOR

(With John B. Cobb) Mind in Nature: Essays on the Interface of Science and Philosophy, University Press of America (Lanham, MD), 1976.

(With Thomas J.J. Altizer) John Cobb's Theology in Process, Westminster Press (Philadelphia, PA), 1977.

(With Donald Sherburne) A.N. Whitehead, Process and Reality, Free Press (New York, NY), 1978.

Physics and the Ultimate Significance of Time: Bohm Prigogine and Process Philosophy, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), 1986.

The Reenchantment of Science: Postmodern Proposals, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), 1988.

Spirituality and Society: Postmodern Visions, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), 1988.

Archetypal Process: Self and Divine in Whitehead, Jung, and Hillman, Northwestern University Press (Evanston, IL), 1989.

(With Joseph C. Hough, Jr.) Theology and the University: Essays in Honor of John B. Cobb, Jr., State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), 1991.

(With Richard Falk) Postmodern Politics for a Planet in Crisis: Policy, Process, and Presidential Vision, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), 1993.

(With Sandra B. Lubarsky) Jewish Theology and Process Thought, State University of New York Press (New York, NY), 1996.

Deep Religious Pluralism, Westminster John Knox Press (Louisville, KY), 2005.

(With Peter Dale Scott) 9/11 and the American Empire, Olive Branch Press (Northampton, MA), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

David Ray Griffin is a writer, theologian, and philosopher. For more than three decades, he has been a professor of religion and theology at the Claremont School of Theology in California. There, he also serves as the codirector of the Center for Process Studies. He is a prolific author and editor of books on spiritual and theological issues as well as controversial political and social themes.

In Religion and Scientific Naturalism: Overcoming the Conflicts, Griffin addresses the longstanding divide between science and religion, suggesting that it is in fact possible to achieve harmony and agreement between these two often contentious, polarized disciplines. Doing so will require some cooperation and rethinking of concepts by both scientists and religious leaders, Griffin notes. Scientists must adopt a theory of scientific naturalism that allows for no interference by divine or supernatural agents, but that "withholds incorporation of the philosophical presuppositions of materialism, sensationism (no perception except sensory perception), and atheism," observed reviewer Jerry D. Korsmeyer, writing in Theological Studies. Religious officials must abandon their concepts of supernaturalism, even while maintaining a naturalistic theism that retains a belief in God as a source of hope and meaningfulness in life. Korsmeyer concluded that "any theologian concerned with the place of reason and philosophy in theology, and anyone involved in the science and religion debate, should read this book, because the explanatory power of the proposed worldview is enormous."

Griffin posits the scientifically proven existence of a variety of paranormal phenomena in Parapsychology, Philosophy, and Spirituality: A Postmodern Exploration. The author also explores a philosophical stance that can allow for such phenomena in the world. He looks at phenomena in the categories of extra-sensory perception, psychokinesis, and out-of-body experiences, and he cites a number of scientific studies that support these types of events. He discusses why the public often rejects evidence of parapsychology and paranormal events. Additionally, he looks at topics such as the separability of mind and body, suggesting that this division is a leading indicator in the possibility of life after death. Griffin also explores how spiritualism and parapsychology interconnect. "Griffin's book is rich with provocative and interesting metaphysical and epistemological claims," noted Evan Fales in Religious Studies. Theological Studies reviewer James Gaffney commented that "reading this book may dispel some prejudices and counteract some misinformation about parapsychology."

With the philosophical ideas of Alfred North Whitehead as his starting point, Griffin reconsiders a number of basic ideas about the philosophy of religion in Reenchantment without Supernaturalism: A Process Philosophy of Religion. In the volume, Griffin explores the relationship between science and religion; the characteristics of religious experience; the nature of freedom and the mind-body relationship; the connection between God and the world; the relationship between religion, morality, and civilization; and religious knowledge and common sense. Elsewhere in the book, Griffin rejects the idea of God as a deity who takes a direct role in human affairs, intervening in certain circumstances and coercing humans into obedience. Instead, he envisions God as a force that gently but persistently seeks to persuade humans into proper action while not impeding the freedom of the individual. David Pailin, writing in Religious Studies, called Griffin's concepts a "vision that deserves to be carefully considered by those interested in determining a credible understanding of God in the world as we find it to be."

In addition to his theological and philosophical writings, Griffin also addresses important political and social issues in his works. Griffin is one of a growing number of writers, academics, and public thinkers who have adopted controversial stances on the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States. Griffin believes, in short, that there are many aspects of the attacks and their aftermath that have not been adequately explained. Worse, he believes that the American government was complicit in the attacks, and that government agents deliberately launched them as a pretext for war and expansion of U.S. power into the Middle East and around the world. "While many conspiracy theories have been passed around, it's been very easy to dismiss many of the theorists as, well, crazy. But Griffin comes to his controversial conclusions with lucidity and calm," observed Reyhan Harmanci in the San Francisco Chronicle. More important for Griffin, he sees his attempts to publicize and expose what he sees as the truth about 9/11 as part of his duty as a theologian. "At first glance it may seem strange, but the task of a theologian is to look at the world from what we would imagine the divine perspective," a viewpoint that "would care about the good of the whole and would love all the parts," he told interviewer Mark Ehrman on 911truth.org. In that case, if 9/11 "was brought about by forces within our own government for imperial reasons, is antithetical to the general good" and it is the responsibility of a theologian and public intellectual to probe and explore the issue, Griffin told Ehrman.

In several of his books, Griffin has taken up the volatile subject of 9/11. The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions about the Bush Administration and 9/11 contains Griffin's detailed examination of many of the inconsistencies, contradictions, coincidences, and unusual occurrences surrounding the 9/11 attacks on New York. More important, Griffin tells how he became convinced that the attacks were not the work of hate-filled foreign terrorists but were instead the result of a deliberate and pernicious conspiracy by the Bush administration. The author relates how he was initially highly skeptical of any claims of a U.S.-based conspiracy surrounding the attacks, but he describes how he became more and more convinced of American complicity in the deadly events of 9/11. He points out numerous peculiarities surrounding the actual destruction of the World Trade Center towers, noting that there have been no previous instances of fire destroying a steel-framed high-rise in that manner, allowing the building to essentially collapse on itself. He identifies several instances in which a lack of adherence to standard operating procedures allowed the 9/11 attacks to continue. One such factor, Griffin states, involves the scrambling of fighter jets to intercept potentially hijacked aircraft. On 9/11, these procedures were not followed, allowing the hijacked jets to continue unchallenged to their destinations in New York and Washington. He also finds historical evidence of U.S. participation in a program of false attacks on American soil in a 1960s plan called Operation Northwoods, designed to create a pretext for attacking Cuba and removing Fidel Castro from power. Griffin finds that a trumped-up attack on U.S. soil serves the interest of American neoconservatives, who have long desired increased U.S. expansion in the Middle East, who have wanted control of the vast Middle Eastern oil reserves, and who have wished for the power to conduct preemptive warfare against countries that thwart their goals. "Griffin writes in a precise and careful fashion, avoiding inflammatory rhetoric. He argues for a high probability for the Bush's administration's complicity with allowing and facilitating the attacks, based not on any one conclusive piece of evidence, but the sheer accumulation of all of the data," remarked Catholic New Times critic Rosemary Radford Ruether, who found Griffin's book to be "both convincing and chilling."

Griffin once told CA: "Most of my work is on issues that I think are of central importance in a worldview capable of sustaining a sense of the meaning and importance of life, and an ethical stance adequate to the needs of the present and future situation of the world, with its hunger, diminishing resources, and potential ecological disaster. I have found the ‘process’ view of reality suggested by Alfred North Whitehead to be the most adequate, so my work revolves around his vision."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Catholic New Times, January 25, 2004, Rosemary Radford Ruether, "Was the Bush Administration Complicit in 9/11?," review of The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions about the Bush Administration and 9/11, p. 8.

Choice, May, 1993, L.B. McHenry, review of Founders of Constructive Postmodern Philosophy: Peirce, James, Bergson, Whitehead, and Hartshorne, p. 1479; December, 1993, M. Byrnes, review of Postmodern Politics for a Planet in Crisis: Policy, Process, and Presidential Vision, p. 665; June, 1997, M.C. Rose, review of Parapsychology, Philosophy, and Spirituality: A Postmodern Exploration, p. 1677; July 1, 1998, R.M. Stewart, review of Unsnarling the World-Knot: Consciousness, Freedom, and the Mind-Body Problem, p. 1867.

Christian Century, September 5, 2006, David Heim, "Whodunit?," review of Christian Faith and the Truth behind 9/11: A Call to Reflection and Action, p. 8.

Commonweal, May 17, 1991, Lawrence S. Cunningham, review of Theology and the University: Essays in Honor of John B. Cobb, Jr., p. 347.

Esprit De Corps, May, 2006, review of The New Pearl Harbor, p. 47.

Ethics, October, 1999, review of Unsnarling the World-Knot, p. 242.

In Context, winter, 1990, Alan AtKisson, "Redefining the Divine," interview with David Ray Griffin, p. 20.

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, December, 1993, Donald Wayne Viney, review of Evil Revisited: Responses and Reconsiderations, p. 187; August, 1998, Frank B. Dilley, review of Parapsychology, Philosophy, and Spirituality, p. 63; June, 2001, Frank B. Dilley, review of Religion and Scientific Naturalism: Overcoming the Conflicts, p. 197; October, 2002, Donald Wayne Viney, review of Reenchantment without Supernaturalism: A Process Philosophy of Religion, p. 119.

Interpretation, April, 2007, review of The American Empire and the Commonwealth of God: A Political, Economic, Religious Statement, p. 239.

Journal of Ecumenical Studies, summer, 1990, Steve R. Gordy, review of Primordial Truth and Postmodern Theology, p. 620.

Journal of Religion, October, 1990, Charles A. Wilson, review of God and Religion in the Postmodern World: Essays in Postmodern Theology, p. 646; April, 1993, Philip E. Devenish, review of Evil Revisited, p. 280; April, 1993, Lewis S. Ford, review of Theology and the University, p. 273; October, 1997, David Novak, review of Jewish Theology and Process Thought, p. 662; April, 2002, Jeffery D. Long, review of Reenchantment without Supernaturalism, p. 305; October, 2005, George W. Shields, review of Two Great Truths: A New Synthesis of Scientific Naturalism and Christian Faith, p. 688.

Journal of the American Academy of Religion, September, 2002, Kevin Schilbrack, review of Reenchantment without Supernaturalism, p. 639.

Los Angeles Times, August 26, 2005, Mark Ehrman, "Getting Agnostic about 9/11," interview with David Ray Griffin.

New Scientist, April 5, 1997, review of Parapsychology, Philosophy, and Spirituality, p. 48; June 6, 1998, review of Unsnarling the World-Knot, p. 52.

Professional Geographer, May, 1990, John E. Chappell, Jr., review of The Reenchantment of Science: Postmodern Proposals, p. 255.

Publishers Weekly, March 22, 2004, review of The New Pearl Harbor, p. 80; April 3, 2006, review of The American Empire and the Commonwealth of God, p. 54.

Reference & Research Book News, September, 1993, review of Postmodern Politics for a Planet in Crisis, p. 29; May, 1997, review of Parapsychology, Philosophy, and Spirituality, p. 9; August, 2000, review of Religion and Scientific Naturalism, p. 12; August, 2004, review of The New Pearl Harbor, p. 71; February, 2005, review of The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions, p. 158; November, 2006, review of 9/11 and the American Empire.

Religious Studies, March, 1998, Evan Fales, review of Parapsychology, Philosophy, and Spirituality, p. 103; September, 1998, David A. Pailin, review of Unsnarling the World-Knot, p. 363; June, 2002, David A. Pailin, review of A Process Philosophy of Religion, p. 225.

Review of Metaphysics, June, 1991, Thomas S. Hibbs, review of Primordial Truth and Postmodern Theology, p. 844; September, 1999, Joseph Grange, review of Unsnarling the World-Knot, p. 164.

San Francisco Chronicle, March 30, 2006, Rayhan Harmanci, "An Inside Job?," interview with David Ray Griffin, p. H24.

Skeptic, summer, 2005, Richard Morrock, "9/11: A Date That Will Live in Infamy," review of The New Pearl Harbor, p. 69.

Theological Studies, March, 1990, Robert P. Scharlemann, review of God and Religion in the Postmodern World, p. 181; March, 1999, James Gaffney, review of Parapsychology, Philosophy, and Spirituality, p. 178; June, 2001, Jerry D. Korsmeyer, review of Religion and Scientific Naturalism, p. 413; September, 2001, Jerry D. Korsmeyer, review of Religion and Scientific Naturalism, p. 645; December, 2002, John Berthrong, review of Reenchantment without Supernaturalism, p. 878; March, 2006, John Berthrong, review of Two Great Truths, p. 219.

Theology, November 1, 2001, Michael Kitchener, review of Reenchantment without Supernaturalism, p. 451.

Theology Today, October, 1989, James J. DiCenso, review of God and Religion in the Postmodern World, p. 337; January, 1992, Terrence W. Tilley, review of God, Power, and Evil: A Process Theodicy, p. 485; January, 2002, Justin S. Holcomb, review of Religion and Scientific Naturalism, p. 608.

Times Literary Supplement, December 3, 1999, William Seager, review of Unsnarling the World-Knot, p. 30.

Whole Life Times, September, 2006, Abigail Lewis, "Interview with David Ray Griffin."

Zygon, September, 1991, Ted Peters, reviews of Spirituality and Society: Postmodern Visions and The Reenchantment of Science, p. 429; September, 2000, Michael L. Spezio, review of Unsnarling the World-Knot, p. 705; December, 2002, review of Religion and Scientific Naturalism, p. 985.

ONLINE

Interlink Books Web site,http://www.interlinkbooks.com/ (January 20, 2008), biography of David Ray Griffin.