While Whitehead himself conceived God in nonsubjectivist ways, thinking that the nontemporal must be like eternal objects, he allowed for the possibility of
nontemporal subjectivity in this fourth chapter.
Since he had rejected
nontemporal subjectivity, God had been formulated solely in terms of being.
«Concrescence» thus offered a way in which «the complete conceptual realization of the realm of ideal forms» (Religion 154) could be reintroduced, for it need not connote the difficulty of
nontemporal subjectivity.
The rejection of
nontemporal subjectivity meant that the project of Religion and the Making was at least a partial failure.
I once seized on these terms to ascribe a theory of
nontemporal subjectivity to Whitehead.11 While in many ways I regard that essay as one of my best achievements, its general premise was wrongheaded.
The glowing final chapter of Religion in the Making merely indicates how his minimal theory could be applied to Western theism, and was in any case vitiated by his growing doubts about
nontemporal subjectivity.
I therefore advocate that
nontemporal subjectivity be strenuously conceived as an aspect of temporal subjectivity only.16
Not exact matches
Though conceptual valuation, like concrescence, exemplifies various categoreal obligations, 14 we should not expect
subjectivity in the form of subjective aim to apply as long as God is conceived as purely
nontemporal.