Bernard Loomer

Bernard M. Loomer (born 1912) was an American professor and theologian. Longtime Dean of the University of Chicago Divinity School and a leading proponent of Process Theology, Loomer wrote “The world is God because it is the source and preserver of meaning; because the creative advance of the world in its adventure is the supreme cause to be served; because even in our desecration of our space and time within it, the world is holy ground; and because it contains and yet enshrouds the ultimate mystery inherent within existence itself. . . . The world in all the dimensions of its being is the basis for all our wonder, awe, and inquiry.” Loomer decried theological certainty and delighted in the wonder of existence: “Final answers are not to be trusted. We are born in mystery, we live in mystery, and we die in mystery."

Loomer wrote a somewhat critical review of C.E.M. Joad's 1942 book, "God and Evil", for "The Journal of Religion". ["The Journal of Religion", Vol. 24, No. 3, July 1944, 230.] While praising Joad for a "frank and honest account of Joad's spiritual and intellectual odyssey," Loomer was clearly less than enthralled with Joad's lack familiarity with "the best of modern religious thought," undoubtedly a negative reference to Joad's dependence upon Edwin Bevan and C. S. Lewis. He described the book as one containing "loose thinking and unexamined presuppositions" without giving any evidence.

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