1282. That Whitehead

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1. That Whitehead makes something like my distinction between the structure of God in itself and the meaning of God for us seems apparent from his comment about the urgency of secularizing the concept of God's functions (PRc: 207). Thus he insists that, while "the concept of God is certainly one essential element in religious feeling," "the converse is not true: the concept of religious feeling is not an essential element in the concept of God's function in the universe." What is this if not to make some such distinction as I make between the relatively abstract concern of metaphysics with the structure of God in itself and the relatively concrete concern of religion or faith with the meaning of God for us? 

2. Significantly, Whitehead speaks in this context as he does elsewhere of "religious emotions" lying on a relatively higher "level of experience" (cf. PRc: 340). Perhaps the point is that, while the reality of God is first in the orders of being and experience, it is last in the order of knowledge.