Harvey H. Potthoff: A Life in Process

Harvey H. Potthoff (1911–2002) was an influential Methodist theologian and pastor. After a year of study with philosopher Alfred North Whitehead at Harvard, he made Whitehead’s process philosophy a central element of his religious thinking. Dr. Potthoff was pastor at Christ Methodist Church in Denver for 16 years, 1936–1952, and professor at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver from 1952 until retiring in 1981. After retirement from Iliff, Dr. Potthoff went to Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln as Distinguished Visiting Professor of Religion where he stayed for eleven years.

Richard L. Phillips is editor and primary author of this exploration of Harvey Potthoff’s life, pastoral and religious theology, and influence on Methodism and the greater Christian community. Dr. Phillips, a student of Potthoff and former Dean of Hendricks Chapel at Syracuse University, includes guest chapters from family, colleagues, and students including Gregg Anderson, Howard Bailey, Charles R. Rick Chappell, David E. Conner, Peter Gay, Paul J. Kottke, Charles S. Milligan, David Barrett Peabody, J. Richard Peck, J. Alton Templin, and Thomas C. Wood.

“The Divinity School of the University of Chicago was the center for the development of process theology during the middle part of the twentieth century. But there was a second, largely independent, location at Iliff School of Theology in Denver. Through the remarkable person of Harvey Potthoff, process theology at Iliff was church theology, and deeply pastoral.”
—John Cobb
Professor of Theology Emeritus
Claremont School of Theology

Richard L. Phillips holds graduate degrees from Iliff School of Theology and Syracuse University. He served on the faculty of Baker University and as President and Executive Director of the American Youth Foundation before becoming Dean of Hendricks Chapel at Syracuse University.

Dr. Phillips is the author of Hendricks Chapel: Seventy-Five Years of Service to Syracuse University (Syracuse University Press, 2005). He is now retired and living in Lakewood, Colorado.