Yes, I can. “Process theology” is that branch of metaphysics which springs forth from the writings of Whitehead, Hartshorne, and (as you mention) Cobb. I’m familiar with the writings of Whitehead and Hartshorne and have read both. First, I’ll recommend some writings that you might want to get a hold of, just for clarification of the differences. There is a text by the non-Catholic Christian philosopher called Divine Nature and Human Language. Though I wouldn’t recommend the text for a Catholic it does have an article on it regarding the differences between Hartshorne and St. Thomas Aquinas. Also, see the writings of the Evangelical Thomist Norman Geisler. E.g., Worlds Apart or Christian Apologetics. Since he is a Thomist, his philosophical writings or writings on worldviews are very Catholic friendly.
So, basically what was started by Whitehead was fleshed out explicitly by Hartshorne and it is through this latter individual that process theology was most explicitly spelled out. Whitehead and Hartshorne are generally agreed, but it seems to me that Hartshorne takes the project further and specifically delineates the divine nature according to process thought. Generally speaking, process theology is also called panentheism (as opposed to both theism a la Catholicism and pantheism a la Eastern religions). In theism, God is the infinite, simple, necessary, absolute Creator of all that is. He alone is the necessary being (ie, He must exist-He cannot not exist). Yet everything outside of Him is contingent upon Him for its existence, both originally (like when you were conceived or when the universe was first created) and for every moment of its existence. A contingent being could not be. It doesn’t have to exist. So, in theism there is this sharp distinction between the infinite, necessary God and the finite, contingent creation. Pantheism is just the opposite, God is the world, or the world is God. Things which seem to exist (like me or my computer in front of me) as separates are really just modes of the same divine being. “All is one,” as it is sometimes put.
Well, what panentheism, or process theology, is trying to do is establish a middle ground between these two (between theism and pantheism). It’s quite difficult to do this since there doesn’t seem to be an obvious way of successfully pulling this off. The only tertium quid, if you will, seems to be atheism. What ends up happening for Whitehead is that God is, as funny as it may sound, bipolar. He has two poles which are contraries (eg, infinite and finite). Hartshorne basically just denies all the classical attributes of God’s existence. So God, for Hartshorne is a repudiation of St. Thomas’ view. For Hartshorne, God is complex, limited in power and knowledge (in the sense that both are contingent upon His relation with the creation), contingent, not absolute, etc.
This is pretty heavy stuff. I hope this fast run-thru is helpful.
