Charles Hartshorne
An absolute term, I have held, is abstract, object, cause, predecessor, constituent, rather than concrete, subject, effect, successor, whole—in any relation in which the term is absolute. That the absolute or independent being, as such, is cause in all cause-effect relationships is traditional doctrine; also, one spoke of him as first cause, as though he were predecessor of all; but that he must also be abstract not concrete, object not subject, constituent not whole, these seem somewhat startling implications.
I maintain that they follow as rigorously as the others, so far as the absolute being as such is concerned. It is worth noting too that if God (qua absolute) is abstract constituent of all things, then there is a clear meaning for the divine “immanence.” What can more easily be in all things than something abstract? And the implication that the absolute is object for all subjects makes more sense than might appear at first thought.
Here I wish to call attention to a little-noticed truth: to be known by all subjects is fully as distinctive a status as to know all objects. Take any individual other than God. It surely cannot be that this individual is known by all others. Ordinary individuals are known by their neighbors, by some few to whom they are significant; the greater the individual, the more widely will other individuals tend to take note of his existence. Only God can be so universally important that no subject can ever wholly fail or ever have failed to be aware of him (in however dim or unreflective a fashion).
Thus the unique status of object-for-all-subjects is to be correlated with the more commonly recognized one of subject-for-all-objects. The difference between them is that the latter means, “having relations to all objects,” and thus implies universal relativity; the former means that all subjects have relation to the one object, without the latter having relation (other than extrinsic or nominal) to them.
Source:
Charles Hartshorne, The Divine Relativity: A Social Conception of God, pp. 70-71.
HyC