Highlights

only two ways of using the word "God" that I, personally, can get behind.

I tend to favour the first by John Dewey (1859-1952).

there are a few occasions when the second, by Henry Nelson Wieman (1885-1975), seems more helpful.

John Dewey: A Common Faith (2nd ed., Yale University Press, 2013, p. 47):

We are in the presence neither of ideals completely embodied in existence nor yet of ideals that are merely rootless ideals, fantasies or utopias. For there are forces in nature and society that generate and support the ideals. They are further unified by the action that gives them coherence and solidarity. It is this active relation between ideal and actual to which I would give the name 'God'. I would not insist that the name must be given.

Henry Nelson Wieman: Religious Experience and Scientific Method (Macmillan, 1926, pp. 9):

Whatever else the word God may mean, it is a term used to designate that Something upon which human life is most dependent for its security, welfare and increasing abundance. That there is such a Something cannot be doubted. The mere fact that human life happens, and continues to happen, proves that this Something, however unknown, does certainly exist.

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References

Brown, Andrew James. “John Dewey and Henry Nelson Wieman’s Ways of Using the Word ‘God.’” Caute, 11 Jan. 2018, https://andrewjbrown.blogspot.com/2018/01/john-dewey-and-henry-nelson-wiemans-way.html.