Quotes & Sayings


We, and creation itself, actualize the possibilities of the God who sustains the world, towards becoming in the world in a fuller, more deeper way. - R.E. Slater

There is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have [consequential effects upon] the world around us. - Process Metaphysician Alfred North Whitehead

Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem says (i) all closed systems are unprovable within themselves and, that (ii) all open systems are rightly understood as incomplete. - R.E. Slater

The most true thing about you is what God has said to you in Christ, "You are My Beloved." - Tripp Fuller

The God among us is the God who refuses to be God without us, so great is God's Love. - Tripp Fuller

According to some Christian outlooks we were made for another world. Perhaps, rather, we were made for this world to recreate, reclaim, redeem, and renew unto God's future aspiration by the power of His Spirit. - R.E. Slater

Our eschatological ethos is to love. To stand with those who are oppressed. To stand against those who are oppressing. It is that simple. Love is our only calling and Christian Hope. - R.E. Slater

Secularization theory has been massively falsified. We don't live in an age of secularity. We live in an age of explosive, pervasive religiosity... an age of religious pluralism. - Peter L. Berger

Exploring the edge of life and faith in a post-everything world. - Todd Littleton

I don't need another reason to believe, your love is all around for me to see. – Anon

Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all. - Khalil Gibran, Prayer XXIII

Be careful what you pretend to be. You become what you pretend to be. - Kurt Vonnegut

Religious beliefs, far from being primary, are often shaped and adjusted by our social goals. - Jim Forest

We become who we are by what we believe and can justify. - R.E. Slater

People, even more than things, need to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. – Anon

Certainly, God's love has made fools of us all. - R.E. Slater

An apocalyptic Christian faith doesn't wait for Jesus to come, but for Jesus to become in our midst. - R.E. Slater

Christian belief in God begins with the cross and resurrection of Jesus, not with rational apologetics. - Eberhard Jüngel, Jürgen Moltmann

Our knowledge of God is through the 'I-Thou' encounter, not in finding God at the end of a syllogism or argument. There is a grave danger in any Christian treatment of God as an object. The God of Jesus Christ and Scripture is irreducibly subject and never made as an object, a force, a power, or a principle that can be manipulated. - Emil Brunner

“Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” means "I will be that who I have yet to become." - God (Ex 3.14) or, conversely, “I AM who I AM Becoming.”

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. - Thomas Merton

The church is God's world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the Eucharist/Communion table to share life with one another as a new kind of family. When this happens, we show to the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be. The church is God's show-and-tell for the world to see how God wants us to live as a blended, global, polypluralistic family united with one will, by one Lord, and baptized by one Spirit. – Anon

The cross that is planted at the heart of the history of the world cannot be uprooted. - Jacques Ellul

The Unity in whose loving presence the universe unfolds is inside each person as a call to welcome the stranger, protect animals and the earth, respect the dignity of each person, think new thoughts, and help bring about ecological civilizations. - John Cobb & Farhan A. Shah

If you board the wrong train it is of no use running along the corridors of the train in the other direction. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God's justice is restorative rather than punitive; His discipline is merciful rather than punishing; His power is made perfect in weakness; and His grace is sufficient for all. – Anon

Our little [biblical] systems have their day; they have their day and cease to be. They are but broken lights of Thee, and Thou, O God art more than they. - Alfred Lord Tennyson

We can’t control God; God is uncontrollable. God can’t control us; God’s love is uncontrolling! - Thomas Jay Oord

Life in perspective but always in process... as we are relational beings in process to one another, so life events are in process in relation to each event... as God is to Self, is to world, is to us... like Father, like sons and daughters, like events... life in process yet always in perspective. - R.E. Slater

To promote societal transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework which includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace. - The Earth Charter Mission Statement

Christian humanism is the belief that human freedom, individual conscience, and unencumbered rational inquiry are compatible with the practice of Christianity or even intrinsic in its doctrine. It represents a philosophical union of Christian faith and classical humanist principles. - Scott Postma

It is never wise to have a self-appointed religious institution determine a nation's moral code. The opportunities for moral compromise and failure are high; the moral codes and creeds assuredly racist, discriminatory, or subjectively and religiously defined; and the pronouncement of inhumanitarian political objectives quite predictable. - R.E. Slater

God's love must both center and define the Christian faith and all religious or human faiths seeking human and ecological balance in worlds of subtraction, harm, tragedy, and evil. - R.E. Slater

In Whitehead’s process ontology, we can think of the experiential ground of reality as an eternal pulse whereby what is objectively public in one moment becomes subjectively prehended in the next, and whereby the subject that emerges from its feelings then perishes into public expression as an object (or “superject”) aiming for novelty. There is a rhythm of Being between object and subject, not an ontological division. This rhythm powers the creative growth of the universe from one occasion of experience to the next. This is the Whiteheadian mantra: “The many become one and are increased by one.” - Matthew Segall

Without Love there is no Truth. And True Truth is always Loving. There is no dichotomy between these terms but only seamless integration. This is the premier centering focus of a Processual Theology of Love. - R.E. Slater

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Note: Generally I do not respond to commentary. I may read the comments but wish to reserve my time to write (or write from the comments I read). Instead, I'd like to see our community help one another and in the helping encourage and exhort each of us towards Christian love in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. - re slater

Tuesday, November 9, 2021

Meet Process Theologian John Cobb, Jr.


Theologian, Philosopher, Humanitarian
John Cobb, Jr.


Meet Process Theologian John Cobb, Jr.


Below you will find a small sample of resources that we think you'll find valuable as you consider the many possible ways that process thought might be relevant to your understanding of and journey in faith. If you have suggestions that you would like us to consider, please let us know.



Articles & Books

Process Thought

God Beyond Orthodoxy: Process Theology for the 21st Century, by Philip Clayton (PDF)
A Perspective from Process Theology, by William Stegall
Process Philosophy, by J. R. Hustwit (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Process Philosophy, by Johanna Seibt (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Process Theism, by Don Viney (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Process Theology, by John Cobb
Process Worldviews: Four Summary Statements (Open Horizons website)
What is Process Theology? A Basic Introduction, by Marjorie Suchocki (PDF)
What is Process Thought? by Jay McDaniel

Faith

Christian Faith and Process Philosophy, by Bernard M. Loomer (Religion Online website)
Dynamics of Faith, by Paul Tillich (PDF)
Faith, by John Bishop (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Faith in Buddhism (The Spiritual Life website)
The Faith That Kills and the Faith That Quickens, by John Cobb (Religion Online website)

Media

Process Theology: An Introductory Introduction, by John B. Cobb (Sep. 14, 2004, MP3 Audio)




Biography of John B. Cobb, Jr.


John B. Cobb, Jr., Ph.D, is a founding co-director of the Center for Process Studies and Process & Faith. He has held many positions, such as Ingraham Professor of Theology at the School of Theology at Claremont, Avery Professor at the Claremont Graduate School, Fullbright Professor at the University of Mainz, Visiting Professor at Vanderbilt, Harvard Divinity, Chicago Divinity Schools. His writings include: Christ in a Pluralistic Age; God and the World; For the Common Good. Co-winner of Grawemeyer Award of Ideas Improving World Order.

Position
  • Emeritus Professor, Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate School
  • Co-director, Center for Process Studies; Process & Faith
Personal
  • Born in Japan, 1925.
  • Parents were Methodist missionaries.
  • Married to Jean L. Cobb.
  • Four sons: Theodore, Clifford, Andrew, Richard.
Education
  • Canadian Academy, Kobe, Japan, 1938-39
  • Newnan High School, Georgia, 1939-41
  • Emory-at-Oxford, Georgia, 1941-43
  • University of Michigan, 1944
  • University of Chicago, 1947-50
  • MA 1949 and Ph.D. 1952 from the Divinity School, University of Chicago
Past Positions
  • Young Harris College, Georgia 1950-53
  • Candler School of Theology, Emory U., 1953-58
  • Ingraham Prof., STC, l958-90
  • Avery Prof., CGS, 1960-1990
  • Fulbright Professor, U. of Mainz, 1965-66
  • Visiting Professor, Rikkyo U., Tokyo, 1978
  • Visiting Prof., Chicago Divinity School, 1980
  • Visiting Prof., Harvard Divinity School, 1987
  • Visiting Prof. Iliff School of Theology, 1991
  • Visiting Prof. Vanderbilt Divinity School, 1993
Honors
  • D.Theol., University of Mainz, 1968
  • Litt.D., Emory University, 1971
  • Fellow, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 1976
  • Distinguished Alumnus Award, U. of Chicago, 1976
  • D.D., Linfield College, 1983
  • Alumnus of the Year, Chicago Divinity School, 1985
  • Litt.D., DePauw University, 1989
Books Written
  • Varieties of Protestantism, 1960
  • Living Options in Protestant Theology, 1962
  • A Christian Natural Theology, 1965
  • The Structure of Christian Existence, 1967
  • God and the World, 1969
  • Is It Too Late? A Theology of Ecology, 1971 (revised edition, 1995)
  • Liberal Theology at the Crossroads, 1973
  • Christ in a Pluralistic Age, 1975
  • with David Griffin, Process Theology: An Introductory Exposition, 1976 Theology and Pastoral Care, 1977
  • with Charles Birch, The Liberation of Life: from the Cell to the Community, 1981
  • Process Theology as Political Theology, 1982
  • Beyond Dialogue: Toward a Mutual Transformation of Christianity and Buddhism, 1982
  • with David Tracy, Talking About God, 1983
  • Praying for Jennifer, 1985
  • with Joseph Hough, Christian Identity and Theological Education, 1985
  • with Beardslee, Lull, Pregeant, Weeden, and Woodbridge, Biblical Preaching on the Death of Jesus, 1989
  • with Herman Daly, For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy Toward Community, Environment, and a Sustainable Future, 1989 (revised edition, 1994)
  • Doubting Thomas, 1990
  • with Leonard Swidler, Paul Knitter, and Monika Helwig , Death or Dialogue, 1990
  • Matters of Life and Death, 1991
  • Can Christ Become Good News Again?, 1991
  • Sustainability, 1992
  • Becoming a Thinking Christian, 1993
  • Lay Theology, 1994
  • Sustaining the Common Good, 1994
  • Grace and Responsibility, 1995
  • Reclaiming the Church, 1997
  • Postmodernism and Public Policy, 2002
  • The Process Perspective (edited by Jeanyne B. Slettom), 2003
  • Romans (with David J. Lull), 2005
  • The Call of the Spirit: Process Spirituality in a Relational World (with Bruce Epperly and Paul Nancarrow), 2005
  • A Christian Natural Theology, Second Edition, 2007
  • Whitehead Word Book, 2008
  • Spiritual Bankruptcy: A Prophetic Call to Action, 2010
  • The Process Perspective II (edited by Jeanyne B. Slettom), 2011
Books Edited
  • with James Robinson, The Later Heidegger and Theology, 1963
  • with James Robinson, The New Hermeneutic, 1964
  • with James Robinson, Theology as History, 1967
  • The Theology of Altizer: Critique and Response, 1971
  • with David Griffin, Mind in Nature, 1977
  • with Widick Schroeder, Process Philosophy and Social Thought, 1981
  • with Franklin Gamwell, Existence and Actuality: Conversations with Charles Hartshorne, 1984
  • Back to Darwin, 2008
  • Resistance: The New Role of Progressive Christians, 2008
  • Dialogue Comes of Age, 2010

Process Theologian John Cobb, Jr.





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