THE COBB INSTITUTE
FOR ECOLOGICAL AWARENESS, EDUCATION,
STRATEGIC PLANNING, & COMMUNITY COLLABORATION
We believe planet Earth is best viewed as a living organism and human beings are a part of it. We lament the degraded condition of our common home and the role that human beings have played in causing it. We cherish promoting its healing through education, dialogue, and initiatives that cultivate not only sustainability but also communities of compassion and equity.
DREAM BIGGER WITH US!
“If we want a society in which the sense of belonging is strong, people are concerned for one another, and there is strong commitment to the common good, we need a metaphysics that shows that we are in fact part of larger societies and have no existence apart from our relations to others.” - John Cobb
Community Collaboration
The Cobb Institute is a Think Tank with Legs. We often spark new ideas and encourage others to carry them forward as we support the effort. We are luring, assisting, and nurturing a variety of initiatives in the Claremont area in hopes that they will be a model and that their successes can be replicated elsewhere. But we’re also concerned with our common home, so we ignite efforts to develop the process movement and advance the common good in the United States and around the world by creating new communities and partnering with organizations who have connections countries like China and India. Our successes include:
Global Relationships
- Claremont Process Nexus
- Institute for Postmodern Development of China
- EcoCovenant Academy in India
- US-China Cooperation Campaign
Local Impacts
- Sustainability Major at the University of La Verne
- Economic Forum for Affordable Housing in Pomona
- CHERP Solar Works
- Urban Agriculture in Pomona
Educational Development
The Cobb Institute creates classes, hosts discussions, and sponsors workshops to educate people about process thought and ecological civilization. As we inch closer to a planetary crisis point and the need for an urgent change in our understanding of our relationship with the earth, our Learning Lab seeks to transform education to foster personal growth and wisdom. Our successes include:
John Cobb & Friends Gatherings
- David Orr, Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics Emeritus, Oberlin College
- Rebecca Parker. Former Professor of Theology and President of Starr King School for the Ministry
- Jeremy Lent, Founder and President of the Liology Institute
- Sophia Said, Founding Chairperson of the Madina Institute
Courses
- Whitehead & Jung - Integrating Resources for a Fragmented World
- The Rebirthing of God - Exploring the Ways in Which “God is Being Reborn”
- Suffering & Meaning - Understanding from a Process-Relational Perspective
- Walking With Whitehead - A Careful Reading of Key Passages in Process & Reality
Learning Circles
- An Awakening Planet - Contemplating the Vision of Teilhard de Chardin
- Women in Process - A Space for Women Who Want to Explore Their Becomings & Possibilities
Workshops
- The Process of Gardening - An Introduction to Gardening from a Process-Relational Perspective
- The Process of Dying - Forgotten Wisdom
Spiritual Integration & The Arts
The Cobb Institute promotes a process-relational approach to personal spirituality and faith communities. Creativity is celebrated and included through poetry, music and visual arts as we feature artists at our weekly gatherings, on our website, and in a new series to feature the art of process. Our successes include:
- Process & Faith
- A Multi-faith Network for Relational Spirituality and the Common Good
- Process & Coffee
- A Discussion Group About Books That Foster an Integral Spirituality
- International Poetry Forum
- An International Conference to Consider the Purpose of Poets in an Age of Ecological Civilization
- Featured Artists & Novel Becomings Series
- Spotlighting the Beauty and Multiplicity of Art in All its Forms by Process artists
Our dream in 2022 is to make a greater impact personally by providing an integrated and wholistic approach to making meaning in our world, locally by creating compassionate communities, and globally by inspiring each community to build an ecological civilization. Dream big with us! The world needs a truly creative transformation toward the common good.
About the Institute
The Cobb Institute, named in honor of our founder John Cobb, promotes a process-relational way of understanding and living in the world. As a philosophical outlook it shares wisdom, emphasizes harmony, and focuses on the common good. We live out this philosophy by working to build an ecological civilization.
With the knowledge that all life is interconnected and in process of becoming, we use education, creativity, and an open view of spirituality to help each other and our communities thrive. This is a bold collaborative view that recognizes our interdependence, and thus emphasizes that we have a responsibility to care not just for our own lives but also for the world we share with everyone and everything else.
Our Mission
The Cobb Institute promotes a process-relational worldview to advance wisdom, harmony, and the common good. It engages in local initiatives and cultivates compassionate communities to bring about an ecological civilization. These aims will be accomplished by fostering creative transformation through educational development, community collaboration, sustainable practices, and spiritual integration.
Our History
Originally named the Claremont Institute for Process Studies, the Cobb Institute was established in the spring of 2019 as a non-profit corporation in the State of California, for the purpose of continuing the mission and legacy of the Center for Process Studies (CPS)—a Faculty Center of Claremont School of Theology (CST), established by John Cobb and David Griffin in 1973)—anticipating the relocation of CST and CPS in the summer of 2019. The Cobb Institute is part of a family of process-relational organizations affiliated with the Center for Process Studies and the International Process Network.
As the Institute engaged in self-assessments and underwent various developments during the latter part of 2019, its leadership determined that the name "Claremont Institute for Process Studies" didn't adequately express its character as an emerging community with a shared interest in a process-relational way of understanding the world, along with a commitment to implementing its values in concrete ways. Because of John Cobb's role as the founder, his bold vision for an alternative future, and the importance of his life's work, in January 2020 the Board decided to change the name of the organization to the Cobb Institute: A Community for Process & Practice. The name change was officially announced at his John Cobb's 95th birthday celebration on February 11, 2020.
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