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.
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
As a career, I have served as a tech consultant, products vendor, software entrepreneur, innovator to small businesses, technology educator, a one-man service shop for all kinds of user needs, and have moved through 9 iterations of technology from the mid-1980s to 2015. Let's just say I've seen a lot of change in those 30 years.
While doing this I also paid attention to many of the tech heads of state of whose products I've used and sold. Bill Gates was one of those science-tech guys I paid attention to. Along with other Fortune 500 companies I continue to follow Bill in his many ventures to heal the world through startup businesses, investor foresight, societal justice, and innovation. Thus, my occasional nod in Bill's direction here at Relevancy22 on climate change, vaccinations, etc.
All ecological civilizations and societies have to start from somewhere. Bill, it seems, is starting in the middle and moving in all directions at once to see what sticks. God bless him. I admire his courage and fortitude amid tasks that will take all of our efforts to help restore the earth back to a healthy state of green and blue.
R.E. Slater
November 9, 2021
Partners in Climte Change
In Glasgow, I saw three big shifts in the climate conversation
Last week I spent three fantastic days at the global climate summit (known as COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland. My main impression is how much things have changed since the last summit, back in 2015—and I don’t mean because of COVID. The climate conversation has shifted dramatically, and for the better.
One big shift is that clean-energy innovation is higher on the agenda than ever. The world needs to get to zero carbon emissions by 2050. As I argue in the book I published this year, accomplishing that will require a green Industrial Revolution in which we decarbonize virtually the entire physical economy: how we make things, generate electricity, move around, grow food, and cool and heat buildings. The world already has some of the tools we’ll need to do that, but we need a huge number of new inventions too.
So at an event like this, one way I measure progress is by the way people are thinking about what it’ll take to reach zero emissions. Do they think we already have all the tools we need to get there? Or is there a nuanced view of the complexity of this problem, and the need for new, affordable clean technology that helps people in low- and middle-income countries raise their standard of living without making climate change worse?
Six years ago, there were more people on the we-have-what-we-need side than on the innovation side. This year, though, innovation was literally on center stage. One session of the World Leaders Summit, where I got to speak, was exclusively about developing and deploying clean technologies faster.
I also helped launch the Net Zero World Initiative, a commitment from the U.S. government to help other countries get to zero by providing funding and—even more important—access to experts throughout the government, including the top minds at America’s world-class national laboratories. These countries will get support with planning the transition to a green economy, piloting new technologies, working with investors, and more.
The second major shift is that the private sector is now playing a central role alongside governments and nonprofits. In Glasgow, I met with leaders in various industries that need to be part of the transition—including shipping, mining, and financial services—who had practical plans to decarbonize and to support innovation. I saw CEOs of international banks really engaging with these issues, whereas many of them wouldn’t even have shown up a few years ago. (It made me wish we could get the same kind of turnout and excitement for conferences on global health!)
I announced that three new partners—Citi, the IKEA Foundation, and State Farm—will be working with Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, a program designed to get the most promising climate technologies to scale much faster than would happen naturally. They’re joining the first round of seven partners we announced in September. It’s amazing to see how much momentum Catalyst has generated in just a few months.
I was also honored to join President Biden and his climate envoy, John Kerry, to announce that Breakthrough Energy will be the primary implementation partner for the First Movers Coalition. It’s a new initiative from the U.S. State Department and the World Economic Forum that will boost demand for emerging climate solutions in some of the sectors where it’ll be especially hard to eliminate emissions: aviation, concrete and steel production, shipping, and more.
The third shift I’m seeing is that there’s even more visibility for climate adaptation. The worst tragedy of rising temperatures is that they will do the most harm to the people who have done the least to cause them. And if we don’t help people in low- and middle-income countries thrive despite the warming that is already under way, the world will lose the fight against extreme poverty.
So it was great to hear President Biden and other leaders repeatedly raising the importance of adaptation. I got to join the president, along with officials from the United Arab Emirates, to launch a program called Agricultural Innovation Mission for Climate. It’s designed to focus some of the world’s innovative IQ on ways to help the poorest people adapt, such as new varieties of crops that can withstand more droughts and floods. More than 30 other countries, as well as dozens of companies and nonprofits (including the Gates Foundation), are already supporting it.
As part of that effort, I joined a coalition of donors that pledged more than half a billion dollars to support the CGIAR’s work to advance climate-smart innovations for smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
Some people look at the problems that still need to be solved and see the glass as half-empty. I don’t share that view, but this is what I would tell anyone who does: The glass is being filled up faster than ever. If we keep this up—if the world puts even more effort into innovations that reduce the cost of getting to zero and help the poorest people adapt to climate change—then we’ll be able to look back on this summit as an important milestone in avoiding a climate disaster.
