Cobb Institute Newsletter, Spring 2022
"What education has to impart is an intimate sense for the power of ideas, for the beauty of ideas, and for the structure of ideas, together with a particular body of knowledge which has peculiar reference to the life of the being possessing it." - Alfred North Whitehead
Our courses provide students the opportunity to learn in a way that is open, exploratory, and transformative. Each one is taught by an expert in the topic, who can communicate the concepts in a way that is accessible to any interested learner. They range in length from three-session mini-courses to ten-session in-depth treatments. - Check out our courses
Learning circles are small groups that share a common interest in a topic, text, or activity. In a mode that is informal and conversational, they are typically made up of five to fifteen people who gather together to learn from one another. A learning circle might be a book study group that only explores a single text, or an affinity group that meets for an indefinite period of time. - Check out our circles
Workshops are informative presentations by one or more instructors on a focused topic. They can be one session or several sessions, but the format is usually one in which the presenters focus primarily on sharing information rather than interacting with attendees. - Check out our workshops
Transforming Education for Ecological Civilization
At the Institute Learning Lab, we think that more important for students than learning to do research is personal growth and wisdom. We think that more important for the world than teaching everyone how to do value-free research is having millions of people studying how to create an ecological civilization without which the human future looks very bleak. We hope we can find ways to involve local educational institutions individually and collectively in serious discussion of their responsibility to students, humanity, and the entire world.
UPCOMING OFFERINGS
Feb 16th thru Mar 9th
Connecting the Insights of Transcendentalism and Process Thought
In this four-week course, Dr. Terry Goddard will facilitate a reading and discussion of four of Loren Eiseley’s essays, focusing especially on his view of process thought as it relates to nature. - FIND OUT MORE
Mar 2nd thru Mar 23rd
Explore Reading and the Transformative Power of Poetry
This is the first in a series of three four-week courses taught by award-winning poet Christina Hutchins. Participants will carefully consider the following question: How can the process of a poem not only facilitate the widening of our existence but also enact an experience while simultaneously reflecting on it? - FIND OUT MORE
Mar 8th thru Apr 12th
Considering the Possibility of Dreams as Natural
and Healing Mystical Encounters with the Divine
In this six-session course, Dr. Sheri D. Kling will draw from the ideas of psychologist Carl Gustav Jung and mathematician-philosopher Alfred North Whitehead as well as recent brain science to guide participants through an exploration into the dreaming body-mind and religious experience. - FIND OUT MORE
PAST COURSES
Examining Process Theology Through the Eyes of Beauty
In this four-session course, Patricia Adams Farmer will elucidate a Whiteheadian-inspired theology of beauty with a view to deepening understanding, enriching spirituality, encouraging an ecological vision, and nurturing hope. - MORE INFORMATION
Six Sessions Exploring Whitehead, Jung, and Why We Need Them Now
In this six-session course, Dr. Sheri D. Kling will guide students through the deep resonances between the philosophy of organism of Alfred North Whitehead and analytical psychology of Carl Gustav Jung to show what these two great thinkers have in common and why we need them now more than ever. - MORE INFORMATION
Four Sessions Exploring a Variety of Ways In Which “God is Being Reborn”
In this four-week course, the Reverend Al Gephart invites participants to respond to the ways that John Philip Newell perceives concepts of God in the Christian community undergoing a seismic shift, reorientation, and rebirth. - MORE INFORMATION
Three Sessions Exploring the Impulse to Find Meaning
in Suffering and Seeking Healthy Alternatives
In this three-week mini-course Dr. Bob Mesle will examine the human impulse to find meaning in suffering, explore the ways in which people with good intentions often offer comforts which can lead to an unhealthy denial of life’s problems, and consider more healthy alternatives. - MORE INFORMATION
Six Sessions Covering the Core Concepts in Whitehead's Magnum Opus
In this six-week course Jay McDaniel will guide students through important passages in Process and Reality, and, along with way, give everyone a basic understanding of sixteen key ideas. Each week he will invite participants to turn to particular passages and offer his understanding of their meaning, followed by open discussion. - MORE INFORMATION
A Six-Session Course Introducing
Alfred North Whitehead’s PROCESS AND REALITY
In these lectures John Cobb will provide an introduction to one of the most compelling and challenging philosophical texts of the Twentieth Century. Process and Reality is a notoriously difficult text, but the goal of this course is to enable students to not only skim the surface but probe its deeper dimensions in a way that's accessible to anyone. - MORE INFORMATION
Healthy Future or Planetary Catastrophe? Might Process Philosophy Help?
In this course Dr. John B. Cobb, Jr. presents a series of ten lectures that critically examine our current condition and constructively propose an alternative for the future, informed primarily by the process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead. Students will have the opportunity to interact with and learn from one of the world's foremost experts in process thought, and together think through some of humanity's greatest challenges. - MORE INFORMATION
LEARNING CIRCLES
A Discussion Group Contemplating the
Vision of Teilhard de Chardin
Facilitated by Dr. Ernie Tamminga, this discussion group will carefully consider the vision of the human evolutionary future as seen by the French Jesuit and paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. - FIND OUT MORE
A Discussion Group About Books That Foster An Integral Spirituality
Process & Coffee is about spiritual integration and exploration. We meet weekly to dive into books by mystics and sages. The discussion that follows helps to deepen our own spiritual lives. - To learn more or join, send an email to learninglab@cobb.institute.
A Discussion Group Considering the Connections Between
Islam and the Core Values of Process & Faith
Facilitated by Jared Morningstar, and co-sponsored by the Cobb Institute and Process & Faith, this six-session learning circle will examine the religion of Islam and its resonance with the core values of Process & Faith: Whole Persons, Whole Communities, Whole Planet, and Holistic Thinking. - FIND OUT MORE
PAST LEARNING CIRCLES
Exploring Process Philosophy From a Feminine Perspective
Women in process provides a space for women who want to explore their "becomings" and "possibilities." The group meets on the third Thursday of each month.
A Discussion Group Pursuing the Possibility of an Ecological Civilization
In this book and discussion group, we meet monthly to read, discuss, and learn together about what needs to be done and what we can do for our common home.
Four Sessions Exploring John O'Donohue's Concept of Beauty
Join a group of clergy as we explore how John O'Donohue's idea of Beauty can serving as portal to the Spirit and provide meaning in everyday life. - MORE INFORMATION
Four Sessions Exploring Whitehead's Concepts of Peace & God
Facilitated by Jay McDaniel, a group of clergy explored how Whitehead’s ideas can meet us in our own religious traditions and become fertile ground for theological reflection and pastoral ministry. - MORE INFORMATION
Exploring the Possibilities of Psychedelics From Multiple Approaches
In this discussion group, we explore psychedelics from a variety of vantage points. We will have guest speakers on the political, philosophical, spiritual, clinical, medicinal, experiential, and sociological uses of psychedelics. Meets on the second Thursday of each month.
Four Sessions Introducing Basic Concepts
and Practices in Zen Buddhism
Dr. Jay McDaniel introduced participants to some basic concepts and practices in Buddhism as approached in a Zen way: the primary of the present moment, the problem of cloning, the value of letting go; the limitations of verbal discourse; spontaneity of the here-and-now; the wisdom of no-self, the universality of impermanence, the illusion of isolated existence; the ultimacy of inter-becoming; mindfulness, reincarnation, and in Mahayana Buddhism, the promise to be reborn again and again until all living beings can be saved. Along the way, Dr. McDaniel discussed connections between those ideas and ideas in process philosophy, thus introducing a Buddhist process philosophy.
PAST WORKSHOPS
An Introduction To Gardening From a Process-Relational Perspective
In this series of four presentations, you will learn from experts about planning, planting, composting, and harvesting your own food-producing garden. - MORE INFORMATION
Two Sessions Examining the Harmful
Impact of Modern Views of Death
and Offering Healthy Alternatives
In this two-session workshop, the Reverends Joelle Johns and Kathleen Reeves will critically examine the denial of death by medical technology, problems with the for-profit death industry, and its negative impact on the environment, and offer healthy alternatives for the environment and our psyche that are based on the insights of Buddhism and process thought. - MORE INFORMATION
