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

-----

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

Saturday, December 4, 2021

Wikipedia - Philosopher / Theologian John B. Cobb, Jr.



Philosopher / Theologian John B. Cobb, Jr.



John B. Cobb

Jump to search
John B. Cobb, Jr.
John B. Cobb, Jr.jpg
Cobb in 2013
Born
John Boswell Cobb, Jr.

9 February 1925 (age 96)
NationalityAmerican
Spouse(s)
Jean L. Cobb
 
(m. 1947)
[1]
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of Chicago
ThesisThe Independence of Christian Faith from Speculative Beliefs[2] (1952)
Doctoral advisorCharles Hartshorne
Influences
Academic work
Discipline
School or tradition
Institutions
Doctoral students
Main interests
Notable ideas
Influenced

Biography

Harborland in KobeHyōgo prefecture, Japan

John Cobb was born in Kobe, Japan, on 9 February 1925, to parents who were Methodist missionaries.[13] Until age 15, he lived primarily in Kobe and Hiroshima and received most of his early education in the multi-ethnic Canadian Academy in Kobe,[13] to which he attributes the beginnings of his pluralistic outlook.[14]

In 1940, Cobb moved to Georgia, US, to finish high school.[13] He found himself both bewildered and disgusted by the pervasive racism in the region, particularly the demonization of the Japanese.[15] Seeing how the same events could be presented in such different ways based on the country in which he was living, Cobb became ever-more counter-cultural and critical of the dominant views in churches, media, universities, and government.[16]

After his graduation from high school, Cobb attended Emory College in Oxford, Georgia, before joining the US Army in 1943.[17] He was chosen for the Japanese language program, which was filled mainly with Jewish and Catholic intellectuals who helped make him aware of the narrow, parochial nature of his Georgia Protestantism.[18]

Cobb served in the occupation of Japan, then returned to the United States and left the army soon afterward. He then entered an interdepartmental program at the University of Chicago in 1947. There, he set out to test his faith by learning the modern world's objections to Christianity.[19] His faith did not come out intact.

I was determined to expose my faith to the worst the world could offer. Within six months of such exposure my faith was shattered ... God, who had been my constant companion and Lord up to that point, simply evaporated, and my prayers bounced back from the ceiling unheard.[19]

Hoping to reconstruct a Christian faith more compatible with scientific and historical knowledge, Cobb entered the University of Chicago Divinity School.[20] He was successful in restoring his personal faith primarily with the help of Richard McKeonDaniel Day Williams, and Charles Hartshorne.[20] McKeon introduced Cobb to philosophical relativism, while Hartshorne and Williams taught him Whiteheadian process philosophy and process theologyAlfred North Whitehead's thought became the central theme of Cobb's own work.

After receiving his Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Chicago under the supervision of Charles Hartshorne in 1952,[21] he spent three years teaching at Young Harris College in north Georgia, while also serving as part-time pastor to a six-church circuit and establishing a seventh congregation in the area.[22] Ernest Cadman Colwell, formerly president of the University of Chicago, brought Cobb to Emory University in Georgia to teach in the new graduate institute for liberal arts. In 1958, Cobb followed Colwell to ClaremontCalifornia,[23] where he was named Ingraham Professor of Theology at Claremont School of Theology and Avery Professor of Religion at Claremont Graduate University.[5] He established the Process Studies journal with Lewis S. Ford [de] in 1971 and co-founded the Center for Process Studies with David Ray Griffin in 1973, making Claremont the center of Whiteheadian process thought.[23] Twenty-five years later, together with Herman Greene, he organized the International Process Network. This organization holds biennial conferences, the tenth of which will be taking place in Claremont in 2015.[24]

During his career, Cobb has also served as Visiting Professor at Harvard Divinity SchoolChicago Divinity SchoolVanderbilt Divinity SchoolIliff School of TheologyRikkyo University in Japan, and the University of Mainz in Germany.[5] He has received six honorary doctorates.[25]

Transdisciplinary work

Although Cobb is most often described as a theologian, the overarching tendency of his thought has been toward the integration of many different areas of knowledge, employing Alfred North Whitehead's transdisciplinary philosophical framework as his guiding insight.[26] As a result, Cobb has done work in a broad range of fields.

Philosophy of education

Cobb has consistently opposed the splitting of education and knowledge into discrete and insulated disciplines and departments.[27] He believes that the current university model encourages excessive abstraction because each specialized area of study defines its own frame of reference and then tends to ignore the others, discouraging interdisciplinary dialogue and inhibiting a broad understanding of the world.[27]

To combat these problems, Cobb argues that discrete "disciplines" in general—and theology in particular—need to re-emerge from their mutual academic isolation.[28] Theology should once again be tied to ethical questions and practical, everyday concerns, as well as a theoretical understanding of the world. In service to this vision, Cobb has consistently sought to integrate knowledge from biologyphysicseconomics, and other disciplines into his theological and philosophical work.[29]

Constructive postmodern philosophy

Cobb was convinced that Alfred North Whitehead was right in viewing both nature and human beings as more than just purposeless machines.[30] Rather than seeing nature as purely mechanical and human consciousness as a strange exception which must be explained away, Whiteheadian naturalism went in the opposite direction by arguing that subjective experience of the world should inform a view of the rest of nature as more than just mechanical. In short, nature should be seen as having a subjective and purposive aspect that deserves attention.[30]

Speaking to this need of moving beyond classically "modern" ideas, in the 1960s Cobb was the first to label Whiteheadian thought as "postmodern".[31] Later, when deconstructionists began to describe their thought as "postmodern", Whiteheadians changed their own label to "constructive postmodernism".[32]

Like its deconstructionist counterpart, constructive postmodernism arose partly in response to dissatisfaction with Cartesian mind–matter dualism, which viewed matter as an inert machine and the human mind as wholly different in nature.[32][33] While modern science has uncovered voluminous evidence against this idea, Cobb argues that dualistic assumptions continue to persist:

On the whole, dualism was accepted by the general culture. To this day it shapes the structure of the university, with its division between the sciences and the humanities. Most people, whether they articulate it or not, view the world given to them in sight and touch as material, while they consider themselves to transcend that purely material status.[32]

While deconstructionists have concluded that we must abandon any further attempts to create a comprehensive vision of the world, Cobb and other constructive postmodernists believe that metaphysics and comprehensive world-models are possible and still needed.[32][34] In particular, they have argued for a new Whiteheadian metaphysics based on events rather than substances.[32][35] In this formulation, it is incorrect to say that a person or thing ("substance") has a fundamental identity that remains constant, and that any changes to the person or thing are secondary to what it is.[36] Instead, each moment in a person's life ("event") is seen as a new actuality, thus asserting that continual change and transformation are fundamental, while static identities are far less important.[37] This view more easily reconciles itself with certain findings of modern science, such as evolution and wave–particle duality.[38]

Environmental ethics

Ecological themes have been pervasive in Cobb's work since 1969, when he turned his attention to the ecological crisis.[7] He became convinced that environmental issues constituted humanity's most pressing problem. Cobb writes:

During the seventies my sense of the theological vocation changed. I did not lose interest in developing the Christian tradition so as to render it intelligible, convincing, and illuminating in a changing context. But I did reject the compartmentalization of my discipline of 'constructive theology,' especially in its separation from ethics, and more generally in its isolation from other academic disciplines ... I was persuaded that no problem could be more critical than that of a decent survival of a humanity that threatened to destroy itself by exhausting and polluting its natural context.[7]

Cobb went on to write the first single-author book in environmental ethicsIs It Too Late? A Theology of Ecology, in 1971.[39] In the book, he argued for an ecological worldview that acknowledges the continuity between human beings and other living things, as well as their mutual dependence. He also proposed that Christianity specifically needed to appropriate knowledge from the biological sciences in order to undercut its anthropocentrism (human-centeredness) and devaluation of the non-human world.[40]

Critique of growth-oriented economics

Cobb's economic critiques arose as a natural extension of his interest in ecological issues. He recognized that he could not write about an ecological, sustainable, and just society without including discussion of economics.[41]

As part of his investigation into why economic policies so frequently worsened the ecological situation, in the 1980s Cobb decided to re-evaluate gross national product and gross domestic product as measures of economic progress.[42] Together with his son, Clifford Cobb, he developed an alternative model, the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare,[42] which sought to "consolidate economic, environmental, and social elements into a common framework to show net progress."[43] The name of the metric would later change to genuine progress indicator.[44] A recent (2013) article has shown that global GPI per capita peaked in 1978, meaning that the social and environmental costs of economic growth have outweighed the benefits since that time.[45]

Cobb also co-authored a book with Herman Daly in 1989 entitled For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy Toward Community, Environment, and a Sustainable Future, which outlined policy changes intended to create a society based on community and ecological balance. In 1992, For the Common Good earned Cobb and Daly the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order.[46]

In recent years, Cobb has described current growth-oriented economic systems as the "prime example of corruption" in American culture and religion: "Since the rise of modern economics, Christians have been forced to give up their criticism of greed, because the economists said 'greed is good, and if you really want to help people, be as greedy as possible.'"[47] Cobb sees such values as being in direct opposition with the message of Jesus, which in many places explicitly criticizes the accumulation of wealth. Because of Christianity's widespread acceptance of such economic values, Cobb sees Christians as far less confident in proclaiming the values of Jesus.[47]

Biology and religion

Along with Whitehead, Cobb has sought to reconcile science and religion in places where they appear to conflict, as well as to encourage religion to make use of scientific insights and vice versa.[48]

In the area of religion and biology, he co-wrote The Liberation of Life: From the Cell to the Community with Australian geneticist Charles Birch in 1981. The book critiqued the dominant biological model of mechanism, arguing that it leads to the study of organisms in abstraction from their environments.[49] Cobb and Birch argue instead for an "ecological model" which draws no sharp lines between the living and non-living, or between an organism and its environment.[50] The book also argues for an idea of evolution in which adaptive behavior can lead to genetic changes.[51] Cobb and Birch stress that a species "co-evolves with its environment" and that in this way intelligent purpose plays a role in evolution:

Evolution is not a process of ruthless competition directed to some goal of ever-increasing power or complexity. Such an attitude, by failing to be adaptive, is, in fact, not conducive to evolutionary success. A species co-evolves with its environment. Equally, there is no stable, harmonious nature to whose wisdom humanity should simply submit. Intelligent purpose plays a role in adaptive behaviour, and as environments change its role is increased.[52]

The Liberation of Life stresses that all life (not just human life) is purposeful and that it aims for the realization of richer experience.[53] Cobb and Birch develop the idea of "trusting life" as a religious impulse, rather than attempting to achieve a settled, perfected social structure that does not allow for change and evolution.[54]

Religious pluralism and interreligious dialogue

Cobb has participated in extensive interreligious and interfaith dialogue, most notably with Masao Abe, a Japanese Buddhist of the Kyoto School of philosophy.[55] Cobb's explicit aim was to gain ideas and insights from other religions with an eye toward augmenting and "universalizing" Christianity.[56] Cobb writes:

... it is the mission of Christianity to become a universal faith in the sense of taking into itself the alien truths that others have realized. This is no mere matter of addition. It is instead a matter of creative transformation. An untransformed Christianity, that is, a Christianity limited to its own parochial traditions, cannot fulfill its mission of realizing the universal meaning of Jesus Christ.[57]

In short, Cobb does not conceive of dialogue as useful primarily to convert or be converted, but rather as useful in order to transform both parties mutually, allowing for a broadening of ideas and a reimagining of each faith in order that they might better face the challenges of the modern world.[58][59]

Cobb has also been active in formulating his own theories of religious pluralism, partly in response to another Claremont Graduate University professor, John Hick.[60] Cobb's pluralism has sometimes been identified as a kind of "deep" pluralism or, alternately, as a "complementary" pluralism.[61] He believes that there are actually three distinct religious ultimates: (1) God, (2) Creativity/Emptiness/Nothingness/Being-itself, and (3) the cosmos/universe.[62] Cobb believes that all of these elements are necessary and present in some form in every religion but that different faiths tend to stress one ultimate over the others.[63] Viewed in this way, different religions may be seen to complement each other by providing insight into different religious ultimates.[64] Cobb's pluralism thus avoids the criticism of conflating religions that are actually very different (for instance, Buddhism and Christianity) while still affirming the possible truths of both.[64]

Revitalizing Christianity in a pluralistic world

David Ray Griffin, with whom Cobb co-founded the Center for Process Studies in 1973

Cobb believed that through at least the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century, American Protestant theology had been largely derivative from European (specifically German) theology.[65] In the late 1950s, Cobb and Claremont professor James Robinson decided that the time had come to end this one-sidedness and move to authentic dialogue between American and European theologians.[66] To establish real mutuality, they organized a series of conferences of leading theologians in Germany and the United States and published a series of volumes called "New Frontiers in Theology."[67]

After writing several books surveying contemporary forms of Protestantism, Cobb turned in the mid-1960s to more original work which sought to bring Alfred North Whitehead's ideas into the contemporary American Protestant scene.[68] Cobb aimed to reconstruct a Christian vision that was more compatible with modern knowledge and more ready to engage with today's pluralistic world.[61] He did this in a number of ways.

For one, Cobb has stressed the problems inherent in what he calls the "substantialist" worldview—ultimately derived from Classical Greek philosophy—that still dominates Christian theology, as well as most of western thought.[69] This "substantialist" way of thinking necessitates a mind–matter dualism, in which matter and mind are two fundamentally different kinds of entities. It also encourages seeing relations between entities as being unimportant to what the entity is "in itself".[70] In contrast to this view, Cobb follows Whitehead in attributing primacy to events and processes rather than substances.[69] In this Whiteheadian view, nothing is contained within its own sharp boundaries. In fact, the way in which a thing relates to other things is what makes it "what it is". Cobb writes:

If the substantialist view is abandoned, a quite different picture emerges. Each occasion of human experience is constituted not only by its incorporation of the cellular occasions of its body but also by its incorporation of aspects of other people. That is, people internally relate to one another. Hence, the character of one's being, moment by moment, is affected by the health and happiness of one's neighbors.[69]

For Cobb, this metaphysics of process is better-aligned with the Bible, which stresses history, community, and the importance of one's neighbors.[69]

Claremont School of Theology, 2013

Also, instead of turning further inward to preserve a cohesive Christian community, Cobb turned outward in order to discover truths that Christianity may not yet possess.[56] This is in direct opposition to those who feel that Christianity as a religious system is absolutely final, complete, and free of error. Cobb has not only turned to other religions (most notably Buddhism) in order to supplement Christian ideas and systems,[71] but also to other disciplines, including biology, physics, and economics.

In fact, Cobb has not shied away even from re-imaging what is now regarded as the "traditional" Christian notion of God. He does not believe that God is omnipotent in the sense of having unilateral control over all events, since Cobb sees reconciling total coercive power with love and goodness to be an impossible task.[69] Instead, all creatures are viewed as having some degree of freedom that God cannot override.[72] Cobb solves the problem of evil by denying God's omnipotence, stressing instead that God's power is persuasive rather than coercive, that God can influence creatures but not determine what they become or do.[73] For Cobb, God's role is to liberate and empower.[74]

Against traditional theism, Cobb has also denied the idea that God is immutable (unchanging) and impassible (unfeeling).[75] Instead, he stresses that God is affected and changed by the actions of creatures, both human and otherwise.[69] For Cobb, the idea that God experiences and changes does not mean that God is imperfect—quite the contrary. Instead, God is seen as experiencing with all beings, and hence understanding and empathizing with all beings, becoming "the fellow sufferer who understands."[76] Cobb argues that this idea of God is more compatible with the Bible, in which Jesus suffers and dies.

Additionally, Cobb's theology has argued against the idea of salvation as a singular, binary event in which one is either saved or not saved for all time. Rather than seeing one's time in the world as a test of one's morality in order to enter a heavenly realm, Cobb sees salvation as the continual striving to transform and perfect our experience in this world.[69] Cobb's idea of salvation focuses less on moral categories and more on aesthetic categories—such as a preference for intense experience over dull experience, or beauty rather than ugliness. Cobb writes:

If morality is bound up with contributing to others, the crucial question is: What is to be contributed? One contribution might be making them more moral, and that is fine. But finally, true morality cannot aim simply at the spread of morality. It must aim at the wellbeing of those it tries to help in some broader sense. For process thought that must be the perfection of their experience inclusively.[69]

Cobb admits that the idea of morality being subservient to aesthetics is "shocking to many Christians",[69] yet he argues that there must be more to life than simply being morally good or morally bad and that aesthetic categories fulfill this function specifically because they are defined as goods in themselves.

Within the last twenty years, Cobb has become increasingly distressed by the popular identification of Christianity with the religious right and the weak response of mainstream Protestants. To encourage a stronger response, he organized Progressive Christians Uniting with the Episcopal priest George Regas in 1996,[77] chaired its reflection committee, and edited a number of its books. As the perceived gap between the policies of the American government and Christian teaching grew wider, these books moved beyond simply reformist proposals. The last of these was entitled Resistance: The New Role of Progressive Christians.

Cobb's most recent book is entitled Spiritual Bankruptcy: A Prophetic Call to Action. It argues against both religiousness and secularism, claiming that what is needed is the secularization of the wisdom traditions.[78]

The influence of Cobb's thought in China

Process philosophy in the tradition of Alfred North Whitehead is often considered a primarily American philosophical movement, but it has spread globally and has been of particular interest to Chinese thinkers. As one of process philosophy's leading figures, Cobb has taken a leadership role in bringing process thought to the East, most specifically to help China develop a more ecological civilization—a goal which the current Chinese government has written into its constitution.[12][79]

With Zhihe Wang, Cobb founded the Institute for Postmodern Development of China (IPDC) in 2005, and currently serves on its board of directors.[80] Through the IPDC, Cobb helps to coordinate the work of twenty-three collaborative centers in China, as well as to organize annual conferences on ecological civilization.[11][12]

Institutions founded

Cobb has founded numerous non-profit organizations throughout his career.

In 1973, Cobb co-founded the Center for Process Studies with David Ray Griffin as a faculty research center of the Claremont School of Theology, and currently still serves as its Co-Director.[81] The Center for Process Studies is the leading institute on the process philosophy and process theology inspired by Alfred North WhiteheadCharles Hartshorne, and others.[citation needed]

In 1996, Cobb co-founded the Claremont Consultation with George Regas in an effort to organize and mobilize progressive Christian communities.[82] In 2003, the organization's name was changed to Progressive Christians Uniting. PCU today describes itself as "a social justice and faith organization dedicated to amplifying hope and actions individuals can take that lead to a more compassionate and just world."[citation needed]

In 2005, Cobb was the founding President of the Institute for the Postmodern Development of China.[80] The IPDC works to promote new modes of development in China and the West, drawing from both classical Chinese philosophy and constructive forms of Western thought in order to address practical problems associated with economic growth, social change, and globalization. Cobb continues to work on the IPDC's board of directors.[citation needed]

In 2013, Cobb was a founding board member of Process Century Press, an academic press dedicated to transdisciplinary applications of process thought. He remains on PCP's advisory board.[83]

In 2014, Cobb was the founding chairperson of the board for Pando Populus, an LA-based non-profit organization that seeks to enact a more ecologically balanced way of life in the LA area. Cobb remains on Pando Populus' board of directors.[84]

In 2015, Cobb was a founding board member of the Institute for Ecological Civilization (EcoCiv), a non-profit organization which seeks to enact "a fully sustainable human society in harmony with surrounding ecosystems and communities of life." Cobb remains on EcoCiv's board of directors.[85]

In 2019, Cobb led the formation and was a founding board member of the Claremont Institute for Process Studies, a non-profit organization that aims to "promote a process-relational worldview to advance wisdom, harmony, and the common good" by engaging "in local initiatives and cultivates compassionate communities to bring about an ecological civilization." One year later, the organization was renamed the Cobb Institute to honor his life, leadership, and influence, and to better align its work and mission with its name. Cobb continues to be an active board member and guiding influence.[86]

Bibliography

Books written

  • Varieties of Protestantism, 1960
  • Living Options in Protestant Theology, 1962 (online edition)
  • A Christian Natural Theology, 1965 (online edition)
  • The Structure of Christian Existence, 1967 (online edition)
  • God and the World, 1969
  • Is It Too Late? A Theology of Ecology, 1971 (revised edition, 1995)
  • Liberal Christianity at the Crossroads, 1973 (online edition)
  • Christ in a Pluralistic Age, 1975
  • with David Ray GriffinProcess Theology: An Introductory Exposition, 1976, ISBN 0-664-24743-1
  • Theology and Pastoral Care, 1977
  • with Charles BirchThe Liberation of Life: from the Cell to the Community, 1981
  • Process Theology as Political Theology, 1982 (online edition)
  • Beyond Dialogue: Toward a Mutual Transformation of Christianity and Buddhism, 1982
  • with David TracyTalking About God, 1983 (online edition)
  • Praying for Jennifer, 1985
  • with Joseph HoughChristian Identity and Theological Education, 1985
  • with Beardslee, Lull, Pregeant, Weeden, and Woodbridge, Biblical Preaching on the Death of Jesus, 1989
  • with Herman DalyFor the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy Toward Community, Environment, and a Sustainable Future, 1989 (revised edition, 1994) which won the 1992 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order.[87]
  • Doubting Thomas, 1990, ISBN 0-8245-1033-X (online edition)
  • with Leonard SwidlerPaul 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, ISBN 0-8272-2122-3
  • Sustaining the Common Good, 1994, ISBN 0-8298-1010-2
  • Grace and Responsibility, 1995
  • Reclaiming the Church, 1997, ISBN 0-664-25720-8
  • The Earthist Challenge to Economism: A Theological Critique of the World Bank, 1999, ISBN 0-312-21838-9
  • Transforming Christianity and the World: A Way Beyond Absolutism and Relativism, 1999, ISBN 1-57075-271-0
  • Postmodernism and Public Policy: Reframing Religion, Culture, Education, Sexuality, Class, Race, Politics, and the Economy, 2002, ISBN 0-7914-5166-6
  • The Process Perspective: Frequently Asked Questions About Process Theology (edited by Jeanyne B. Slettom), 2003, ISBN 0-8272-2999-2
  • Romans (with David J. Lull), 2005
  • with Bruce Epperly and Paul Nancarrow, The Call of the Spirit: Process Spirituality in a Relational World, 2005
  • A Christian Natural Theology, Second Edition, 2007
  • Whitehead Word Book: A Glossary with Alphabetical Index to Technical Terms in Process and Reality, 2008 ISBN 978-0-9742459-6-6
  • Spiritual Bankruptcy: A Prophetic Call to Action, 2010
  • The Process Perspective II (edited by Jeanyne B. Slettom), 2011
  • Theological Reminiscences, 2014
  • Jesus' Abba – The God Who Has Not Failed, 2015
  • China and Ecological Civilization: John B. Cobb, Jr. in conversation with Andre Vltchek, 2019, ISBN 978-6025095450

Books edited

  • with James RobinsonThe Later Heidegger and Theology, 1963
  • with James RobinsonThe New Hermeneutic, 1964
  • with James RobinsonTheology as History, 1967
  • The Theology of Altizer: Critique and Response, 1971
  • with David Ray GriffinMind in Nature, 1977 (online edition)
  • with Widick Schroeder, Process Philosophy and Social Thought, 1981
  • with Franklin GamwellExistence and Actuality: Conversations with Charles Hartshorne, 1984 (online edition)
  • Christian Faith and Religious Diversity: Mobilization for the Human Family, 2002, ISBN 0-8006-3483-7
  • with Christopher Ives, The Emptying God: A Buddhist-Jewish-Christian Conversation, Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2005, ISBN 1-59752-421-2
  • with Kevin Barrett and Sandra Lubarsky, 9/11 & American Empire: Christians, Jews, and Muslims Speak Out, 2006, ISBN 1-56656-660-6
  • Resistance: The New Role of Progressive Christians. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-664-23287-0
  • Back to Darwin, 2008
  • Dialogue Comes of Age, 2010
  • Religions in the Making: Whitehead and the Wisdom Traditions of the World, 2012
  • with Ignacio Castuera, For Our Common Home: Process-Relational Responses to Laudato Si', 2015
  • with Wm. Andrew Schwartz, Putting Philosophy to Work: Toward an Ecological Civilization, 2018

Articles

For a list of Cobb's published articles through 2010, see the list at The Center for Process Studies.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Jean Cobb: Loving Wife and Mother, Librarian"Claremont Courier. 4 February 2016. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
  2. ^ Cobb, John B. (1952). The Independence of Christian Faith from Speculative Beliefs (PhD thesis). Chicago: University of Chicago. OCLC 80987653.
  3. ^ "Dissertations Completed"Religious Studies Review18 (2): 170–176. 1992. doi:10.1111/j.1748-0922.1992.tb00087.x.
  4. ^ Roland Faber, God as Poet of the World: Exploring Process Theologies (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 35; C. Robert Mesle, Process Theology (St. Louis: Chalice Press, 1993), 126; Gary Dorrien, "The Lure and Necessity of Process Theology," CrossCurrents 58 (2008): 316; Monica A. Coleman, Nancy R. Howell, and Helene Tallon Russell, Creating Women's Theology: A Movement Engaging Process Thought (Wipf and Stock, 2011), 13.
  5. Jump up to:a b c Process and Faith, "John B. Cobb Jr." http://processandfaith.org/misc/john-b-cobb-jr
  6. ^ "American Academy of Arts and Sciences". Retrieved 24 June 2014.
  7. Jump up to:a b c John B. Cobb, "Intellectual Autobiography", Religious Studies Review 19 (1993): 10.
  8. ^ Alfred North Whitehead, Religion in the Making (New York: Fordham University Press, 1996), 60.
  9. ^ The Center for Environmental Philosophy, "History of Environmental Ethics for the Novice," http://www.cep.unt.edu/novice.html
  10. ^ The Center for Process Studies, "About the Center for Process Studies," "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 11 January 2010. Retrieved 14 December 2009.
  11. Jump up to:a b Institute for the Postmodern Development of China, "Collaborative Centers," "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 19 December 2013. Retrieved 19 December 2013.
  12. Jump up to:a b c "China embraces Alfred North Whitehead," last modified 10 December 2008, Douglas Todd, The Vancouver Sun, retrieved 5 December 2013, http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2008/12/10/china-embraces-alfred-north-whitehead/.
  13. Jump up to:a b c David Ray Griffin, "John B. Cobb Jr.: A Theological Biography," in Theology and the University: Essays in Honor of John B. Cobb Jr., ed. David Ray Griffin and Joseph C. Hough Jr. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991), 225.
  14. ^ John B. Cobb, Theological Reminiscences (unpublished manuscript), 5-9.
  15. ^ John B. Cobb, Theological Reminiscences (unpublished manuscript), 7.
  16. ^ John B. Cobb, Theological Reminiscences (unpublished manuscript), 9.
  17. ^ David Ray Griffin, "John B. Cobb Jr.: A Theological Biography", in Theology and the University: Essays in Honor of John B. Cobb Jr., ed. David Ray Griffin and Joseph C. Hough Jr. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991), 225-226.
  18. ^ David Ray Griffin, "John B. Cobb Jr.: A Theological Biography," in Theology and the University: Essays in Honor of John B. Cobb Jr., ed. David Ray Griffin and Joseph C. Hough Jr. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991), 226.
  19. Jump up to:a b David Ray Griffin, "John B. Cobb Jr.: A Theological Biography," in Theology and the University: Essays in Honor of John B. Cobb Jr., ed. David Ray Griffin and Joseph C. Hough Jr. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991), 227.
  20. Jump up to:a b David Ray Griffin, "John B. Cobb Jr.: A Theological Biography," in Theology and the University: Essays in Honor of John B. Cobb Jr., ed. David Ray Griffin and Joseph C. Hough Jr. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991), 228.
  21. ^ Sherburne, Don (2008). "Cobb, John B., Jr.". In Lachs, JohnTalisse, Robert (eds.). American Philosophy: An Encyclopedia. New York: Routledge. p. 109. ISBN 978-1-135-94887-0.
  22. ^ "John B. Cobb Jr". The Interfaith Observer. Archived from the original on 30 December 2013. Retrieved 28 December 2013.
  23. Jump up to:a b David Ray Griffin, "John B. Cobb Jr.: A Theological Biography", in Theology and the University: Essays in Honor of John B. Cobb Jr., ed. David Ray Griffin and Joseph C. Hough Jr. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991), 229.
  24. ^ Worldwide Process, "'Seizing An Alternative' by John Cobb", http://www.worldwideprocess.org/seizing-an-alternative-by-john-cobb.html[permanent dead link]
  25. ^ The Center for Process Studies, "John B. Cobb's CV," http://www.ctr4process.org/about/CoDirectors/cobb_cv.pdf, Claremont School of Theology, "CST to Award Cobb Honorary Doctorate at Commencement," http://www.cst.edu/news/2013/02/15/cst-to-award-cobb-honorary-doctorate-at-commenceme/[permanent dead link]
  26. ^ Gary Dorrien, "The Lure and Necessity of Process Theology," CrossCurrents 58 (2008): 333.
  27. Jump up to:a b Delwin Brown, "The Location of the Theologian: John Cobb's Career as Critique," Religious Studies Review 19 (1993): 12.
  28. ^ Delwin Brown, "The Location of the Theologian: John Cobb's Career as Critique," Religious Studies Review 19 (1993): 13.
  29. ^ Butkus, Russell A. and Steven A. Kolmes (2011). Environmental Science and Theology in Dialogue. Maryknoll NY: Orbis Books. pp. 19–21. ISBN 978-1-57075-912-3.
  30. Jump up to:a b Charles Birch and John B. Cobb Jr., The Liberation of Life (Denton: Environmental Ethics Books, 1990), 5-6.
  31. ^ David Ray Griffin, Whitehead's Radically Different Postmodern Philosophy: An Argument for Its Contemporary Relevance (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007), 4.
  32. Jump up to:a b c d e John B. Cobb Jr. "Constructive Postmodernism", Religion Online"Archived copy". Archived from the original on 8 August 2013. Retrieved 11 August 2013.
  33. ^ David Ray Griffin, Whitehead's Radically Different Postmodern Philosophy: An Argument for Its Contemporary Relevance (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007), 11. Cf. Michel Weber and Anderson Weekes (eds.), Process Approaches to Consciousness in Psychology, Neuroscience, and Philosophy of Mind (Whitehead Psychology Nexus Studies II), Albany, New York, State University of New York Press, 2009.
  34. ^ David Ray Griffin, Whitehead's Radically Different Postmodern Philosophy: An Argument for Its Contemporary Relevance (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007), 5-7.
  35. ^ David Ray Griffin, Whitehead's Radically Different Postmodern Philosophy: An Argument for Its Contemporary Relevance (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007), 60.
  36. ^ Charles Birch and John B. Cobb Jr., The Liberation of Life (Denton: Environmental Ethics Books, 1990), 95.
  37. ^ Hodgson, Peter Crafts (1994). Winds of the Spirit: A Constructive Christian Theology. Louisville KY: Westminster John Knox Press. p. 93. ISBN 0664254438.
  38. ^ Charles Birch and John B. Cobb Jr., The Liberation of Life (Denton: Environmental Ethics Books, 1990), 65; also John B. Cobb Jr. "Constructive Postmodernism," Religion Online"Archived copy". Archived from the original on 8 August 2013. Retrieved 11 August 2013..
  39. ^ The Center for Environmental Philosophy, "Environmental Ethics Books," http://www.cep.unt.edu/eebooks.html
  40. ^ Min, Anselm Kyongsuk (1989). Dialectic of Salvation: Issues in Theology of Liberation. Albany NY: SUNY Press. p. 84. ISBN 0887069096.
  41. ^ John B. Cobb Jr., "Intellectual Autobiography," Religious Studies Review 19 (1993): 10.
  42. Jump up to:a b Herman E. Daly and John B. Cobb Jr., For The Common Good: Redirecting the Economy toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future (Beacon Press, 1994).
  43. ^ Ida Kubiszewski et al, "Beyond GDP: Measuring and achieving global genuine progress," Ecological Economics 93 (2013), 57.
  44. ^ Stephen M. Posner and Robert Costanza, "A summary of ISEW and GPI studies at multiple scales and new estimates for Baltimore City, Baltimore County, and the State of Maryland," Ecological Economics (2011), 2, http://www.green.maryland.gov/mdgpi/pdfs/MD-PosnerCostanza%202011%20GPI.pdf
  45. ^ Ida Kubiszewski et al, "Beyond GDP: Measuring and achieving global genuine progress," Ecological Economics 93 (2013), 67.
  46. ^ University of Louisville, "1992 – Samuel Huntington, Herman Daly and John Cobb," "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2 December 2013. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
  47. Jump up to:a b The Institute on Religion and Democracy, "12-06-18 Process Theologian John Cobb Urges 'Secularizing Christianity,'" http://juicyecumenism.com/2012/06/18/process-theologian-john-cobb-urges-secularizing-christianity/
  48. ^ Jay McDanielOf God and Pelicans: A Theology of Reverence for Life (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1989), 139.
  49. ^ Charles Birch and John B. Cobb Jr., The Liberation of Life: From the Cell to the Community (Denton: Environmental Ethics Books, 1990), 94. For a further description of Cobb's conception of all entities as possessing subjectivity and the constitutive relatedness of all entities, see also Charles Birch, "Process Thought: Its Value and Meaning to Me," Process Studies 19 (1990): 222-223, available online at http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=2801 Archived 24 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine.
  50. ^ Charles Birch and John B. Cobb Jr., The Liberation of Life: From the Cell to the Community (Denton: Environmental Ethics Books, 1990), 94-96.
  51. ^ Charles Birch and John B. Cobb Jr., The Liberation of Life: From the Cell to the Community (Denton: Environmental Ethics Books, 1990), 58. See also Charles BirchA Purpose For Everything (Mystic: Twenty-third Publications, 1990), Chapter 2, available online at http://www.religion-online.org/showbook.asp?title=2283 Archived 24 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine.
  52. ^ Charles Birch and John B. Cobb Jr., The Liberation of Life: From the Cell to the Community (Denton: Environmental Ethics Books, 1990), 65.
  53. ^ Charles Birch and John B. Cobb Jr., The Liberation of Life: From the Cell to the Community (Denton: Environmental Ethics Books, 1990), 197. See also Charles BirchA Purpose For Everything (Mystic: Twenty-third Publications, 1990), Introduction, available online at http://www.religion-online.org/showbook.asp?title=2283 Archived 24 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine.
  54. ^ Charles Birch and John B. Cobb Jr., The Liberation of Life: From the Cell to the Community (Denton: Environmental Ethics Books, 1990), 188.
  55. ^ Jay McDanielOf God and Pelicans: A Theology of Reverence for Life (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1989), 93–94.
  56. Jump up to:a b Linell E. Cady, "Extending the Boundaries of Theology," Religious Studies Review 19 (1993): 16.
  57. ^ John B. Cobb Jr., Beyond Dialogue: Toward a Mutual Transformation of Christianity and Buddhism (Eugene: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1982), 142.
  58. ^ John B. Cobb Jr., Beyond Dialogue: Toward a Mutual Transformation of Christianity and Buddhism (Eugene: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1982), 48.
  59. ^ Jay McDanielOf God and Pelicans: A Theology of Reverence for Life (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1989), 127.
  60. ^ David Ray Griffin, "Religious Pluralism: Generic, Identist, Deep," in Deep Religious Pluralism, ed. David Ray Griffin (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005), 28.
  61. Jump up to:a b David Ray Griffin, "John Cobb's Whiteheadian Complementary Pluralism," in Deep Religious Pluralism, ed. David Ray Griffin (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005), 39-40.
  62. ^ David Ray Griffin, "John Cobb's Whiteheadian Complementary Pluralism," in Deep Religious Pluralism, ed. David Ray Griffin (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005), 47-49.
  63. ^ David Ray Griffin, "John Cobb's Whiteheadian Complementary Pluralism," in Deep Religious Pluralism, ed. David Ray Griffin (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005), 47-50.
  64. Jump up to:a b David Ray Griffin, "John Cobb's Whiteheadian Complementary Pluralism," in Deep Religious Pluralism, ed. David Ray Griffin (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005), 48.
  65. ^ John B. Cobb, Theological Reminiscences (unpublished manuscript), 52.
  66. ^ John B. Cobb, Theological Reminiscences (unpublished manuscript), 62.
  67. ^ The Later Heidegger and Theology (1963), The New Hermeneutic (1964), and Theology as History (1967).
  68. ^ David Ray Griffin, "John B. Cobb Jr.: A Theological Biography," in Theology and the University: Essays in Honor of John B. Cobb Jr., ed. David Ray Griffin and Joseph C. Hough Jr. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991), 230-231.
  69. Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i Process and Faith, "Process Theology", "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2 September 2012. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
  70. ^ Farmer, Ronald L. (1997). Beyond the Impasse: The Promise of a Process Hermeneutic. Macon GA: Mercer University Press. pp. 66–67. ISBN 0-86554-558-8.
  71. ^ Lønning, Per (2002). Is Christ a Christian?: On Inter-religious Dialogue and Intra-religious Horizon. Gøttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. pp. 173–176. ISBN 3-525-56225-X.
  72. ^ Jay McDanielOf God and Pelicans: A Theology of Reverence for Life (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1989), 41.
  73. ^ John B. Cobb Jr., God and the World (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1969), 90.
  74. ^ John B. Cobb Jr., Talking About God: Doing Theology in the Context of Modern Pluralism (New York: Seabury Press, 1983), 84. Available online at "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 26 November 2005. Retrieved 25 January 2006..
  75. ^ Huffman, Douglas S. and Eric L. Johnson (2009). God Under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents God. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan. p. 235n. ISBN 978-0310232698.
  76. ^ Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality (New York: The Free Press, 1978), 351.
  77. ^ Progressive Christians Uniting, "about," http://www.progressivechristiansuniting.org/PCU/about.html
  78. ^ Van Meter, Eric. "Spiritual Bankruptcy: A Call to Prophetic Action by John B. Cobb Jr"Circuit Rider i. United Methodist Publishing House. Retrieved 23 December 2013.
  79. ^ China Daily, "Ecological civilization is meaningful to China," last edited 19 November 2012, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2012-11/19/content_15942603.htm
  80. Jump up to:a b Institute for the Postmodern Development of China, "Our Team," http://postmodernchina.org/about-us/our-team/
  81. ^ Center for Process Studies, "Faculty and Staff," https://ctr4process.org/faculty/
  82. ^ Progressive Christians Uniting, "Our Story," https://www.progressivechristiansuniting.org/history
  83. ^ Process Century Press, "About," http://processcenturypress.com/about/
  84. ^ Pando Populus, "Team," https://pandopopulus.com/about/pando-populus-team/
  85. ^ Institute for Ecological Civilization, "Board of Directors," https://ecociv.org/about/board-of-directors/
  86. ^ Cobb Institute, "About the Cobb Institute," https://cobb.institute/about/
  87. ^ "1992- Samuel Huntington, Herman Daly and John Cobb". Archived from the original on 2 December 2013.

External links



Bill Gates - 2021 Glasgow COP26 Review





Three major shifts in the climate conversation
Nov 8, 2021


In Glasgow, I saw three big shifts
in the climate conversation



A lot has changed in the past six years.


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.






Bill Gates - 5 books I loved reading this year




5 books I loved reading this year

by Bill Gates
November 22, 2021

Lately, I’ve found myself drawn to the kinds
of books I would’ve liked as a kid.


When I was a kid, I was obsessed with science fiction. Paul Allen and I would spend countless hours discussing Isaac Asimov’s original Foundation trilogy. I read every book by Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert Heinlein. (The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress was a particular favorite.) There was something so thrilling to me about these stories that pushed the limits of what was possible.

As I got older, I started reading a lot more non-fiction. I was still interested in books that explored the implications of innovation, but it felt more important to learn something about our real world along the way. Lately, though, I’ve found myself drawn back to the kinds of books I would’ve loved as a kid.

My holiday reading list this year includes two terrific science fiction stories. One takes place nearly 12 light-years away from our sun, and the other is set right here in the United States—but both made me think about how people can use technology to respond to challenges. I’ve also included a pair of non-fiction books about cutting-edge science and a novel that made me look at one of history’s most famous figures in a new light.

I read a lot of great books this year—including John Doerr’s latest about climate change—but these were some of my favorites.

  • A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence, by Jeff Hawkins. Few subjects have captured the imaginations of science fiction writers like artificial intelligence. If you’re interested in learning more about what it might take to create a true AI, this book offers a fascinating theory. Hawkins may be best known as the co-inventor of the PalmPilot, but he’s spent decades thinking about the connections between neuroscience and machine learning, and there’s no better introduction to his thinking than this book.
  • The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race, by Walter Isaacson. The CRISPR gene editing system is one of the coolest and perhaps most consequential scientific breakthroughs of the last decade. I’m familiar with it because of my work at the foundation—we’re funding a number of projects that use the technology—but I still learned a lot from this comprehensive and accessible book about its discovery by Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues. Isaacson does a good job highlighting the most important ethical questions around gene editing.
  • Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro. I love a good robot story, and Ishiguro’s novel about an “artificial friend” to a sick young girl is no exception. Although it takes place in a dystopian future, the robots aren’t a force for evil. Instead, they serve as companions to keep people company. This book made me think about what life with super intelligent robots might look like—and whether we’ll treat these kinds of machines as pieces of technology or as something more.
  • Hamnet, by Maggie O’Farrell. If you’re a Shakespeare fan, you’ll love this moving novel about how his personal life might’ve influenced the writing of one of his most famous plays. O’Farrell has built her story on two facts we know to be true about “The Bard”: his son Hamnet died at the age of 11, and a couple years later, Shakespeare wrote a tragedy called Hamlet. I especially enjoyed reading about his wife, Anne, who is imagined here as an almost supernatural figure.
  • Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir. Like most people, I was first introduced to Weir’s writing through The Martian. His latest novel is a wild tale about a high school science teacher who wakes up in a different star system with no memory of how he got there. The rest of the story is all about how he uses science and engineering to save the day. It’s a fun read, and I finished the whole thing in one weekend.


5 books I loved reading this year
Nov 22, 2021