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

Thursday, November 11, 2021

John Cobb - Is Process Theology Postmodern?

 



Is Process Theology Postmodern?

John B. Cobb, Jr.
June 2010

"Could Whitehead Have Been Considered a Postmodern Thinker?"

(Subtitles and commentary edits are mine. - re slater)


Is process theology postmodern?

As with all such questions, a great deal depends on what one understands by the key terms. If “modern” refers to what has been called theological “modernism,” there would be little point in calling process theology “postmodern.” One form of theological “modernism” was specifically Catholic, and process theology arose in a quite different context. There was also a movement of “modernism” in Protestant circles in the United States centered at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. The leaders of that modernism were especially interested in new developments in science early in the twentieth century, and found Whitehead especially important. The study of Whitehead’s thought in Chicago led to the development there of what Bernard Loomer later named “process theology.” To call it postmodern in relation to that form of “modern” theology would be misleading.

The meaning of “postmodern” in the general culture has hardly been touched by these “modernist” movements in theology, and it is in relation to this wider use that the question now arises. Although “process theology” can be used much more broadly, I will deal only with the form mentioned above, the one in which Whitehead’s influence plays an important role. Whether this should be called “postmodern” is at once the question whether Whitehead should be considered a postmodern thinker.

Even setting the specific theological modernism aside, the term “modern” has quite diverse meanings in different contexts. The meaning of “modern” is somewhat different in the phrases “modern art,” a movement centering in France in the late nineteenth century and “modern architecture,” a movement centering in Germany in the twentieth century. Postmodern art and postmodern architecture are fairly well-defined ideas, but there is little point in locating Whitehead in relation to these developments. “Modern” has a still different meaning when Western history is periodized into ancient, medieval, and modern periods. Historians often trace the roots of the modern period to the Italian Renaissance in the fourteenth century. Thus far any idea that we are in a postmodern period of history is quite marginal among historians, although future scholars may see deep historical changes now occurring that are giving rise to a new era deserving of that label. For the present we will expect to consider ourselves, and certainly Whitehead, as living in the modern period of history.

Modernism in Transition

Nevertheless, Whitehead wrote a book entitled “Science and the Modern World,” in which the modern world is presented as ending. Although he does not use the term “postmodern,” he is clearly thinking of the “modern” as a mode of thought whose limitations have become apparent and that is being superseded. It is this depiction that suggested the term “postmodern” to me and others long before we knew of any use of the term by French philosophers.

Whitehead shows that although the social, political, economic, and military characteristics of the modern world may continue to develop, modern science and modern philosophy are ending, and he is calling for a new beginning. Whitehead intends to be contributing to this new beginning.

Philosophical eras change abruptly; Commercial eras are gradual

In most areas, the beginning of the modern is hard to identify with any precision. The transition from the Medieval to the modern is gradual. This is true even with science. But in the case of philosophy the transition is quite abrupt. Whereas it is hard to say who is the first modern scientist, there is widespread agreement that “modern” philosophy began with Descartes in the middle of the seventeenth century. His philosophy was influenced by new scientific sensibilities and also contributed to giving definite form to the assumptions with which modern science became identified. The enormous success of the resulting science gave it among modern thinkers the highest prestige. Although philosophy went through drastic permutations, the understanding of nature associated with the natural sciences became a central part of the worldview of the modern world.

Whitehead's Ideas Needed a Quantum World, Not a Classical World

For Whitehead, the fact that this worldview could not encompass the new frontiers of science itself – relativity and quantum theory—called for deep changes in the understanding of nature, changes that would bring an end the dominance of the “modern” worldview. It is quite natural to say that Whitehead is calling for, and proposing a “postmodern world view,” and this is what we mean when we call Whitehead a postmodern thinker. To call process theology postmodern is to say that it is influenced by, and contributes to, the construction of a postmodern world view.

Those of us who follow Whitehead are disappointed that the changes for which he called are taking place so slowly. For example, only a few scientists have abandoned the modern view of nature.

(e.g., nature as a machine, orderly and mechanistic, reductionist. This is the classical world of modernistic science during and after the time of the Enlightenment. The newer sciences must now acknowledge and deal with chaos theory, randomness, disorder, and the dilation of spacetime, among other categories. - re slater)

Most continue to approach physical, chemical, and biological phenomena with categories that ignore what we have learned from relativity and quantum theory. Indeed, even in these new fields of inquiry, most scientists work with modern categories even when they acknowledge that they cannot formulate consistent theories in these terms. Most scientists have found it easier to give up the claim that science describes the real world than to adjust their thinking to the new evidence as Whitehead proposed. Of course, this abandonment of realism is itself a drastic change from the modern worldview, but it leaves most of the dominant formulations developed during the modern period intact and in control of Western thought.

(That is, rather than to acknowledge Whitehead's process theory and move into it's spaces, modern science is easing towards it in it's own way and may, quite naturally, stumble into it as a matter of course. Which perhaps, though not elegant, is at least preferable to self discover over singular assumption as all of science should at all times be testing itself to its fallacies and directions. - re slater).

For this reason, the need for systematic and detailed “deconstruction” of the modern remains, and Whiteheadians can rejoice in the successes of the French school of postmodernism. Real cooperation is finally emerging between these two schools. The French are far more successful in destabilizing modern habits of thought, whereas Whitehead points to a new vision that can replace what is overthrown. Much still needs to be done before there is full mutual support. And such support, of course, does not imply the end of important differences.

Vive la Différance!

These differences show up, among other places, in theology. Although Whitehead is very clear about the provisional and hypothetical character of all his cosmology - and especially when he speaks of God, he has opened the door to quite direct statements about God and how God works in the world. Charles Hartshorne gave even fuller description of these matters with less qualification as to the status of what he said.

On the other hand, modernity in its later phases drastically questioned the capacity of human thought to understand reality in general and anything that transcended nature in particular. God was often flatly denied, and those who were not ready to give up the idea of God altogether typically emphasized the limitations and indirectness of all speech about God. These features of late modernity have been continued in deconstructive postmodernism. The deconstruction has been of the certainties and literal claims of early modernism rather than of the emphasis in late modernity on the constructive and often distorting work of the human mind in producing such ideas. Even if the value of some of Whitehead’s reconstructive proposals are accepted, this is in the context of emphasis on their hypothetical and perspectival character.

Process Thought Frees Earlier Expressions of Faith

There are practical issues at stake. For theologians, one important question is about what the church needs. We process theologians see the church as in need of a way of thinking about God that can make sense of Christian faith and practice without coming into conflict with actual experience or the best thinking in the sciences. We think that process theology goes a long way toward meeting this need:

(i) One part of its strength is its acknowledgment of limitations and corrigibility.

(ii) Another is that it shows that there are other valid forms of spirituality that are not oriented to God. 

(iii) But it hopes to give people of theistic faith confidence that their Way is valid and eminently worthy of being pursued.

(iv) It sees process philosophy as liberating thought to explore issues of faith without the harsh constraints of either medieval or modern metaphysics.

We know that our theology, like all theologies, is an expression of our faith and not of reason alone. However plausible we consider the ideas we promote [as process theologians] we do not regard them as logically coercive of those whose life experience and orientation [which] are profoundly different from ours.

Deconstructive Postmodernists v Process Thought

To many deconstructive postmodernists, on the other hand, the confident and straightforward affirmations about God by process theologians are a sign that process theology has not freed itself from a deep stratum of early modernity. In their view our concern for the church is already an indication of our failure to participate in postmodernity. Although some features of Whitehead’s thought may be appreciated and even appropriated, process theology is not likely to be a part of this.

Process theologians regret that their work constitutes an obstacle to closer relations with deconstructive postmodernists just as it has been a problem for philosophers who would like to have Whitehead taken more seriously in American university philosophy departments. But this practical problem cannot outweigh our commitment to our faith and to our communities.

*Note: Lately, this space of criticizing the church in both a helpful deconstructive, as well as constructive, manner as risen more rapidly during the tenure of Trumpian Christianity these past several years. However, the Emergent Church of the 1990s was already disparaging evangelical Christianity's many unhelpful ways of church polity, ministry, doctrine, teaching, and evangelism within the various faith-rubrics strictly held by the more modernistic attitudes displayed within the modernistic church towards humanity, social culture, violence, aggression, capitalism, and social politick. And as process thought has begun to permeate the progressive Christian movement more lately these past few years as the successor to the emergent church movement of the 90s, the work of process-based deconstruction is also occurring in a more fundamentally helpful way across the societal aspect of progressive Christianity's activism into social justice, even as process thought is also challenging the very sanctuaries of evangelical theology itself. Thus, as evangelical protestantism splits between social and spiritual faith issues, so too is process theology is responding to each in its own way centered in the person and work of Jesus and the love of God.  - re slater

Jesus Calls to both World and Church

I would add that our theistic faith, clarified by Whitehead’s thought, points us even more to the needs of the world than to the needs of the church. We feel called to bring Whitehead’s conceptuality to bear on crucial public issues of our time, especially those that respond to the greatest dangers humanity now faces. To have any chance of making a difference, we must put forward with some confidence proposals based on our understanding of reality. We know that we know nothing for sure. But for us it is important not to allow our awareness of the hypothetical nature of our beliefs to prevent us from acting with conviction for what seems to us essential to the salvation of the world. In this [socio-spiritual] process, openness to correction and improvement, are of utmost importance, just as with respect to church teaching. But this openness cannot be allowed to undermine the confidence without which we cannot act effectively.

It is our hope that the correct emphasis of both late modernism and deconstructive postmodernism on human fallibility and the limitations of all our knowledge will not discourage vigorous proposals about how best to respond to the great crises we face. We hope that more postmodernists who are not theists will find in their beliefs reasons to work together with us [as process philosophers and theologians] on matters that are far more important than our differences.

- John Cobb

Addendum: R.E. Slater, 11.11.2021 
My opinion would place the rise of postmodernism somewhere after the 1950s, and specifically after the Vietnam War of the 1960s and early 70s, which had torn apart most of the major institutions of American Society. That, coupled with the rightful protest of Blacks of the 50s and 60s, and America's acquiescence from rural, agricultural communities towards a more fundamental metropolitan basis signify by the creation of the federal highway system. From the 70s to today, we've witnessed fundamental breakdowns in modernist society questioning our identity and purpose as a society and nation. To that end I would consider Whitehead's postmodernist thought to be easily transitional into the postmodern spaces of late and fundamentally translatable into all future era-specific spaces which contemplate how the whole and the part interjoin and interwork together with one another. Process Thought then is not an era-specific qualifier as it is an integral description of our cosmology and metaphysics as a philosophic theology looking heavensward and inwards both at the same time. - re slater 


Tuesday, November 9, 2021

Index - Process Theologian John Cobb



Index to Process Theologian John Cobb


In honor of John B. Cobb, Jr. on his 95th birthday
February 11, 2020







Lectures, Forums, Panels, and Podcasts
by John Cobb





Essays by John Cobb




Thoughts & Writings of John Cobb, Jr.
(listed by most recent date)


Meet Process Theologian John Cobb, Jr.




Alfred North Whitehead

Alfred North Whitehead's Process & Reality








Robert Mesle's Introduction to Alfred North Whitehead

Course Outline: Whitehead's Process and Reality, by Jay McDaniel

Celebrating the Life & Legacy of Process Theologian John B. Cobb, Jr.










John Cobb Teaches Process & Reality
by Alfred North Whitehead


John Cobb - Introduction to Whitehead's Process & Reality <-- Recommended

Alfred North Whitehead's "Process & Reality" - Content Chapters

Alfred North Whitehead "Process and Reality," Corrected Edition, Complete Book Outline

John Cobb - Whitehead's Process & Reality, Part I

Whitehead - What Does He mean by "Feelings" (sic, Positive & Negative Prehensions)

Notes on Whitehead's Vacuous Actuality

Notes - Whitehead's Process Philosophy

A.N. Whitehead - A Conspectus of Whitehead's Metaphysics

John Cobb - Whitehead's Process & Reality, Part II

John Cobb - Whitehead's Process & Reality, Part II - Class Discussions

John Cobb - Whitehead's Process & Reality, Part III

John Cobb - Whitehead's Process & Reality, Part III - Class Discussions

John Cobb - Whitehead's Process & Reality, IV Lecture 
<-- unfinished

John Cobb - Whitehead's Process & Reality, IV - Class Discussions   <-- unfinished

John Cobb - Whitehead's Process & Reality, V Lecture   <-- unfinished

John Cobb - Whitehead's Process & Reality, V - Class Discussions   <-- unfinished

John Cobb - Whitehead's Process & Reality, VI Lecture   <-- unfinished

John Cobb - Whitehead's Process & Reality, VI - Class Discussions  
 <-- unfinished



The Alexandrian Solution

Untying the Gordian Knot of Science
Tim Eastman, John Cobb, Matt Segall















* * * * * * * * *




Process Philosopher & Theologian John Cobb, Jr.



Celebrating the Life & Legacy of John B. Cobb, Jr.
Claremont Institute for Process Studies. Held at Decker Hall on the
campus of Pilgrim Place in Claremont, CA, on February 11, 2020.


0:00 - Singing
14:00 - Process Philosopher & Theologian David Ray Griffin (JC's Assistant)
23:00 - DRG: Cobb
34:00 - Margaret Suchochi (JC's Student)
47:00 - Catherine Keller (JC's "Star" Pupil)
55:00 - Tribute by worship band
60:00 - Cobb Honorees for International Extensions of Cobb Institute
65:00 - John Cobb Legacy Film
70:00 - John Gingrich, Claremont Board Chair
x
x
x
x





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.





Bill Gates - Three big shifts in the climate conversation


Bill Gates Meets World


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

A lot has changed in the past six years.

by Bill Gates | November 08, 2021


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.


Three major shifts in the climate conversation
Nov 8, 2021