Newsletter Summer 2023
For the Love of Books
“A book, too, can be a star, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe.”
So Many Books
I wonder if you are like me with overstuffed bookcases, stacks of books on the nightstand, books in every room of the house, and boxes of books packed away for lack of space.
I hope the books I read will live on inside me. My process philosophy understanding tells me they do and that is good news.
I love that these books become part of me and change me. Most authors never know the extent of their effect on the world. They never know all the people they move, or the ways they add and enrich as their ideas ripple out and touch others.
Since I know so many process relational authors, I tend to contact them and share what their books mean to me. It’s not something I do intentionally or had planned. It only occurred to me now as I work on this book edition of the Cobb Institute Newsletter. I decided to start being intentional about it. This is a practice of mindful gratitude and relational recognition. I offer a big thank you to all the authors out there from this lover of books.
We hope you enjoy this celebration of books.
Kat Reeves
“As I gaze at the vacant, birdless scene outside, I suddenly want to read a book – any book. As long as it’s shaped like a book and has printing, it’s fine by me. I just want to hold a book in my hands, turn the pages, scan the words with my eyes.”
Process Century Press
About the Press
Based on the work of Alfred North Whitehead, process philosophy uncovers a relational ontology at the heart of the universe that flows into all realms of human thought and endeavor. Because it describes the way things are, process philosophy finds expression in diverse fields, from the hard sciences to the most ephemeral arts. Process Century Press is dedicated to publishing books as wildly diverse as life itself, held together by this one idea: that ours is a relational, participatory universe—and therefore, what we do matters, to each other, to all forms of life, and to Earth itself.
Check out all their books at processcenturypress.com.
Process Century Press is an academic press associated with the International Process Network dedicated to transdisciplinary applications of process thought. The press was launched in collaboration with the 10th International Whitehead Conference, Seizing an Alternative, held June 2015 in Claremont, CA. The press publishes books emerging from the multiple sections and tracks of the conference, as well as other books that view scholarly issues and world concerns from a process perspective.
John Cobb Library
For 50 years, John B. Cobb, Jr. has been teaching readers that theology is not confined to biblical and doctrinal exegesis but rightly includes economics, politics, education, and science. His prophetic warnings about climate change date back to the early 1970s; his critiques of higher education and American foreign policy are incisive. But for all the pertinence of his views, Cobb has refrained from giving them full expression—until now. In the preface to this book, which he aptly names his “confession,” Cobb writes:
“My original intention was to write this manuscript primarily for myself. I felt that all my previous writings were written from the perspective of, or directed to, the church community, the theological community, the process community, or a particular organization. I did not state anything in those writings that I do not believe, but not everything that I believe came to expression. My personal priorities were not often clearly expressed.
“Before I died, I wanted to write once to state, if only for myself, what I really felt most keenly about, without worrying about whom I might offend. That primary concern has, for many years, been the global crises and the policies of my own country that, on the whole, speed up the move to the destruction of civilization and the physical world that supports life. I have felt called by Jesus’ Abba to do what I could for the healthy survival of the biosphere and for an ecological civilization for humans.” John B. Cobb Jr.
“John Cobb, world-renowned author and speaker, here commits to saying what he really thinks. Bluntly addressing the most urgent issues of our age, this book makes for intense reading. Readers will disagree with Cobb at important points, as I also do. But that's the point: this is a call to think deep, gather evidence, take a position, and live it out boldly in the world. I urge you to follow this call by "a disciple of Jesus" to radical discipleship―from Abba to ecological civilization."
–Philip Clayton, Claremont School of Theology and Institute for Ecological Civilization
Selected Bibliography of the Works of John Cobb
- Living Options in Protestant Theology (1962)
- A Christian Natural Theology, Based On the Thought of Alfred North Whitehead (1965)
- The Structure of Christian Existence (1967)
- God and the World (1969)
- Is It is Too Late! (1971)
- Liberal Christianity at the Crossroads (1973)
- To Pray Or Not to Pray: A Confession (1974)
- Christ in a Pluralistic Age (1975)
- Process Theology: An Introductory Exposition (1976)
- Theology and Pastoral Care (1977)
- The Liberation of Life (1981)
- Process theology as political theology (1982)
- Beyond Dialogue - Toward a Mutual Transformation of Christianity and Buddhism (1982)
- Talking about God: Doing Theology in the Context of Modern Pluralism (1983)
- Praying for Jennifer (1985)
- For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy Toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future (1989)
- Doubting Thomas: Christology in Story Form (1990)
- Death Or Dialogue? From the Age of Monologue to the Age of Dialogue (1990)
- Can Christ become good news again? (1991)
- Matters of Life and Death (1991)
- Theology and the University: Essays in Honor of John B. Cobb, Jr. (1991)
- Sustainability: Economics, Ecology, and Justice (1992)
- Becoming a thinking Christian (1993)
- The Green National Product: A Proposed Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (1994)
- Lay Theology (1994)
- Sustaining the Common Good: A Christian Perspective on the Global Economy (1994)
- Grace and Responsibility: A Wesleyan Theology for Today (1995)
- Reclaiming the Church (1997)
- The Earthist Challenge to Economism (1998)
- Transforming Christianity and the World: A Way Beyond Absolutism and Relativism (1999)
- Searching for an Adequate God (2000)
- Postmodernism and Public Policy (2002)
- Romans (2005)
- Spiritual Bankruptcy: A Prophetic Call to Action (2010)
- The Dialogue Comes of Age: Christian Encounters with Other Traditions (2010)
- The Process Perspective II (2011)
- Reason and Reenchantment: The Philosophical, Religious, and Political Thought of David Ray Griffin (2013)
- Theological Reminiscences (2014)
- Whitehead Word Book: A Glossary with Alphabetical Index to Technical Terms in Process and Reality (2015)
- Jesus' Abba: The God who Has Not Failed (2015)
- Salvation: Jesus's Mission and Ours (2020)
- Choosing Life: Ecological Civilization as the World's Best Hope (2020)
- Is It Too Late? A Theology of Ecology (2021)
- The Call of the Spirit: Process Spirituality in a Relational World (2022)
- John B. Cobb, Jr: Selected Writings from a Christian Theologian (2023)
- Confessions (2023)
A Special Surprise for John's 98th Birthday
John Cobb is a Christian Theologian. Yet, he is just as likely to be known to economists, scientists, philosophers, environmentalists, educators, and activists. Some could say he left behind his task as a Christian theologian venturing across so many fields, but as this collection of Cobb’s theological writing will demonstrate, it is precisely his passion for the one Jesus called Abba that animated his powerful and prophetic intellectual and movement invest in so many of the most pressing and challenging centers of intellectual inquiry. Yes, Cobb is a Christian theologian, but more than that a model of just what kind of theologian is needed in our age and beyond. This selection of essays was compiled from John B. Cobb, Jr.'s writings over the decades to celebrate his 98th birthday.
Prolific Process
Process Theology and the Process of Writing
Cape Cod poet Mary Oliver gives an apt description of my approach to the writing process, “Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” I believe that many writers, like me, are mystics, who see writing as a form of spiritual inspiration, not unlike that of poets, visual artists, composers, and painters. When the Spirit moves, we move, too.
Over the years, I have claimed the title of “intuitive writer,” whose writing is an integration of study, prayerful openness, and awakening to divine wisdom. On the one hand, God is constantly inspiring us in accordance with our gifts and context, and writing is openness to this divine inspiration. I resonate with Eric Liddell from Chariots of Fire: “God made me fast, and when I run I feel God’s pleasure.” At age forty, I discovered that I was a writer when I began to feel God’s pleasure in the process of studying, reflecting, and writing, and came to believe that in my writing I was reflecting from my perspective divine insight.
On the one hand, writing is a discipline. Opening to the divine wisdom through prayer and preparation deepens and intensifies our unique personal gifts. When someone asks me how long it takes me to write a sermon, homiletical commentary, or book, I often respond, “Well, about fifty years.” There is no intuition without preparation, and I prepare by calling on fifty years of study and my reflections on the topic about which I’m writing. A writer must ground their words in the deepest insights available at this moment in theology, spirituality, psychology, and the many other paths of wisdom that shape our lives. Go deep in your mind, and also in your heart and spirit.
On the other hand, writing is revelation and inspiration. Every writer has their own path to inspiration and creation. When I am working on a writing project, and that is virtually all the time, my usual practice is to reflect a few minutes before I go to sleep. I may look at my planned outline for the next day or a key word or a phrase that’s been rolling around in my mind just before bed. As I hit the pillow, I ask God for nocturnal inspiration. If Jacob can dream of ladder of angels or wrestle with God in the darkness, I can open to the divine wisdom ever flowing into the unconscious.
As morning comes, and usually well before sunrise in my case, I begin my day with meditation and then pour myself a strong cup of coffee and turn on my computer and go to it, letting the words flow, filling the screen with possibilities, and opening to novelty. After I write a bit, I take my morning walk, during which I pray, observe the flora and fauna of my neighborhood, and sometimes experience a burst of inspiration. Movement can liberate the spirit and mind to new ideas and ways of doing things, and I usually come home with an idea for a sermon or book I’m working on, jot down ideas, or simply finish a draft in one sitting.
When I’m writing, I simply write, expressing “the best for that impasse.” Simply getting the words on the page just as a painter covers a wall. I don’t worry about spelling or grammar or even saying it right. I let the inspiration flow, knowing that whatever I write at any stage of the writing process will be incomplete, imperfect, and have room to grow, if not now, then in another book. I assume that divine inspiration, the moment-by-moment lures of God, is universal and ubiquitous, and that gives me trust that new ideas and ways to express them will be in the future. Revision is also guided by inspiration and assume several revisions before the final product is complete. I don’t worry about the perfect book, I write the book that I am called to write at this moment with all my mind, heart, and soul. If I’m fortunate, I will get another chance to share my ideas and look at a similar topic from a different perspective.
At seventy, I wonder when and if the words will someday stop, and if someday I will have nothing to say, or lack the patience or coherence to complete a text. In the meantime, I write just as birds sing and Eric Liddell runs. To me, this means writing every day, even if just a line or two. I carry a notebook with me, and jot things down as they emerge. I see writing as part of my life, and not separate from my relationship with my wife Kate, my grandchildren, my service to the community, house chores, and daily spiritual practices.
I place my life in the context of my writing and my writing in the context of my life. I am fortunate that I have never apologized to my family for the time I spent apart or engrossed during a writing project. I write early or when no one is home, and then let the rest of my life unfold holistically, taking seriously the discipline of time and the belief that my relationships are always as important as my writing, and often give birth to my writing.
A final word: look for God’s pleasure in everything you do, even the hard things. God is moving in our head, heart, and hands. Whether we write, paint, garden, play with children, or protest injustice, your life matters and you are a companion with God in healing the world. Let whatever you do, including your writing, give glory to God and beauty to the world. So, keep your eyes open. Stay woke. Listen for God’s whispers and movements, and share your good news in word, touch, photo, or writing, or wherever God leads you.
-Bruce Epperly
_______________________
Bruce Epperly is the author of over seventy books in process theology, spirituality, healing and wholeness, biblical studies, pastoral care, and ministerial excellence; most recently The Elephant is Running: Process and Open and Relational Theology and Religious Pluralism, Process Theology and the Revival We Need, and Taking a Walk with Whitehead. Though technically retired, he teaches courses at Wesley Theological Seminary, provides congregational leadership, and gives lectures throughout North America.
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
Thomas Jay Oord on Writing
A New Audience
I've been reflecting lately about my writing and the audiences I aim to reach as an author. Early in my career, I decided to write some books for the academy and some for the general public or church. I've been following that approach for over twenty years, alternating between audiences with each book. I've now written or edited about thirty!
It's more difficult for me to write for general audiences than for academics. I suspect this comes from thinking technical words are more precise and therefore less likely to be misunderstood. And it may reflect my own insecurities, thinking I needed to "prove" I had the requisite intellectual chops. But over time, I learned that accessible writing means greater readership and greater impact. Even most scholars prefer an easy read!
I especially enjoy the quest to find new words to capture new ideas. Take the word "amipotence," which I coined and has appeared in my recent books. I wanted to capture the idea that God's power is uncontrolling love. Many people think they must choose between believing God is either omnipotent or impotent, a God who controls or does nothing. "Amipotent" offers a middle way based on love.
As an example, my book Open and Relational Theology uses amipotence, but I aimed it at a wide audience. I tell stories about power in it. My recent book The Death of Omnipotence and Birth of Amipotence is more academic, although I try to write clearly. I'm using ancient languages, philosophy, and more. To get a feel for these styles and topics, I recommend each.
-Thomas Jay Oord
“People don't realize how a man's whole life can be changed by one book.”
Process in Praxis Blog
Process in Praxis offers insights, reflections, and stories about the many different ways that people can live out process-relational perspectives. We hope readers will find inspiration in learning about the wide variety of novel and creative ways that process thought can be expressed.
Process Mindfulness: Listen. Notice. Be Aware. Feel. Be Mindful
by Kat Reeves | May 31, 2023
I often hear the question, what is the point of process thinking outside of a classroom? I have also heard the criticism that process thinkers talk a lot about process philosophy but don’t actually live process philosophy. Whenever someone in the process community asked the question how do you practice process theology, I know that is not the right question. The question is not about “practice”. It’s about awareness. It’s not something we do, it’s something we recognize. It’s something we feel.
Upcoming Events
For three weeks, beginning June 7th and ending June 21st the group will read and discuss Marcus Borg’s Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time. Although written almost thirty years ago, Borg’s hypothesis concerning who Jesus was and is, is still fresh and exciting. While Borg gives a clear and accessible account of his biblical scholarship it is a personal account of his journey in search of Jesus.
In this Pop-Up, Dr. Mark Karris will discuss the religious trauma caused by the unholy trinity of traumatizing beliefs in a tormenting Hell, a wrathful God, and human depravity, and how such beliefs are traumatizing for individuals and have led to abandonment of the church.
John Cobb & Friends Gatherings
| June 6 | David Schwerin (with Zhihe Wang and Meijun Fan) – My 20-year Spiritual Adventure in China |
| June 13 | Merlin Sheldrake (with Matt Segall) – Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds |
| June 20 | Kathleen Wakefield – Awakening Our Deep Earth Connections by Reading Poetry in Community |
| June 27 | John Becker – Babbling on about Pluralism |
Cohorts
As a “Community for Process and Practice” virtually everything the Cobb Institute does involves the creation of or collaboration with communities. Inspired by the vision of a world in which all things are interconnected, interdependent, and interbecoming, the notion of community is woven into the fabric of our identity. We are, as John Cobb likes to say, a community of communities that is drawn together by a common vision and a shared desire to bring about creative transformations that help build an ecological civilization.
Check Out Our Newest Cohort
Begins June 10th
Seeking Deeper Awareness Of & Engagement With Inter-Becoming
Process Mindfulness is a cohort for those who want to explore further and dive deeper into the possibility seeing and living in a process-relational way. Together participants tell stories, share experiences, seek insights in a collaborative endeavor to mindfully practice an intentional and embodied awareness of process cosmology.
The group meets once a month on the second Saturday of the month at 9:00 AM Pacific / 11:00 AM Central, beginning on June 10th.
Growing a Relational World Together
The eco-gardening cohort is open to all who are interested in gardens, whether in the backyard or the community, as well as urban farms, whether small or big. It provides a springboard for imaginative reflection in a process-relational mode, a resource for engaging in creative localization, and a network for connecting like-minded growers.
Promoting the Well-being of Others Through the Performance of Music
Music for All Ages is a cohort of the Cobb Institute to promote the well-being of others through the performance of music, consisting of individuals and teams who volunteer our talents to help create just and compassionate communities.
New Learning Circles
Reading Muhammad Iqbal’s Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam provides the opportunity to think more critically about both the potentiality and difficulty of Muslim process theologies, as well as consider what resources Islamic intellectual history may be able to provide to process thinking.
Begins June 11th at 5:00 PM Pacific.
Buddhist Process Explorations will compare, contrast, explore, and play out resonances between Buddhism and process thought, with a special focus on Nāgārjuna’s Madhyamaka and Whitehead’s philosophy of organism.
Begins June 21st at 5:00 PM Pacific.
The Cobb Institute Bookshelf
by Matt Segall
This book is a philosophical experiment in thinking, feeling, and willing beyond the transcendental threshold of Immanuel Kant's critical philosophy. It draws inspiration from the organic process philosophies of F. W. J. Schelling and A. N. Whitehead to articulate a descendental aesthetic ontology showing the way across the epistemological chasm that Kant's critiques hewed between knowledge and reality. This descendental inversion of Kantian transcendentalism aims to bridge the chasm-not by resolving the structure of reality into clear and distinct concepts-but by replanting cognition in the aesthetic processes that power it. The key to this reconnection is found in a new etheric power of imagination, which if consciously cultivated can grant the process philosopher direct experience of the cosmic creativity expressing itself in both the depths of the soul and throughout the physical world. With human knowing no longer conceived of as a transcendental onlooker but rather rooted again in cosmogenesis, the ancient hermetic maxim that we are microcosmic participants in the Life of the Whole is reaffirmed.
by Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki
This book is the result of a spiritual practice of reading the Psalms, adopted by the author in the early days of the pandemic—a practice that went from Psalm 1 to Psalm 150 and then started all over again, and again, and again. Psalm reading deepened into psalm study, enriched by the author’s process-relational meditations and the addition of contemporary prayers. The resulting work is a book of warning as well as an ongoing source of hope. These 21 psalms, chosen for their relevance to 21st-century concerns, bridge the gap between ancient and modern, devotion and study, uncertainty and assurance, anguish and joy. They demonstrate that, through the centuries, God’s call for justice has not dimmed, nor God’s steadfast love faltered.
Making Sense in Common: A Reading of Whitehead in Times of Collapse (Posthumanities)
by Isabelle Stengers
With her previous books on Alfred North Whitehead, Isabelle Stengers not only secured a reputation as one of the premier philosophers of our times but also inspired a rethinking of critical theory, political thought, and radical philosophy across a range of disciplines. Here, Stengers unveils what might well be seen as her definitive reading of Whitehead.
Making Sense in Common will be greeted eagerly by the growing group of scholars who use Stengers’s work on Whitehead as a model for how to think with conceptual precision through diverse domains of inquiry: environmentalism and ecology, animal studies, media and technology studies, the history and philosophy of science, feminism, and capitalism. On the other hand, the significance of this new book extends beyond Whitehead. Instead, it lies in Stengers’s recovery of the idea of “common sense” as a meeting place—a commons—where opposed ideas of science and humanistic inquiry can engage one another and help to move society forward. Her reconciliation of science and philosophy is especially urgent today—when climate disaster looms all around us, when the values of what we thought of as civilization and modernity are discredited, and when expertise of any kind is under attack.
Taking a Walk with Whitehead: Meditations with Process-Relational Theology
by Bruce G Epperly
This delightful devotional book draws from the experience of decades as a pastor, but also from simply living the principles of process-relational theology. The first chapter title, "It Will Be Solved in the Walking," sets the tone. Epperly continues to look at some of the simple things of life and find in them opportunities to hear Divine wisdom and to see new opportunities and energies released in your life.
"Religion without adventure is dead," he says, and then presents spiritual adventure after spiritual adventure.
Each chapter grew out of reading and meditating on a quotation from Alfred North Whitehead. The reader is not only taking a walk with Whitehead, but also with the author as he presents how this particular quotation impacted his life and his ministry.
This is a devotional book designed to draw the reader into an experience of spiritual and theological adventure. It includes exercises that suggest how to grow from and beyond the meditations in the book. It is suitable for individual or small group reading and study.
“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.”
