Cobb Institute

Learning Circle: Readings on Faiths Around the World
2023-05-03 08:30 - 09:30, 2023-05-10 08:30 - 09:30, 2023-05-17 08:30 - 09:30 (America/Los_Angeles)
Readings on Faiths Around the World is a book group that reads and discusses books covering the vast diversity of world faiths. Beginning May 3rd and ending May 17th, we will read and discuss Jonathan Clements’ biography of Confucius together. The group will meet weekly on Mondays online via Zoom at 8:30 AM Pacific / 10:30 AM Central.

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This learning circle is made possible by a collaboration among friends:

Interfaith Explorations Spring 2023: Cultivating Spirituality in Daily Life
2023-05-03 10:00 - 11:00, 2023-05-10 10:00 - 11:00
In this offering, qualities of heart and mind to help us in our daily life at home, in family, in the workplace, and other situations in the journey of life, such as births, deaths, joys, traumas will be explored through the framework of Spiritual Alphabet, developed by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat. Our sessions will be facilitated by Dr. Jay McDaniel and Sophia Said, who will bring two “letters” from the spiritual alphabet to each session (“A” is for attention, “B” is for beauty, “C” is for connection, etc.), sharing quotations, poems, and stories from personal experiences that illuminate them; and then, with help from prompting questions, invite others to do the same.

Interfaith Explorations is a program of the Interfaith Center of Arkansas, and is co-sponsored by the Cobb Institute, Spirituality & Practice, and Process & Faith.

This event is free and open to the public.

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Learning Circle: Process & Coffee
2023-05-04 08:00 - 09:00, 2023-05-11 08:00 - 09:00, 2023-05-18 08:00 - 09:00, 2023-05-25 08:00 - 09:00, 2023-06-01 08:00 - 09:00, 2023-06-08 08:00 - 09:00, 2023-06-15 08:00 - 09:00
Process & Coffee is about spiritual integration and exploration. We meet weekly to dive into books by mystics and sages. The discussion that follows helps to deepen our own spiritual lives.

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John Cobb & Friends Gathering: John Cobb
2023-05-09 10:00 - 12:00 | Online Event
Topic: CONFESSIONS

Presenters: John Cobb

Another book by John Cobb, Confessions, has been published this spring in the “Theological Explorations” series by Process Century Press. Dr. Cobb says in his preface, “Before I died I wanted to write once to state, if only for myself, what I really feel most keenly about, without worrying about whom I might offend. . . .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 humanity.” He asks how, as a disciple of Jesus, we resist self-destructive planning toward nuclear holocaust and planetary destruction.

The first six chapters articulate commitments we need to gain from Jesus–loving enemies, loving Jesus’ Abba, serving Abba rather than money, opening science to wider truth, loving ‘the least of these’ (including non-humans), and finding Jesus’ proclamation of the baseileia tou theou in the quest for ecological civilization. The next chapters aim to overcome the Western Worldview by “thinking historically,” assisted by Alfred North Whitehead’s “Inclusive Vision.” Specific attention is given to what we can do in the United States, especially in our Foreign Policy. Americans can “learn the truth” and “challenge the goal” of US global domination. He closes the book with reflection on “The Gender of God and the Role of Women in the Church.”

John invited the Rev. Bonnie Tarwater to write a final chapter, “Can Women Save Discipleship to Jesus?” An Appendix provides specific suggestions for “Guidelines for Earth Crisis Support Groups.” Drawing from her experience in Twelve-Step programs, Pastor Bonnie extends “an invitation to you to begin a group for sharing the truth of our interconnected lives.”

Bonnie Tarwater, pastor of Church of Our Common Home, and Jeanyne Slettom, publisher of Process Century Press, will be available to join our conversation with John Cobb about his Confessions. Read the book, or at least scan the table of contents and preface, and come prepared to “Ask Dr. Cobb” and to reflect on your own “confessions.”

Information about how to access each gathering is made available via email. To find out about a single meeting, send an email to events@cobb.institute. If you would like to receive regular meeting announcements and updates about the Institute, please join our list of Friends.

Can’t make it to the live session? Click here to access our archive of Cobb & Friends recordings.

Learning Circle: An Awakening Planet?
2023-05-16 08:30 - 09:30, 2023-05-30 08:30 - 09:30, 2023-06-13 08:30 - 09:30 | Online Event
A Discussion Group Contemplating the Vision of Teilhard de Chardin

Facilitated by Dr. Ernie Tamminga, this group meets every two weeks to carefully consider how and whether Teilhard de Chardin’s hope-filled perspective on the human evolutionary future can still inspire us in a time full of conflicts and division.

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John Cobb & Friends Gathering: Thomas Jay Oord
2023-05-16 10:00 - 12:00 | Online Event
Topic: The Death of Omnipotence and the Birth of Amipotence

Presenters: Thomas Jay Oord

Tom Oord has been a frequent guest presenter with Cobb & Friends. A student of David R. Griffin, Oord earned a Ph.D. at Claremont Graduate University. He will discuss his latest book, The Death of Omnipotence and Birth of Amipotence. Respondents will bring multiple faith perspectives to bear on the conversation. A Buddhist perspective will be brought by Jay McDaniel, Professor of World Religions Emeritus, Hendrix College. He is currently board chair of the Cobb Institute. An Islamic perspective will be shared by Adis Duderija, Senior Fellow, Centre for Interfaith and Intercultural Dialogue, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. Mary Elizabeth Moore, Vice-chair of the Cobb Institute board,Dean Emerita and Professor of Theology and Education, Boston University School of Theology, will bring a Christian perspective.

Thomas Jay Oord is a theologian, philosopher, and scholar of multi-disciplinary studies. He is an award-winning author or editor of more than thirty books and an award-winning professor. He directs the Northwind Theological Seminary doctoral program in Open and Relational Theology and the Center for Open and Relational Theology. He is known for his contributions to research on love, open and relational theology, issues in science and religion, and freedom for transformation. Oord has been president of several scholarly societies, and he lectures at institutions, events, and churches around the globe. Find a detailed bio here. He blogs frequently at his website: http://thomasjayoord.com

Information about how to access each gathering is made available via email. To find out about a single meeting, send an email to events@cobb.institute. If you would like to receive regular meeting announcements and updates about the Institute, please join our list of Friends.

Can’t make it to the live session? Click here to access our archive of Cobb & Friends recordings.

Process Pop-Up: Deconstructing Hell
2023-05-16 17:00 - 18:00
Would a loving God sentence anyone to eternal torment? Chad Bahl and other open and relational thinkers say no in their new book Deconstructing Hell: Open and Relational Responses to the Doctrine of Eternal Conscious Torment. In this online event, we’ll explore why Chad and his fellow authors argue that perhaps no modern church dogma has been more destructive to the mission of Jesus, created more atheists, or generated more religious trauma than that of eternal conscious torment (ECT) for the non-believer.

Chad, a doctoral student of Thomas Jay Oord, will highlight the very good reasons to deconstruct what many see as a harmful doctrine and introduce more constructive and healing approaches to understanding ‘final judgment.’

RSVP required to receive ZOOM info.

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Co-sponsored by the following:

Process Pop-Up: Attuning with Things: The Mind According to Nishitani Keiji
2023-05-17 17:00 - 18:00
We are not our brains and brains are not computers. The mind is much more than computations. As more than a few authors acknowledge today in the philosophy of mind, the notion that the mind is a computer fails because it makes us ignore the relevance of the body for our mental lives. Yet, we need to go even further: tiles and stones, rivers and valleys, all things participate in the making of an individual mind. Regarding the problem of how we can ever hope to know anything about the world, we should not ask how we can get in contact with things: we already are essentially connected with them. The question is, rather, how we can attune with them so that they can show their real being.

This is the approach presupposed by the Japanese philosopher Nishitani Keiji (1900-1990), one of the main representatives of the Kyoto School. Even though the mind was not explicitly among his main topics of interest, Carlos Barbosa Cepeda believes that we can learn much about the way that Keiji touches upon the topic in his works. Keiji argues that we get to know a certain fact due to the mutual projection of mind and fact. This notion can help us to achieve a vivid (i.e. not merely theoretical/discursive) understanding of who we are, and it can also help us to regain our confidence that we can get to know reality even if we are not professional scientists.

In this Pop-Up, Kyoto School scholar Carlos Barbosa Cepeda will explore Nishitani Keiji’s philosophy of mind, showing how ideas from the Japanese philosopher help us move beyond metaphors of the mind as a computer and achieve a more vivid understanding of who we are.

RSVP required to receive ZOOM info.

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Co-sponsored by the following:

John Cobb & Friends Gathering: Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki
2023-05-23 10:00 - 12:00 | Online Event
Topic: 21 Psalms for the 21st Century

Presenters: Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki

Noted process theologian Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki shares wisdom gained from her spiritual practice of reading and re-reading the Psalms during the days of pandemic. In process-relational meditations, she shares her journey, and she also includes contemporary psalms by Blair Gilmer Meeks. See the Process Century Press website for a description of her recently published book, featuring 21 Psalms, of warning, yet an on-going source of hope. Dr. Suchocki has had a long-time association with John Cobb, having been his student at Claremont Graduate School. She was founder of the (Whitehead) Common Good Film Festival, and Co-director Emerita of the Center for Process Studies. The Cobb Institute Educator’s Toolbox includes a ready to share slideshow summarizing Suchocki’s approach to Christian Process Theology Access the Center for Process Studies bibliography of her books, articles, and videotapes, and see her detailed biodata and major publications here.

Blair Gilmer Meeks, past editor of Liturgy, the quarterly journal of The Liturgical Conference, writes and lectures on worship and preaching for Abingdon Press and The Upper Room. She was acting coach in the chancel drama program at the Center for Arts and Religion, Wesley Theological Seminary.

Information about how to access each gathering is made available via email. To find out about a single meeting, send an email to events@cobb.institute. If you would like to receive regular meeting announcements and updates about the Institute, please join our list of Friends.

Can’t make it to the live session? Click here to access our archive of Cobb & Friends recordings.

Claremont Eco Forum: Deep Transformation for Ecological Civilization
2023-05-25 08:00 - 2023-05-27 17:00
Join us online May 25-27th at the 16th International Forum on Ecological Civilization! This year will explore strategies for transforming self, systems and societies that can be employed to create an ecological civilization.

This event aims to deepen and widen our understanding of what an ecological civilization looks like in practice, on the ground, and in diverse local contexts. Each day will begin with panel discussions featuring leading thinkers and end with breakout groups focusing on the topic of the day.

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John Cobb & Friends Gathering: Eugene Shirley & Friends
2023-05-30 10:00 - 12:00 | Online Event
Topic: Pando: Leveraging Society’s Pillars for Change!

Presenters: Eugene Shirley & Friends

Earth’s largest organism, Pando the Tree, inspired graphics for the 2015 Claremont Conference, “Seizing an Alternative.” Pando the organization is a “non-profit producer of educational programs for civic engagement with the end goal of building a more sustainable California Southland.” Eugene Shirley, Founding President of Pando, has rounded up a talented crew to creatively engage folks in Los Angeles County in aiming for its ambitious sustainability goals. The CSO Strategic Task Force brings together Chief Sustainability Officers from government, higher education, business, and NGOs to focus on the common good of strengthening community resilience in Los Angeles County.

Heidrun Mumper-Drumm, head of the CSO Task Force, will join our conversation, along with John B. Cobb, Jr., Pando’s Founding Board Chair, and Vice-Chair Ed Bacon, former long-time pastor of Pasadena All Saints Episcopal Church. A brief documentary film by award-winning Lyn Goldfarb will be shared during the presentation.

Conversation will focus on the traditional pillars of civil society and how we can utilize them to bring about change. How do we involve education, faith institutions, professional organizations and others in a broad ambition to create the more ecologically balanced and socially just environment that the LA County sustainability plan, integral ecology, etc. envision? Additionally, what is the role for public agencies? Pando is building a unique model in Pando Days, Magenta House, and the CSO Taskforce that we’ll explore as specific test-cases.

Information about how to access each gathering is made available via email. To find out about a single meeting, send an email to events@cobb.institute. If you would like to receive regular meeting announcements and updates about the Institute, please join our list of Friends.

Can’t make it to the live session? Click here to access our archive of Cobb & Friends recordings.

John Cobb & Friends Gathering: David Schwerin
2023-06-06 10:00 - 12:00 | Online Event
Topic: My 20 year Spiritual Adventure in China

Presenters: David Schwerin, with responses by Zhihe Wang and Meijun Fan.

David Schwerin comes highly recommended by Zhihe Wang and Meijun Fan. He has shared with the Institute for Postmodern Development of China his business acumen and wise counsel, having been credentialed with an MBA in Finance (Bucknell) and a Ph.D. in religion (Temple). David has over thirty years of business experience, beginning as a financial analyst and senior investment officer with a large bank. He founded D J Investment Advisors, Inc. and has served as its President since 1976. Explore his website, www.consciousthinking.com, for “Speaking” and “Writing” primarily focused on his initial work in China on Socially Responsible Business. (Now it’s referred to as Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, or most recently Environmental, Social and Governance, ESG.)

Schwerin is author of Conscious Capitalism: Principles for Prosperity (Butterworth-Heinemann 1998) which has been translated into Portuguese and Chinese and is in its second printing in China. John Cobb praised Schwerin’s book Conscious Globalism: What’s Wrong with the World and How to Fix It (Digital Junction Press, 2005): “David Schwerin is doing great work in reminding the business community of its enormous responsibilities. Economic globalization has given corporations great freedom; hence, much depends on how they use it. Those who read Conscious Globalism will have their tendencies to conscientiousness and inclusive concern strongly reinforced.” Conscious Globalism was published in China in October 2005.

Schwerin says, “Because some authorities in China have misgivings about the word ‘Spiritual’ and what it entails, I have purposely limited the spiritual aspects of my work on my website. That said, I have spent many years working to introduce a spiritual path to China. It is called Pathwork and is based on Mystery School teachings that are thousands of years old. It consists of 258 lectures that were channeled over a 20-year period and are psycho-spiritual in nature. These profound teachings are drawn from ancient wisdom from both the East and West.” See his current blogs at https://www.speakingtree.in/david-schwerin/blogs. See also his most recent book, co-authored with Diana Muenz Chen, titled Know Your Soul: Bring Joy to Your Life. It will help you understand the term Soul as he understands it.

Information about how to access each gathering is made available via email. To find out about a single meeting, send an email to events@cobb.institute. If you would like to receive regular meeting announcements and updates about the Institute, please join our list of Friends.

Can’t make it to the live session? Click here to access our archive of Cobb & Friends recordings.

Learning Circle: Readings on Faiths Around the World
2023-06-07 08:30 - 09:30, 2023-06-14 08:30 - 09:30, 2023-06-21 08:30 - 09:30
Readings on Faiths Around the World is a book group that reads and discusses books covering the vast diversity of world faiths. Beginning June 7th and ending June 21st, we will read and discuss Marcus Borg’s Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time together. The group will meet weekly on Mondays online via Zoom at 8:30 AM Pacific / 10:30 AM Central.

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This learning circle is made possible by a collaboration among friends:

The 15th John Cobb Common Good Award Ceremony
2023-06-09 18:00 - 19:00
The John Cobb Common Good Award is the world’s most prestigious prize for ecological civilization. The award is named after John B. Cobb, Jr., one of today’s most important ecological thinkers and is given to those who promote this hope in effective and remarkable ways.

The 15th John Cobb Common Good Award will be presented to Dr. Yan Shi, co-president of International CSA Network, Young Global Leaders in 2016, in recognition of her more than 10 years’ remarkable dedication to the organic community-supported agriculture (CSA) movement in China. Through her actions, she has endowed academic achievement with practical significance and revitalized the meaning of labor. Together with her colleagues, she is transforming the work of farmers into a source of pride, the field of agriculture into a respected vocation, and rural areas into centers of aspiration and innovation.

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Process Pop-Up: The Diabolical Trinity
2023-06-12 17:00 - 18:00
In this Pop-Up, Dr. Mark Karris will guide us through research on why individuals are distancing from or leaving the church and discuss the differences between spiritual abuse, religious trauma, religious disorientation growth syndrome, and adverse religious experiences. We’ll also delve into the religious trauma caused by Hell indoctrination: the unholy trinity of traumatizing beliefs in a tormenting Hell, a wrathful God, and human depravity. Lastly, we’ll explore the impact of these beliefs and coping strategies, and describe healing interventions for those with religious trauma.

RSVP required to receive ZOOM info.

RSVP at Process & Faith

Co-sponsored by the following:

John Cobb & Friends Gathering: Merlin Sheldrake, with Matt Segall
2023-06-13 10:00 - 12:00 | Online Event
Topic: Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds

Presenters: Merlin Sheldrake & Matt Segall

Merlin Sheldrake is a biologist and author of Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures, a New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller, and winner of the Royal Society Book Prize and the Wainwright Prize. Matt Segall, the Cobb Institute’s Science Advisor, says of Sheldrake’s work: “He encourages us to wonder how our scientific image of nature would be transformed by the adoption of mycelial rather than mechanical metaphors.” Segall will continue the dialogue about Whitehead/process thought’s relevance to mycology and biology more generally. See this blog post for a sense of what Matt and Merlin have already explored: https://footnotes2plato.com/2021/09/27/towards-a-mycological-metaphysics/. Merlin’s presentation on this topic at the 50th Anniversary Conference of the Center for Process Studies has been posted to YouTube.

Merlin received a Ph.D. in tropical ecology from Cambridge University for his work on underground fungal networks in tropical forests in Panama, where he was a predoctoral research fellow of the Smithsonian Tropical Research institute. Merlin is a research associate of the Vrije University Amsterdam, and works with the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks and the Fungi Foundation. Learn more at his website. Matt is an Assistant Professor in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, CA (CIIS.edu). He has published articles on a wide-array of topics, including metaphysics, Gaia theory, religious studies, psychedelics, and architecture. He also blogs regularly at footnotes2plato.com.

Information about how to access each gathering is made available via email. To find out about a single meeting, send an email to events@cobb.institute. If you would like to receive regular meeting announcements and updates about the Institute, please join our list of Friends.

Can’t make it to the live session? Click here to access our archive of Cobb & Friends recordings.

John Cobb & Friends Gathering: Kathleen Wakefield
2023-06-20 10:00 - 12:00 | Online Event
Topic: Awakening Our Deep Earth Connections by Reading Poetry in Community

Presenters: Kathleen Wakefield

Kathleen A. Wakefield, a frequent participant in our Cobb & Friends conversations, is skilled in creating poetry and in engaging others in the poetry experience. She describes her time with us as

“Awakening Our Deep Earth Connections: how reading poetry in community inspires loving attentiveness to the natural world and each other.” She invites us into this experience.

Poetry is a deeply embodied art rising from the rhythms of breath, the senses, and the emotional and spiritual memories our bodies hold. Its music and image-making qualities are uniquely suited to expressing how our lives are bound up with the earth’s body, attuning us to the sacred web of relationships of which we are a part. Poetry voices grief for the wounding of our home, while also nourishing us as we seek to heal our relationship and move forward. Reading poems in community can be a transformative process as we share perceptions, “ah-has” of insight, and life experiences; the self is excavated at the same time surprising connections are made to the seeming “other,” human and nonhuman. Our world is enlarged, our compassion stirred.

Kathleen A. Wakefield is the author of two books of poetry, Notations on the Visible World (Anhinga Press, 2000), which won the Anhinga Prize for Poetry, and Grip, Give and Sway (Silver Birch Press, 2016). She has taught creative writing at the Eastman School of Music, worked as a poet-in-the-schools, and she shares poetry through public libraries. Her work has appeared in numerous journals, including the Alaska Quarterly Review, Christian Century, Georgia Review, Poetry, Sewanee Review, and Visions International.

Information about how to access each gathering is made available via email. To find out about a single meeting, send an email to events@cobb.institute. If you would like to receive regular meeting announcements and updates about the Institute, please join our list of Friends.

Can’t make it to the live session? Click here to access our archive of Cobb & Friends recordings.
