Cobb Institute

John Cobb & Friends Gathering: Sandra Lubarsky, Emily Schneider, Sean Parson, Rabbi Nahum Ward-Lev
2024-05-14 10:00 - 12:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Online Via Zoom
Topic: A Conversation on Zionism and Anti-Zionism in a Time of Political Turmoil

Presenters: Sandra Lubarsky, Emily Schneider, Sean Parson, Rabbi Nahum Ward-Lev

Referring to the current Israel-Gaza conflict, Michelle Goldberg of the NYTimes spoke of a “fanatically Manichaen moment.” It is a moment that can be compressed into the two words, “Zionism” and “anti-Zionism.” How are we to understand these terms, their multiple forms, their relation to nationalism, and the possibilities for a political solution that they open up or close down? In what ways do they help or hinder us from moving to a humane future in this region of the world and internationally? John Cobb asked Sandra Lubarsky, President of Flagstaff College and Communiversity and emeritus faculty in Sustainable Communities at Northern Arizona University to help us reflect on Zionism and Anti-Zionism from a Jewish perspective. She will moderate the conversation with these colleagues.

Dr. Emily Schneider is a professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Northern Arizona University. She received her PhD in sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and she was previously a visiting assistant professor of sociology at Colorado College. Prior to her academic career, Dr. Schneider served as the Director of Development at a joint Israeli-Palestinian NGO, Windows – Channels for Communication, where she founded one of the first tour programs to bring young Jewish Americans to the Occupied Palestinian Territories in 2010. She is completing a manuscript on the role of Jewish allyship and tourism in the Palestine Solidarity Movement.

Sean Parson is a professor in the Department of Politics and International Affairs and the Program in Sustainable Communities at Northern Arizona University. He is the author of Cooking Up a Revolution: Food Not Bombs, Homes Not Jails, and Resistance to Gentrification, co-author of Superheroes and Critical Animal Studies: The Heroic Beasts of Total Liberation, and serves on the editorial board for Abolition: A Journal of Insurgent Politics. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Oregon. See his website here.

Rabbi Nahum Ward-Lev is the author of The Liberating Path of the Hebrew Prophets: Then and Now (Orbis Books), described as “a great gift at a crucial moment in human history” (Susannah Heschel). He is founder and leader of Beit Midrash of Santa Fe, a multi-faith sacred learning community. He holds an MA in Hebrew Education, Ordination and a Doctor of Divinity degree from the Hebrew Union College and is a Fellow of the Rabbis Without Borders Initiative.

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Learning Circle: Process & Coffee
2024-05-09 08:00 - 09:00, 2024-05-02 08:00 - 09:00, 2024-04-25 08:00 - 09:00, 2024-04-18 08:00 - 09:00, 2024-04-11 08:00 - 09:00, 2024-04-04 08:00 - 09:00, 2024-03-28 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.

Click here to learn more or join.

Process Thought & World Religions
2024-05-07 16:30 - 18:00, 2024-04-30 16:30 - 18:00, 2024-04-23 16:30 - 18:00, 2024-04-16 16:30 - 18:00, 2024-04-09 16:30 - 18:00 | Online Event
Introducing World Religions through a Process-Relational Lens

We live in a world marked by great diversity, and if humans are to live peaceably together, we must seek to understand each other. In this course, participants will explore various world religions, as well as indigenous/traditional ways of thinking and living, through a lens of process and relational thought. Over the course of six sessions, we will discuss Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Indigenous/Traditional Ways.

As we approach each tradition, we will seek to encounter its commitments and matters of ultimate concern alongside its primary practices, exploring how it may be situated within process and relational metaphysics. Through this lens, we might ask how each tradition fosters zest and enjoyment, nourishes its adherents’ spiritual and ethical lives, and knits communities together, with an eye on each tradition’s view of the proper relationship between the transpersonal or sacred and humans, as well as between humans and the earth.

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John Cobb & Friends Gathering: Kat Reeves
2024-05-07 10:00 - 12:00 | Online Via Zoom
Topic: I Sing the Body Electric: A Process Relational Critique of Compartmentalized Medicine

Presenters: Kat Reeves

Kat Reeves, CCS, BCC, will join John Cobb and Friends for an eye-opening exploration into the shortcomings of modern medicine and relational healthcare advocacy. Kat will illuminate the issue of fragmentation within medicine, shedding light on the overlooked aspects of holistic well-being, the emotional state of patients and their families and clear communication. Kat will guide us through the compartmentalized medical system through storytelling and real-life examples.

In today’s medical landscape, there’s an undeniable emphasis on treating organs and isolated body parts, often at the expense of understanding the broader context of a patient’s life. Kat will dissect this prevalent approach, delving into the ramifications of neglecting the process relational understanding of the intricate interplay between family dynamics, social systems, and the psychological impacts of medical choices. We will also consider the profound significance of the soul and spiritual life in the realm of healthcare. By daring to broach these often-dismissed topics, Kat unveils the true essence of holistic healing, where the body, mind, and spirit are intricately interconnected.

We know Kat Reeves as the Cobb Institute Community Relations Specialist but before her work with us Kat worked in acute hospital settings such as Riverside Community Hospital, Arrowhead Regional Hospital and Loma Linda University Medical Center. Kat’s work involved Health Information Management and she especially enjoyed cardiology, trauma, and interventional radiology. Kat shares that, yes, she can read doctor handwriting. Aside from that skill, Kat analyzed patient medical records looking for diagnoses that were present based on labs, radiology, and symptoms but not charted by the doctors. Kat also had to capture the details of surgeries for documentation such as what veins and arteries were sutured together in a Coronary Artery bypass.

More recently Kat has worked as a Hospice chaplain and facility chaplain working with the elderly. She works part time at John Cobb’s retirement community at Pilgrim Place. Check out Kat’s workshop for the Cobb Institute on Death and Dying: https://cobb.institute/learning-lab/process-of-dying/

Kat also contributed an essay on chaplaincy in the book Preaching the Uncontrolling Love of God: Sermons, Essays, and Worship Elements from the Perspective of Open, Relational, and Process Theology, which can be found here.

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Poetry for the Journey: Creating a Spiritual Space for People of All Paths
2024-05-01 10:00 - 11:30, 2024-04-24 10:00 - 11:30, 2024-04-17 10:00 - 11:30, 2024-04-10 10:00 - 11:30, 2024-04-03 10:00 - 11:30 | Online Event
Poetry for the Journey: Creating a Spiritual Space for People of All Paths

We are delighted to present the spring 2024 session of Interfaith Explorations. Hosted by Bethlehem Centre in collaborative partnership with the Interfaith Center of Arkansas, the Cobb Institute and Process & Faith, “Poetry for the Journey” is a six week online series that will provide an inclusive environment for individuals from different religious traditions and spiritual independents to come together to share and discuss poetry.

The group’s primary focus is on “spiritual poetry”, a term inspired by Jane Hirshfield, an acclaimed poet, essayist, and translator with ten collections of poetry. On the Poetry Foundation’s website, Hirshfield shares 22 spiritual poems that delve into themes such as permeability, embracing life with a resounding ‘Yes,’ abundance, longing, spiritual dialogue, love, vibration, and meditation. These are the kinds of themes we will explore during the class sessions.

The selected poems will be ancient, classical, and contemporary works from diverse cultures and faith backgrounds. They will be presented in English to ensure accessibility for participants. The poems will serve as launching pads for reflection and discussion, allowing participants to contemplate on various aspects of everyday life, historical moments, and philosophical ideas.

The interfaith exploration series will be held on Wednesdays, with a guided exploration of three poems during each session. The three poems for each week will be distributed before the class so that participants can read them in advance if they wish.

Experienced facilitators of poetry explorations will lead each of these sessions. Zoom details will be sent to register participants.

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John Cobb & Friends Gathering: Thandeka
2024-04-30 10:00 - 12:00 | Online Via Zoom
Topic: Putting Our Emotions on the Couch

Presenters: Thandeka

Thandeka will lead a discussion/workshop session exploring process metaphysics—experientially.

Three exercises will be used to achieve this end, based on Contemporary Affect Theology, which was founded by Thandeka. Contemporary Affect Theology advances insights from Schleiermacher’s affect theology and Jaak Panksepp’s affective neuroscience—the brain science of emotions. She will use three exercises (two created respectively by Friedrich Schleiermacher and Wilhelm Dilthey and one created by Thandeka) as part of her affective theological strategy.

Thandeka’s goal here is to explore how undisclosed premises of affect-laden engagement, volition, moods, attitudes, and a history of patterning principles that motivate persons to make judgments about some facts and not others (as Dilthey noted) can get exposed today with compassionate understanding?

Can small group work advance and sustain the emotion-based paradigm shift now underway—for an ecological civilization of networked local communities millions upon millions strong?

Is small group work vital for this kind of empathic, bridge-building work?

We will explore answers to these questions based on personal insights and collective reflections.

Thandeka’s Bio:

Thandeka is a black American, former Emmy award-winning television producer, and Unitarian Universalist minister and theologian who has spent most of her life trying to figure out the sources of America’s dysfunction and how to heal it. She founded Contemporary Affect Theology, which investigates the links between religion and emotions using insights from the brain science of emotions: Affective Neuroscience. Jaak Panksepp, the founder of affective neuroscience commends her work as “decisive historical-philosophical analysis” that can provide “a universal substrate for nondenominational religious experience” (The Archaeology of Mind, 391).

She has taught Contemporary Affect Theology at The Czech Unitarian Academy in Prague, Williams College, Harvard Divinity School and has been a Fellow at Stanford University’s Humanities Center, and a visiting scholar at Union Theological School and The Center for Process Studies. John Cobb Jr. was a member of her dissertation committee at Claremont Graduate University. Her books and essays helped secure her place as a “major figure in American liberal theology,” as Gary Dorrien notes in The Making of American Liberal Theology: Crisis, Irony, and Postmodernity, 1950-2005 (John Knox Press, 2006).

Thandeka spent more than a decade as a small group consultant testing various ways to turn her theological insights into small group practices to advance the participants’ ability to heal and transform themselves and eventually, hopefully, the world.

Thandeka used insights from affective neuroscience to track down the trauma foundational to 2000 years of Christian antisemitism (as densely argued in her book Love Beyond Belief: Finding the Access Point to Spiritual Renewal) and 300 years of American racism (as detailed in her book Learning to Be White: Money, Race and God in America). The foundational insight of her work is that the human brain handles pervasive feelings of fear and rage in neurologically predictable ways to ensure survival.

Her present work focuses on Untrolling America’s emotions [https://www.youtube.com/@TheUntrollingProject] and Universal Connections [https://universalconnections.world] small group work.

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John Cobb & Friends Gathering: Thomas Jay Oord & Tripp Fuller
2024-04-23 10:00 - 12:00 | Online Via Zoom
Topic: God after Deconstruction

Presenters: Thomas Jay Oord & Tripp Fuller

Tom and Tripp are both familiar voices in the community of folks influenced by Process and/or Open and Relational theologies. They have agreed to discuss with us their book God after Deconstruction, recently published by SacraSage Press. Watch for more details.

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Becoming an Ecological Civilization
2024-04-20 13:00 - 14:30
We live in a world filled with conflicts and crises. But there are also beacons of harmony and hope. Every moment matters in the struggle between suffering and flourishing. We believe it’s about time to promote visions of transformation. It’s about time to engage in initiatives of innovation. It’s about time to create communities of compassion. It’s about time to build an ecological civilization.

You’re invited to join us for a special gala featuring a group of brilliant thinkers, great leaders, and inspiring artists to envision the possibilities of an ecological civilization and raise funds to help the Cobb Institute realize its mission.

This event will include a panel discussion with four fascinating individuals who have each made significant contributions in the area of ecological civilization, and performances by three gifted artists whose work exhibits care for our common home.

All of the participants will share their unique visions to generate transformation.

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John Cobb & Friends Gathering: Jeff Wells, Vikki Randall, Nichole Torbitzky
2024-04-16 10:00 - 12:00 | Online Via Zoom
Topic: Preaching the Uncontrolling Love of God

Presenters: Jeff Wells, Vikki Randall, Nichole Torbitzky

Pastor Jeff Wells is lead pastor of Church of the Village (Greenwich Village in New York City). He invited John Cobb to preach there when ZOOM opened creative opportunities for cross-country connecting. At the time of the 50th Anniversary celebration of the Center for Process Studies, Jeff shared with Mary Elizabeth Moore his idea for a book of process-oriented sermons and worship resources, and she said, “Don’t wait! Do it now! We need that book!” At the church’s sermon archive, you can find the January 28, 2024 message where he introduces the book to his congregation.

Jeff assembled an editorial team, which included Thomas Jay Oord, theologian who has written much about the “uncontrolling love of God.” Team members Vikki Randall and Nichole Torbitzky will be present with Cobb & Friends for our discussion. John Cobb wrote the Foreword and contributed two sermons he preached at Church of the Village. The book is a compilation of sermons, essays, and worship elements from the perspective of open, relational, and process theology. They have 68 contributors from across North America and about ten from other parts of the world. They represent a broad range of denominations and traditions in this valuable resource for lay persons and clergy, worship leaders, and congregations. This important book is the first of its kind to bring together sermons, essays, and worship elements from the perspective of Open, Relational, and Process theology.

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Learning Circle: Processing Difference & Repetition
2024-04-15 14:30 - 16:00 | Online Event
A Collective Processing of Gilles Deleuze’s Masterpiece

Processing Difference & Repetition is a learning circle dedicated to exploring Gilles Deleuze’s seminal work, Difference and Repetition. Its goal is to collectively process the rich themes within the book, occasionally identify resonances with the larger process tradition, and foster insightful discussions along the way.

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John Cobb & Friends Gathering: Helena Norberg-Hodge in Conversation with John Cobb
2024-04-09 10:00 - 12:00 | Online Via Zoom
Topic: Local Futures and the Economics of Happiness

Presenters: Helena Norberg-Hodge, John Cobb, Anja Lyngbaek

From her home in Australia, Helena Norberg-Hodge recorded an interview with John Cobb specifically to be shared with Cobb and Friends. Linguist, author and film maker, Helena Norberg-Hodge is the founder and director of the international non-profit organisation, Local Futures, a pioneer of the new economy movement, and the convenor of World Localization Day.

She is the author of several books, including ‘Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh’, an eye-opening tale of tradition and change in Ladakh, or “Little Tibet”. Together with a film of the same title, Ancient Futures has been translated into more than 40 languages, and sold half a million copies. Her latest book is ‘Local is Our Future: Steps to an Economics of Happiness’. Other publications include ‘Bringing the Food Economy Home’ and ‘From the Ground Up: Rethinking Industrial Agriculture’.

Anja Lyngbaek, Managing and Programs Director, will join us for discussion of the pre-recorded conversation between John and Helena. Anja has worked with Local Futures since 1986 on many projects, including the International Alliance for Localization, the Economics of Happiness Conference Series and World Localization Day. Fluent in Spanish, English and Danish, she has been a spokesperson for localization on several continents. Anja divides her time between a Mexican ecovillage and a small island in the Danish Archipelago. She is a passionate food grower and is happiest with her hands in the soil. Anja holds a BSc in Rural Resource Management and a MPhil. in Agroforestry.

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Learning Circle: Process & World-Building in Dune Messiah
2024-04-07 16:00 - 16:30 | Online Event
A 4-Session Book Group Exploring Frank Herbert’s Dune Messiah Through a Process-Relational Lens

Through the intersections of environment, religion, self identity, and government, participants in this learning circle will explore themes of environment, terrain, and traveling through the religious life.

Our reading of Dune Messiah will consider process themes found in Whitehead’s Process and Reality, while engaging with care to not overlay process theology on Herbert’s work. Rather, the conversation series will consider elements of Herbert’s world-building that are shared with Whitehead’s philosophy of organism. In the consideration, careful attention will be paid to the impediments to process principles in the establishment of institutions of any type.

Some experience with Whitehead’s philosophy is preferred but not required. Dune Messiah will be read over four weeks, with excerpts from Whitehead coupled with each reading.

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John Cobb & Friends Gathering: An Interview with Ted Peters
2024-04-02 10:00 - 12:00 | Online Via Zoom
Topic: Astrotheology Now and Then: An Interview with Ted Peters

Presenters: Ted Peters and Andrew M. Davis

We invited frequent Cobb & Friends guest Andrew M. Davis, program director for the Center for Process Studies, to share thoughts prompted by his recent book, co-edited with Roland Faber, Astrophilosophy, Exotheology, and Cosmic Religion: Extraterrestrial Life in a Process Universe. He accepted our invitation, and he invited Rev. Dr. Ted Peters to join him for a dialogue on “Astrotheology Now and Then.” Both will be on the program of the Star Island conference sponsored this coming June by IRAS, the Institute for Religion in the Age of Science. Andrew, described on his website as a “scholar of cosmological wonder,” will say a bit about his recent book, and Ted will give history concerning his own engagement in the topic and the significance of the process voice as now formally a part of it. Ted Peters, a Lutheran pastor, co-edits the Journal of Science and Theology at the Francisco J. Ayala Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. An acclaimed author, he most recently published Astrotheology: Science and Theology Meet Extraterrestrial Life. (Cascade Books, 2018). Find more about Ted Peters and his range of interests at his Wikipedia entry and at his home page. You’ll find at this YouTube link Andrew Davis’s recent lecture at Villanova University on “Metaphysics Beyond Earth: Whitehead, Teilhard, and the Emergence of Process Exo-Theology.”

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Learning Circle: Process Thought 101
2024-04-01 13:00 - 14:30, 2024-03-25 13:00 - 14:30 | Online Event
A Learning Circle Exploring a Process Worldview For Newcomers

Want to learn more about process thought? Join our learning circle, as we read and discuss together various essays on important themes to process thought. The topics will include the interconnectedness and relational nature of the universe, the idea that nature is alive and has value for itself, and process and beauty.

The learning circle will begin with a general introduction to process thought and a process worldview by a close exploration of those topics using the “Educator’s Toolbox” found on the Cobb Institute website. Jay McDaniel has provided 20 Key Ideas as a springboard for discussing process thought as well as thoughts on a process worldview. The circle will conclude with a 90-minute question and answer session (Going Deeper) with Dr. McDaniel.

No prior knowledge of process thought is required.

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John Cobb & Friends Gathering: The Raven Poets
2024-03-26 10:00 - 12:00 | Online Via Zoom
Topic: Perceptions and Occasions

Presenters: The Raven Poets

Process thinkers understand creativity as an active engagement with the world that generates new possibilities and actualizes them through a process of becoming. In this sense, creativity is an essential aspect of both human experience and the broader cosmos. Experiences often inspire art, music, poetry, and storytelling. The Raven Poets have been meeting and telling their stories since 2010; some are original members and they have picked up more poets along the way. A few names may be familiar to you. Over the years, they have become like a family. One reason for their deep bonds is that they have shared their hopes, pain, frustrations, joys, and inspiration with each other over the years. They have shared human experience of our interconnected world, opening themselves to compassion.

The Raven’s poetry shares an honest look at the events of life in its movement and changes. Please join Lynn De Jonghe, Veronica Michalowski, Ernie Tamminga, Georgette Unis, Kathleen Reeves, Ellen Livingston, Richard Luftig, Richard Bunce, Mary Elizabeth Moore.

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