John B. Cobb

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John B. Cobb

John B. Cobb (born February 9, 1925 in Kobe , Japan ) is a Methodist theologian and representative of process theology .

Life

Cobb is the youngest of three children of Methodist missionaries who served in Japan from 1919 to 1965, with the exception of World War II. After attending the Canadian Academy in Kobe from 1938 to 1939, the family moved to the US state of Georgia , where he went to Newnan High School from 1939 to 1941 and then attended the Junior College Emory-at-Oxford in Oxford, Georgia. He began studying at the University of Michigan in 1944 but did military service that same year. From 1947 to 1950 he studied at the University of Chicago, among others with Charles Hartshorne , where he got to know in particular the philosophy and metaphysics of Alfred North Whitehead . Cobb earned his MA in 1949 and his PhD in 1952. After graduation, he taught at Young Harris College, Georgia, from 1950 to 1953, and then until 1958 at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University . He stayed at the Claremont School of Theology until his retirement in 1990, where he held the Ingraham Professorship in Theology and Avery Professorship at the Claremont Graduate School.

He was visiting professor at the University of Mainz (1965–1966), Rikkyō University , Tokyo (1978), Chicago Divinity School (1980) and the Harvard Divinity School (1987). In 1968 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Mainz .

For the book For the Common Good (1989; 1994), written together with the economist Herman Daly , he received the 1992 Grawemeyer Award for ideas for a better world order. In 2014 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

Teaching

Cobb describes three ways of his approach to Christian theology:

  • Linking Christianity with Whitehead's cosmology, where plurality and openness are particularly important to him.
  • Inspired by his son, dealing with ecological questions from the perspective of Whitehead's philosophy.
  • The link between theology and service in the Church as the bearer of the Christian faith.

Cobb helped develop the Sustainable Economic Wealth Index .

After Wolfhart Pannenberg , Cobb made the most important attempt in God and the World (1969) to “reconcile Whitehead's philosophical theology with the Christian belief in creation”.

Private

Cobb is married to Jean L. Cobb and they have four sons.

Fonts

  • Varieties of Protestantism , 1960.
  • Living options in Protestant Theology , 1962.
  • A Christian Natural Theology , 1965.
  • The Structure of Christian Existence , 1967; dt. The Christian existence. A comparative study of the structures of existence in different religions . Claudius, Munich 1970.
  • God and the World , 1969; German Christian faith after God's death. Current understanding of the world in the light of theology . Claudius, Munich 1971, ISBN 3-532-71201-6 .
  • Is It Too Late? A Theology of Ecology , 1971 (revised new edition 1995); dt. The price of progress. Environmental protection as a problem of social ethics . Claudius, Munich 1972, ISBN 3-532-61805-2 .
  • Liberal Theology at the Crossroads , 1973.
  • Christ in a Pluralistic Age , 1975.
  • with David Griffin , Process Theology: An Introductory Exposition , 1976; German process theology. An introductory presentation . Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 1979, ISBN 3-525-56320-5 .
  • Theology and Pastoral Care , 1977.
  • with Charles Birch , The Liberation of Life. From 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.
  • The Earthist Challenge to Economism , 1999.
  • Transforming Christianity and the World , 1999.
  • Postmodernism and Public Policy: Reframing Religion, Culture, Education, Sexuality, Class, Race, Politics, and the Economy , 2001.
  • The Process Perspective: Frequently Asked Questions about Process Theology , 2003.
  • The Emptying God: A Buddhist-Jewish-Christian Conversation , 2005.
  • with Kevin Barrett and Sandra Lubarsky, 9/11 & American Empire: Christians, Jews, and Muslims Speak Out , 2006.

literature

  • David Ray Griffin: John Cobb's Theology in Process. Westminster John Knox Press, 1977, ISBN 0-664-21292-1 .
  • David Ray Griffin, Joseph C. Hough, Jr. (Eds.): Theology and the University. Essays in Honor of John B. Cobb, Jr. (Bibliography pp. 245–266)
  • Franz Riffert, Hans-Joachim Sander (Eds.): Researching with Whitehead: system and adventure; essays in honor of John B. Cobb. Alber, Freiburg / Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-495-48220-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ John B. Cobb in the Boston Collaborative Encyclopedia of Modern Western Theology
  2. ^ Real Spirituality For Real Life: John B. Cobb, Jr. website processandfaith.org
  3. ^ Wolfhart Pannenberg: Theology and Philosophy. their relationship in the light of their shared history. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1996, p. 355.
personal data
SURNAME Cobb, John B.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American Methodist theologian and religious philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH February 9, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Kobe , Japan