Jesus' Abba: The God Who Has Not Failed: John B. Cobb Jr.: 9781506405704: Amazon.com: Books
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3.0 out of 5 starsI do like Cobb’s Abba
ByJ. Speerson July 13, 2016
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I cannot be as glowing about this book as the other reviewers so far. I do like Cobb’s Abba, but I am quite unconvinced that it was also Jesus’ Abba. I accept that the characteristics Cobb ascribes to God from the Jewish tradition that shaped Jesus were probably part of how Jesus understood God, but I am not convinced that Jesus necessarily rejected some of the characteristics that Cobb rejects. In other words, I think Cobb may be guilty—as I think many other progressive Christians are—of sifting the evidence so as to find the Jesus he wants to find.
I also find Cobb’s extended rant against modernity to be off the mark. What he is really ranting against is scientific materialism, which is the pathology of modernity rather than its true achievement. Christianity will only become increasingly irrelevant if it rejects modernity and turns back to premodern belief. I realize that is not what Cobb is advocating, but the book could leave one confused on that point.
As I said, I like Cobb’s Abba. He outlines an understanding and emotional stance toward God that has great merit for progressive Christians. I just think the book has significant weaknesses.
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4.0 out of 5 starsLove God & Love One Another is Cobb's Theme
ByJudith R. McGooganon June 30, 2016
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Cobb's book inspires us to work hard and consistently to build a deep and joyful relationship with Abba. This relationship can lead to faith and confidence in the love and empowering power of Abba to work through people to build loving, welcoming, embracing, caring communities - uniting all races, religions, and belief systems.
Cobb takes us back to the essence of Jesus' teachings, exposes fallacies in many supposedly Christian beliefs that resulted in abominations like the Holocaust, and explores common ground between Abba's message of unfailing love and the key tenets of other major religions and beliefs.
Cobb is a brilliant theologian and philosopher. Those of us without his deep grounding in these fields may have trouble following some of his arguments. Nevertheless, his book is worth reading - and perhaps re-reading - just to be reminded that Abba's deepest desire is to enjoy an intimate parental relationship with each individual on Planet Earth - and the second wish is "like unto it": that we might "love [our] neighbors as ourselves."
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5.0 out of 5 starsBrilliant, Caring, Assertive, and Practical
ByEdgar W. Hennigon August 15, 2016
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I have read John Cobb's excellent process theology books for years (I'm 82). He integrated in this book his brilliant grasp of the content with his personal faith. I really liked his affirming his own position that for him Jesus is the Way and the Truth and the Life and, yet, with full respect for, and in unconditional dialogue with, those who would disagree. His great wisdom so well articulated in his latter years is a great inspiration for me in my latter years to "keep on keeping on." Thanks John!
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5.0 out of 5 starsThere a new God on the block
ByJ. Thomas Wilkeson October 18, 2017
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This book describes the God Jesus and Paul worshiped. This God is not the God that the early and late Churches promote. Their God has very little room to wiggle in view of the science that has developed. It is clear that that God has failed. There is no room for an omnipotent God in todays world. Jesus's God is a gentle nudging God who operates in you and wants the best for you. As a Christian I have been looking for a description of this God who I can believe in and work with
The book is not easy, but in the end it presents a new view of an old God.
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4.0 out of 5 starsMy favorite part of the book was a critique of his ...
ByRaf Zayason January 28, 2017
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I'm not a process person but I found Cobb give language to thoughts and ideas people I serve have. The reason in bought the book was because he would be at a conference I was attending. The book itself was a very loving picture of Abba and a correct critique of credal Christianity.
My favorite part of the book was a critique of his own camp and it's failings of creating the atmosphere for Christians to love one God the God of the Bible.
Cobb doesn't shy away from his beliefs and because he is able to see the faults in his own tribes thinking gives me the opportunity to really listen. He is as loving in person and his writing and I have a lot of respect for this work.
His five points that he considers throughout the book are food for thought and he does a very good job explaining there implications on the church.
Thank you Dr Cobb for this book and for signing my copy.
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3.0 out of 5 starsOK read
Byzroseon March 29, 2018
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I read it with a church book group. It was helpful in debunking the idea of an all powerful domineering God, using scripture and history to explain how some religious traditions had gotten off track, and suggesting an alternate approach.
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3.0 out of 5 starsGood, but
ByMichael H. Montgomeryon November 1, 2016
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The first chapter on God as 'Jesus' Abba' is the most controversial, the rest of the book serves as a useful introduction to process theology.
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4.0 out of 5 starsTons of Ideas
ByJohn W. Cowanon December 4, 2017
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John Cobb is one of the initial shapers of Process Theology. Following on the work of Process Philosophers such as his mentor, Alfred North Whitehead whose basic stance in the words of the ancient Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, is “Everything flows,” John takes this insight into Theology. Perhaps the most startling of his assertions is that God too is in flow. Gasp on that for a moment if the possibility has not occurred to you before. While this is a book by a process theologian I would not read it if I were looking for a primer on process theology. Most of the book rises from seeds other than that. At least so I think. If the book is all process theology then process theology differs little from today’s mainstream. For the sake of orientation, the Trinity is no longer in the mainstream but back in an eddy somewhere.
John writes well and simply. So simply that for a while I was hoping he would upgrade his syntax and vocabulary. However the deeper I dug into the book the more I appreciated that at least his words were simple. The thoughts are not.
He retells in a new way the story of the universe from its creation and shape; through the story of the Jews emerging with their One God; and the sprouting of the prophetic tradition; flowering in Jesus and his minority opinion on the nature of God as daddy; including the immediate coming of the Kingdom of God; and Paul and his creation of kingdom-like communities; to the church creating distortions; to a map for realigning humanity so that wealth no longer dominates world decision-making.
This is a lot of book in one hundred fifty some pages. If you can find a copy or get an on-line peek, in the preface starting at page xxi he outlines the book. Here are some, only some, of his ideas.
• Jesus had a view of God flowing from the prophetic tradition of Israel and in his time not widely shared. Jesus’ picture of God while not presented directly shines through that which he had come to teach, the coming of the Kingdom of God. His name for God, “Abba” says it succinctly. The translation is: “Daddy.” And daddy is here and now opening the door for each of us to enter the Kingdom. (A better translation of the Greek basileia than “kingdom” might be the “household” or the “ranch,” Kingdoms have kings, God’s ranch does not. God’s ranch has a daddy.)
• Modern philosophy describes the world as a collection of objects. We are billiard balls bouncing against each other. Each person’s interior life is simply a collection of internal forces that result from external pressures. What we do is predetermined. There is no personal responsibility. We are objects, not subjects. This position removes our own subjectivity, our ability to effect anything, at the same time as it makes an effective God impossible. But, why is it that common sense says the exact opposite? Will you explain to the traffic cop that you did not run the light but your running the light is the result of other forces? In general, society insists that you are a subject not an object.
Abba who is a subject acting on subjects cannot exist in the billiard ball universe. But once the universe is seen as a great thought with subjects acting on subjects there is room for Abba to create. More philosophers are coming to see it this way.
• Those who realize that they are subjects experience being nudged by some interior force, lured to be and do the good. There is an inner voice that calls us forward. Where is that sense or voice originating? That is what we call “God.” And now perhaps better it is what we will call “Abba.”
• Most of Christianity has ignored this message from the very beginning. The actual Jesus, the one who trudged around Galilee has only a toe-hold in the Gospels and has pretty much disappeared by the time Christianity was solidified in the Third Century.
• Paul is often portrayed as not understanding Jesus’ message, but it was Paul that actualized Jesus dream of the Kingdom of Heaven by forming communities of love throughout the Roman Empire.
• The world must be reformed so that wealth no longer drives society. His text is Jesus’ aversion to wealth and to the wealthy, and his hope is Pope Francis.
I would disagree with John in some areas. For instance the scripture scholars I have read would say that to understand Paul’s work we must take into account the preexistence of Jewish synagogues in the places that he labored and the fact that first he tried to turn them Christian and then if he failed he set up his competing Christian community, differing from the synagogue in little but in the message of the crucified and risen Jesus, which these scripture scholars (and John Cobb) would say does Jesus a great disservice since it was not his message. His message was the coming of the Kingdom of God
I would prefer to see the Kingdom as an altered state akin to what Jesus experienced at his baptism and John Cobb himself has experienced while in prayer. I have been in communities that for a time, a couple of days, lived in this state, or something resembling it. Reading Paul’s letters to his fledgling congregations I see too much wrangling to believe they were the promised Kingdom. Actually I wonder about Jesus’ leadership team during his lifetime. If that is the best that can be done the task of entering the Kingdom is a lot easier than I thought.
I do not think Jesus as hard on wealth and the wealthy as John thinks he was. Jesus came to announce the kingdom not provide a starting place for Bernie Sanders. Jesus had several wealthy friends who did not divest their wealth and Paul’s missionary and building campaign was funded by his supporters with some apparent big hitters.
A small but critical point. There is no index! I have several things I think he said that I cannot find again. When reading, if you sometimes look back or want to look up something to quote to others accurately, lay out the bread crumbs yourself.
If you are in the market for a quick look at many, far from all, of the new and shiny ideas of today. Buy the book.
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5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent rethinking of Jesus and his Father (Abba)
ByDennis R. Fakeson June 6, 2016
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Excellent rethinking of Jesus and his Father (Abba). At a time when simplistic versions of God stack up against militant atheism, Cobb's Abba may be the answer. Thank you, Fortress, for bringing this book to our times.
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5.0 out of 5 starsAs usual with Professor Cobb's work, it is very ...
ByJohn G. Parkson January 17, 2018
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As usual with Professor Cobb's work, it is very thoughtful and gives lots to think about. It challenges believers to think beyond the creeds and doctrines of their traditions.
The church has emphasized ideas about God that have marginalized Jesus' understanding of his spiritual Father, his Abba. We commonly think of God as a demanding lawgiver and judge, an omnipotent ruler, or an ultimate philosophical principle. None of these works well today.
In contrast, Jesus' view of God as spiritual Abba still truly works when it is given a chance. Christians should be open to accepting the ideas of the one they call Lord and Savior. In Jesus' Abba, one of the greatest theologians of this generation boldly argues for a new view of God, through the eyes of Jesus.
John B. Cobb Jr. interprets the whole of Jesus' life and ministry, and death and resurrection, in light of Jesus' understanding of God. He also shows that Paul shared this understanding and that it played a central role in Paul's churches. Ultimately, Cobb argues that Jesus' view of God fits our actual experience today, that it is supported by the evidence of the sciences, and that it encourages appreciative learning from other wisdom traditions and cooperation with them in redeeming the world.
With this book, John B. Cobb Jr. makes his ultimate and most impassioned plea for us to rediscover God through Jesus.
John B. Cobb Jr. is the global leader of process theology and one of the greatest theological minds of the last fifty years. He is professor of theology emeritus at Claremont School of Theology in Claremont, California, and the cofounder of the Center for Process Studies. He is the author of over thirty books, including God and the World.
Product details
Hardcover: 181 pages
Publisher: Fortress Press (March 1, 2016)
