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Jesus’ Abba: The God Who Has Not Failed
by John B. Cobb Jr. on July 1, 2016 | 0 Comments
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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.
Reviews
… Dr. Cobb reminds us he has not and cannot prove the existence of Abba, but that “belief in Abba makes a lot of sense today.” (pp. 155,6). It is a more reasonable, sensible and satisfying option than accepting the modern worldview and leaving God and the Bible aside entirely. And there are many things, including some beliefs about God that we can disprove, such as a God who is both all-powerful and all-beneficent. He says, “The basic argument of this book is that, although many ideas associated with God and Christian faith have been disproved, Jesus’ teaching about Abba has not…. I commend a faithfulness to Jesus that shares Jesus’ confidence in the love and empowering power of Abba.” Click Here to Read Full Review by Howard Pepper
Professor Cobb’s book is a wonderful culmination of several decades of scholarship and teaching. In this volume, he captures the heart and essence of the spiritual life of Jesus, and describes it in a way that invites the reader to follow the example of this truly and profoundly spiritual person. Dr. Cobb, while fully aware of all the ways that “transcendence” is understood in our time, does not want us to forget what is most basic about God, that God is love and this love is unlimited and available for all to receive and embrace. Abba, the Aramaic word describing a truly loving Father (Parent), was how Jesus understand and related to God, and while he is sensitive to the gender issue, he asks the reader to claim the God-consciousness that was so central to the life of Jesus and manifested in a life epitomized the commandment to love God with one’s whole being and one’s neighbor as oneself. -Duncan S. Ferguson
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