2019/09/04

John B. Cobb - Wikipedia - process philosophy and Theology of Ecology

John B. Cobb - Wikipedia

John B. Cobb

Cobb in 2013
Born
John Boswell Cobb Jr.
February 9, 1925 (age 94)

Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan
Residence Claremont, California, US
Nationality American
Spouse(s)
Jean L. Cobb (m. 1947)[1]

Academic background
Alma mater University of Chicago
Thesis The Independence of Christian Faith from Speculative Beliefs[2] (1952)
Doctoral advisor Charles Hartshorne



Influences

Richard McKeon
Alfred North Whitehead
Daniel Day Williams



Academic work
Discipline

Theology
philosophy



School or tradition

Process philosophy
process theology
Institutions

Emory University
Claremont School of Theology
Doctoral students

Catherine Keller
Ernest L. Simmons
Main interests

Metaphysics
environmental ethics
Notable ideas Christocentric pluralism



Influenced

David Ray Griffin
C. Robert Mesle
Roland Faber
Monica Coleman
Bruce Epperly
Michel Weber



John Boswell Cobb Jr. (born February 9, 1925) is an American theologian, philosopher, and environmentalist. Cobb is often regarded as the preeminent scholar in the field of process philosophy and process theology, the school of thought associated with the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead.[3] Cobb is the author of more than fifty books.[4] In 2014, Cobb was elected to the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[5]

A unifying theme of Cobb's work is his emphasis on ecological interdependence—the idea that every part of the ecosystem is reliant on all the other parts. Cobb has argued that humanity's most urgent task is to preserve the world on which it lives and depends,[6] an idea which his primary influence, Whitehead, described as "world-loyalty".[7]

Cobb is well known for his transdisciplinary approach, integrating insights from many different areas of study and bringing different specialized disciplines into fruitful communication. Because of his broad-minded interest and approach, Cobb has been influential in a wide range of disciplines, including theology, ecology, economics, biology, and social ethics.

In 1971, he wrote the first single-author book in environmental ethics, Is It Too Late? A Theology of Ecology, which argued for the relevance of religious thought in approaching the ecological crisis.[8] In 1989, he co-authored the book For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy Toward Community, Environment, and a Sustainable Future, which critiqued current global economic practice and advocated for a sustainable, ecology-based economics. 



He has written extensively on religious pluralismand interfaith dialogue, particularly between Buddhism and Christianity, as well as the need to reconcile religion and science.

Cobb is the co-founder and current co-director of the Center for Process Studies in Claremont, California.[9] The Center for Process Studies remains the leading Whitehead-related institute, and has witnessed the launch of more than thirty related centers at academic institutions throughout the world, including twenty-three centers in China.[10][11]


Contents
1Biography
2Transdisciplinary work

Biography[edit]

Harborland in Kobe, Hyōgo prefecture, Japan

John Cobb was born in Kobe, Japan, on February 9, 1925, to parents who were Methodistmissionaries.[12] Until age 15, he lived primarily in Kobe and Hiroshima and received most of his early education in the multi-ethnic Canadian Academy in Kobe,[12] to which he attributes the beginnings of his pluralistic outlook.[13]
In 1940, Cobb moved to Georgia, US, to finish high school.[12] He found himself both bewildered and disgusted by the pervasive racism in the region, particularly the demonization of the Japanese.[14] Seeing how the same events could be presented in such different ways based on the country in which he was living, Cobb became ever-more counter-cultural and critical of the dominant views in churches, media, universities, and government.[15]

After his graduation from high school, Cobb attended Emory College in Oxford, Georgia, before joining the US Army in 1943.[16] He was chosen for the Japanese language program, which was filled mainly with Jewish and Catholic intellectuals who helped make him aware of the narrow, parochial nature of his Georgia Protestantism.[17]

Cobb served in the occupation of Japan, then returned to the United States and left the army soon afterward. He then entered an interdepartmental program at the University of Chicago in 1947. There, he set out to test his faith by learning the modern world's objections to Christianity.[18] His faith did not come out intact.


I was determined to expose my faith to the worst the world could offer. Within six months of such exposure my faith was shattered ... God, who had been my constant companion and Lord up to that point, simply evaporated, and my prayers bounced back from the ceiling unheard.[18]

Hoping to reconstruct a Christian faith more compatible with scientific and historical knowledge, Cobb entered the University of Chicago Divinity School.[19] He was successful in restoring his personal faith primarily with the help of Richard McKeon, Daniel Day Williams, and Charles Hartshorne.[19] McKeon introduced Cobb to philosophical relativism, while Hartshorne and Williams taught him Whiteheadian process philosophy and process theology. Alfred North Whitehead's thought became the central theme of Cobb's own work.

After receiving his Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Chicago under the supervision of Charles Hartshorne in 1952,[20] he spent three years teaching at Young Harris College in north Georgia, while also serving as part-time pastor to a six-church circuit and establishing a seventh congregation in the area.[21] Ernest Cadman Colwell, formerly president of the University of Chicago, brought Cobb to Emory University in Georgia to teach in the new graduate institute for liberal arts. In 1958, Cobb followed Colwell to Claremont, California,[22] where he was named Ingraham Professor of Theology at Claremont School of Theology and Avery Professor of Religion at Claremont Graduate University.[4] He established the Process Studies journal with Lewis S. Ford [de] in 1971 and co-founded the Center for Process Studies with David Ray Griffin in 1973, making Claremont the center of Whiteheadian process thought.[22] Twenty-five years later, together with Herman Greene, he organized the International Process Network. This organization holds biennial conferences, the tenth of which will be taking place in Claremont in 2015.[23]

During his career, Cobb has also served as Visiting Professor at Harvard Divinity School, Chicago Divinity School, Vanderbilt Divinity School, Iliff School of Theology, Rikkyo University in Japan, and the University of Mainz in Germany.[4] He has received six honorary doctorates.[24]

Transdisciplinary work[edit]

Although Cobb is most often described as a theologian, the overarching tendency of his thought has been toward the integration of many different areas of knowledge, employing Alfred North Whitehead's transdisciplinary philosophical framework as his guiding insight.[25] As a result, Cobb has done work in a broad range of fields.

Philosophy of education[edit]

Cobb has consistently opposed the splitting of education and knowledge into discrete and insulated disciplines and departments.[26] He believes that the current university model encourages excessive abstraction because each specialized area of study defines its own frame of reference and then tends to ignore the others, discouraging interdisciplinary dialogue and inhibiting a broad understanding of the world.[26]

To combat these problems, Cobb argues that discrete "disciplines" in general—and theology in particular—need to re-emerge from their mutual academic isolation.[27]  Theology should once again be tied to ethical questions and practical, everyday concerns, as well as a theoretical understanding of the world. In service to this vision, Cobb has consistently sought to integrate knowledge from biology, physics, economics, and other disciplines into his theological and philosophical work.[28]

Constructive postmodern philosophy[edit]

Cobb was convinced that Alfred North Whitehead was right in viewing both nature and human beings as more than just purposeless machines.[29] Rather than seeing nature as purely mechanical and human consciousness as a strange exception which must be explained away, Whiteheadian naturalism went in the opposite direction by arguing that subjective experience of the world should inform a view of the rest of nature as more than just mechanical. In short, nature should be seen as having a subjective and purposive aspect that deserves attention.[29]

Speaking to this need of moving beyond classically "modern" ideas, in the 1960s Cobb was the first to label Whiteheadian thought as "postmodern".[30] Later, when deconstructionists began to describe their thought as "postmodern", Whiteheadians changed their own label to "constructive postmodernism".[31]

Like its deconstructionist counterpart, constructive postmodernism arose partly in response to dissatisfaction with Cartesian mind–matter dualism, which viewed matter as an inert machine and the human mind as wholly different in nature.[31][32] While modern science has uncovered voluminous evidence against this idea, Cobb argues that dualistic assumptions continue to persist:


On the whole, dualism was accepted by the general culture. To this day it shapes the structure of the university, with its division between the sciences and the humanities. Most people, whether they articulate it or not, view the world given to them in sight and touch as material, while they consider themselves to transcend that purely material status.[31]

While deconstructionists have concluded that we must abandon any further attempts to create a comprehensive vision of the world, Cobb and other constructive postmodernists believe that metaphysics and comprehensive world-models are possible and still needed.[31][33] 
In particular, they have argued for a new Whiteheadian metaphysics based on events rather than substances.[31][34] 
In this formulation, it is incorrect to say that a person or thing ("substance") has a fundamental identity that remains constant, and that any changes to the person or thing are secondary to what it is.[35] 
Instead, each moment in a person's life ("event") is seen as a new actuality, thus asserting that continual change and transformation are fundamental, while static identities are far less important.[36] This view more easily reconciles itself with certain findings of modern science, such as evolution and wave–particle duality.[37]

Environmental ethics[edit]

Ecological themes have been pervasive in Cobb's work since 1969, when he turned his attention to the ecological crisis.[6] He became convinced that environmental issues constituted humanity's most pressing problem. Cobb writes:

During the seventies my sense of the theological vocation changed. I did not lose interest in developing the Christian tradition so as to render it intelligible, convincing, and illuminating in a changing context. But I did reject the compartmentalization of my discipline of 'constructive theology,' especially in its separation from ethics, and more generally in its isolation from other academic disciplines ... I was persuaded that no problem could be more critical than that of a decent survival of a humanity that threatened to destroy itself by exhausting and polluting its natural context.[6]

Cobb went on to write the first single-author book in environmental ethics, Is It Too Late? A Theology of Ecology, in 1971.[38] In the book, he argued for an ecological worldview that acknowledges the continuity between human beings and other living things, as well as their mutual dependence. He also proposed that Christianity specifically needed to appropriate knowledge from the biological sciences in order to undercut its anthropocentrism (human-centeredness) and devaluation of the non-human world.[39]

Critique of growth-oriented economics[edit]

Cobb's economic critiques arose as a natural extension of his interest in ecological issues. He recognized that he could not write about an ecological, sustainable, and just society without including discussion of economics.[40]

As part of his investigation into why economic policies so frequently worsened the ecological situation, in the 1980s Cobb decided to re-evaluate gross national product and gross domestic product as measures of economic progress.[41] Together with his son, Clifford Cobb, he developed an alternative model, the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare,[41] which sought to "consolidate economic, environmental, and social elements into a common framework to show net progress."[42] The name of the metric would later change to genuine progress indicator.[43] A recent (2013) article has shown that global GPI per capita peaked in 1978, meaning that the social and environmental costs of economic growth have outweighed the benefits since that time.[44]

Cobb also co-authored a book with Herman Daly in 1989 entitled For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy Toward Community, Environment, and a Sustainable Future, which outlined policy changes intended to create a society based on community and ecological balance. In 1992, For the Common Good earned Cobb and Daly the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order.[45]

In recent years, Cobb has described current growth-oriented economic systems as the "prime example of corruption" in American culture and religion:


Since the rise of modern economics, Christians have been forced to give up their criticism of greed, because the economists said "greed is good, and if you really want to help people, be as greedy as possible."[46]

Cobb sees such values as being in direct opposition with the message of Jesus, which in many places explicitly criticizes the accumulation of wealth. Because of Christianity's widespread acceptance of such economic values, Cobb sees Christians as far less confident in proclaiming the values of Jesus.[46]



Biology and religion[edit]

Along with Whitehead, Cobb has sought to reconcile science and religion in places where they appear to conflict, as well as to encourage religion to make use of scientific insights and vice versa.[47]

In the area of religion and biology, he co-wrote The Liberation of Life: From the Cell to the Community with Australian geneticist Charles Birch in 1981. The book critiqued the dominant biological model of mechanism, arguing that it leads to the study of organisms in abstraction from their environments.[48] Cobb and Birch argue instead for an "ecological model" which draws no sharp lines between the living and non-living, or between an organism and its environment.[49] The book also argues for an idea of evolution in which adaptive behavior can lead to genetic changes.[50] Cobb and Birch stress that a species"co-evolves with its environment" and that in this way intelligent purpose plays a role in evolution:

Evolution is not a process of ruthless competition directed to some goal of ever-increasing power or complexity. Such an attitude, by failing to be adaptive, is, in fact, not conducive to evolutionary success. A species co-evolves with its environment. Equally, there is no stable, harmonious nature to whose wisdom humanity should simply submit. Intelligent purpose plays a role in adaptive behaviour, and as environments change its role is increased.[51]

The Liberation of Life stresses that all life (not just human life) is purposeful and that it aims for the realization of richer experience.[52] Cobb and Birch develop the idea of "trusting life" as a religious impulse, rather than attempting to achieve a settled, perfected social structure that does not allow for change and evolution.[53]

Religious pluralism and interreligious dialogue[edit]

Cobb has participated in extensive interreligious and interfaith dialogue, most notably with Masao Abe, a Japanese Buddhist of the Kyoto School of philosophy.[54] Cobb's explicit aim was to gain ideas and insights from other religions with an eye toward augmenting and "universalizing" Christianity.[55] Cobb writes:


... it is the mission of Christianity to become a universal faith in the sense of taking into itself the alien truths that others have realized. This is no mere matter of addition. It is instead a matter of creative transformation. An untransformed Christianity, that is, a Christianity limited to its own parochialtraditions, cannot fulfill its mission of realizing the universal meaning of Jesus Christ.[56]

In short, Cobb does not conceive of dialogue as useful primarily to convert or be converted, but rather as useful in order to transform both parties mutually, allowing for a broadening of ideas and a reimagining of each faith in order that they might better face the challenges of the modern world.[57][58]

Cobb has also been active in formulating his own theories of religious pluralism, partly in response to another Claremont Graduate University professor, John Hick.[59] Cobb's pluralism has sometimes been identified as a kind of "deep" pluralism or, alternately, as a "complementary" pluralism.[60] 




He believes that there are actually three distinct religious ultimates: 

(1) God

(2) Creativity/Emptiness/Nothingness/Being-itself, and 

(3) the cosmos/universe.[61] 



Cobb believes that all of these elements are necessary and present in some form in every religion but that different faiths tend to stress one ultimate over the others.[62] 

Viewed in this way, different religions may be seen to complement each other by providing insight into different religious ultimates.[63] 

Cobb's pluralism thus avoids the criticism of conflating religions that are actually very different (for instance, Buddhism and Christianity) while still affirming the possible truths of both.[63]

Revitalizing Christianity in a pluralistic world[edit]

David Ray Griffin, with whom Cobb co-founded the Center for Process Studies in 1973

Cobb believed that through at least the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century, American Protestant theology had been largely derivative from European (specifically German) theology.[64] In the late 1950s, Cobb and Claremont professor James Robinson decided that the time had come to end this one-sidedness and move to authentic dialogue between American and European theologians.[65] To establish real mutuality, they organized a series of conferences of leading theologians in Germany and the United States and published a series of volumes called "New Frontiers in Theology."[66]

After writing several books surveying contemporary forms of Protestantism, Cobb turned in the mid-1960s to more original work which sought to bring Alfred North Whitehead's ideas into the contemporary American Protestant scene.[67] 


Cobb aimed to reconstruct a Christian vision that was more compatible with modern knowledge and more ready to engage with today's pluralisticworld.[60] He did this in a number of ways.

For one, Cobb has stressed the problems inherent in what he calls the "substantialist" worldview—ultimately derived from Classical Greek philosophy—that still dominates Christian theology, as well as most of western thought.[68] This "substantialist" way of thinking necessitates a mind–matter dualism, in which matter and mind are two fundamentally different kinds of entities. It also encourages seeing relations between entities as being unimportant to what the entity is "in itself".[69] 


In contrast to this view, Cobb follows Whitehead in attributing primacy to events and processes rather than substances.[68] In this Whiteheadian view, nothing is contained within its own sharp boundaries. In fact, the way in which a thing relates to other things is what makes it "what it is". 

Cobb writes:

If the substantialist view is abandoned, a quite different picture emerges. Each occasion of human experience is constituted not only by its incorporation of the cellular occasions of its body but also by its incorporation of aspects of other people. That is, people internally relate to one another. Hence, the character of one's being, moment by moment, is affected by the health and happiness of one's neighbors.[68]

For Cobb, this metaphysics of process is better-aligned with the Bible, which stresses history, community, and the importance of one's neighbors.[68]

Claremont School of Theology, 2013

Also, instead of turning further inward to preserve a cohesive Christian community, Cobb turned outward in order to discover truths that Christianity may not yet possess.[55] This is in direct opposition to those who feel that Christianity as a religious system is absolutely final, complete, and free of error. Cobb has not only turned to other religions (most notably Buddhism) in order to supplement Christian ideas and systems,[70] but also to other disciplines, including biology, physics, and economics.

In fact, Cobb has not shied away even from re-imaging what is now regarded as the "traditional" Christian notion of God. 


He does not believe that God is omnipotent in the sense of having unilateral control over all events, since Cobb sees reconciling total coercive power with love and goodness to be an impossible task.[68] Instead, all creatures are viewed as having some degree of freedom that God cannot override.[71] Cobb solves the problem of evil by denying God's omnipotence, stressing instead that God's power is persuasive rather than coercive, that God can influence creatures but not determine what they become or do.[72] For Cobb, God's role is to liberate and empower.[73]

Against traditional theism, Cobb has also denied the idea that God is immutable(unchanging) and impassible (unfeeling).[74] Instead, he stresses that God is affected and changed by the actions of creatures, both human and otherwise.[68] For Cobb, the idea that God experiences and changes does not mean that God is imperfect—quite the contrary. Instead, God is seen as experiencing with all beings, and hence understanding and empathizing with all beings, becoming "the fellow sufferer who understands."[75] Cobb argues that this idea of God is more compatible with the Bible, in which Jesus suffers and dies.

Additionally, Cobb's theology has argued against the idea of salvation as a singular, binary event in which one is either saved or not saved for all time. Rather than seeing one's time in the world as a test of one's morality in order to enter a heavenly realm, Cobb sees salvation as the continual striving to transform and perfect our experience in this world.[68]Cobb's idea of salvation focuses less on moral categories and more on aesthetic categories—such as a preference for intense experience over dull experience, or beauty rather than ugliness. Cobb writes:



If morality is bound up with contributing to others, the crucial question is: What is to be contributed? One contribution might be making them more moral, and that is fine. But finally, true morality cannot aim simply at the spread of morality. It must aim at the wellbeing of those it tries to help in some broader sense. For process thought that must be the perfection of their experience inclusively.[68]

Cobb admits that the idea of morality being subservient to aesthetics is "shocking to many Christians",[68] yet he argues that there must be more to life than simply being morally good or morally bad and that aesthetic categories fulfill this function specifically because they are defined as goods in themselves.

Within the last twenty years, Cobb has become increasingly distressed by the popular identification of Christianity with the religious right and the weak response of mainstream Protestants. To encourage a stronger response, he organized Progressive Christians Uniting with the Episcopal priest George Regas in 1996,[76] chaired its reflection committee, and edited a number of its books. As the perceived gap between the policies of the American government and Christian teaching grew wider, these books moved beyond simply reformist proposals. The last of these was entitled Resistance: The New Role of Progressive Christians.
Cobb's most recent book is entitled Spiritual Bankruptcy: A Prophetic Call to Action. It argues against both religiousness and secularism, claiming that what is needed is the secularization of the wisdom traditions.[77]

The influence of Cobb's thought in China[edit]

Process philosophy in the tradition of Alfred North Whitehead is often considered a primarily American philosophical movement, but it has spread globally and has been of particular interest to Chinese thinkers. As one of process philosophy's leading figures, Cobb has taken a leadership role in bringing process thought to the East, most specifically to help China develop a more ecological civilization—a goal which the current Chinese government has written into its constitution.[11][78]

With Zhihe Wang, Cobb founded the Institute for Postmodern Development of China (IPDC) in 2005, and currently serves on its board of directors.[79] Through the IPDC, Cobb helps to coordinate the work of twenty-three collaborative centers in China, as well as to organize annual conferences on ecological civilization.[10][11]

Institutions founded[edit]

Cobb has founded numerous non-profit organizations throughout his career.

In 1973, Cobb co-founded the Center for Process Studies with David Ray Griffin as a faculty research center of the Claremont School of Theology, and currently still serves as its Co-Director.[80] The Center for Process Studies is the leading institute on the process philosophy and process theology inspired by Alfred North Whitehead, Charles Hartshorne, and others.

In 1996, Cobb co-founded the Claremont Consultation with George Regas in an effort to organize and mobilize progressive Christian communities.[81] In 2003, the organization's name was changed to Progressive Christians Uniting. PCU today describes itself as "a social justice and faith organization dedicated to amplifying hope and actions individuals can take that lead to a more compassionate and just world."

In 2005, Cobb was the founding President of the Institute for the Postmodern Development of China.[79] The IPDC works to promote new modes of development in China and the West, drawing from both classical Chinese philosophy and constructive forms of Western thought in order to address practical problems associated with economic growth, social change, and globalization. Cobb continues to work on the IPDC's board of directors.

In 2013, Cobb was a founding board member of Process Century Press, an academic press dedicated to transdisciplinary applications of process thought. He remains on PCP's advisory board.[82]

In 2014, Cobb was the founding chairperson of the board for Pando Populus, an LA-based non-profit organization that seeks to enact a more ecologically balanced way of life in the LA area. Cobb remains on Pando Populus' board of directors.[83]

In 2015, Cobb was a founding board member of Toward Ecological Civilization (EcoCiv), a non-profit organization which seeks to enact "a fully sustainable human society in harmony with surrounding ecosystems and communities of life." Cobb remains on EcoCiv's board of directors.[84]

Bibliography[edit]

Books written[edit]




  • Varieties of Protestantism, 1960
  • Living Options in Protestant Theology, 1962 (online edition)
  • A Christian Natural Theology, 1965 (online edition)
  • The Structure of Christian Existence, 1967 (online edition)
  • God and the World, 1969
  • Is It Too Late? A Theology of Ecology, 1971 (revised edition, 1995)
  • Liberal Christianity at the Crossroads, 1973 (online edition)
  • Christ in a Pluralistic Age, 1975
  • with David Ray Griffin, Process Theology: An Introductory Exposition, 1976, ISBN 0-664-24743-1
  • Theology and Pastoral Care, 1977
  • with Charles Birch, The Liberation of Life: from the Cell to the Community, 1981
  • Process Theology as Political Theology, 1982 (online edition)
  • Beyond Dialogue: Toward a Mutual Transformation of Christianity and Buddhism, 1982
  • with David Tracy, Talking About God, 1983 (online edition)
  • 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) which won the 1992 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order.[85]
  • Doubting Thomas, 1990, ISBN 0-8245-1033-X (online edition)
  • 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, ISBN 0-8272-2122-3
  • Sustaining the Common Good, 1994, ISBN 0-8298-1010-2
  • Grace and Responsibility, 1995
  • Reclaiming the Church, 1997, ISBN 0-664-25720-8
  • The Earthist Challenge to Economism: A Theological Critique of the World Bank, 1999, ISBN 0-312-21838-9
  • Transforming Christianity and the World: A Way Beyond Absolutism and Relativism, 1999, ISBN 1-57075-271-0
  • Postmodernism and Public Policy: Reframing Religion, Culture, Education, Sexuality, Class, Race, Politics, and the Economy, 2002, ISBN 0-7914-5166-6
  • The Process Perspective: Frequently Asked Questions About Process Theology(edited by Jeanyne B. Slettom), 2003, ISBN 0-8272-2999-2
  • Romans (with David J. Lull), 2005
  • with Bruce Epperly and Paul Nancarrow, The Call of the Spirit: Process Spirituality in a Relational World, 2005
  • A Christian Natural Theology, Second Edition, 2007
  • Whitehead Word Book: A Glossary with Alphabetical Index to Technical Terms inProcess and Reality, 2008 ISBN 978-0-9742459-6-6
  • Spiritual Bankruptcy: A Prophetic Call to Action, 2010
  • The Process Perspective II (edited by Jeanyne B. Slettom), 2011
  • Theological Reminiscences, 2014
  • Jesus' Abba – The God Who Has Not Failed, 2015



Books edited[edit]
with James Robinson, The Later Heidegger and Theology, 1963
with James Robinson, The New Hermeneutic, 1964
with James Robinson, Theology as History, 1967
The Theology of Altizer: Critique and Response, 1971
with David Ray Griffin, Mind in Nature, 1977 (online edition)
with Widick Schroeder, Process Philosophy and Social Thought, 1981
with Franklin Gamwell, Existence and Actuality: Conversations with Charles Hartshorne, 1984 (online edition)
Christian Faith and Religious Diversity: Mobilization for the Human Family, 2002, ISBN 0-8006-3483-7
with Christopher Ives, The Emptying God: A Buddhist-Jewish-Christian Conversation, Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2005, ISBN 1-59752-421-2
with Kevin Barrett and Sandra Lubarsky, 9/11 & American Empire: Christians, Jews, and Muslims Speak Out, 2006, ISBN 1-56656-660-6
Resistance: The New Role of Progressive Christians. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-664-23287-0
Back to Darwin, 2008



Dialogue Comes of Age, 2010
Religions in the Making: Whitehead and the Wisdom Traditions of the World, 2012
with Ignacio Castuera, For Our Common Home: Process-Relational Responses to Laudato Si', 2015
with Wm. Andrew Schwartz, Putting Philosophy to Work: Toward an Ecological Civilization, 2018

Articles[edit]

For a list of Cobb's published articles through 2010, see the list at The Center for Process Studies.
See also[edit]

Biography portal
Christianity portal
Ingersoll Lectures on Human Immortality
Progressive Christianity



References[edit]


  1. ^ "Jean Cobb: Loving Wife and Mother, Librarian". Claremont Courier. 4 February 2016. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
  2. ^ Cobb, John B. (1952). The Independence of Christian Faith from Speculative Beliefs (PhD thesis). Chicago: University of Chicago. OCLC 80987653.
  3. ^ Roland Faber, God as Poet of the World: Exploring Process Theologies (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 35; C. Robert Mesle, Process Theology (St. Louis: Chalice Press, 1993), 126; Gary Dorrien, "The Lure and Necessity of Process Theology," CrossCurrents 58 (2008): 316; Monica A. Coleman, Nancy R. Howell, and Helene Tallon Russell, Creating Women's Theology: A Movement Engaging Process Thought (Wipf and Stock, 2011), 13.
  4. ^ Jump up to:a b c Process and Faith, "John B. Cobb Jr." http://processandfaith.org/misc/john-b-cobb-jr
  5. ^ "American Academy of Arts and Sciences". Retrieved 24 June 2014.
  6. ^ Jump up to:a b c John B. Cobb, "Intellectual Autobiography", Religious Studies Review 19 (1993): 10.
  7. ^ Alfred North Whitehead, Religion in the Making (New York: Fordham University Press, 1996), 60.
  8. ^ The Center for Environmental Philosophy, "History of Environmental Ethics for the Novice," http://www.cep.unt.edu/novice.html
  9. ^ The Center for Process Studies, "About the Center for Process Studies," "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 11 January 2010. Retrieved 14 December 2009.
  10. ^ Jump up to:a b Institute for the Postmodern Development of China, "Collaborative Centers," "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 19 December 2013. Retrieved 19 December 2013.
  11. ^ Jump up to:a b c "China embraces Alfred North Whitehead," last modified December 10, 2008, Douglas Todd, The Vancouver Sun, accessed December 5, 2013, http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2008/12/10/china-embraces-alfred-north-whitehead/.
  12. ^ Jump up to:a b c David Ray Griffin, "John B. Cobb Jr.: A Theological Biography," in Theology and the University: Essays in Honor of John B. Cobb Jr., ed. David Ray Griffin and Joseph C. Hough Jr. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991), 225.
  13. ^ John B. Cobb, Theological Reminiscences (unpublished manuscript), 5-9.
  14. ^ John B. Cobb, Theological Reminiscences (unpublished manuscript), 7.
  15. ^ John B. Cobb, Theological Reminiscences (unpublished manuscript), 9.
  16. ^ David Ray Griffin, "John B. Cobb Jr.: A Theological Biography", in Theology and the University: Essays in Honor of John B. Cobb Jr., ed. David Ray Griffin and Joseph C. Hough Jr. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991), 225-226.
  17. ^ David Ray Griffin, "John B. Cobb Jr.: A Theological Biography," in Theology and the University: Essays in Honor of John B. Cobb Jr., ed. David Ray Griffin and Joseph C. Hough Jr. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991), 226.
  18. ^ Jump up to:a b David Ray Griffin, "John B. Cobb Jr.: A Theological Biography," in Theology and the University: Essays in Honor of John B. Cobb Jr., ed. David Ray Griffin and Joseph C. Hough Jr. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991), 227.
  19. ^ Jump up to:a b David Ray Griffin, "John B. Cobb Jr.: A Theological Biography," in Theology and the University: Essays in Honor of John B. Cobb Jr., ed. David Ray Griffin and Joseph C. Hough Jr. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991), 228.
  20. ^ Sherburne, Don (2008). "Cobb, John B., Jr.". In Lachs, John; Talisse, Robert (eds.). American Philosophy: An Encyclopedia. New York: Routledge. p. 109. ISBN 978-1-135-94887-0.
  21. ^ "John B. Cobb Jr". The Interfaith Observer. Retrieved 28 December 2013.
  22. ^ Jump up to:a b David Ray Griffin, "John B. Cobb Jr.: A Theological Biography", in Theology and the University: Essays in Honor of John B. Cobb Jr., ed. David Ray Griffin and Joseph C. Hough Jr. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991), 229.
  23. ^ Worldwide Process, "'Seizing An Alternative' by John Cobb", http://www.worldwideprocess.org/seizing-an-alternative-by-john-cobb.html
  24. ^ The Center for Process Studies, "John B. Cobb's CV," http://www.ctr4process.org/about/CoDirectors/cobb_cv.pdf, Claremont School of Theology, "CST to Award Cobb Honorary Doctorate at Commencement," http://www.cst.edu/news/2013/02/15/cst-to-award-cobb-honorary-doctorate-at-commenceme/
  25. ^ Gary Dorrien, "The Lure and Necessity of Process Theology," CrossCurrents 58 (2008): 333.
  26. ^ Jump up to:a b Delwin Brown, "The Location of the Theologian: John Cobb's Career as Critique," Religious Studies Review 19 (1993): 12.
  27. ^ Delwin Brown, "The Location of the Theologian: John Cobb's Career as Critique," Religious Studies Review 19 (1993): 13.
  28. ^ Butkus, Russell A. and Steven A. Kolmes (2011). Environmental Science and Theology in Dialogue. Maryknoll NY: Orbis Books. pp. 19–21. ISBN 978-1-57075-912-3.
  29. ^ Jump up to:a b Charles Birch and John B. Cobb Jr., The Liberation of Life (Denton: Environmental Ethics Books, 1990), 5-6.
  30. ^ David Ray Griffin, Whitehead's Radically Different Postmodern Philosophy: An Argument for Its Contemporary Relevance (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007), 4.
  31. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e John B. Cobb Jr. "Constructive Postmodernism", Religion Online, "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 8 August 2013. Retrieved 11 August 2013.
  32. ^ David Ray Griffin, Whitehead's Radically Different Postmodern Philosophy: An Argument for Its Contemporary Relevance (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007), 11. Cf. Michel Weber and Anderson Weekes (eds.), Process Approaches to Consciousness in Psychology, Neuroscience, and Philosophy of Mind (Whitehead Psychology Nexus Studies II), Albany, New York, State University of New York Press, 2009.
  33. ^ David Ray Griffin, Whitehead's Radically Different Postmodern Philosophy: An Argument for Its Contemporary Relevance (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007), 5-7.
  34. ^ David Ray Griffin, Whitehead's Radically Different Postmodern Philosophy: An Argument for Its Contemporary Relevance (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007), 60.
  35. ^ Charles Birch and John B. Cobb Jr., The Liberation of Life (Denton: Environmental Ethics Books, 1990), 95.
  36. ^ Hodgson, Peter Crafts (1994). Winds of the Spirit: A Constructive Christian Theology. Louisville KY: Westminster John Knox Press. p. 93. ISBN 0664254438.
  37. ^ Charles Birch and John B. Cobb Jr., The Liberation of Life (Denton: Environmental Ethics Books, 1990), 65; also John B. Cobb Jr. "Constructive Postmodernism," Religion Online, "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 8 August 2013. Retrieved 11 August2013. .
  38. ^ The Center for Environmental Philosophy, "Environmental Ethics Books," http://www.cep.unt.edu/eebooks.html
  39. ^ Min, Anselm Kyongsuk (1989). Dialectic of Salvation: Issues in Theology of Liberation. Albany NY: SUNY Press. p. 84. ISBN 0887069096.
  40. ^ John B. Cobb Jr., "Intellectual Autobiography," Religious Studies Review 19 (1993): 10.
  41. ^ Jump up to:a b Herman E. Daly and John B. Cobb Jr., For The Common Good: Redirecting the Economy toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future (Beacon Press, 1994).
  42. ^ Ida Kubiszewski et al, "Beyond GDP: Measuring and achieving global genuine progress," Ecological Economics 93 (2013), 57.
  43. ^ Stephen M. Posner and Robert Costanza, "A summary of ISEW and GPI studies at multiple scales and new estimates for Baltimore City, Baltimore County, and the State of Maryland," Ecological Economics (2011), 2, http://www.green.maryland.gov/mdgpi/pdfs/MD-PosnerCostanza%202011%20GPI.pdf
  44. ^ Ida Kubiszewski et al, "Beyond GDP: Measuring and achieving global genuine progress," Ecological Economics 93 (2013), 67.
  45. ^ University of Louisville, "1992 – Samuel Huntington, Herman Daly and John Cobb," "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2 December 2013. Retrieved 9 October2013.
  46. ^ Jump up to:a b The Institute on Religion and Democracy, "12-06-18 Process Theologian John Cobb Urges 'Secularizing Christianity,'" http://juicyecumenism.com/2012/06/18/process-theologian-john-cobb-urges-secularizing-christianity/
  47. ^ Jay McDaniel, Of God and Pelicans: A Theology of Reverence for Life (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1989), 139.
  48. ^ Charles Birch and John B. Cobb Jr., The Liberation of Life: From the Cell to the Community(Denton: Environmental Ethics Books, 1990), 94. For a further description of Cobb's conception of all entities as possessing subjectivity and the constitutive relatedness of all entities, see also Charles Birch, "Process Thought: Its Value and Meaning to Me," Process Studies 19 (1990): 222-223, available online at http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=2801.
  49. ^ Charles Birch and John B. Cobb Jr., The Liberation of Life: From the Cell to the Community(Denton: Environmental Ethics Books, 1990), 94-96.
  50. ^ Charles Birch and John B. Cobb Jr., The Liberation of Life: From the Cell to the Community(Denton: Environmental Ethics Books, 1990), 58. See also Charles Birch, A Purpose For Everything (Mystic: Twenty-third Publications, 1990), Chapter 2, available online at http://www.religion-online.org/showbook.asp?title=2283.
  51. ^ Charles Birch and John B. Cobb Jr., The Liberation of Life: From the Cell to the Community(Denton: Environmental Ethics Books, 1990), 65.
  52. ^ Charles Birch and John B. Cobb Jr., The Liberation of Life: From the Cell to the Community(Denton: Environmental Ethics Books, 1990), 197. See also Charles Birch, A Purpose For Everything (Mystic: Twenty-third Publications, 1990), Introduction, available online at http://www.religion-online.org/showbook.asp?title=2283.
  53. ^ Charles Birch and John B. Cobb Jr., The Liberation of Life: From the Cell to the Community(Denton: Environmental Ethics Books, 1990), 188.
  54. ^ Jay McDaniel, Of God and Pelicans: A Theology of Reverence for Life (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1989), 93–94.
  55. ^ Jump up to:a b Linell E. Cady, "Extending the Boundaries of Theology," Religious Studies Review 19 (1993): 16.
  56. ^ John B. Cobb Jr., Beyond Dialogue: Toward a Mutual Transformation of Christianity and Buddhism (Eugene: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1982), 142.
  57. ^ John B. Cobb Jr., Beyond Dialogue: Toward a Mutual Transformation of Christianity and Buddhism (Eugene: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1982), 48.
  58. ^ Jay McDaniel, Of God and Pelicans: A Theology of Reverence for Life (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1989), 127.
  59. ^ David Ray Griffin, "Religious Pluralism: Generic, Identist, Deep," in Deep Religious Pluralism, ed. David Ray Griffin (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005), 28.
  60. ^ Jump up to:a b David Ray Griffin, "John Cobb's Whiteheadian Complementary Pluralism," in Deep Religious Pluralism, ed. David Ray Griffin (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005), 39-40.
  61. ^ David Ray Griffin, "John Cobb's Whiteheadian Complementary Pluralism," in Deep Religious Pluralism, ed. David Ray Griffin (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005), 47-49.
  62. ^ David Ray Griffin, "John Cobb's Whiteheadian Complementary Pluralism," in Deep Religious Pluralism, ed. David Ray Griffin (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005), 47-50.
  63. ^ Jump up to:a b David Ray Griffin, "John Cobb's Whiteheadian Complementary Pluralism," in Deep Religious Pluralism, ed. David Ray Griffin (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005), 48.
  64. ^ John B. Cobb, Theological Reminiscences (unpublished manuscript), 52.
  65. ^ John B. Cobb, Theological Reminiscences (unpublished manuscript), 62.
  66. ^ The Later Heidegger and Theology (1963), The New Hermeneutic (1964), and Theology as History (1967).
  67. ^ David Ray Griffin, "John B. Cobb Jr.: A Theological Biography," in Theology and the University: Essays in Honor of John B. Cobb Jr., ed. David Ray Griffin and Joseph C. Hough Jr. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991), 230-231.
  68. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i Process and Faith, "Process Theology", "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2 September 2012. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
  69. ^ Farmer, Ronald L. (1997). Beyond the Impasse: The Promise of a Process Hermeneutic. Macon GA: Mercer University Press. pp. 66–67. ISBN 0-86554-558-8.
  70. ^ Lønning, Per (2002). Is Christ a Christian?: On Inter-religious Dialogue and Intra-religious Horizon. Gøttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. pp. 173–176. ISBN 3-525-56225-X.
  71. ^ Jay McDaniel, Of God and Pelicans: A Theology of Reverence for Life (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1989), 41.
  72. ^ John B. Cobb Jr., God and the World (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1969), 90.
  73. ^ John B. Cobb Jr., Talking About God: Doing Theology in the Context of Modern Pluralism(New York: Seabury Press, 1983), 84. Available online at "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 26 November 2005. Retrieved 25 January 2006. .
  74. ^ Huffman, Douglas S. and Eric L. Johnson (2009). God Under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents God. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan. p. 235n. ISBN 978-0310232698.
  75. [75] ^ Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality (New York: The Free Press, 1978), 351.
  76. ^ Progressive Christians Uniting, "about," http://www.progressivechristiansuniting.org/PCU/about.html
  77. ^ Van Meter, Eric. "Spiritual Bankruptcy: A Call to Prophetic Action by John B. Cobb Jr". Circuit Rider i. United Methodist Publishing House. Retrieved 23 December 2013.
  78. ^ China Daily, "Ecological civilization is meaningful to China," last edited November 19, 2012, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2012-11/19/content_15942603.htm
  79. ^ Jump up to:a b Institute for the Postmodern Development of China, "Our Team," http://postmodernchina.org/about-us/our-team/
  80. ^ Center for Process Studies, "Faculty and Staff," https://ctr4process.org/faculty/
  81. ^ Progressive Christians Uniting, "Our Story," https://www.progressivechristiansuniting.org/history
  82. ^ Process Century Press, "About," http://processcenturypress.com/about/
  83. ^ Pando Populus, "Team," https://pandopopulus.com/about/pando-populus-team/
  84. ^ Toward Ecological Civilization, "Board of Directors," http://ecociv.org/about/board-of-directors/
  85. ^ "1992- Samuel Huntington, Herman Daly and John Cobb". Archived from the originalon 2 December 2013.
External links[edit]
Wikiquote has quotations related to: John B. Cobb

The Center for Process Studies
Process and Faith
Institute for the Postmodern Development of China
International Process Network
Progressive Christians Uniting
Claremont School of Theology
Awards



Preceded by
World Commission on
Environment and Development
Grawemeyer Award for
Ideas Improving World Order
1992
With: Samuel P. Huntington
Herman Daly Succeeded by
Donald Akenson

알라딘: 캅과 그리핀의 과정신학 by 존 B. 캅 / 데이빗 R. 그리핀 (지은이) / 이경호



알라딘: 캅과 그리핀의 과정신학 by 존 B. 캅 / 데이빗 R. 그리핀 (지은이) / 이경호




캅과 그리핀의 과정신학 - 입문적 해설
존 B. 캅,데이빗 R. 그리핀 (지은이),이경호 (옮긴이)이문출판사2012-02-27원제 : Process Theology (1996년)




정가


368쪽
152*223mm (A5신)
515g

------------------------------
목차


역자 서문
저자 서문

제1장 과정 철학의 기본 개념들
제2장 교리적 신념과 기독교적 실존
제3장 창조적이고 응답적인 하느님의 사랑
제4장 자연의 신학
제5장 인간 실존
제6장 예수 그리스도
제7장 종말론
제8장 창조적 변형 속의 교회
제9장 지구의 위기와 생존의 신학

[부록A] 철학과 신학
[부록B] 문헌 안내
역자 첨부[부록C] 영혼의 부활(캅)
역자 첨부[부록D] 글로벌 제국주의와 구성적 포스트모더니즘(그리핀)

알라딘: [전자책] 영적인 파산 by 존 캅 (지은이) / 박만



알라딘: [전자책] 영적인 파산 by 존 캅 (지은이) / 박만




[eBook] 영적인 파산 - 행동을 요청하는 예언자적 외침
존 캅 (지은이),박만 (옮긴이)한국기독교연구소2014-11-04




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제공 파일 : PDF(2.19 MB)
TTS 여부 : 미지원

종이책 페이지수 328쪽
-------------------------------------------
책소개
미국의 대표적인 신학자 가운데 한 사람인 존 캅 교수가 출판한 책이다. 오늘날 세속주의라는 광기만이 아니라 종교성의 광기가 인류를 자기파멸로 몰아가는 근본 이유는 성서를 비롯한 종교전통이 시대적 위기를 해결하기 위해 재구성되지 못하면 폐기처분될 수밖에 없으며, 그 성스러운 지혜의 전통을 이윤추구의 유물론적 세속주의가 대체했기 때문이라는 분석이다.

따라서 저자는 성서와 고전 문명, 그리고 교회 역사에서 개인과 문화 전체를 변혁하기 위해 철저한 회개로 이끌며 성스러운 영적 전통을 재구성하는 세속화 과정의 예언자적 기능을 강조한다. 그것은 종교를 깨끗하게 만들고 타계적인 신화나 관심사 대신에 선교와 목회에 다시 집중하게 만드는 마지막 희망이라고 말한다.


목차


서론 __ 7
1장. 대재앙 앞에서 누가 도울 수 있을 것인가? __ 17
2장. 그리스와 이스라엘로부터 물려받은 유산들 __ 39
3장. 교회 안의 종교성과 세속화 __ 71
4장. 세속주의의 등장 __ 103
5장. 근대철학의 세속주의적 의도 __ 135
6장. 세속주의적 교육 __ 165
7장. 경제학과 경제지상주의의 승리 __ 197
8장. 세속주의에 대한 반발 __ 229
9장. 철학에서의 새로운 시작 __ 259
10장. 미국의 세상 변혁적인 기독교 __ 289




저자 및 역자소개
존 캅 (John B. Cobb) (지은이)
저자파일
최고의 작품 투표
신간알림 신청

교수는 오늘날 세계에서 가장 탁월한 신학자 가운데 한 사람이며, 예수의 복음에 대한 뜨거운 열정을 지닌 분이다. 그는 선교사의 아들로 일본에서 태어났으며, 제2차 세계대전 중에 군복무를 마친 후, 시카고대학교에서 철학박사학위를 받았다. 알프레드 노쓰 화이트헤드의 철학을 배운 후, 과정신학의 개척자가 된 그는 클레어몬트 신학교에서 가르치던 32년 동안 30여 권의 매우 중요한 저술들을 발표했다.



최근작 : <예수의 아바 하나님>,<영적인 파산>,<민중신학, 세계신학과 대화하다> … 총 15종 (모두보기)

박만 (옮긴이)
저자파일
최고의 작품 투표
신간알림 신청

부산 장신대 교수로서, 장로회 신학대학원, 프린스턴 신학대학원, 토론토대학에서 공부했다. 저서는 『최근 신학 연구』, 『현대 삼위일체론 연구』, 『폴 틸리히』, 『현대신학 이야기』 등이 있으며, 『사탄의 가면을 벗겨라』(월터 윙크), 『다윈 이후의 하느님: 진화의 신학』(존 호트), 『태초에 창조성이 있었다』(고든 카우프만), 『영적인 파산』(존 캅), 『황혼의 사색』(토마스 베리) 등을 번역했다.


최근작 : <현대 신학 이야기>,<폴 틸리히>,<현대 삼위일체론 연구> … 총 20종 (모두보기)


출판사 제공 책소개

이 책은 미국의 대표적인 신학자 가운데 한 사람인 존 캅(John Cobb Jr.) 교수가 85세에 출판한 책이다. 생태계 파괴로 인해 인류 역사상 최대의 위기에 봉착했지만, 정치, 경제, 교육, 종교계 모두 이 위기를 외면하는 참담한 현실 앞에서 저자는 어떻게 종교성마저 초자연주의, 개인주의, 내면성에 사로잡히거나, 혹은 전능하신 하나님이 개입해서 문제를 해결해주실 것이라 믿음으로써, 그토록 절박한 위기를 외면하게 만드는지, 인류문명은 어떻게 영적으로 파산되었는지 그 과정을 자세히 밝히고, 마지막 돌파구를 호소한다. 오늘날 세속주의라는 광기만이 아니라 종교성의 광기가 인류를 자기파멸로 몰아가는 근본 이유는 성서를 비롯한 종교전통이 시대적 위기를 해결하기 위해 재구성되지 못하면 폐기처분될 수밖에 없으며, 그 성스러운 지혜의 전통을 이윤추구의 유물론적 세속주의가 대체했기 때문이라는 분석이다. 결국 철학을 비롯한 모든 학문은 파편화되었을 뿐 아니라 가치중립이라는 명분으로 불구가 되었고, 대학은 우주와 삶의 의미를 가르치기보다 기업과 제국의 하수인이 되었으며, 경제지상주의는 인류를 탐욕스런 장님으로 만들었을 따름이다. 따라서 저자는 성서와 고전 문명, 그리고 교회 역사에서 개인과 문화 전체를 변혁하기 위해 철저한 회개로 이끌며 성스러운 영적 전통을 재구성하는 세속화 과정의 예언자적 기능을 강조한다. 그것은 종교를 깨끗하게 만들고 타계적인 신화나 관심사 대신에 선교와 목회에 다시 집중하게 만드는 마지막 희망이기 때문이다.

Podcast - Institute for Ecological Civilization

Podcast - Institute for Ecological Civilization



The EcoCiv Podcast

Moving Toward a New Reality - Institute for Ecological Civilization



Moving Toward a New Reality - Institute for Ecological Civilization

Moving Toward a New Reality

Before the rise of city-based cultures, a much smaller population lived in a relatively sustainable way with other animals and the natural world. We have much to learn from this phase of human history. Today’s disastrous treatment of our natural environment expresses a profound alienation from it, one that is both intellectual and spiritual.

The new systems sciences offer compelling data on the consequences of human actions to the ecological systems on which we depend. These sciences unearth the real relations in the natural world, which exists as systems of systems of systems. Organisms continually evolve; complex natural systems self-organize; new kinds of agency emerge; actors and ecosystems are interdependent.

Decades of empirical studies reveal ecosystems to be tapestries in which all the threads are interwoven. Indeed, our fate hangs by a thread; to remove ourselves from the systems of life, and to destroy them, is to destroy ourselves as well. To “seize this alternative” is to call into question the reigning paradigm within which science today is being interpreted: anthropocentrism, binarism, and dualism. Not idealistic thinking but science itself challenges these old paradigms,

An ecological civilization would not need to give up every action that modifies nature, but it would learn to do so in ways that learn from nature and from its ability to create ecosystems that increase in complexity and richness over time. Of all the limitations of the modern worldview with which the natural sciences have so strongly allied themselves, the one with the most immediate relevance to our survival is excluding from scientific explanation of the distinctive characteristics of life. Without understanding the dynamics of living systems, how can one protect them?

Ecological civilization, as represented by the “Seizing an Alternative” movement, is a genuinely new field of study that involves bringing big ideas (philosophies and worldviews) to work in the world through concrete actions and policies. Because it is about civilizational change, the movement touches on all aspects of society. The intersections of theory and practice, global and local, environmental and social, scholarship and activism are among its central features.

Ecological civilization is more than sustainability, but it must be sustainable. It’s more than environmentalism, but it must involve living in harmony with nature. It’s more than a philosophy, but must involve a change in worldview. As a paradigm for living in harmony with one another and the planet, it emphasizes the inevitability of a comprehensive transformation (top to bottom, and all that’s in between) of human civilization.

That isn’t to suggest that modern civilization needs a fire sale, where everything must go. There are aspects of contemporary society that we can and should retain. Nevertheless, the ecological civilization movement is about moving toward a new reality—seizing an alternative. It’s a vision of hope for a better future.

Fixing the Hole in the Boat: The Radical Vision of Ecological Civilization - Institute for Ecological Civilization



Fixing the Hole in the Boat: The Radical Vision of Ecological Civilization - Institute for Ecological Civilization
Fixing the Hole in the Boat: The Radical Vision of Ecological Civilization


How do boats float? As a child, growing up along the Columbia River, this was something I found particularly puzzling after seeing massive steel ships glide atop the water. I didn’t understand the science behind displacement and buoyancy, but I did know that if your boat takes on too much water you’re going for a swim. Conventional wisdom suggests that if you find yourself in a boat filling with water, you should get rid of the water. Perhaps you’re inspired by Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean, so you grab a bucket to begin throwing water overboard. This does seem to help, but what if you can’t keep up? What if, bucket after bucket, you bail as fast as you can but you’re not making a dent. What if, despite your tireless efforts, despite all the progress you make, it’s not enough to keep you afloat?

This is analogous to the global situation in which we find ourselves. The ice caps are melting, sea levels are rising, and species are going extinct. All of this is compounded by radical economic inequality, systemic social injustices, and the threat of nuclear war. Like bailing water from a sinking boat, it’s necessary to decrease carbon emissions, turn to renewable energy sources, increase education, and reduce income inequality. Yet, like the boat, these efforts don’t seem to be enough to save us. Some say it’s because we’re not making progress fast enough—that we need more people working to reduce waste and emissions. And there is some truth to that. But that is equivalent to enlisting more people with buckets to bail water. We need an alternative method. We need to fix the hole in the boat!


If we don’t address the underlying causes of our world’s most critical problems, long-term success will evade our grasp. Having your boat take on water is a problem, but it is also a symptom of a structural problem with the boat itself. Until we understand and address the source of the problem—the reason our boat is filling with water—no matter how hard we try, our efforts will fall short. Like any illness, simply treating the symptoms without addressing the root cause can be a fatal error.

One way to identify underlying causes is by asking a simple question—“why?” Why do five people possess as much wealth as half of the world’s population? Why is topsoil being eroded? Why are global temperatures rising? By asking “why” we take one step closer to understanding the source of our crisis. Through this process, two things become apparent.

First, is the recognition that our world’s major problems are all interconnected. As Pope Francis notes, “We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental. Strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature.” To focus on environmental issues without considering the social, or vice versa, is to fail to grasp the true nature of the crisis. Consider Agenda 2030 (the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals). Each of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (zero poverty, zero hunger, good health, quality education, etc.) are presented as separate goals with separate strategies for success. But we can’t adequately solve the hunger problem without addressing poverty and food insecurity. And we can’t address food insecurity and poverty without addressing climate change and economic wellbeing, which can’t be adequately addressed without dealing with our systems of capitalism, unlimited growth, and the values that prioritizes short-term convenience over long-term flourishing of all people and the planet. True, when facing a big problem, it is often helpful to “chunk it,” so as to make it more manageable. But if we fail to recognize the interconnected nature of our most serious problems, our solutions will remain fragmented and inadequate.

Second, is the recognition that the true nature of our crisis is systemic. As such, adequately addressing the underlying causes of our complex problems requires changing the systems—economic, political, educational, agricultural, etc.—at the foundations of our society. The great mistake of dominant thinking about our world’s most urgent problems is that solutions are being framed as possible without radical systems change. Consider the United Nations goal of eradicating poverty (SDG #1). Specifically, the goal is by year 2030 to “eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as people living on less than $1.90 a day.” But increasing someone’s wages from $1.25 per day to $2 per day doesn’t actually address the underlying cause of poverty produced by an exploitative economic system that proliferates inequality. In fact, most of the targets and indicators behind the goals for sustainable development reveal commitment to civilizational systems that exploit people and nature for profit and power. Similarly, I recently heard a presentation by a member of the Union for Concerned Scientists, who argued that if each nation invested just 1% of its GDP toward adopting new technologies for renewable energy, our climate crisis would be solved. While we should decrease our dependence on fossil fuels, avoid single-use plastics, etc. these efforts don’t seem to address the fundamental underlying issues. We need to change our systems if we want to fix the holes in our civilizational boat.

The call to fundamentally transform our social systems across all sectors, in order to address the root causes of our world’s most critical, complex, and interconnected problems—this is the distinctive mark of the ecological civilization movement.

What is Ecological Civilization?

Ecological civilization refers to forms of human community designed to promote the overall wellbeing of people and the planet. As a form of civilization, it includes the typical features of civilization—systems of agriculture, technology, education, government, economics, etc. The modifier, “ecological,” describes the type of civilization being envisioned—a human community that seeks to live in healthy symbiotic relationship to one another and the nature world. To achieve an ecological civilization would not be to give up modifying nature, but to learn to do so in ways that we can learn from nature and from its success in creating ecosystems that over time increase in complexity and richness. It is a vision for a better future, one in which the systems of society, economics and politics, systems of production, consumption and agriculture, are designed for the flourishing of life in all its forms; a vision for the common good.

As a new paradigm for living in harmony with one another and the planet, the vision of ecological civilization marks a departure from the core values, worldview, and systems of our present civilization. Imagine a world in which the systems of society were grounded in the realization that, as David Korten puts it, “We humans are living beings born of and nurtured by a living Earth.”[1] How would our economic systems be changed if we measured success in terms of overall wellbeing of a living Earth, rather than market activity? How would our agricultural systems be changed if we prioritized the health of the soil and long-term food security rather than “productivity” (measured by produce divided by hours of human labor)?

That isn’t to suggest that modern civilization needs a fire sale, where everything must go; there are aspects of contemporary society that we can and should retain. Nevertheless, the ecological civilization movement is about moving toward a new reality—seizing an alternative. Because it is about civilizational change, the movement touches on all aspects of society. The intersections of theory and practice, global and local, environmental and social, scholarship and activism are among its central features. Ecological civilization is more than sustainability, but it must be sustainable. It’s more than environmentalism, but it must involve living in harmony with nature. It’s more than a philosophy, but it must involve a change in worldview.

Having Hope on a Sinking Ship

The stakes are high. If we fail fix the hole in our civilizational boat, the world as we know it will go the way of the Titanic. Recent reports from the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as well as the USA’s National Climate Assessment (NCA) provide vast details on the severity and urgency of our global situation. And if that wasn’t enough to overwhelm you, perhaps all this talk of civilization-level change will send you into paralyzing despair. How can any of us make a difference on such a massive scale (global systems), in such a short timeframe (12 years according to IPCC)?

While hopelessness may be our greatest enemy, a well-founded hope may be humanities greatest advantage. Like Captain Jack Sparrow, “Wherever we want to go, we’ll go.” We are in a unique period of human history. For the first time, humanity has the potential to destroy the very capacity for our planet to sustain life. But, it is also the first time we’ve had the ability to create an ecological civilization. There is reason to hope!

I find hope in the realization that we don’t have to tackle each of the world’s most critical problems individually. We don’t need thousands of separate solutions. By making only a few fundamental changes in the right places (fixing the holes in the boat), we can achieve significant lasting results.

I find hope in the realization that I’m not alone. People around the world are rising up, calling for a new paradigm, a new story, and for new systems of civilization—from Pope Francis and the message of Laudato Si’, to the “ecozoic era” of Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme, to Vanada Shiva’s “earth democracy,” David Korten’s “great turning,” to the framework of the Earth Charter, and more.
There has never been an ecological civilization before. Therefore, the vision needs to be flexible, since we are discovering for the first time what it requires. As we work backward from the end goal to inform actions in the present, these insights feed back into our understanding of the end goal itself. As it unfolds, the process forces us to look at the truths of our situation: the increased inequality between the rich and the poor, and most of all the impossibility of unlimited growth on a finite planet. The movement toward ecological civilization is a process of creating a new map for a new destination—a destination we might reach if we fix the holes in our boat.

[1]https://davidkorten.org/home/ecological-civilization/

Originally published by Open Horizons at http://www.openhorizons.org/the-radical-vision-of-ecological-civilization-wm-andrew-schwartz.html

By: Wm. Andrew Schwartz

Capitalism vs. Socialism Is a False Choice - Institute for Ecological Civilization



Capitalism vs. Socialism Is a False Choice - Institute for Ecological Civilization



By David Korten

Economic power is-and always has been-the foundation of political power. Those who control the peoples’ means of living rule.

In a democracy, however, each person must have a voice in the control and management of the means of their living. That requires more than a vote expressing a preference for which establishment-vetted candidate will be in power for the next few years.

My previous column, “Confronting the Great American Myth,” distinguished true democracy from government by the wealthy, a plutocracy. Contrary to popular belief, the U.S. Constitution was written by representatives of the new nation’s wealthy class to keep people like themselves in power.


On Jan. 4, the newly elected Democratic majority in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced HR1, the For the People Act of 2019. Its aim is to make voting easier, reduce the influence of big money, and curtail gerrymandering. Even before it was introduced, the champions of having rich people rule were falsely characterizing it as an attack on the freedom of speech of ordinary Americans.

The provisions of HR1 represent an important step in a transition from the plutocracy we have to the democracy most Americans want. Unfortunately, political gridlock assures that HR1 has no chance of becoming law until at least after the 2020 election. Yet the popular yearning for democracy reflected in that bill makes this a propitious moment for a serious conversation about what a true democracy might look like and why it would be a good idea.

We stand at an epic choice point for our nation and for humanity. The plutocracy now in place has put us on a path to self-extinction-a future with no winners, rich or poor. We must now seek a path that restores the health of Earth’s regenerative systems while securing equity, material sufficiency, peace, and spiritual abundance for all-exactly the opposite of the plutocrats’ drive to secure the power, privilege, and material excess for themselves. This makes democracy far more than just a good idea; it is now an imperative.
Photo: Pixabay

The power of plutocracy depends on keeping the people divided against each other along gender, racial, religious, or other fault lines. The goal is to divert our attention from themselves so that they can maintain their power and continue to amass wealth.

Champions of plutocracy would also have us believe that we must choose between two options: capitalism (private ownership and management) or socialism (government ownership and management). They prefer we not notice that in their most familiar forms, both capitalism and socialism feature an undemocratic concentration of control over the means of living in the hands of the few. Democracy is essential for either to work effectively for the benefit of all.

Plutocrats generally favor capitalism, because in the extreme form we now experience, it supports virtually unlimited concentrations of wealth and power. Its practitioners are also drawn by capitalism’s ideological claim that unregulated markets will assure that the presumed benefits of a growing economy will be shared by everyone, and so the rich need not bear any personal responsibility beyond maximizing their personal financial gain.
Photo: Max Pixel

The critical economic and political question for humanity is not whether our means of living will be controlled by corporations or government, but whether control will be concentrated for the benefit of the few or dispersed, with benefits shared by everyone.

Support for the needed economic transition can come from many places. Just as people are not necessarily racist because they are White or misogynistic because they are male, people do not necessarily become plutocrats just because they are rich. Many wealthy people work actively for economic and political democracy and support radical wealth redistribution, including through support of progressive taxation and significant taxing of inherited wealth.

The political and economic democracy we seek cannot be easily characterized as either capitalist or socialist. It is a system of substantially self-reliant local economies composed of locally owned enterprises and community-secured safety nets with responsibilities shared by families, charities, and governments. Such a system facilitates self-organizing to create healthy, happy, and productive communities.

In our complex and interconnected world, this system will require national and global institutions responsive to the people’s will and well-being to support cooperation and sharing among communities, but the real power will be dispersed locally. There would be ample room for competition among local communities to be the most beautiful, healthy, democratic, creative, and generous. There is no place for colonizing the resources of others or for predatory corporations.
Photo: USDA

These communities will most likely feature cooperative and family ownership of businesses. They will also recognize the rights of nature and their shared responsibility to care for the commons and to share its gifts.

The rules of plutocracy evolved over thousands of years. We have far less time to come up with suitable rules for democratic alternatives. That search must quickly become a centerpiece of public discussion.




This article was originally publishedFebruary 9, 2019 in OpEdNews.



Header Photo: Pixabay
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Nature as Measure: The Selected Essays of Wes Jackson by Wes Jackson | Goodreads



Nature as Measure: The Selected Essays of Wes Jackson by Wes Jackson | Goodreads

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Nature as Measure: The Selected Essays of Wes Jackson

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Wes Jackson,
Wendell Berry
4.45 · Rating details · 42 ratings · 5 reviews
Wes Jackson can teach us many things about the land, soil, and conservation, but what most resonates is this: The ecosphere is self-regulating, and as often as we attempt to understand it, we are not its builders, and our manuals will often be faulty. The only responsible way to learn the nuances of the land is to study the soil and vegetation in their natural state and pa ...more

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Paperback, 304 pages
Published October 11th 2011 by Counterpoint (first published September 1st 2011)
ISBN
1582437009 (ISBN13: 9781582437002)
Edition Language
English

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May 20, 2019Paul Peters rated it really liked it
Wes Jackson was my college biology teacher and track coach. Then we were drinking buddies at NC State in graduate school. Wes is one of the people who greatly influenced my life and remains a friend. Wes should have been a preacher but his gospel is the ecosystem but greatly influenced by the other one, no doubt. In my opinion he is a better speaker than writer, but that's not to say he isn't a great writer too. Maybe I should say he is a prophet rather than a preacher. He sees what others don't. He makes connections that others miss. No system is too larger or small for his penetrating gaze. These essays are an inspiration. (less)
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Apr 08, 2019Trish Remley rated it really liked it
"What those interested in sustainable agriculture need always to keep before us are these questions: How are we going to run agriculture and culture on sunlight? What are we going to do when the oil is gone? What are we going to do to stop soil erosion? Ecosystem agriculture has answers to all of these questions. Molecular biology has few or none." Said in a nutshell by Wes Jackson, founder of The Land Institute located in Salina, KS since 1978. Introduced to Wes Jackson's ideas by Dr. Clark Gantzer in 1984 while doing soil conservation/soil erosion research. (less)
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Apr 22, 2019Lisa rated it really liked it
An excellent argument for planting more perennials and creating more diversity in our farmlands. Some great points, which I will investigate further.
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Jan 11, 2016Mark rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Wes Jackson has become one of my favorite agricultural writers. His style is lucid and easy to read. His points are clear and he does not mince words. Jackson takes a staunch stance against industrial agriculture and his arguments are strong. In this collection of essays, Jackson rails against what he refers to as “petroleum-based chemical agriculture” claiming that our reliance upon it is unsustainable as well as unethical.

However he reminds us that “no important change in ethics was ever accomplished without an internal change in our intellectual emphasis, loyalties, affections, and convictions.” According to Jackson, to change the suicidal path that we are on as a species we must give up the intellectual emphasis, our loyalty to and love for as well as the conviction that technology will save us from having to change our lifestyle. Jackson’s answer to this belief is an emphatic: it will not.

Jackson not only hits upon scientific, social and cultural attitudes but also on religious influences upon our beliefs that we can persevere without changing how we think about our food and hence the environment we live in. Religion, according to Jackson, “helped us adopt a subject-object dualism. It made it easy for us to regard the environment as inherently alien…”

At the core of the problem is our motivation and basis for happiness: money. Jackson claims, “We have sent our topsoil, our fossil water, our oil, our gas, our coal, and our children into that black hole called the economy.” He calls out our education system for failing societies by offering “only one serious major: upward mobility.”
To all of this, however, Jackson offers clues to change based upon one necessary component: “To live in right relation with [our] natural conditions…”

Nature as Measure cuts through the rhetorical crap of modern day media and so- called scientists and science as well as political dichotomies that make vague clear decisions that need to be made and does so in a refreshingly direct and no-nonsense manner. However, Jackson points out something that Geddy Lee (of Rush) sings so eloquently: the truth is sometimes contrary, something that Jackson does not shy away from.
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Dec 27, 2013David rated it liked it
I enjoyed this collection of essays by Wes Jackson but disagree with him that nature is the ultimate measure of our success in agriculture. I think the "garden" should be our standard and I think his work points to the fact that man can be an improver of raw nature.