Memos from Ron Hines introducing speakers for John Cobb and Friends Gatherings
A sample of recordings from John Cobb and Friends Gatherings plus "memos from Ron Hines" introducing speakers at the gatherings
About Ron Hines
Ron Hines is a United Methodist pastor, whose ministry has been in Washington state, and in the Philippines, where he served as a missionary of the Board of Global Ministries as pastor and as teacher of many pastoral disciplines at the Union Theological Seminary near Manila.He has also had brief teaching roles at Claremont School of Theology, Iliff Theological Seminary, and Fuller Seminary’s northwest extension in Seattle.He served as Superintendent of Seven Rivers District in Central and Southeastern Washington with Bishops Elias Galvan, Ed Paup, and Grant Hagiya.
He grew up in Colorado in a pastor’s family, and he earned academic degrees from Westmar College (B.A., 1966), United Theological Seminary (Dayton, Ohio, M.Div., 1970), and Claremont School of Theology (Ph.D., Personality and Religion, focus on learning, 1976). He is retired and living with his wife Lois at Pilgrim Place, Claremont, California, where he is neighbor to John Cobb, whom he assists as secretary of the Cobb Institute board and coordinator for the weekly ZOOM gathering of “John Cobb and Friends.”
Memos from Ron Hines
Rolla Lewis
Partners in Process, on Tuesday, September 7, 10 am PDT, John Cobb and Friends will host Rolla Lewis,an educator who will share his perspective on Lifescaping--Creating a World We Want to Live In. Dr. Lewis is Professor Emeritus in Educational Psychology at California State University, East Bay, and a Taos Institute Associate. His current research and scholarly interests include public education advocacy, participatory leadership, and action research practices using the participatory inquiry process (PIP) to lifescape school communities in ways that enhance student learning power, wellness, and connectedness to the living environment and the communities where they live. He was School Counseling Coordinator at Portland State University (PSU), 1995-2006, and at CSUEB, 2006-2014.
Dr. Lewis's life experience includes deep ecology, Taoism, the practice of Tai Chi, post-theistic Christianity, narrative, and social constructionism. He looks forward to learning more about Whitehead's philosophy of education. Rolla suggests, "If you are an overachiever and want to learn more about the Lifescaping Project before Rolla's presentation, download a free copy of:Lifescaping Project: Action Research and Appreciative Inquiry in Bay Area Schoolsat<http://www.taosinstitute.net/lifescaping-project>." He invites us to read pages 43-57, the story of Ardella, his African-American colleague. "Her brief story illuminates the need to hear diverse voices and the need to stand with those who are oppressed.. ..it helps orient folks to lifescaping's focus on social justice, ecological justice and engaged democracy."
Sophia Said
Partners in Process, on Tuesday, July 13, 10am PT, John Cobb and Friends will meet Sophia Said, who will share her experience of Being Muslim in America. Sophia Said is probably the first woman in America to found and lead a full-service Islamic Center. As founding Chairperson of the Madina Institute, she spearheaded this effort to open a new mosque and Islamic center in Little Rock, Arkansas, to provide worship services and programming to serve the spiritual, social, and educational needs of Little Rock’s growing Muslim population.
Sophia is probably the only Muslim in Arkansas employed full-time by a Christian Church. As Director of the Arkansas Interfaith Center, in Little Rock, Sophia helped establish this ministry for St Margaret’s Episcopal Church to reduce the fear and hatred among world religions and to enhance public dialogue among different faith communities. She designs and implements interfaith initiatives and programs to help create peace and harmony among different faith communities in Arkansas. She oversees several teams of dozens of volunteers who are responsible for creating interfaith summer camp, children’s choir, youth programs, supper clubs, fellowship dinners, and educational programming in faith centers.
She does it all because she has excellent cross-cultural communication and facilitation skills. She is passionate about social justice issues and the rights of marginalized communities in America. She has been at the forefront to bring awareness about the rights of immigrants and Muslims in Arkansas organizing vigils, rallies, protests, and other campaigns that have brought many organizations and communities together.
Born and raised in Pakistan, Sophia moved to the United States for higher education. She graduated summa cum laude from University of Utah in 2007 with a degree in economics and was the first Asian woman to address the annual commencement ceremonies as valedictorian. She has a master’s degree from Clinton School of Public Service. Experience her immigration story in pictures and sound here.
Sophia has worked as a strategic adviser and gender based economic development consultant locally and internationally to design, implement, and evaluate development programs. (For details on her work experiences and numerous awards and recognitions, see the attached biographical sketch.) Sophia has two children. She divides her time between Little Rock, Arkansas and New Jersey where her family resides. Read her Open Horizons affirmation to her son and daughter, "I Am Not Afraid." You’ll also find there an affirmation, following the 2016 US presidential election, in which Sophia Said and Jay McDaniel write, “We Side with Love!”
Rabbi Bradley Artson
Partners in Process, on Tuesday, 4/27/21, 10 am PT, Rabbi Dr. Bradley Shavit Artson will discuss “Revelation and Creativity” with John Cobb & Friends. Rabbi Artson is Roslyn and Abner Goldstine Dean’s Chair, Professor of Philosophy at Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, Los Angeles. Listen here to his 54-minute “Conversation in Process,” with Jay McDaniel and here to a brief (2:38) excerpt describing his first encounter with John Cobb. A video (7:40) presenting Dr. Artson’s process theology is here.
Also, on Open Horizons website find an invitation to Artson’s “Constellation of Process Theology,” with further links to many of his articles, and find many of his brief Moments of Torah with more articles. See a summary of his education, bio, and publications at the faculty page for American Jewish University, and explore his Facebook page.
Jeremy Lent
Partners in Process, on the Tuesday of Earth Week (April 20, 10 am PT) John Cobb and Friends host Jeremy Lent, exploring his new book: The Web of Meaning: An Integration of Modern Science with Traditional Wisdom. He provides a compelling foundation for a new story of interconnectedness, showing how, as our civilization unravels, another world is possible.
Jeremy Lent is an author and speaker whose work investigates the underlying causes of our civilization’s existential crisis, and explores pathways toward a life-affirming future. His award-winning book, The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity’s Search for Meaning, examines the way humans have made meaning from the cosmos from hunter-gatherer times to the present day. His upcoming book, The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe, will be published in June 2021 by New Society Publishers (USA/Canada) and Profile Books (UK & Commonwealth). He is founder of the nonprofit Liology Institute, dedicated to fostering an integrated worldview that could enable humanity to thrive sustainably on the Earth, and he writes topical articles exploring the deeper patterns of political and cultural developments at Patterns of Meaning.
John Cobb says of the book: “Maybe, just maybe, this is the skillfully organized and brilliantly written book that will turn the world around. Scientists cling to a seventeenth-century metaphysics that leads to nihilism and supports the policies that are destroying ecosystems everywhere. But Lent shows, convincingly, that there are masses of facts science has laid bare that call for a very different worldview of self-organizing entities. He is certainly right. Is there any chance that the slowly awakening world will listen?”
To see how his thought has grown out of his life journey, explore the author’s website at jeremylent.com. “The Web of Meaning takes up where The Patterning Instinct left off, by laying out a framework for a worldview that could foster humanity’s long-term flourishing on a healthy planet. It is a worldview of integration: one that identifies the unifying principles that flow through all things, while celebrating the differences that lead to the richness of our lived experience. It’s a worldview that links together scientific findings in recent decades from such diverse fields as evolutionary biology, cognitive neuroscience, and complexity theory, showing how they affirm profound insights from the world’s great wisdom traditions, such as Buddhism, Taoism, and traditional knowledge from Indigenous peoples around the world.”
Partners in Process, on Tuesday, Feb 16, 2021, 10 a.m. PST, Rebecca Parker will address how Whitehead's philosophy helped answer her teenage question, "Why play the cello in a suffering, unjust world?" Her reflections on Whitehead, music and social justice will link questions about the value of the arts to questions about social justice.
A student of John Cobb, the Rev. Dr. Parker has clergy standing in both United Methodist and Unitarian Universalist affiliations. She was Professor of Theology and President of Starr King School for the Ministry, 1990-2014. She is now a board member of the Braxton Institute.
Her major theological work, Saving Paradise, co-authored with Rita Nakashima Brock in 2008, is a work of theological aesthetics, a sustained study of the visual worlds of Christianity and the shift from Christians' early focus on beauty to a later focus on crucifixion. The chapter called “The Beautiful Feast of Life” represents her deep interest in aesthetics and ritual.
In chapter 11 of A House for Hope: The Promise of Progressive Religion for the Twenty-first Century, Dr. Parker and John A Buehrens discuss music as "A Sanctuary for the Spirit." Listen to the Spring 2020 poem/cello piece recorded as a gift to support people during Covid-19. She composed the music to accompany Lynn Ungar's poem. On the occasion of her retirement from Starr King, the student body commissioned Seattle composer Carol Sams to create a piece for cello, choir and piano based on Rebecca's text, "In the Midst of a World." Listen here.
Here is Dr. Parker's photo and brief bio.
BIO: Rebecca Ann Parker The Rev. Dr. Rebecca Ann Parker, theologian, educator, social activist, minister, and musician, founding trustee of The Braxton Institute for Sustainability, Resiliency and Joy is Professor of Theology Emerita and President Emerita of Starr King School for the Ministry where she served for 25 years educating future Unitarian Universalist ministers and spiritual activists to counter oppressions, create just and sustainable communities, and cultivate multi-religious life and learning. An ordained United Methodist minister who holds dual ministerial fellowship with the Unitarian Universalist Association, she has served United Methodist and UU Congregations in the Seattle area and Washington DC, including Wallingford United Methodist Church, one of the first Reconciling Congregations. Process thought, which Parker first studied at the University of Puget Sound, captivated her intellectual imagination, leading her to the School of Theology at Claremont, where she completed her D.Min. with Dr. John Cobb. Her doctoral studies focused on Alfred North Whitehead’s theory of consciousness as a basis for a spirituality that integrates aesthetics and social engagement. Her theological work, sermons and poetry have been published in academic journals, essay collections and anthologies. Her books include A House for Hope: The Promise of Progressive Religion for the 21st Century, co-authored with John Buehrens (Beacon, 2010); Blessing the World: What Can Save Us Now, edited by Robert Hardies (Skinner, 2006); Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire, and Proverbs of Ashes: Redemptive Violence and the Search for What Saves Us, co-authored with Rita Nakashima Brock (Beacon, 2008 and 2001).
Parker began her music studies with her mother and went on to focus on cello performance at the University of Washington and the University of Puget Sound (B.A.). For many years, she performed and toured regularly with Orchestra Seattle and later with the Rose Trio.
The daughter and granddaughter of progressive, intellectual women and liberal, Social Gospel clergymen she is a descendent of white settlers in French Canada and Alaska. Her parents were anti-war and Civil Rights
activists, and she strives to participate faithfully in the deconstruction of white supremacy. She lives in a cabin on Puget Sound and in Washington DC with her spouse, Rev. Joanne M. Braxton, Ph.D., CEO of The Braxton Institute, a ministry of teaching and healing that centers the leadership of women of color and queer folk. On her work as a theologian and minister, Parker says "Legacies of violence, terror and trauma continue to bring anguish into the world. Now more than ever, people of conscience and love need to do the hard work of theological thinking that deconstructs religion that sanctions violence. We need to re-dedicate ourselves to the creation of life-giving theologies, justice- making religious communities, and joy-infusing spiritual practices. This is the calling to which my life is devoted."
Helena Norberg-Hodge
Partners in Process, tomorrow we'll get Helena Norberg-Hodge's special message to John Cobb and Friends. Pomona's Mayor Tim Sandoval is encouraged by what he learns from this leader of the global "Localization" movement! Join us Tuesday, Oct 20, 10 a.m. PDT. Mayor Sandoval and John Cobb will help us see why it's important for Pomona and the rest of us.
Before you come, Helena wants you to watchThe Economics of Happiness film. It's free! Films for Action calls it their "favorite documentary of all time. . .one of the most important and useful films for inspiring change that has been made in a generation." Also, browse through the shortened (2 hour) version of World Localisation Day. Explore Helena's website.
Christina Hutchins
Partners in Process, join John Cobb and Friends on Tuesday, March 30, 2021, 10 a.m. PDT. Christina Hutchins explores “Beyond Loss, the Beauty of Life Unfolding.” In her podcast interview with Jay McDaniel, poet/pastor/theologian Christina Hutchins said she was drawn to Whitehead because he deals with “perishing in the midst of becoming.” He takes loss seriously. Hutchins identified Holy Week as one of her favorite parts of the Christian calendar. Beyond the reality of loss is also the reaching out of Jesus from the place of suffering. Life is affirmed in congregation. Adventures of ideas never cease to be life-changing, with more beauty and love to unfold. Her sharing of poetry will remind us that life matters! Trust yourself to it as a swimmer trusts in water!
Find more about Christina Hutchins—prize-winning poet, process philosopher/theologian, teacher/workshop leader, speaker/retreat facilitator—at her website. Here is an excerpt: "Christina lives in Albany, California, where she served as the first poet laureate, teaches private workshops, and offers individual craft consultations. She has worked as a biochemist, a Congregational (UCC) minister, and has taught process theology, philosophies of beauty and critique, and courses on poetry and theological imagination at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley. She holds a B.S. in Biochemistry from University of California at Davis, an M.Div. from Harvard Divinity School, and an Interdisciplinary Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. While at Harvard, she twice won the Billings Preaching Prize, was named the top graduate as the Thayer Scholar of Divinity, and was elected by her peers to deliver the graduation address."
Partners in Process, on Tuesday, April 13, 10 am PT, John Cobb and Friends will hear from plasma physicist Tim Eastman, discussing his latest book, Untying the Gordian Knot--Process, Reality, and Context. Matt Segall, chairman of Cobb Institute's Science Advisory Team, will engage philosopher and team member Tim Eastman in conversation about his book published in December, 2020. Eastman uses the Logoi framework—which is radically inclusive and incorporates both actuality and potentiality—to go beyond standard ways of knowing—that of context independence (science) and context focus (arts, humanities)—to demonstrate the inevitable role of ultimate context (meaning, spiritual dimension) as part of a transformative ecological vision. See Joe Petek's review at the Process Research Project Website and the publisher's reviews at Lexington Books.
Here attached is both a concise summary that Tim has written to illustrate a few points; also a flyer from the publisher provides a discount offer. (Please contact Tim directly if the book is not available through your university library or is beyond your book budget). Jay, I could not transfer the summary and flyer into a form to fit this document without spending more time on it. Let me know if you need these right away.
MattSegall teaches philosophy, cosmology, and consciousness at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Explore his website, where he identifies himself as "Wisdom lover, soul-maker, star-gazer, and lifetime member of team human.”
Matt Segall
Partners in Process, TODAY, September 15, 2020, we’ll explore Whitehead's contribution to "Thinking Cosmologically in an Ecological Civilization." Our guide will be Matt Segall, chair of the Cobb Institute's new Science Advisory Board. Matt teaches philosophy, cosmology, and consciousness at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Explore his website at https://footnotes2plato.com/about/, where he identifies himself as "Wisdom lover, soul-maker, star-gazer, and lifetime member of team human."
His chief conversation partner will be Tim Eastman, another Science Advisor, who recorded conversation with John Cobb in February. Tim is senior scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. You may find his credentials as a plasma physicist and downloadable articles linking Whitehead and physics here
Jon Ivan Gill
Tomorrow, Nov 3 at 10 a.m. (PST) Jay McDaniel will interview Dr. Jon Ivan Gill, theopoetic humanist, process philosopher, hip hop artist, and connoisseur of religion. As the Cross-Community Coordinator for the Center for Process Studies, he is tasked with extending process thought into new communities. Dr. Gill is working creatively at the intersection of thought and practice to lead initiatives on social justice, art scenes, interfaith youth efforts, LGBTQI discourse and praxis, and underrepresented socioeconomic and racial communities.
Dr. Yuan Gao
Partners in Process, Tuesday, July 27, 10 am PT, John Cobb & Friends will host a conversation with Dr. Yuan Gao on Whitehead and Agriculture. Ms. Gao was formerly a visiting scholar at the Center for Process Studies in Claremont, and she has just received her Ph.D. from China’s premiere educational institution, Beijing Normal University. She will share what she has learned by writing the first Ph.D. dissertation in China on Whitehead and Agriculture. She will be ZOOMing in live from Beijing. Dr. Zhihe Wang, director of the Institute for Postmodern Development of China, affirms this will be “a beautiful match with Angela Yu (our Tuesday guest on March 23), who is putting process thought in practice.” (See the attached flyer.)
For a thorough background to the potential of “constructive postmodernism” to contribute to China’s becoming an “ecological civilization,” see this article by Zhihe Wang, Huili He, and Meijun Fan. Read also John Cobb’s lecture at the Fourth International Whitehead Conference (Beijing, 2002). Cobb stressed the relevance of a Whiteheadian “constructive postmodern” approach to practical matters in China.
In a speech delivered at a conference with Chinese guests at the Claremont School of Theology, May 13-14, 2010, John Cobb discussed “Ecological Agriculture.” “Agriculture has become too much a part of the overall industrial process. Instead, we should build on practices that have developed all over the world out of peasant experience, and follow nature’s guidance in the development of agricultural ecosystems that can have the generative capacities of natural ecosystems.”
In a 2015 lecture at The Land Institute (beginning about 27:00), John Cobb details the “postmodern” turn in Chinese agriculture. In 2016 John Cobb wrote about “Some Major Ideas of Whitehead” as having “Relevance to Saving the World.” In that article he celebrates Whitehead’s usefulness for China’s aim for agricultural practices consistent with its goal to become an “ecological civilization.”
Derek Engdahl
Partners in Process, on July 20, 10 am PT, John Cobb and Friends will host a presentation by Derek Engdahl on Making Compassion a Community Asset! Our friends Howard Pepper and Norlyn Dimmit have worked for years across many collaborations to make compassion local. They’ve put us in touch with Pomona-based Derek Engdahl, who will be sharing “Nine Signs of a Transforming Community.” Also, assisting in our conversation will be Andy Singleterry, Director of Servant Partners Press, and a site leader for work in San Jose. Andy is currently working on a DMin degree at Fuller Theological Seminary.
Derek W. Engdahl, with his wife Lisa, are General Directors of Servant Partners, “transforming communities with the urban poor.” He currently supervises several domestic and international sites. Alongside his international commitments, Derek also ministers in the urban poor community of Pomona, California, where he has lived with his wife and daughter since 1998. Check out the sidebar of Stories from Pomona. Learn how community organizing efforts led to banning of no-knock warrants, winning of deserved benefits for undocumented Californians, cultivating hope through a community garden. Much of this work was done in partnership with Inland Communities Organizing Network and Pomona First Presbyterian Church.
Engdahl was a contributing author for the book Living Mission: The Vision and Voices of New Friars (Inter-varsity Press, 2010). He has written The Great Chasm (Servant Partners Press, 2015) on “how to stop our wealth from separating us from the poor and God.” He is a member of the Christian Community Development Association. One of the strategies used by this organization is Asset Based Community Development, a tool for “Listening to the Community.” ABCD has been widely used, including projects in Canada and in the Chicago area. For more on this topic see ABCD Institute.
Partners in process, on June 29 @ 10 am PT John Cobb and friends will host a conversation with Catherine Keller about her latest book: Facing Apocalypse—Climate, Democracy, and Other Last Chances. When she wrote Apocalypse Now and Then in 1996, Catherine Keller, George T. Cobb Professor of Constructive Theology at Drew Theological School, thought she was finished with the Apocalypse theme. It’s back, not as disastrous ending, but as an “unveiling,” prompted by the last book of the Christian New Testament and our current reality. It’s a “dreamreading” of our current global crisis. See Drew’s celebratory book launch here, which includes extensive dialogue with Dr. Keller. There you’ll discover Jürgen Moltmann’s judgment that this is “a brilliant work,” and Tripp Fuller says, “By holding the apocalyptic text and the signs of the times in a generative and revelatory tension, Keller makes this ancient text shake and quake our present moment.” See information at Orbis Press, and listen to a radio interview with Orbis publisher Robert Ellsberg. Her student, Elaine Padilla, University of La Verne Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion, and Latinx/Latin American Studies will facilitate our dialogue with Dr. Keller."
Brian Henning and Joseph Petek
Partners in Process, next Tuesday, June 22, 10 am (PT) Brian Henning and Joseph Petek will discuss Seeing into Whitehead's Mind, a benefit enabled by their work on the Whitehead Research Project. One of the exciting developments in the Whitehead Research Project is the discovery of new Whitehead material that “allows us to see into the mind of Whitehead as he was developing his philosophy.” Brian G. Henning, Professor of Philosophy at Gonzaga University, is Executive Editor of the Critical Edition of Whitehead and Director of Research and Publication for the Whitehead Research Project. Joseph Petek is Chief Archivist and Assistant Series Editor for the Critical Edition of Whitehead. In January, 2021, they published Volume 2 (of 6) of The Harvard Lectures of Alfred North Whitehead. A discussion of implications of the first volume in that series is available as Whitehead at Harvard, 1924-1925. (A paperback edition is forthcoming in November). They will focus their discussion on the Whitehead Critical Edition, a project summarized at this website. Check these video play lists to explore conferences, book trailers, and recorded sessions of the Whitehead Reading Group—all projects of the Whitehead Research Project.
RJ Lucchesi
Partners in process, remember, tomorrow, June 15, 10 am PT John Cobb and Friends will respond to RJ Lucchesi, discussing Public Witness in a Time of Global Uprisings—A Process-Liberation Approach. Lucchesi is a pastor, theologian, activist, and entrepreneur. He holds a Master of Divinity & Master of Theological Studies (Process Studies) from Claremont School of Theology and is the Chief Operating Officer of Andee Love Inc., a coaching and consulting firm where his wife Andrea is the CEO. Alongside co-conspirators, RJ is a founder of Liberation Rising, a 501(c)(4) committed to developing a collective consciousness of liberation via theological and political education, while partnering with front line individuals, communities, and organizations in the spirit of mutual aid. He is also a co-founder of Ohana Áina Cooperative, a 501(c)(3) dedicated to establishing food security and alternative food systems to sustain healthy and thriving living environments in partner communities. RJ lives in San Diego, California with his wife and rescue dog Neo, and enjoys spending his time in nature, experiencing new things, reading theology and philosophy, engaging the creative arts, and being and becoming with his chosen family.
Here is how Lucchessi summarizes his approach to the topic: "In his Letter from Birmingham Jail, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. names part of the movement’s task as 'bring(ing) to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive … bring(ing) it out in the open where it can be seen and dealt with … to the light of human conscience.' In his words and in his life, Dr. King embodies the public witness in the face of the gross injustices that he confronted then, and where we must continue to confront in our contexts now. In conversation with both liberation and process theologies, we will engage this necessary good work yet to be fulfilled by amplifying these theological traditions in their becoming mutual resonance, highlighting opportunities for application. As such, we will explore these possibilities of praxis – from art to direct action to education – in our collective creative transformation of our communities, and the world, as we aim to bend the moral arc of the universe, together."
You’ll find reminders of Martin Luther King’s “Letters from Birmingham Jail” here. The Open Horizons website has multiple references to Dr. King, including this list of seven similarities of King and process theology. Jay McDaniel’s response to George Floyd’s unjust death applies an interfaith “spiritual alphabet” to propose a way past “moral outrage” toward “passion for compassion.”
Thomas Jay Oord
Partners in process, next Tuesday, June 8, 10 a.m. PT, Thomas Jay Oord will discuss Open and Relational Theology. Dr. Oord has been offering an alternative to the conventional God for some time. Among his significant writings are The Uncontrolling Love of God and God Can’t: How to Believe in God and Love After Abuse, Tragedy, and Other Evils. At the website of his Center for Open and Relational Theology, you’ll find that “Thomas Jay Oord is a theologian, philosopher, and scholar of multi-disciplinary studies. Oord is a best-selling and award-winning author, having written or edited more than twenty-five books. He directs a doctoral program at Northwind Theological Seminary. A twelve-time Faculty Award-winning professor, Oord teaches at institutions around the globe. Oord is known for his contributions to research on love, open and relational theology, science and religion, and the implications of freedom and relationships for transformation.”
This 2-minute video offers a brief introduction to Open and Relational Theology. See his blog posts on the topic here. Anticipating his latest book, Open and Relational Theology: An Introduction to Life-Changing Ideas, due to be published in July, 2021, Oord asks, “Who Is Open and Relational?”. You may pre-order a Kindle edition here. You're invited to ORTCON21, an "open & relational theology conference" July 20-24, for conversations in a resort setting, led by Thomas J. Oord and Karen Winslow.
Among the many references to Thomas Jay Oord in Open Horizons, is this page, which includes Oord's 5-minute video on The Uncontrolling Love of God and responses by John Cobb & Jay McDaniel to a seminarian's question about whether to take God literally or metaphorically. One of Jay McDaniel's "Conversations in Process" features Thomas J. Oord, "Opening the Love of God."
John Fahey
Partners in Process, some of our own will share their experience with John Cobb & Friends on Tuesday, June 1, 10 a.m. PDT. John Fahey & Friends will discuss Transformative Communities and how Process might influence them. It's no secret that Cobb Institute board chair, John Fahey, has been an active supporter of the 12-step process for several years. He has assembled a panel of friends who are quite knowledgeable about process philosophy and recovery to discuss how a "process way" is enabling their creative transformation. Please join us as John Fahey, Herman Greene, Damian Geddry, and John Buchanan all share their experience in transformative communities including The Cobb Institute. Please see this link to an article from The Process Studies Journal as a helpful introduction to the topic as well as other Open Horizons essays on recovery--from alcoholism, from anorexia, and from drug addiction.
Philip Clayton
Partners in Process, here's new information on John Cobb & Friends' guest on Tuesday, May 25, 10 am PT. Philip Clayton, cofounder and president of Eco-Civ has titled his conversation with us as Building a Movement and Moving the Needle: How Might the Process Movement Become an “Actionable Constituency”? See his attached summary topic description and reflect on his advance questions!
As Ingraham Professor of Theology at Claremont School of Theology, Dr. Clayton works at the intersection points of science, philosophy, and theology. As an activist (President ofEcoCiv.org, and President ofThe Institute for Postmodern Development of China), he works to convene, facilitate, and catalyze multi-sectoral initiatives toward ecological civilization. Check out his website for details, including a list of multiple writings, and access to several media clips. Scroll to “Seizing an Alternative,” and listen to his 9-minute description of the impact of the 2015 Claremont conference out of which the Institute for Ecological Civilization emerged. We look forward to hearing his take on emerging initiatives of the Institute for Ecological Civilization.
Dr. Clayton discussed the global Pandemic with John Cobb and Friends on April 14, 2020. You might enjoy listening to his May 28, 2020 interview for Grace Cathedral’s Forum Online. At about 14:00 he discusses the origin of the Eco-Civ Institute, shares pictures of the northern California ecoscape that has shaped his spirit, and shares his journey into ecotheology. In his interview on March 24 this year on Democracy Nerd, he discusses the book he recently edited, The New Possible. He said in that interview that he edited it from the perspective of his “Ecological Civilization” role, asking, “What does the sustainable, long-term existence of human beings on this planet look like?”
Among his many writings, What is Ecological Civilization? which he co-wrote with William Andrew Schwartz, answers eight questions about “crisis, hope, and the future of the planet.”
Barbara Muraca
Partners in Process, on Tuesday, May 18, 10 am (PT) John Cobb and Friends will host Barbara Muraca. Her topic is Seize the Relational Shift! Biocultural Diversity, Sustainability, and Degrowth. Dr. Muraca has been showing how a relational way of thinking will transform how we organize our living. She will address how and why a relational paradigm shift is happening and why it is needed in biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services management, and sustainability.
Muraca received her MA in Philosophy from the University of Turin, Italy, and her Ph.D. from the University of Greifswald, Germany. She is now Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Environmental Studies at University of Oregon, where a course on Whitehead is one of her offerings. She served for six years as co-director of the International Association for Environmental Philosophy (IAEP). Prior to working at University of Oregon she was Assistant Professor of Environmental and Social Philosophy at Oregon State University and Senior Researcher (Post-Doc) at the Center for Advanced Studies 'Post-growth Societies' at the Institute of Sociology of the University of Jena, Germany.
Since Summer 2018 she is a Lead Author of the IPBES assessment on multiple values of nature (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services). See her profile here. See her attached articles and photo.
In her own words, Dr. Muraca elaborates: “I will speak about how IPBES has included relational values in its vision and how there is pushback against this from both older traditions, instrumental (economic) values and intrinsic (conservation) values. I will also discuss how degrowth is a project for a radical transformation of society that requires a transformation of the social imaginary against the dominant neoliberal paradigm and mode of subjectivation. I will show how radical alternatives are possible against the dominant mantra of competition.”
As part of the University of Oregon’s 2021 Sustainability Awards program, Dr. Barbara Muraca was selected as the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation recipient in the category of Innovation and Impact. She was selected for this award because of her research around the degrowth movement, a new framework for indigenous-led sustainable practices with the Lummi Nation's “Totem Pole Journey,” and her work as lead author of the IPBES assessment. In particular, her linking of the philosophical and ethical foundations of research to real-life situations and communities is extremely innovative.
Herman Daly
Partners in Process, on Tuesday, May 4, 10 am PT, Herman Daly explores Ecological Economics for a Full World with John Cobb and Friends. Herman Daly was the steady-state economist at John Cobb’s 1972 conference, “Alternatives to Catastrophe.” He and John together published For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future (Beacon Press, 1989, 1994). With assistance from Cliff Cobb, they created the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW), an alternative to GDP as a measure of economic well-being. Daly, emeritus professor at University of Maryland, School of Public Policy, served from 1988 to 1994 as senior economist in the Environment Department of the World Bank. Co-founder of the journal Ecological Economics, he has often faced opposition from mainstream economists, but he has also won multiple awards.
In 2014 he was awarded by the Asahi Glass Foundation of Japan the Blue Planet Prize, which carries the prestige of a "Nobel Prize" in environmental matters. The Blue Planet website provides access to a brief biographical sketch, a 12-minute interview, and a 25-minute oral delivery of his acceptance speech. Dr. Daly suggests we read his 2015 essay on “Economics for a Full World.” which was based on that speech.
John Cobb has questions for his long-time collaborator. What signs does he see that the economics taught in universities is moving in the right direction? Does the natural world have an increasing place? Is environmental economics being accepted even if ecological economics is not? Are they rejecting him personally just as rigorously as they once did? Or is the situation more flexible? Who in the field of ecological economics is doing the most creative work? What movements, like the doughnut economy, does he find encouraging? (See Kate Raworth's TED Talk on this, and its application in the City of Amsterdam.)
Brianne Donaldson
Partners in process, on Tuesday, May 11, 10 a.m. PT, John Cobb and Friends welcome Brianne Donaldson to discuss "Jainism, Process Thought and Animal Ethics." Credentialed with a Ph.D. degree from Claremont School of Theology, where she was also an instructor, she is now Assistant Professor, Philosophy and Religious Studies and Shri Parshvanath Presidential Chair in Jain Studies at University of California at Irvine. Explore her website and discover at “Events” videos of her interview about animal agriculture’s role in pandemics, and a half-hour demonstration of preparing some vegetarian dishes. Check out the syllabus for her current spring semester course, Animal Ethics and Religion. Her newest book, Insistent Life: Principles for Bioethics in the Jain Tradition, co-authored with Ana Bajželj (University of California Press), will be published in June, 2021.
Find here a summary of her writings, including books she has created and articles and op ed pieces she has written. Matthew Calarco called her book, Beyond the Bifurcation of Nature: A Common World For Animals and the Environment (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014), “an exceptionally important collection of essays, showcasing the wide range of possibilities inherent in Whitehead’s writings for thinking about central issues in animal, plant, and environmental ethics.” Her book Creaturely Cosmologies: Why Metaphysics Matters for Animal and Planetary Liberation (Lexington 2015) has been called "A fine example of [a] multi-pronged, intersectional approach” to linking work in critical animal studies with a broader ontological and political framework. Her metaphysics combines Whitehead’s process-relational thought in the west and the nonviolent Indian tradition of Jainism.