​
​God as Abba


John Cobb's Proposal that we
Rediscover God with
​Help from Jesus


God is not an all-powerful ruler in the sky, or a judgmental moralist,
but an eternal companion and healing presence, more concerned
with the well-being of life than being flattered or worshiped.

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Click here to purchase book

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Excerpts from the Book, used with John Cobb's permission

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Two Problems with "God"
as Too Often Conceived

​John Cobb (from the Preface)

​​For me, God is of central importance to life and thought. As a boy I found that my conviction fitted comfortably with widely shared belief. I did not agree with everything I heard people say about God, but the problem with “God-language” was not much different fromother instances of disagreement and confusion.

Today the situation has changed. God remains of central importance for me. But I no longer find that belief to fit comfortably into my cultural context. On the contrary, many people are both skeptical that the word God has any reference and very uncertain what that reference would be like if it existed at all. In addition, the word now has a strongly negative connotation for many thoughtful and sensitive people, and I often find myself upset by how it is used. If the problem were simply linguistic, we could solve it easily.  Just use another term: Creator, Goddess, Great Spirit, Almighty, Yahweh. Using other names sometimes helps, but the problem is deeper. What has happened?
 
One problem is intellectual. From the outset of modernity, belief in the biblical God has been problematic. The biblical God is operative in both nature and history, whereas modernity, from its beginning, denied that God was a factor in what happened in the natural world. That is, it asserts that if you are trying to explain any natural event, you are not allowed to attribute any role to God.
 
At first, there was one exception. The world seemed so wonderfully ordered that it could not be thought of as coming into existence on its own or by chance. Most people assumed that it was created by an intelligent and powerful being, and did not hesitate to call that being “God.” Scientists found that the world was governed by laws, so that the Creator was also the Lawgiver. Some religious people thought that every now and again the God who created the laws intervened and caused something to happen that did not obey them. Thus there were supernaturalists, but the default position was “deism,” that is, the belief that God’s only relation to nature was the one act of creation and the imposing of natural laws.
 
At the same time, everyone assumed that human beings were not part of the nature from which God was excluded. Opinions differed on how God was related to human beings. The devout could picture the relation as quite intimate, but the dominant culture encouraged the idea that God had created human beings and had also given them rules to live by. Unlike plants and animals, people might choose not to obey these rules. After death those who violated them were punished, whereas those who obeyed them were rewarded.

Deistic thinking still continues, but it has far less support than in the earlier period. It was deeply shaken by Charles Darwin’s demonstration that the world we now know developed in a natural evolutionary way from a much simpler beginning. God was no longer needed to explain the remarkably complex and beautiful world we have around us; it could be explained by natural causes. Equally important was that human beings are fully part of this evolving nature. If God is excluded from playing any role in natural events, then God is excluded from playing any role in human events.  The default position now is atheism.

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Credibility has not been the only problem we theists faced. For many people “God” has become an offensive idea because so many terrible things have been done by his followers. I grew up believing that God was always good and loving. I knew that human beings, even those who worshiped God, had done some very bad things, but I supposed that this was an aberration and that we Christians had repented and were seeking peace and justice everywhere.

However, along with many others, I came to see history differently. In the name of God, Christians had persecuted Jews for most of Christian history. This persecution had reached new heights in what we considered a Christian country, Germany. True, the Nazis were not Christians, but they could show the continuity of their anti-Jewish teachings and actions with statements of Christian leaders, and the opposition to Nazi anti-Judaism on the part of Christians was weak.

I learned that in the century-long theft of the New World from its inhabitants, many Christian missionaries had played embarrassing roles. I learned that, indeed, even the more recent missions to Africa and Asia had often supported colonial exploitation of the people. Even the better missions were often tainted with the sense of Western superiority, and with condescension toward those to whom they were witnessing. More generally, 

More generally, I learned that over the centuries the churches were usually allied with the rich and powerful. I learned that the enslavement of nonwhite races had been supported as God’s will. I discovered that earlier members of my own family had written pious Christian books in defense of slavery. Even many of those leaders to
whom we looked with admiration, such as Abraham Lincoln, had been racists. The Bible that seemed evidently to oppose such racism had been widely and successfully used to justify it. (John Cobb)

Table of Contents

Preface 
​
1. Jesus’ Abba 
2. What Happened to Abba in Western History?
3. Personal Experience of Abba 
4. Can Science Get Along with Abba? 
5. Does Abba Call for Christian Exclusivism? 
6. A World in Crisis Needs Abba 

Postscript ​

Rediscovering God
through Jesus
​
​John Cobb (Postscript)

​The purpose of this book is to propose that it is time for thoughtful Christians to free themselves from acquiescence to the late modern worldview. My conviction is that the biblical worldview in general, and the worldview of Jesus and Paul in particular, is superior. Of course, there are many respects in which their worldview is out of date. But bringing it up to date is much easier and more fruitful than trying to make the modern worldview adequate to our needs. We certainly have a great deal of knowledge about astronomy today that is far more accurate than the beliefs that prevailed in New Testament times. But adjusting to that information is no threat to the basic insights of Jesus or Paul.

We know now that the world is composed of quantum events, a view that is vastly different from ideas in the minds of any New Testament writer. But their worldview was basically one that gave primacy to events. That events characterize the world at microscopic levels is not an uncongenial idea, whereas the modern world is not able to assimilate it. And above all, the idea that events are both subjective and objective would pose no problem to the ancients, whereas the moderns have to deny it, conceal it, or treat it as an anomaly.I have focused on what is central for Jesus, the reality and purposes of Abba. I have wanted to show that belief in Abba makes a lot of sense today. 

Of course, I have not proved the existence of Abba;
indeed, it is not really possible to prove the existence of anything. I cannot prove that I exist, but we know much that we cannot prove. We cannot prove that there were any events before the present moment. How could we do so? 

But I for one do not doubt that many things have happened, and I doubt that you are seriously doubtful. Although we cannot prove anything, we can disprove a good many things. We can disprove the indivisibility of what we still call atoms, named when we thought they were indivisible. Science has disproved the astronomy generally accepted in New Testament times. It has disproved the idea that the world is just six thousand years old.

I believe we can disprove some beliefs about God as well. For example, the systematic implications of the belief that God is all-powerful and the belief that God is all-beneficent contradict each other, and their combination is incompatible with the historical facts. It is very sad when those who consider themselves followers of Jesus spend their time defending ideas that are indefensible and are not found in the Bible. The idea that the Bible is inerrant is another belief that is easily disproved. So is the idea that Jesus and Paul were supporters of what are today called “family values.”

The basic argument of this book is that, although many ideas associated with God and Christian faith have been disproved, Jesus’ teaching about Abba has not. On the contrary, it is coherent with our experience and responds well to the needs of the world in our day. It can be tested against personal experience. I commend it enthusiastically.

For my part, I strive to be a faithful disciple of Jesus. There are those who follow Jesus without sharing his belief in Abba. I admire them, but I am convinced that the effort to follow Jesus while ignoring his Abba has a tragic character. It usually results from being socialized into a culture and a way of thinking that is not deserving of commitment. I am convinced that a much deeper and more joyful faithfulness is possible if we seek to relate to Abba as Jesus did. I commend a faithfulness to Jesus that shares Jesus’ confidence in the love and empowering power of Abba.

"Abba cares much more about the future of the world than about who believes in him and who does not."

​But loving an omnipotent God, or a morally judgmental God, or an exclusivist God, or a God who demands sacrifice in order to forgive, can be harmful. Abba is none of those things. I believe that loving Abba is the best hope for the world’s future, and loving Abba means working with Abba....Abba cares much more about the future of the world than about who believes in him and who does not. We who love Abba will eagerly cooperate with those who do not, if they are working to save the world. But today we may rejoice that the leading voice in the movement to save the world comes from one who loves Abba: Pope Francis. It is my hope that my tiny effort to renew and strengthen the worship of Jesus’ Abba will also build support for the great work of Pope Francis. (John Cobb)

"Abba is always present in the world working for good."

​In sum, with regard to all that I have said thus far, I believe that we experience in some usually faint and fragmentary way Abba’s presence with us, working in all things for good. Abba’s work is most effective if we attend to it, open ourselves to it, align ourselves with it. This is part of the meaning of faith.  Our resulting thoughts  and actions sometimes have effects beyond our intentions. We can experience ourselves to be participating in Abba’s salvific work in the world. And we can sense the companionship of Abba as well as of others who work with Abba. We can know something of the divine commonwealth, the presence of which Jesus announced. (John Cobb)

"Abba is present even in the cells in our bodies."

​​I am repeatedly surprised by how rapidly wounds heal when the body is given the chance. Doctors often comment that their medicines do not heal us. They counter hostile forces in the body. When these are removed, nature works its healing power. When thought and emotions are healthy and supportive, the healing work of nature is speeded and strengthened.  For me, there is no “nature” from which Abba is absent. That does not identify God and nature. There is much in nature other than Abba. But I think that it is Abba’s presence in nature that makes for healing. I believe that Abba is in every cell in the body calling it to do its part for its own well-being and for the well-being of the whole

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Notes in the Margins by Jay McDaniel

​Abba is not an abstract idea.  Abba is the embodied self of the universe, filled with compassion and beckoning care, whose body includes the hills and rivers, trees and stars, the plants and animals.  We are part of Abba's body.  

This doesn't mean that everything that happens in the universe is Abba's will. Some things happen in our universe, or at least in our world, that are terrible, even and especially for Abba.  Witness the rape and murder, witness the greed and injustice, witness the unspeakable sadness. 

It means that everything that happens in the universe affects Abba's heart, just as everything that happens in our bodies affects us. Abba is not a disembodied mind. 

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Abba does not know the future in advance, because there's not yet a future to be known until it happens.  This means that Abba is not an all-powerful architect of the universe with a predetermined blueprint, but rather the lure toward order and novelty within the universe as a whole; toward multiple forms of life on our planet (and any others where life exists); and, in human life, toward love.  Abba is the reason why, despite entropy, new forms of order and rich forms of experience emerge. There is a creative and exploratory side of the universe.  Abba is the catalyst.

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This catalyst is inside each of us.  Abba calls us to open our windows, seek the truth, step forward in love, and welcome the stranger.  Abba can be comforting and also unsettling.  We do not always become more peaceful when we are in touch with Abba.  We can also become more restless.

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Abba is more than a catalyst.  Abba is also what holds everything together: the pattern that connects.  Imagine a universe that unfolds inside a sky-like womb.  Abba is this womb: the embracing arms.  We live and move and have our being in Abba.  No sentient being suffers alone.  Abba is the fellow sufferer who understands.

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A good complement to John Cobb's book is Thomas Oord's The Uncontrolling Love of God.  What John Cobb means by Abba, Thomas Oord means by God. I would change Oord's title ever so slightly.  I would call it "The Uncontrolling Yet Continuously Present Love of God Who Shares in the Experiences of All Sentient Beings and Whose Body is the Universe."  But maybe that would be a bit long.  

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When we are true to our deepest selves -- the loving selves we may not have yet become -- we are true to Abba, even if we don't believe in Abba. Abba is more interested in the fullness of life than in being flattered. Sometimes people who don't believe in Abba are much closer to Abba than people who do.

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Abba is not supernatural but ultranatural.  Abba is the primordial nature of nature.  We don't have to drawn an ontological line in the sand and say "Abba on one side" and "the universe on another."  This doesn't mean we can't be awed and humbled by Abba.  We are small but included in a grandeur much greater than ourselves; a Life infinitely more amazing than our own.  Abba is extraordinary, and so are lots of other things. We live in an enchanted universe.  It's all kind of amazing.
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Abba does not control everything in the universe, just as we don't control everything in our own bodies.  The actualities of the universe have power of their own, not unlike the way in which the living cells in our bodies have power of their own. There are plenty of things that happen in the universe that even Abba cannot prevent.  
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​Abba is temporal: always affected by everything that happens and then responding, in ever-adaptive ways, with loving care.  Abba responds by offering fresh possibilities for healing, wholeness, and creativity.  These possibilities are Abba's grace.  Grace changes from moment to moment.

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​We can have a personal relationship with Abba.  We can rightly address the Life in whom the universe unfolds a Thou -- our Abba  or Amma -- and trust that Someone is listening. 

​But if we wish we can speak of Abba in  less  intimate terms: as the Deep Listening or the Great Compassion or the ultimate Becoming.  Some people are comfortable with the personal imagery and some are not.

Either way we can love Abba and give our hearts to Abba - albeit with a love rooted in affection not fear. It's good to ce awed by Abba, but there's no need to be overly frightened.  Abba is not in the business of reward and punishment.  Abba is love.

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To live in a spirit of wisdom, compassion, and creativity -- this is what it means to work with Abba.  To love yourself as well as your neighbor -- this is what it means to work with Abba.  To seek what is true and good and beautiful -- this is what it means to work with Abba.  To help save the planet from our own greed -- this is what it means to work with Abba.

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