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The movement of process theology is brought into creative interaction with political theology in this exciting new work by distinguished author John B. Cobb Jr. Confronted with the critical problems facing the global environment, the author seeks to overcome the abstractness that has kept process thought from achieving practical influence. Cobb reviews contemporary political theology in the works of major European theologians, Johann Baptist Metz, Jurgen Moltmann, and Dorothee Solle, then surveys the movement in recent German theology. He examines the challenge of political theology in the tradition of the Chicago school and advocates broadening the horizons of political theology into the formulation of an ecological, rather than a sociological, theology. Process Theology as Political Theology responds to the challenge of providing a theological base for the Christian activist. Pastors, seminarians, and students will find it to be a stimulating evolutionary work, derived from the author's concern for the planet earth.

What has happened to the once robust mainline church in the United States? Decrying the professionalization of theological education, Cobb calls for the church to return to its theological vocation so that its members can in turn resume their passionate commitment to faith.

The church has emphasized ideas about God that have marginalized Jesus’ understanding of his spiritual Father, his Abba. We commonly think of God as a demanding lawgiver and judge, an omnipotent ruler, or an ultimate philosophical principle. None of these works well today. In contrast, Jesus’ view of God as spiritual Abba still truly works when it is given a chance. Christians should be open to accepting the ideas of the one they call Lord and Savior. In Jesus’ Abba, one of the greatest theologians of this generation boldly argues for a new view of God, through the eyes of Jesus. John B. Cobb Jr. interprets the whole of Jesus’ life and ministry, and death and resurrection, in light of Jesus’ understanding of God. He also shows that Paul shared this understanding and that it played a central role in Paul’s churches. Ultimately, Cobb argues that Jesus’ view of God fits our actual experience today, that it is supported by the evidence of the sciences, and that it encourages appreciative learning from other wisdom traditions and cooperation with them in redeeming the world. With this book, John B. Cobb Jr. makes his ultimate and most impassioned plea for us to rediscover God through Jesus.

This collection of essays explores convergences and divergences between process thought and Roman Catholicism with the goal of identifying reasons for why process philosophy and theology has not had the same impact in Roman Catholic circles as in Protestantism, and of constructively navigating avenues of promising engagement between Process thought and Roman Catholicism. In creatively considering the Roman Catholic tradition from the vantage point of Process thought, different theoretical perspectives are brought to bear on Catholic characteristics of historical theology, fundamental theology, systematic theology, moral theology, social justice, and theology of religions. While the contributors draw upon a broad range of resources from the disciplines of the physical and social sciences, philosophy, and ethics from a process perspective, the primary methodology employed is theological reflection.

In these times many people feel that their cherished religious values are held hostage by the forces of secularization and that, as a consequence, society is morally bankrupt. While acknowledging this problem, John Cobb overturns the prevailing expectations by drawing a distinction between secularization and secularism. Secularization, as Cobb uses the term, has a prophetic function. It is a process by which religion is cleansed and refocused on mission and ministry rather than on other-worldly myths and concerns. The uncritical understanding of religion that focuses on religion for its own sake is what Cobb calls secularism. In Cobb's view, secularization has led to secularism or a culture of consumerism that threatens those very religious convictions many hold dear. After teasing the concepts of secularization and secularism apart, Cobb proposes an alternate path for secularization that will help us reevaluate our relation to our world and each other.

"This important and profoundly original book is written in the belief that the church has a fighting chance of restoring to modern man the wholeness of vision he seeks in the midst of fragmentation—that fragmentation characteristic of every human apprehension and especially evident today in the splintered specialization of contemporary thought. Spiritual and intellectual heath lie in the synthesizing of our religious convictions with understand of nature and man. Contemporary cosmology, inspired by science, has been the dominant factor in undermining the Christian faith. A Christian natural theology is needed, says the author, and is of ultimate importance for the survival and integrity of the church. Rigorous philosophical reasoning alone can show the way to a world view that correlates Christianity and science, faith and intellect. With clarity and brilliance, Dr. Cobb presents here a comprehensive, cohesive, and coherent Christian natural theology derived, with both logic and intuition, from the philosophy of Lafred North Whitehead, greatest of twentieth-century philosophers and one of the most creative thinkers of all time. Whitehead's particular genius for synthesis resulted in a unification of all the compelled components of science, logic, and mathematics—of social, aesthetic, moral, and religious experience. this totality, plus the Christian vision of reality which was his starting point, makes hum guide extraordinary to a new completeness in Christian thinking. the author not only explains how Whitehead's system makes tenable the personal God that many philosophical systems reject, but draws out the great philosopher's thought in theological contexts. Chapter 1 introduces the reader to Whitehead's total scheme of though. Chapter 2 analyzes his ideas on the nature of man which relate to theological anthropology, Chapter 3 summarizes Whitehead's theories of value and draws deductions for ethics. chapters 4 and 5 trace the development of his though about God and suggest a systematic doctrine of God dependent upon Whitehead's philosophy but nevertheless differing from some of his explicit statements. Chapter 6 breaks new ground in the interpretation of various religious experiences in Whiteheadian terms. chapter 7 explicates the nature of philosophy and theology and compares them as methods. This book is a necessity—not only for students of theology and philosophy, but for any minister or Chirstian layman who would try to communicate with the estranged intelligentsia...to combat nihilism with knowledge, to convey the possibility of an organic view of the universe with a Christian God at center."-Publisher.

When the first edition ofA Christian Natural Theologyappeared in 1965, it was a groundbreaking work that incorporated Alfred North Whitehead's metaphysical philosophy as a framework for developing a Christian natural theology. The work was so significant it helped to launch process theology as a leading alternative to neo-orthodox theology and has since become a classic in the literature of process theology. This new edition by one of America's preeminent theologians is an essential work for all those interested in process theology.

One of America's preeminent systematic theologians, John B. Cobb Jr. examines a range of social issues in his latest groundbreaking work, Postmodernism and Public Policy. Cobb uses a naturalistic postmodern perspective to make constructive proposals about a wide range of topics in the public eye. Postmodernism and Public Policy shows how a postmodern Christianity can contribute positively to thinking about religious and cultural pluralism, and how this can give direction to the educational enterprise. It proposes ways of understanding sex, gender, and race that take diversity seriously without lapsing into a debilitating relativism that inhibits political action. Arguing for a shift from individualism to thinking of persons-in-community, it proposes that the world be organized from the bottom up in communities of communities, and spells out what this implies for the political and economic orders and the relationship between them. Cobb shows that formulations on all these topics can be coherently interconnected and he develops the implications of such thinking for some specific ethical and political issues that now trouble the United States, such as abortion, physician-assisted suicide, and homosexuality.