news...

Latin America Project Conferece in Managua

September 1-3, 2010, a conference entitled Encuentro de Cosmologias: Cardenal, Teilhard de Chardin y Whitehead will take place in Managua, Nicaragua at the UPOLI (Politechnic University). The event will explore points of contact and divergence between these three process thinkers using Cardenal’s Magnus Opus, Cantico Cosmico (English Translation Cosmic Canticle, John Lyons Translator) as the main text to compare and contrast cosmological perspectives. The event is the result of a combination of ideas and efforts of Catherine Keller, Ignacio Castuera, John Cobb, and George Pixley. [read more]

Process Theology Summer Institute, June 7-11, 2010

Join us for the Process & Faith: Process Theology Summer Institute June 7-11, 2010, and learn about process theology in a relaxed summer setting. Classes offered by John B. Cobb, Jr., Marjorie Suchocki, Ronald L. Farmer, and Bruce Epperly. For more information and to register, please visit the Process & Faith website.

Faber, Newly Named Chair of Process Studies, Will Give Inaugural Lecture (Mar 30, 2010)

Roland Faber has been named the inaugural Kilsby Family/John B. Cobb Professor of Process Studies. The chair coincides with the launch of a new Ph.D. in Religion with a concentration in Process Studies from Claremont School of Theology. Dr. Faber will be inaugurated on Thursday, April 22, at 4:30 p.m. in Mudd Theater and will give a lecture entitled "Theopoetic Justice: Towards an Ecology of Living Together." A two day conference exploring topics related to theopoetics will follow. [read more]

Theopoetics Conference, April 22-24

Held in conjunction with Roland Faber's Inaugural Lecture, this conference is exploring the complex ways in which process theology is, should, and can be the "theopoetics" of such theologies of multiplicity, as well as ways in which it contributes to a theology of multiplicities. For more information, visit the conference website

Mary Herczog's last paper: On "Wide Sense Agnosticism" and Process Theism (Feb 23, 2010)

The paper concludes with the following: For this wide sense agnostic, atheism has been weighed, and found wanting. Traditional theism is rejected. Skepticism rules. Out of this muddle, process theism presents God in a way that at once passes understanding and is the sureness of one’s most confident self-decision. The process God is the both/and of agnosticism: transcendent and immanent, eternal and temporal, containing all things and greater than all things, too vast to ever grasp and intimately accessible. The process God knows our hearts and is changed by them. In turn we can, and indeed we do, know God. We just don’t know it. [read paper]

The Passing of a Friend (February 18, 2010)

With deep sadness and regret we announce the passing of Mary Herczog, a friend of the Center (and to many of us individually) and a strong supporter of process thought. After a twelve-year battle with cancer, Mary died peacefully in her home on Tuesday, February 16th . Mary was working on her PhD in philosophy of religion and theology at Claremont Graduate University, with particular interest in the social implications of process metaphysics and in process and the arts. Deeply influenced by Whitehead, she was relentlessly seeking the deeper mysteries in Whitehead’s texts. Mary’s last paper, a defense of process agnosticism, will shortly be posted on this site. For more information on Mary's life, please visit the LA Times (here and here) and her website. A memorial service will be held on March 6, 2010 (for more information, please see Mary's website).

New Endowed Chair in Process Theology (January 19, 2010)

The Center of Process Studies reached another significant milestone this week as Claremont School of Theology announced the establishment of an endowed chair in honor of John B. Cobb, Jr., thanks to a generous pledge from Rev. Dr. Mary Ellen Kilsby of Long Beach, Calif. The chair will be named the “Kilsby Family and John B. Cobb, Jr., Chair in Process Theology.” [read more]

In Memory of Charles Birch (January 2010)

Charles Birch, a renowned Australian biologist and philosopher, died on December 19, 2009, at the age of 91. He was among the first 20th-century thinkers to creatively blend the insights of science and religion and an early advocate of environmental protection. He collaborated with John Cobb on The Liberation of Life. [learn more].