Claremont School of Theology and the IAMSCU worldwide community learned that Professor John B. Cobb, Jr. passed away on December 26, 2024, a few to weeks short of his 100th birthday on February 9, 2025. IAMSCU mourns his passing and celebrates his life and legacy.
John Cobb was an Emeritus Professor of Theology at Claremont School of Theology and taught at the institution from 1958 to 1990, when he retired. He remained connected to Claremont and was internationally renowned as a leading expert in the intersection of theology, philosophy, education, ecology, and economics. He established the Center for Process Theology at Claremont in 1973 and his interdisciplinary work made him at home as well as widely respected in all these areas.
He was born February 9, 1925, in Kobe, Japan, as the youngest of three children of Methodist missionaries. He lived in Kobe and Hiroshima until 1940, when his family moved to the state of Georgia in the United States, where he attended high school and a junior college, Emory University, a United Methodist-related institution that is also member of IAMSCU. Cobb was deeply influenced by the pietist tradition, and his faith led him to question the racism he witnessed in his surroundings, to support missionary work in Sudan, and to oppose anti-Japanese propaganda, even though he was a soldier in the US Army serving during the US occupation of Japan. Upon his return to the United States, he finished his Master’s and Ph.D. at the University of Chicago and then taught at two Methodist-related institutions: Young Harris College and Emory University. In 1958 he moved to the Claremont School of Theology, where he remained until his death.
During his studies in Chicago, Cobb was heavily influenced by the philosophers Charles Hartshorne and Alfred North Whitehead, who were the main representatives of “process philosophy,” which defined history and reality as dynamic and changing. Cobb adopted this philosophy, moved to Claremont in 1958, and published several books on the theological issues of the day, such as Varieties of Protestantism (1960), Living Options in Protestant Theology (1962), A Christian Natural Theology (1965), The Structure of Christian Existence (1967), and God and the World (1969). These publications showed his pluralism and prepared his mature work on “process theology,” which became his main area of research which led to the founding of the journal Process Studies in 1971 and the Center for Process Studies in 1973. He also inaugurated new research in environmental theology, environmental ethics, and environmental economics – a field in which he collaborated with another Methodist scholar, Herman Daly, who is considered the founder of the discipline environmental economics.
Cobb’s tenure at Claremont yielded a series of initiatives and publications such as Is It Too Late? A Theology of Ecology (1971), Process Theology: An Introductory Exposition (1976), Theology and Pastoral Care (1977), The Liberation of Life: from the Cell to the Community (1981), Process Theology as Political Theology (1982) and others, culminating with an important environmental book edited with Herman Daly, For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy Toward Community, Environment, and a Sustainable Future (1989). Cobb retired from Claremont in 1990 but continued involved in the institution as an emeritus professor, author and editor of many books, and speaker around the world. He received six doctor honoris causa degrees from institutions such as the University of Mainz (Germany), Emory University, Linfield College, DePauw University, and many other awards.
John B. Cobb, Jr. was married to Jean L. Cobb – who was born in 1925, studied at LaGrange College and the University of Hawaii, worked as a secretary at the Claremont United Methodist Church and as a librarian at Claremont School of Theology, and passed away in 2016. They had four sons: Theodore, Clifford, Andrew, and Richard. The Center for Process Studies and the Cobb family will hold a public memorial service in his honor on February 15, 2025, 3:00 pm PST, at the United Church of Christ in Claremont, CA, USA, which will be livestreamed (https://ctr4process.org/remembering-john-cobb/).