About the Institute
Named in honor of our founder John Cobb, the Cobb Institute is inspired by the knowledge that all life is interconnected and in process of becoming. With this comprehensive vision, we engage in initiatives that foster the flourishing of individuals, communities, and our common home—the planet we all inhabit. We thus seek to advance ways of understanding and living that embrace this view in order to bring about fundamental transformations.
As a philosophical outlook, process-relational thought provides a holistic perspective on our place in the world, and invites us to attune ourselves to more integral modes of being. We live out this philosophy by providing values-driven education, engaging in creative collaboration, and promoting an open view of spirituality to help each other and our communities thrive. This is a bold collaborative endeavor that recognizes our interbecoming and interdependence, and thus emphasizes that we have a responsibility to care, not just for our own lives but also for the world we share with everyone and everything else.
Our Mission
The Cobb Institute promotes process and relational ways of understanding and living in the world, seeking to cultivate ecological civilizations through just and compassionate communities.
Our Vision
Our vision is to advance wisdom, harmony, and the common good through holistic education, community building, and spiritual discovery. We work toward transformations:
- from a world of static objects to a process of dynamic becoming;
- from a fragmented world to a relational world;
- from a human-centered world to an eco-centered world;
- from isolated communities to communities of communities;
- from oppressive social orders to a world of justice;
- from mutual defensiveness to mutual support;
- from the goal of wealth to the goal of happiness and wellbeing;
- from isolated individuals to persons-in-community;
- from knowledge as mere data to knowledge as wisdom nourished by multiple ways of knowing;
- from the primacy of analysis to the primacy of creative synthesis;
- from attachment to dogmatic ideologies to openness to evidence;
- from life-denying spiritualities to life-affirming spiritualities.
- from nature as mechanistic to nature as alive;
- from coercive power to the power of love.
Presentations
Our History
Originally named the Claremont Institute for Process Studies, the Cobb Institute was established in the spring of 2019 as a non-profit corporation in the State of California, for the purpose of continuing the mission and legacy of the Center for Process Studies (CPS)—a Faculty Center of Claremont School of Theology (CST), established by John Cobb and David Griffin in 1973)—anticipating the relocation of CST and CPS in the summer of 2019. The Cobb Institute is part of a family of process-relational organizations affiliated with the Center for Process Studies and the International Process Network.
As the Institute engaged in self-assessments and underwent various developments during the latter part of 2019, its leadership determined that the name "Claremont Institute for Process Studies" didn't adequately express its character as an emerging community with a shared interest in a process-relational way of understanding the world, along with a commitment to implementing its values in concrete ways. Because of John Cobb's role as the founder, his bold vision for an alternative future, and the importance of his life's work, in January 2020 the Board decided to change the name of the organization to the Cobb Institute: A Community for Process & Practice. The name change was officially announced at John Cobb's 95th birthday celebration on February 11, 2020.
[…] died at a good old age, an old man and full of years; and he was gathered to his people.” John Cobb, Jr. was a universal human who understood he is (and we are) intricately interwoven with all humanity […]