John B. Cobb

Several earlier works established him among the very few most notable thinkers making process philosophy the principal philosophical resource for a distinctive option in Christian theology. Pioneered the importance of this philosophy and theology for sustained analysis of major social problems, especially environmental issues and, subsequently, those of economic order, publishing in each case major works coauthored by a scholar in the relevant correlate discipline. In 1973, cofounded the Center for Process Studies, for which he provided principal intellectual leadership and in which the neoclassical metaphysics of Alfred North Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne were fostered and tested in discussion with representatives of numerous other fields of study, including physics, political theory, and gender studies. Through orchestration of conferences and his own academic achievements, the Center evoked in Europe and Asia, especially in China and Japan, extensive scholarly attention to process philosophy and its consequences for contemporary thought.