John B. Cobb, Jr., is a co-director of the Center for Process Studies and professor emeritus from the Claremont School of Theology where he taught for thirty-two years. He was born in Japan of Methodist missionary parents. His advanced education was at the University of Chicago. Among his books are Is It Too Late: A Theology of Ecology; (with Charles Birch) The Liberation of Life; (with Herman Daly) For the Common Good, Sustainability, and Sustaining the Common Good.
Abstract of paper given at
Christianity and Ecology conference:
Ecology and Economics: Reflections from Christian
Theology
Among the ways in which Christianity shares responsibility for the ecological crisis is its historic support of technology. Belief that bodily work with physical materials could glorify God and serve the neighbor became a faith that human mastery could transform the world into what God wanted. Economic theory embodies this .vision and thus blocks attention to the ecological wisdom that identifies limits and calls for letting nature be. Christian theology needs to find its way between leaving all to God and celebrating the human ability to create.