Scott’s Column: Two Titans

Last week two titans of the liberal Mainline Protestant churches died–theologian John Cobb and hymn lyricist Ruth Duck.

About a dozen of Ruth Duck’s hymns appear in the UCC’s New Century Hymnal, including some we sing regularly like “Arise, Your Light Is Come,” “Now Bless the God of Israel,” “We Cannot Own the Sunlit Sky,” and “Womb of Life and Source of Being.”  Duck was among the first generation of worship creators to pioneer work in inclusive language.  She was a part of a feminist movement in the United Church of Christ and her life’s work in liturgy and lyrics was to provide new language for the church’s worship.

In her volume of liturgies, Bread for the Journey, she writes “At this time in the life of the church, there are burdens to be borne and struggles to be endured for the sake of justice and peace and that wholeness that comes from incorporating all sorts of people into our life.”  She wrote of how our faith and worship was “in process, always on a journey never complete.”

John Cobb is often identified as the founder of Process Theology, adapting the philosophical work of Alfred North Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne for Christian theology.  Cobb was also the first person to write a book of environmental ethics.  His work in environmentalism has had global impacts far broader than the world of Christian theology.  His ideas also have a significant following in China.  He has been a pioneer of interfaith, multi-cultural, multi-disciplinary projects.

In 2012 I attended an Emergent Village conference at the Claremont School of Theology, then located in Claremont, California, and was part of a panel with Cobb.  During that session he was asked why so many feminist theologians had also been or became Process theologians.  He answered, “We shared a fundamental theological insight–God is not an ass hole.”  I’ve often quoted that line since.

In his introductory book on Process theology, Cobb writes that “It is God who, by confronting the world with unrealized opportunities, opens up a space for freedom and self-creativity.”  And, “God offers possibilities that would lead us into the new life we need.  God lures, urges, and persuades.  We decide.”  One of his later books (he wrote a hundred, I believe) is titled Jesus’ Abba: The God Who Has Not Failed which distills his life’s understanding of who God is and how God works, primarily by calling us through love.

This coming Sunday, as we celebrate the Epiphany, we’ll sing some Ruth Duck hymns, and I’ll reflect further upon the ideas and work of these pioneers of our time.