The Study On Cobb's View On God

In the face of the theoretical dilemmas and practical dilemmas(can not effectively deal with the challenges of modern ideas and crises)of the traditional view of God duing to excessively emphasis on transcendence,Cobb is trying to build a Christianity which is closely related to the world and can be answerable for various challenges from society,and to rebuild holiness belief and influence in God.Therefore,on a philosophical level,Cobb constructes a kind of Christian natural theology based on Process Philosophy charaterized by emphasizing "Event" which has internal relationship on the ontology and regarding God as an example of metaphysics,Panexperimentialism on the epistemology and so on,these characterizes provides the basis for immanence of God(connected with the world,interact with each other);The natural theology holds that the world has a real power of self-determination gived by the ultimate category of "creativity",and therefore,on the theological properties,Cobb rejects the idea of "omnipotence" and believes that God interacts with the world by the power of "Calling",which attributes "Evil" to the world itself and reflects God's transience and variability--the immanence of God.But Cobb also opposes to ignore the transcendence because of excessively emphasising immanence,therefore he shows the absoluteness and invariance of God by viewing God as the root of novelty which can produce possibility influence for the world evolution--the absoluteness of God,and tries to realize unification of transcendence and immanence within the becoming between God and word,which presents a Bipolar God who is absolute and relative,created and responsive.Finally,Cobb sees the transcendental and immanent God above as the best example of natural life--"Life"--can prompt a kind of ecological concept and practice,under the thought above,Cobb opens the ecological latitude of God,and also develops process theology into theology theology;In the aspect of social reality,through the theory of "Creative Transformation",he opens the practical orientation--to develop the theological ability by responding and transforming social crisis(especially the ecological crisis and multicultural challenge),which makes the view of God has containment and self-correcting capabilities,also reflects a kind of ecological latitude,conversation and practicality.In addition,the ecological features,inherent transcendence and interconnectedness of Cobb's view on God are accord with Chinese traditional religion,which are beneficial to their dialogue practice,at the same time,their differences are culture resources to enrich and transform each other's culture.However,Cobb's thoughts have some problems corresponding the three aspects above:the construction of Cobb's natural theology of must faces a problem that the theology based on metaphysical architecture have to face--the problem of philosophy itself will affect the natural theology;Although Cobb highlights the immanence of God by "calling" power is beneficial for solving the problem of evil in theology,and some practical problems in the society,but there are some problems,such as weaking holiness of God and to be worshipped;In addition,whether it will conflict with loyal to Christ that to continuously transform meeting epochal need,and whether it will form different theological systems because of different social challenges and how to unify them also need to be reflect.Because Cobb's theological construction is set in the plights of the traditional view of God(the main reason is to overemphasize God's transcendence),as a result,the first chapter mainly discusses the problems of the traditional view of God from three dimensions:In the aspect of philosophical foundation,Entity Philosophy makes God presents the independence,invariant features because of ignoreing the organic entity and relevance nature,which separates the intrinsic connection between God and the world,and highlights the absolute transcendence of God in the form of metaphysics;In theological attribute level,the transcendence of God is corresponding to the omnipotent doctrine and some negative images,such as moralist of the universe,the maintainer of the present situation.The biggest problems of these attributes is how to explain the existence of evil in the world;In social practice level,God who is beyond the world and is dolated invariant lacks the ability to cope with and transform the challengs of realistic society,especially in the face of secularization,the global crisis,religious diversity and modern scientific challenges,which are liable to make people lose their trust in God gradually.Correspond with the first chapter,the second chapter mainly analyzes the characteristics of Cobb constructs process theology and view of God from the philosophical foundation,theological attribute and social practical aspects.In philosophical foundation,Cobb tries to construct a new natural theology of Christianity based on the process philosophy,whose characters are to replace the substantivism by Event that has intrinsic value,and internal relationship on the ontology and viewing God as an event in metaphysics,to against empirical sensory perception by Panexperimentialism on the epistemology,to emphasize the coordination during the view of God,modern science and Bible in the wholeness of knowledge.These characteristics provide a basis for Cobb to establish a immanency concept of God whichis closely related to the world and harmony with the Bible and modern science.On the theological properties,Cobb highlights the closely connection between God and the world through refactoring omniscient and omnipotent doctrine of God in the form of the power of "calling--responsiveness",but he also criticizes to overemphasize the internality of God,and seeks the uniformity of transcendence and immanence:both absoluteness and relativity,creativeness and responsiveness,enjoyment and adventure,hopefull and openness.In social practice level,Cobb opens the practice guidance of process theology by "Creative Transformation",to make close connection between the faith in God and the world(especially ecological problems and the challenge of diverse religious culture),also make the process theology has containment:can to account for God in the way of compatibling with the scientific world and without losing God's effectiveness in the world,both to trust in God and appreciate each other with other religious,to open the attention to natural intrinsic value in believe in God...,and forming a kind of Christian theology which can constantly self-correcting and transformation.Cobb's view of God are often referred to as "reconstruction post-modern theology" for the constructivism of the characteristics above,but the construction of Cobb's natural theology of also must faces a problem that the theology based on metaphysical architecture have to face:the problem of philosophy itself will affect the natural theology.In addition,whether it will conflict with loyal to Christ that to continuously transform meeting epochal need,and whether it will form different theological systems because of different social challenges and how to unify them also need to be reflect.The third chapter mainly discusses the theological essential characteristics of Cobb's view on God.Cobb's thought is basing on the distinction between Primordial Nature(the possibility influence on the world)and Consequence Nature(the interaction with the world)of God by Process Philosophy.Based on the Primordial Nature of God,Cobb views God as a special energy event-the root of the Novelty,which influences the world in the form of "initial purpose",and the purpose of this influence is to improve the enjoyment and value(the transcendental development in the direction of complexity),so as to promote the evolution of the world.Based on Consequence Nature of God,Cobb views God's power as“Calling "(Persuasive),that has limits and response can provide freedom and responsibility,enjoy and innovation for the world,so he summarizes God's power as "Creation-Response Love".Duing to the persuasive power,the "evil" of the world owes to the world itself which has the power of self-determination,God must be partly responsible for evil,but don't have to be blamed,so human beings who have particularity should take more responsibility-adventure together with God.It forms God's Bipolar essential characteristics in his relation with the world:the Primordial Nature of God as the eternal conceptual existence reflects God's eternal and absolute--Transcendence,that constantly promotes the becoming and evolution of the word in the manner of the root of Novity;The Primordial Nature of God as eality realistic existence reflects God's "Love" and transient,relativity and variability--Immanence;The meaning of God's non-omnipotent power is revealed in the unique relationship with human responsibility.Ultimately,Cobb treats transcendental and immanent God above as "Life"(the source of nature life)--which forming a kind of ecological idea and practical action,consequently opening ecological latitude and practice guide of belief in God.However,the transcendence and immanence of Cobb's God is non-spatial and complementary concepts,which are unified in the process of the becoming with the world.Under the foundation of this Bipolar properties,Cobb opens the ecological latitude of God,thus forming a ecological theology which has practice,which have positive and constructive significance both in the contemporary ecological theory and the social crisis.But,the non-omnipotent power of the immanence is conducive to solving the problem of evil and freedom,but there is a danger of weakening God's divinity and being worshipped.The fourth chapter mainly discusses the comparability and conversation between Cobb's concept of God and Chinese traditional religious culture.Cobb's theory of"creative transformation" brings the process theology into practice and to enrich the understanding of God in practical challenges.Cobb,therefore,on the basis of "deep pluralist theory",puts forward a kind of religious dialogue theory which emphasis on the respect for each other and the purpose of transcending and transforming itself,which believes that the cultural comparability is beneficial to establish the basics of dialogue,the cultural differences is beneficial to enrich each other's resources.This theory as reference,the ecological features,inherent transcendence and interconnectedness of Cobb's view on God are accord with Chinese traditional religion,but there are differences,and the radical differences derive from the particular emphasis on between personality ultimate(God)or non-personality ultimate(Creativity).According to Cobb's dialogue theory,their comparability can provide a certain basics and bridges for the dialogue between Chinese and Western culture,their differences are culture mutual benefits:to excavate the connotation of traditional culture in the view of God of process theology,and enrich the significance of process theology from the vision of the Chinese religious and cultural traditions.