Grace Cathedral

Dear Friends,

Last Sunday, former president Jimmy Carter ended his earthly pilgrimage, and at the age of 100, returned to God. His death naturally prompted an outpouring of reflections on his public service, deep Christian faith, and extraordinary post-presidential humanitarian activity. From bible study to Habitat for Humanity, from Camp David to the near eradication of the Guinea worm, we reminisced about the stunning breadth of his life, and his sheer determination to impact the planet and its peoples for good. 

At the same time, I was noting the death of another southern Christian of great wisdom and compassion, who, weeks shy of his 100th birthday, also made an indelible mark on the world, and also shared the initials JC: John Cobb. John was a theologian, philosopher, and environmentalist. His prolific work spanned and integrated disciplines, genres and audiences, and had at its core a deeply relational view of the divine and the cosmos. He was responsible for ground breaking work in Interreligious dialogue and religious pluralism. More immediately, anyone who connects the environmental movement to the Christian faith owes some debt of gratitude to his work. 

On Monday afternoon, I found myself at an online remembrance of the life and work of John Cobb. I had met and spoken with John while I was a student at the Claremont School of Theology. My advisor, Philip Clayton, fostered an environment where those conversations could occur naturally. So, the stream brought back a few personal memories in addition to John Cobb’s broader impact. The two JCs (Jimmy Carter and John Cobb), in their extraordinary lives and contemporaneous deaths, occupied parallel strains of my consciousness. 

The stream progressed to discussing John Cobb’s influential environmental work in China, with Clayton narrating the intricate structure of a meeting with the president of a Chinese university, describing John Cobb’s flawless performance as complex diplomacy. Suddenly, my synapses were firing, and some parallels between these great figures came to the fore. More important than these special shared initials, is this commitment to complex diplomacy, the sense that to meaningfully impact the world, a nuanced understanding of people and culture is primary; other subject matter expertise is secondary. I believe that is how Carter dramatically reduced the incidence of the Guinea worm, and Cobb guided Chinese officials toward the ecological restoration of villages. They weren’t the first feats of medicine or engineering.

As we begin a new year, many fear a turn from peacemaking, environmental stewardship, human rights, and authentic Christian faith. I understand the fear. But I look to those who have had an outsize positive impact on the world, and know they were not held captive by fear. They had other capacities, and lives of deep faith. If there is one for us to emulate now, it’s faithful and complex diplomacy. In every arena of our public lives, and in the personal ones too, we must hew toward negotiation. Not compromise of core values, but the belief that we can build better, more sustainable solutions in conversation together. We can listen closely, find narrow ways through, each of us in a bit of statecraft — the state of better possibilities. 

In gratitude for Jimmy Carter, John Cobb, and their inspiration in Jesus Christ — and in hope for the dream of God to blossom on earth, all good things, 

Anna