 Cobb believed that through at least the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century , American Protestant theology had been largely derivative from European ( specifically German ) theology . In the late 1950s , Cobb and Claremont professor James Robinson decided that the time had come to end this one @-@ sidedness and move to authentic dialogue between American and European theologians . To establish real mutuality , they organized a series of conferences of leading theologians in Germany and the United States and published a series of volumes called " New Frontiers in Theology . " 
