Henry Nelson Wieman is not everyone's cup of tea. As Creighton Peden said in his introduction to SCIENCE SERVING FAITH -- a collection of Wieman's essays, "The experience of God is not knowledge of God, and knowledge of God is what Wieman initially is seeking." Wieman is rational and empirical through and through and people seeking for a more moist approach to spirituality will find Wieman dry as toast. Yet, and this is a big yet, this dryness has the crystalline quality of a cloudless sky and the austere elegance of a single-malt Scotch. Wieman is not bloodless, rather relentlessly singleminded in his pursuit of conceptual clarity when it comes to what he calls The Source of Human Good.

Wieman's God is transpersonal but not supernatural, a process within the universe rather than the universal creator. God, for Wieman, is the character of the universe -- a creative, integrating, pushing and pulling into greater wholes of greater value. Not terribly touchy-feely, granted, but for those of us whose faith must be solidly grounded in intellectual clarity and credibility, Wieman is a faithful guide and a constant inspiration.

AT HOME IN CREATIVITY succeeds in presenting Wieman's thought in a concise and eminently readable form at the same time as it holds it up against such contemporary trends as theologies of liberation and creation spirituality. And while Wieman did not participate in these trends -- his writing spans the middle fifty years of the 20th century -- and he could legitimately be considered naive when it comes to his optimism about societal reform, Wieman still holds his own as a partner in today's religious dialogue.

Bruce Southworth was my pastor at the Community Church of New York (Unitarian-Universalist) for the year or so I was a member before moving to Kentucky. At the time my interest in Wieman was not as acute as today. Even so I recall Rev. Southworth's sermons, personal style, and integrity as every bit as committed to the value of human creative interaction as Wieman would have wanted to see in a religious leader of the newer generation.

This book is a reprint; the original came out in 1958.

The theology of HNW claims that the study of God must be a scientific inquiry. God is to be found in the relationships between people. The process of the creative interchange of values which leads to greater meaning and value of all people is God.

Thus God is a process. HNW was part of the movement of "Process Theology" centered at the University of Chicago in the forties and fifties. There is no conflict between religion and science; science is the proper way to discover the nature of religious good.

If that kind of idea appeals to you, you will enjoy Man's Ultimate Commitment. It's probably the best exposition of HNW's philosophy.

Some find HNW's writing dry, but others are inspired by it. It is very logical, somewhat dry and philosophical. I find it readable but requiring at least as much concentration as most philosophy.

I am the authors grandson and that's why I have read the book.

This book is for everyone who wants to think objectively and independently about what it all means. Indeed, Weiman gave a lot of thought during his life to how religion and science complement each other, but his process theology is not only for scientists. It was said many times during Weiman's lifetime that his work saved religion for rationally thinking people. This book demonstrates how he did it.
Admittedly, Weiman's book is not real easy to read. He was philosopher and theologian after all. His prose is enjoyable, though, even when you need to read a paragraph twice for it to sink in. I'd say it's well worth the effort. I'd suggest Bruce Southworth's book, AT HOME IN CREATIVITY, as preparation for Weiman. It's much shorter and easier to read.