The Source of Human Good (AAR Texts and Translations Series) - Softcover

Wieman, Henry N.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0788501445 ISBN 13: 9780788501449

Publisher: OUP USA, 1995

Synopsis

This is a facsimile edition of a 1946 work of the American pragmatic theologian Henry Nelson Wieman (1884-1975). For Wieman, science and technology represent great power for good and evil, and they must be directed toward the service of that force which creates, sustains, and fulfills human life. But as long as this force is portrayed in supernaturalist terms, as the God who is wholly transcendent of the world, its actual operation in human life is beyond the reach of inquiry. For science to serve the source of good, that source must be understood as open to rational-empirical examination.

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Review

Wieman's depiction of the four-fold structure of creative energy remains a milestone in modern religious thought. Even readers who doubt the objective reality of the structure Wieman claims to have found in experience will appreciate the powerful alternative his empirical method and naturalist ontology brought to philosophy of religion. The Source of Human Good still speaks to all those for whom the divine signifies something more than human ideals, values, and aspirations. (Nancy Frankenberry, Dartmouth College)

At mid-century Henry Nelson Wieman not only penned a theological classic, he pointed the way to an end-of-the century reconstruction. His naturalism, pragmatism, revisionism, and respect for mystery are blunt, American, and still evocative. He opened doors through which many of today's religious thinkers will not only pass, but will pass while in heated debate with Wieman. (William Dean, Gustavus Adolphus College)

About the Author

Henry Nelson Wieman (1884-1975), a pastor, scholar, and teacher, was an American pragmatic theologian originally trained at San Francisco Theological Seminary. He also studied with philosophers Rudolph Eucken at Jena and Wilhelm Windelband and Ernst Troeltsch at Heidelberg. His teaching career included positions at the University of Chicago Divinity School, the New School in New York City, the University of Oregon, the University of West Virginia, and Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. Among his many publications, The Source of Human Good is one of his best known.

Edition details

• Publisher: OUP USA
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0788501445
• ISBN 13: 9780788501449
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 340