Discussion Group Report

Just as traditional monotheistic religions have called for commitment to God as a supernatural person, Henry Nelson Wieman, (1884-1975) who was probably the most famous philosopher of religion associated with Unitarian Universalism, believed that "our ultimate commitment" should be to the process of creative interchange. Contrary to atheists, Wieman argued that we are not the source of our own good; creative interchange is the source of human good."

David C. Oughton in "Wieman and One of His Disciples" in the winter-spring, 1997, issue of Religious Humanism explains Wieman's concept of "creative interchange": It is a way of integrating diverse perspectives so that people can understand each other, learn from each other, be corrected by each other, form a community with each other, and live in peace with each other. Wieman called it "the creativity that creates the human mind and personality after the first days of infancy, creates human culture and history, and creates the universe as known to the human mind. The universe as known to the human mind has been in the process of creation for thousands of years and is now being recreated more radically than ever before."

Creative interchange operates in four stages: 1) getting the perspective of the other person (or philosophical system or alien culture) more or less fully and perfectly--generally very imperfectly; 2) integrating (mostly subconscious) of this new perspective with what one had before, this always with all degrees of perfection; 3) Consequent expansion in range of what one can know, value, and control; and 4) consequent widening and deepening of the community of mutual understanding and mutual support of the participants.

Weiman made a distinction among three approaches to religion: 1) Those who say that the object of supreme devotion is a supernatural personality (traditional theism) or cosmic consciousness (Whiteheadian theology) or Being itself (Tillich), 2) those who deny the existence of a supernatural personality and believe that there is no reality worthy of supreme devotion (atheism) or 3) those who maintain that "God" is not a personality but an actual process of creativity operating on the human level (religious naturalism).

Wieman argued against the first two positions and maintained the third. He opposed theism when it directs our ruling commitment to a supreme person. He claimed there is no evidence of a personal power that exercises supreme control over the universe or human living and even if there were such a sovereign person, human action guided by a commitment to such a person would not enable us to escape the greatest dangers, correct the greatest evils, or attain the fullest content of positive value. He also rejected religious humanism when it directs our ruling commitment to an ideal because even the highest human ideals are confined and perverted by special interests and prejudices. All ideals must be subject to correction and further development by religious commitment to creative interchange.

Contrary to atheists he argued that we are not the source of human good; creative interchange is the "source of human good." We must counteract the counterforces that block or obstruct creative interchange--prejudice, all forms of ignorance, and all other evils that obstruct the creative process. There are no guarantees that creative interchange will bring this world to peace and justice, but it has that potential. It is the only hope.