Bruce Southworth

From Philosopedia

TENTATIVE - do not cite until approved

Bruce Alan Southworth (d/m/y)

Southworth was born in , the son of . . . .

A lifelong Unitarian, he grew up in the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Southworth is an honors graduate of Harvard College (A.B., 1973) and Union Theological Seminary (Master of Divinity, 1976).

St. Paul?

After serving as Minister of the Roanoke Valley Unitarian Church in Roanoke, Virginia, he came to The Community Church of New York in 1979 and became Senior Minister in 1982, following the retirement of Donald Szantho Harrington.

Southworth is author of

This Day - : Worship Resources for the Liberal Church (1987)

Gambling, Legitimate Right or the Child of Avarice (Community Pulpit, 1979)

Eyes the Color of the Sea (The Community Pulpit, 1980)

God's Spies (The Community Pulpit, 1981)

W.E.B. Du Bois, To Awaken the World (The Community Pulpit, 1983)

At Home in Creativity: The Naturalistic Theology of Henry Nelson Wieman (1995).

Reviewing the latter book, W. Creighton Peden in Theology Today (July 1996) wrote

• Bruce Southworth reflects the growing trend in Unitarian Universalist circles of returning to process thought as an adequate theological perspective "in a world in which God so often seems absent." Southworth provides an introduction to the thought of Henry N. Wieman as representing the more scientific and naturalistic side of process thought. In short sections, he covers Wieman's essential philosophical and theological ideas and places Wieman's thought in dialogue with feminist and liberation theologies as well as with the tradition of Matthew Fox. The value of this work is to be found in Southworth's intention to introduce Wieman to a new generation. This volume should serve well as a resource for a discussion group interested either in being introduced to Wieman's thought or in considering Wieman's works in greater detail.

Asked how he would label his outlook, much as he dislikes labelinging, Southworth responded, "

humanist? secular humanist? religious humanist? skeptic? atheist? agnostic? secularist? Wiemanite? naturalist? pragmatist?