About Andrew Davis: Andrew M. Davis, Ph.D. is an American process philosopher, theologian, and scholar of the cosmos. He is research and academic director for the Center for Process Studies where he researches, writes, teaches, and organizes conferences on various aspects of process-relational thought. An advocate of metaphysics and meaning in a hospitable universe, he approaches philosophy as the endeavor to systematically think through what reality must be like because we are a part of it. He is author, editor, and co-editor of nearly a dozen books including Mind, Value, and Cosmos: On the Relational Nature of Ultimacy (2020); Process Cosmology: New Integrations in Science and Philosophy (2022); Metaphysics of Exo-Life: Toward a Constructive Whiteheadian Cosmotheology (2023); and Whitehead's Universe: A Prismatic Introduction (forthcoming, 2026).
Awaiting "Whitehead's Universe"
Whitehead's universe is filled with creativity, possibility, and becoming. Yet it is not about flux alone. It also includes transhistorical ideals such as truth, goodness, beauty, adventure, and peace. Add to this a divine reality—the poet of the world—who lures the universe toward whatever forms of rich experience its creatures can create out of their own creativity: a divine reality who then shares in the adventures of finite experience, which are, after all, found everywhere. In Whitehead's universe, the earth and life on earth unfold within a larger cosmos almost certainly filled with many other forms of life, each participating in the great adventure of experience. And yet each finite creature - at whatever scale - is an aesthetic achievent, a realization of beauty, in its own right, not reducible to its place in the larger whole. We need introductions to this universe that are accessible to the general reader. Andrew M. Davis is about to give us one,
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Often, after I introduce Whitehead's philosophy in lectures for intellectually curious general audiences, whether in a college course or a local library, someone will come up afterward and ask, "What should I read?" Often they mean, "What should I read by Whitehead?"
In response, I stumble a bit and usually mention three books that, in my view, best express many of his central ideas: Science and the Modern World, Process and Reality, and Adventures of Ideas. Depending on the interests of the questioner, I may also recommend Religion in the Making or Modes of Thought.
Even as I make these recommendations, however, I know that many readers will find the experience frustrating. Whitehead rarely writes in a linear, step-by-step, reader-friendly manner. He seems to jump around, revisiting topics from different directions, all with the intent of presenting a mental gestalt—a sensibility. He is known for having developed a cosmology, but I think it could as easily be called a cosmo-poetics, Often his appeal is to intuition rather than inference. What is often needed is a thoughtful secondary source, one richly informed by Whitehead's own words and generously sprinkled with quotations, that can serve as a companion to the primary texts.
Several books written in an accessible style for general readers already exist, and I have even written one of them. But I am especially delighted that the world will soon have another, and it is one that I will recommend with genuine enthusiasm to readers interested in philosophy, theology, religion, and the life of the mind. It is Andrew M. Davis's Whitehead's Universe: A Prismatic Introduction. Thanks to Andrew's generous invitation to offer comments as the book developed, I have had the privilege of reading several early drafts of the manuscript. I expect it to become one of the standard gateways into Whitehead's thought for years to come.
The rest of this essay is not a review of Andrew Davis's book. After all, as I write, it has not yet been published. It is, instead, an anticipatory essay: an introduction to the book, an appreciation of its distinctive contributions, and an explanation of why I believe it will become an indispensable companion for many who wish to enter Whitehead's universe.
In response, I stumble a bit and usually mention three books that, in my view, best express many of his central ideas: Science and the Modern World, Process and Reality, and Adventures of Ideas. Depending on the interests of the questioner, I may also recommend Religion in the Making or Modes of Thought.
Even as I make these recommendations, however, I know that many readers will find the experience frustrating. Whitehead rarely writes in a linear, step-by-step, reader-friendly manner. He seems to jump around, revisiting topics from different directions, all with the intent of presenting a mental gestalt—a sensibility. He is known for having developed a cosmology, but I think it could as easily be called a cosmo-poetics, Often his appeal is to intuition rather than inference. What is often needed is a thoughtful secondary source, one richly informed by Whitehead's own words and generously sprinkled with quotations, that can serve as a companion to the primary texts.
Several books written in an accessible style for general readers already exist, and I have even written one of them. But I am especially delighted that the world will soon have another, and it is one that I will recommend with genuine enthusiasm to readers interested in philosophy, theology, religion, and the life of the mind. It is Andrew M. Davis's Whitehead's Universe: A Prismatic Introduction. Thanks to Andrew's generous invitation to offer comments as the book developed, I have had the privilege of reading several early drafts of the manuscript. I expect it to become one of the standard gateways into Whitehead's thought for years to come.
The rest of this essay is not a review of Andrew Davis's book. After all, as I write, it has not yet been published. It is, instead, an anticipatory essay: an introduction to the book, an appreciation of its distinctive contributions, and an explanation of why I believe it will become an indispensable companion for many who wish to enter Whitehead's universe.
Being, Becoming, Experience,
Possibility, Novelty, Value, God
One of the reasons I have such confidence in Whitehead's Universe, in addition to having read early drafts, is that it has grown out of years of teaching and conversation. Andrew Davis is not only a gifted scholar of Whitehead; he is also an accomplished teacher with an ability to introduce difficult ideas in ways that elicit curiosity rather than intimidation, and with an ability to "meet people where they are."
Among his various teaching roles, Davis teaches a frequently-offered online course titled Whitehead's Universe, subtitled A Five-Week Introductory Zoom Course for the Philosophically and Theologically Curious. You will find a link to the course at the top of this page.
Throughout the course, Davis has used drafts of his forthcoming book, Whitehead's Universe: A Prismatic Introduction, as a primary text. In this way, the book has been refined through years of dialogue with students as well as through Davis's own continuing reflections. The course itself unfolds in five parts, which also provide an excellent overview of the themes explored in the forthcoming book:
Part I – Being & Becoming
Part II – Experience Everywhere
Part III – Possibility, Novelty & Value
Part IV – God as Poet of the World
Part V – The New Reformation
Among his various teaching roles, Davis teaches a frequently-offered online course titled Whitehead's Universe, subtitled A Five-Week Introductory Zoom Course for the Philosophically and Theologically Curious. You will find a link to the course at the top of this page.
Throughout the course, Davis has used drafts of his forthcoming book, Whitehead's Universe: A Prismatic Introduction, as a primary text. In this way, the book has been refined through years of dialogue with students as well as through Davis's own continuing reflections. The course itself unfolds in five parts, which also provide an excellent overview of the themes explored in the forthcoming book:
Part I – Being & Becoming
- Whitehead's metaphysics in historical context
- Process philosophy from Heraclitus to Whitehead
Part II – Experience Everywhere
- The philosophy of organism
- Actual occasions, experience, and related concepts
Part III – Possibility, Novelty & Value
- Eternal objects
- Creativity
- Evolution
- Beauty and value
Part IV – God as Poet of the World
- Whitehead's doctrine of God
- Primordial and consequent natures
- Philosophical theology
Part V – The New Reformation
- Whitehead's critique of traditional theology
- Panentheism
- Religious and existential implications
Four Kinds of Readers
The book will stretch many an imagination, precisely because it treats the big ideas, the themes, mentioned above, plus more. It will be especially valuable for at least four kinds of readers.
- Curious newcomers who are drawn to big ideas and enduring questions and sense that process philosophy may have something important to say about them.
- Experienced readers who want to deepen their understanding and discover fresh perspectives on ideas they may already know.
- Teachers of process philosophy seeking an accessible yet substantial text for colleges, universities, seminaries, learning circles, and study groups. The book is well suited to audiences with different levels of familiarity with Whitehead's thought.
- Teachers in other fields who wish to introduce students to a process-relational perspective within courses in metaphysics, cosmology, aesthetics, cognitive science, theology, religious studies, environmental philosophy, science and religion, and related disciplines. Selected chapters can easily serve as the basis for a unit on Whitehead and process philosophy.
The Larger Context: The Tree Metaphor
I want to situate the book in the larger context of what is needed today in the process movement. Process philosophy is part of a larger movement of thought, found throughout the world, that is influenced by, but not limited to, Whitehead's philosophy. Davis is in full agreement and points out that process philosophy, broadly understood, has many expressions: Heraclitus and the Buddha, Leibniz and Hegel, Teilhard de Chardin and Henri Bergson, Charles Hartshorne and Teilhard de Chardin, for example. Still, Whitehead plays a unique role in this larger movement.
For my part, I compare the process movement, as guided by Whitehead, not to a prism but to a tree. See Twenty Key Ideas in Process Thought in this website. The two metaphors are complementary rather than competing: the prism emphasizes the many illuminating facets of Whitehead's universe, while the tree emphasizes the organic growth of process philosophy from technical foundations to lived practice.
The roots consist of Whitehead's philosophy in its technical depth. Its terminology can be fascinating but also somewhat arcane: actual occasion, eternal object, concrescence, subject-superject, the primordial and consequent natures of God, and so forth.
The trunk consists of key ideas—I identify twenty of them—that are accessible and illuminating even for people who are unfamiliar with, or uninterested in, the technical foundations: creativity, becoming, value, possibility, and beauty, for example. These topics, too, are treated.
The canopy of branches consists of the existential, spiritual, ecological, and social implications of process thought for personal life and civilization: ecological civilization, just and compassionate communities, and personal wholeness understood as including a sense of adventure, inner peace, and meaningful bonds with friends, family, strangers, and the more-than-human world.
Davis's book, as I have read it in manuscript form, speaks to readers interested in all three dimensions of this tree. It offers a careful introduction to the specifics of Whitehead's cosmology as developed in works such as Process and Reality; it presents the larger conceptual themes that have drawn so many people to process philosophy—ideas such as "experience everywhere," "possibility, novelty, and value," and "God as Poet of the World"; and it explores the wider implications of these ideas for religious life, ethics, ecology, and the future of civilization.
For my part, I compare the process movement, as guided by Whitehead, not to a prism but to a tree. See Twenty Key Ideas in Process Thought in this website. The two metaphors are complementary rather than competing: the prism emphasizes the many illuminating facets of Whitehead's universe, while the tree emphasizes the organic growth of process philosophy from technical foundations to lived practice.
The roots consist of Whitehead's philosophy in its technical depth. Its terminology can be fascinating but also somewhat arcane: actual occasion, eternal object, concrescence, subject-superject, the primordial and consequent natures of God, and so forth.
The trunk consists of key ideas—I identify twenty of them—that are accessible and illuminating even for people who are unfamiliar with, or uninterested in, the technical foundations: creativity, becoming, value, possibility, and beauty, for example. These topics, too, are treated.
The canopy of branches consists of the existential, spiritual, ecological, and social implications of process thought for personal life and civilization: ecological civilization, just and compassionate communities, and personal wholeness understood as including a sense of adventure, inner peace, and meaningful bonds with friends, family, strangers, and the more-than-human world.
Davis's book, as I have read it in manuscript form, speaks to readers interested in all three dimensions of this tree. It offers a careful introduction to the specifics of Whitehead's cosmology as developed in works such as Process and Reality; it presents the larger conceptual themes that have drawn so many people to process philosophy—ideas such as "experience everywhere," "possibility, novelty, and value," and "God as Poet of the World"; and it explores the wider implications of these ideas for religious life, ethics, ecology, and the future of civilization.
Romance, Precision, and Generalization
This comprehensive approach helps readers avoid two limitations that sometimes characterize introductions to Whitehead. Too much precision and not enough romance, an too much romance but not enough precision.
Recall Whitehead's idea that a healthy education moves through three rhythms: romance, precision, and generalization. Some studies concentrate so heavily on the technical details of his cosmology (precision) that they speak primarily to specialists and leave general readers behind. Others emphasize the broad themes that are inherently attractive (romance), while giving too little attention to the conceptual architecture that makes those themes philosophically compelling.
Davis succeeds in bringing both together, while also suggesting ways in which they can be generalized into many domains of life. He invites readers into Whitehead's universe without sacrificing either accessibility or intellectual rigor, making the book an ideal companion for first-time readers, classroom use, continued study, and specialized instruction alike.
Recall Whitehead's idea that a healthy education moves through three rhythms: romance, precision, and generalization. Some studies concentrate so heavily on the technical details of his cosmology (precision) that they speak primarily to specialists and leave general readers behind. Others emphasize the broad themes that are inherently attractive (romance), while giving too little attention to the conceptual architecture that makes those themes philosophically compelling.
Davis succeeds in bringing both together, while also suggesting ways in which they can be generalized into many domains of life. He invites readers into Whitehead's universe without sacrificing either accessibility or intellectual rigor, making the book an ideal companion for first-time readers, classroom use, continued study, and specialized instruction alike.
An Advance Endorsement
This is intended as an advance endorsement rather than a review. I have had the privilege of reading drafts of the manuscript and, along the way, offered Andrew Davis suggestions for revision—some minor, some more substantial. I do not know which of those suggestions he ultimately adopted, nor does that matter for my purpose here.
What I do know is that this book fills a much-needed niche both within and beyond the process community. It provides the kind of accessible, intellectually serious, and philosophically rich introduction to Whitehead's thought that many of us have long hoped would become available.
When someone asks: What should I read? I will say: How about Andrew Davis' "Whitehead's Universe: A Prismatic Introduction."
What I do know is that this book fills a much-needed niche both within and beyond the process community. It provides the kind of accessible, intellectually serious, and philosophically rich introduction to Whitehead's thought that many of us have long hoped would become available.
When someone asks: What should I read? I will say: How about Andrew Davis' "Whitehead's Universe: A Prismatic Introduction."
In Whitehead’s Universe, Andrew M. Davis offers a comprehensive yet conversational introduction to Alfred North Whitehead’s prismatic philosophy. Weaving together biographical detail and explanatory insight, he guides readers around the prism of Whitehead’s mind, revealing its many lights and colors in relation to various contemporary debates. From history to philosophy, and from theology to cosmology, and civilization, Davis shows how all sides of Whitehead’s universe spin together in a grand adventure of ideas.
Written for students and newcomers alike, Whitehead’s Universe includes chapter summaries, a glossary of essential terms, and a chronological glimpse of Whitehead’s life.
These and other features make it an indispensable resource for the exploration of process philosophy.
Written for students and newcomers alike, Whitehead’s Universe includes chapter summaries, a glossary of essential terms, and a chronological glimpse of Whitehead’s life.
These and other features make it an indispensable resource for the exploration of process philosophy.