ABSTRACT
Whitehead believed that the Christian tradition needs a purification of its doctrine, especially of its doctrine of God. This purification, he held, can be accomplished in part through metaphysical speculation which is the work of reason seeking for the notions of widest generality. Yet Whitehead has a complex view of the origin and nature of metaphysical knowledge, and an acute sense of the limitations of all human understanding. He warns, “The speculative methods of metaphysics are dangerous, easily perverted. So is all Adventure; but Adventure belongs to the essence of civilization.” 1
