Robert Cummings Neville (born May 1, 1939, in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.) is an American systematic philosopher and theologian, author of numerous books and papers, and ex-Dean of the Boston University School of Theology.
He developed this theory for his PhD dissertation at Yale University (graduated 1963), of which his first book, God the Creator, constitutes a substantial revision.
Exploring the implications of that theory has enabled him to produce a philosophy of nature that rivals Alfred North Whitehead's in scope and power, as can be seen from his three-volume Axiology of Thinking.
The prominent Confucian scholar and philosopher David L. Hall wrote of it as follows: "Because of its timeliness, the brilliance of its arguments, and the profundity of its conclusions, there is good reason to believe that this work will shortly become the focus of genuine and widespread discussion.
Neville argues that the judicious use of such categories enables comparisons to be made in such a way that respects the integrity and diversity of religious traditions.
)[6] Though creation ex nihilo is typically associated with personalist varieties of theism, Neville's Creator is the purely indeterminate ground of beings.
For this reason, he is encouraged to explore the possibility of Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian parallels in such texts as The Tao and the Daimon (1982), and Behind the Masks of God (1991).
Neville is currently a member of the editorial boards of Soundings and The Journal of the American Academy of Religion, and is the Associate Editor for Behavioral and Neurological Articles for The Encyclopedia of Bioethics.
An accomplished artist (emphasizing oil and watercolor paintings, pen and ink illustrations), Beth creates much of the artwork for Robert Neville's books.