Religious naturalism - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Religious naturalism is an approach to spirituality

Spirituality

Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...

that is devoid of supernaturalism. The focus is on the religious attributes of the universe

Universe

The Universe is commonly defined as the totality of everything that exists, including all matter and energy, the planets, stars, galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space. Definitions and usage vary and similar terms include the cosmos, the world and nature...

/Nature

Nature

Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...

, the understanding of it and our response to it (interpretive, spiritual and moral). These provide for the development of an eco-morality. Interest is growing in this modern movement, and, although it has an ancient heritage in many philosophical cultures, it is not currently well defined. Theistic or non-theistic religious naturalism is a basic theological perspective of liberal religion

Liberal religion

Liberal religion is a religious tradition which embraces the theological diversity of a congregation rather than a single creed, authority, or writing...

and religious humanism

Religious humanism

Religious humanism is an integration of humanist ethical philosophy with religious rituals and beliefs that center on human needs, interests, and abilities.-Origins:...

according to some sources.

Religious naturalism is concerned about the meaning of life

Meaning of life

The meaning of life constitutes a philosophical question concerning the purpose and significance of life or existence in general. This concept can be expressed through a variety of related questions, such as "Why are we here?", "What is life all about?", and "What is the meaning of it all?" It has...

, but it is equally interested in living daily life in a rational, happy way. An alternative, more human-centric approach, is to look at it as answering the question: "What is the meaning of one's life and does it have a purpose?". It is an approach to understanding the natural world in a religious way and does not offer a detailed system of beliefs or rituals. Religious naturalism also attempts to amalgamate the scientific examination of reality with the subjective sensory experiences of spirituality and aesthetics. As such, it is an objectivity with religious emotional feelings and the aesthetic insights supplied by art, music and literature. It is a promising form of contemporary religious ethics and pluralism responding to the challenges of late modern religious transformations and ecological peril. In so doing, it is emerging as an increasingly plausible and potentially rewarding form of religious moral life consistent with the insights of the natural sciences.http://meadville.academia.edu/MichaelSHogue/Books/325740/The_Promise_of_Religious_Naturalism

Naturalism

All forms of religious naturalism, being naturalistic

Naturalism (philosophy)

Naturalism commonly refers to the philosophical viewpoint that the natural universe and its natural laws and forces operate in the universe, and that nothing exists beyond the natural universe or, if it does, it does not affect the natural universe that we know...

in their basic beliefs, assert that the natural world is the center of our most significant experiences and understandings. Consequently, nature

Nature

Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...

is considered as the ultimate value in assessing one's being. Religious naturalists, despite having followed differing cultural and individual paths, affirm the human need for meaning and value in their lives. They draw on two fundamental convictions in those quests: the sense of Nature's richness, spectacular complexity, and fertility, and the recognition that Nature is the only realm in which people live out their lives. Humans are considered interconnected parts of Nature.

Science

Science

Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...

is a fundamental, indispensable component of the paradigm of religious naturalism. It relies on mainstream science to reinforce religious and spiritual perspectives. Science is the primary interpretive tool for religious naturalism, because, scientific methods are thought to provide the most reliable understanding of Nature and the world, including human nature.

Religious

Religious naturalism is religious in its approach to morality

Morality

Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...

which is seen as coming from humans' biological and social evolution rather than divine revelations. Human evolution has produced a brain complex enough both for symbolic contemplation and for participating in unique human forms of social life. Since humans are hardwired for flexibility, morality varies from culture to culture

Cultural relativism

Cultural relativism is the principle that an individual human's beliefs and activities should be understood by others in terms of that individual's own culture. This principle was established as axiomatic in anthropological research by Franz Boas in the first few decades of the 20th century and...

. However, most world cultures adhere to the same basic 24 virtues.

P. Roger Gillette of Meadville Lombard Theology School says that religious naturalism is a religion "in that it is a system of belief and practice that demands and facilitates one's intellectual and emotional reconnection with one's self, one's family, one's local and global community and ecosystem, the universe of which the global ecosystem is a part, and (perhaps) the creative source of this universe". It is also a theology, an ethics, and a “full service" belief that requires a "radical spiritual transformation".

History

Religious naturalism is a relatively new religious movement. Early uses of the term include the American Whig Review in 1846 describing "a seeming 'religious naturalism'", In 1869 "Religious naturalism differs from this mainly in the fact that it extends the domain of nature farther outward into space and time. ...It never transcends nature". was expressed in American Unitarian Association literature. Ludwig Feuerbach wrote that religious naturalism was "the acknowledgment of the Divine in Nature" and also "an element of the Christian religion", but by no means that religion's definitive "characteristic" or "tendency".

In 1864, Pope Pius IX condemned religious naturalism in the first seven articles of the Syllabus of Errors

Syllabus of Errors

The Syllabus of Errors was a document issued by Holy See under Pope Pius IX on December 8, 1864, Feast of the Immaculate Conception, on the same day as the Pope's encyclical Quanta Cura.- Format :...

.

Many modern religious naturalists find philosophical similarity with ancient philosophers in the stoic or skeptical traditions, for example Zeno

Zeno of Citium

Zeno of Citium was a Greek philosopher from Citium . Zeno was the founder of the Stoic school of philosophy, which he taught in Athens from about 300 BC. Based on the moral ideas of the Cynics, Stoicism laid great emphasis on goodness and peace of mind gained from living a life of virtue in...

(founder of Stoicism

Stoicism

Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early . The Stoics taught that destructive emotions resulted from errors in judgment, and that a sage, or person of "moral and intellectual perfection," would not suffer such emotions.Stoics were concerned...

) who said:
Mordecai Kaplan

Mordecai Kaplan

Mordecai Menahem Kaplan , was a rabbi, essayist and Jewish educator and the co-founder of Reconstructionist Judaism along with his son-in-law Ira Eisenstein.-Life and work:...

(1881–1983), one of the great rabbis of the 20th century and the founder of the Jewish reconstructionism

Reconstructionism

Reconstructionism may refer to:* Christian Reconstructionism, a Calvinistic theological-political movement* Polytheistic reconstructionism, an approach to Neopaganism* Progressive Reconstructionism, an interfaith community...

movement., was an early advocate for religious naturalism. He believed that a naturalistic approach to religion and ethics was possible in a desacralizing world. He saw God as the sum of all natural processes.

Another of the currently verified usages was in 1940 by George Perrigo Conger and Edgar S. Brightman

Edgar S. Brightman

Edgar Sheffield Brightman was a philosopher and Christian theologian in the Methodist tradition, associated with Boston University and liberal theology, and promulgated the philosophy known as Boston personalism....

. Shortly thereafter, H. H. Dubs wrote an article entitled Religious Naturalism – an Evaluation (The Journal of Religion, XXIII: 4, October, 1943), which begins "Religious naturalism is today one of the outstanding American philosophies of religion…" and discusses ideas developed by Henry Nelson Wieman

Henry Nelson Wieman

Henry Nelson Wieman was an American philosopher and theologian. Hebecame the most famous proponent of theocentric naturalism and the empirical method in American theology and catalyzed the emergence of Religious Naturalism in the latter part of the 20th century.-Religious Naturalism:Wieman was...

in books that predate Dubs's article by 20 years.

In 1991 Jerome A. Stone

Jerome A. Stone

Jerome Stone—author, philosopher, and theologian—is best known for helping to develop the religious movement of Religious Naturalism. Dr. Stone is on the Adjunct Faculty of Meadville Lombard Theological School; is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at William Rainey Harper College; is in Preliminary...

wrote The Minimalist Vision of Transcendence explicitly "to sketch a philosophy of religious naturalism". Use of the term was expanded in the 1990s by Loyal Rue

Loyal Rue

Dr. Loyal D. Rue is professor of religion and philosophy at Luther College of Decorah, Iowa , and focuses on naturalistic theories of religion.He has been awarded two John Templeton Foundation fellowships....

, who was familiar with the term from Brightman's book. Rue used the term in conversations with several people before 1994, and subsequent conversations between Rue and Ursula Goodenough

Ursula Goodenough

Ursula W. Goodenough is a Professor of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis and author of the best selling book Sacred Depths of Nature...

[both of whom were active in IRAS (The Institute on Religion in an Age of Science

Institute on Religion in an Age of Science

The Institute on Religion in an Age of Science is a non-denominational society that promotes and facilitates the ongoing dialectic between religion and science. Both members of IRAS and non-members congregate at the IRAS conference held annually at Star Island in New Hampshire.-History:IRAS...

) led to Goodenough's use in her book "The Sacred Depths of Nature" and by Rue in "Religion is not about god" and other writings. Since 1994 numerous authors have used the phrase or expressed similar thinking. Examples are Chet Raymo

Chet Raymo

Chet Raymo is a noted writer, educator and naturalist. He is Professor Emeritus of Physics at Stonehill College, in Easton, Massachusetts. His weekly newspaper column Science Musings appeared in the Boston Globe for twenty years. This is now a daily blog by him...

, Stuart Kauffman

Stuart Kauffman

Stuart Alan Kauffman is an American theoretical biologist and complex systems researcher concerning the origin of life on Earth...

and Karl E. Peters

Karl E. Peters

Karl E. Peters is Professor Emeritus of Religion at Rollins College, Winter Park, FL and former adjunct professor of philosophy, University of Hartford, Hartford, CT. He also is the co-editor of Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science, and is a founder, organizer, and first President of the...

Mike Ignatowski states that "there were many religious naturalists in the first half of the 20th century and some even before that" but that "religious naturalism as a movement didn’t really come into its own until about 1990 [and] took a major leap forward in 2000 when Ursula Goodenough published The Sacred Depths of Nature, which is considered one of the founding texts of this movement."

Biologist Ursula Goodenough states:
Donald Crosby’s Living with Ambiguity published in 2008, has, as its first chapter, Religion of Nature as a Form of Religious Naturalism.
Religious Naturalism Today: The Rebirth of a Forgotten Alternative is a history by Dr. Jerome A. Stone (Dec. 2008 release) that presents this paradigm as a once-forgotten option in religious thinking that is making a rapid revival. It seeks to explore and encourage religious ways of responding to the world on a completely naturalistic basis without a supreme being or ground of being. This book traces this history and analyzes some of the issues dividing religious naturalists. It covers the birth of religious naturalism, from George Santayana

George Santayana

George Santayana was a philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. A lifelong Spanish citizen, Santayana was raised and educated in the United States and identified himself as an American. He wrote in English and is generally considered an American man of letters...

to Henry Nelson Wieman

Henry Nelson Wieman

and briefly explores religious naturalism in literature and art. Contested issues are discussed including whether nature’s power or goodness is the focus of attention and also on the appropriateness of using the term "God". The contributions of more than twenty living Religious Naturalists are presented. The last chapter ends the study by exploring what it is like on the inside to live as a religious naturalist.

Chet Raymo writes that he had come to the same conclusion as Teilhard de Chardin, "Grace is everywhere", and that naturalistic emergence is in everything and far more magical than religion-based miracles. A future humankind religion should be ecumenical, ecological, and embrace the story provided by science as the "most reliable cosmology".

As P. Roger Gillette summarizes:

Tenets

Due to the rationality and feelings provided by science and a naturalistic spirituality, some religious naturalists have a strong sense of stewardship for the Earth. Luther College professor Loyal Rue has written:

Religious naturalists will be known for their reverence and awe before Nature, their love for Nature and natural forms, their sympathy for all living things, their guilt for enlarging the ecological footprints, their pride in reducing them, their sense of gratitude directed towards the matrix of life, their contempt for those who abstract themselves from natural values, and their solidarity with those who link their self-esteem to sustainable living.

Varieties

The literature related to religious naturalism includes many variations in conceptual framing. This reflects individual takes on various issues, to some extent various schools of thought, such as basic naturalism

Naturalism (philosophy)

, religious humanism

Religious humanism

Religious humanism is an integration of humanist ethical philosophy with religious rituals and beliefs that center on human needs, interests, and abilities.-Origins:...

, pantheism

Pantheism

Pantheism is the view that the Universe and God are identical. Pantheists thus do not believe in a personal, anthropomorphic or creator god. The word derives from the Greek meaning "all" and the Greek meaning "God". As such, Pantheism denotes the idea that "God" is best seen as a process of...

, and spiritual naturalism

Spiritual Naturalism

Naturalistic Spirituality and Spiritual Naturalism are interchangeable terms for the same philosophical perspective, with the latter term more commonly used...

that have had time on the conceptual stage, and to some extent differing ways of characterizing Nature.

Current discussion often relates to the issue of whether belief in a God or God-language and associated concepts have any place in a framework that treats the physical universe as its essential frame of reference and the methods of science as providing the preeminent means for determining what Nature is. There are at least three varieties of religious naturalism, and three similar but somewhat different ways to categorize them. They are:

Michael Cavanaugh – God-language

A kind of naturalism that does use God-language but fundamentally treats God metaphorically.

A commitment to naturalism using God-language, but as either (1) a faith statement or supported by philosophical arguments, or (2) both, usually leaving open the question of whether that usage as metaphor
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...

or refers to the ultimate answer that Nature can be.

Neo-theistic (process theology
Process theology
Process theology is a school of thought influenced by the metaphysical process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead and further developed by Charles Hartshorne . While there are process theologies that are similar, but unrelated to the work of Whitehead the term is generally applied to the...

, progressive religions) – Gordon Kaufman, Karl E. Peters
Karl E. Peters
Karl E. Peters is Professor Emeritus of Religion at Rollins College, Winter Park, FL and former adjunct professor of philosophy, University of Hartford, Hartford, CT. He also is the co-editor of Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science, and is a founder, organizer, and first President of the...

, Ralph Wendell Burhoe
Ralph Wendell Burhoe
Ralph Wendell Burhoe was an important twentieth century pioneer interpreter of the importance of religion for a scientific and technological world. He was awarded the Templeton Prize in 1980....

, Edmund Robinson

Non-theistic (agnostic, naturalistic concepts of god) - Robertson himself, Stanley Klein, Stuart Kauffman
Stuart Kauffman
Stuart Alan Kauffman is an American theoretical biologist and complex systems researcher concerning the origin of life on Earth...

Not-theistic (no God concept, some modern naturalisms, non-militant atheism
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...

) – Jerome A. Stone, Michael Cavanaugh, Donald A. Crosby
Donald A. Crosby
Donald Allen Crosby is currently Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Colorado State University and Adjunct Instructor in the philosophy department at Florida State University. Crosby's interests focus on metaphysics, American pragmatism, philosophy of nature, existentialism, and philosophy of...

, Ursula Goodenough

A hodgepodge of individual perspectives - Philip Hefner
Philip Hefner
Philip Hefner is a professor emeritus of systematic theology at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago His research career has focused on the interaction of religion and science, for which he is most well known. Hefner has held several dozen visiting teaching and lecturing appointments at...

The first category has as many sub-groups as there are distinct definitions for god. Believers in a supernatural entity (transcendent

Transcendence (religion)

In religion transcendence refers to the aspect of God's nature which is wholly independent of the physical universe. This is contrasted with immanence where God is fully present in the physical world and thus accessible to creatures in various ways...

) are by definition not religious naturalists however the matter of a naturalistic concept of God (Immanence

Immanence

Immanence refers to philosophical and metaphysical theories of divine presence, in which the divine is seen to be manifested in or encompassing of the material world. It is often contrasted with theories of transcendence, in which the divine is seen to be outside the material world...

) is currently debated. Strong atheists are not considered Religious Naturalists in this differentiation. Some individuals call themselves religious naturalists but refuse to be categorized. The unique theories of religious naturalists Loyal Rue

Loyal Rue

, Donald A. Crosby

Donald A. Crosby

Donald Allen Crosby is currently Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Colorado State University and Adjunct Instructor in the philosophy department at Florida State University. Crosby's interests focus on metaphysics, American pragmatism, philosophy of nature, existentialism, and philosophy of...

, Jerome A. Stone

Jerome A. Stone

, and Ursula Goodenough

Ursula Goodenough

Ursula W. Goodenough is a Professor of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis and author of the best selling book Sacred Depths of Nature...

are discussed by Michael Hogue in his 2010 book The Promise of Religious Naturalism.

Jerome A. Stone – God concepts

Those who conceive of God as the creative process within the universe – example, Henry Nelson Wieman

Those who think of God as the totality of the universe considered religiously – Bernard Loomer
Bernard Loomer
Bernard MacDougall Loomer was an American professor and theologian. Longtime Dean of the University of Chicago Divinity School and a leading proponent of Process Theology, Loomer wrote “The world is God because it is the source and preserver of meaning; because the creative advance of the world...

.

A third type of religious naturalism sees no need to use the concept or terminology of God, Stone himself and Ursula Goodenough

Stone emphasizes that some Religious Naturalists do not reject the concept of God, but if they use the concept, it involves a radical alteration of the idea such as Gordon Kaufman who defines God as creativity.

Ignatowski divides RN into only two types – theistic and non-theistic.

Shared principles

There are several principles shared by all the aforementioned varieties of religious naturalism:

All varieties of religious naturalism see humans as an interconnected, emergent
Emergence
In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence is the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions. Emergence is central to the theories of integrative levels and of complex systems....

part of nature.
Accept the primacy of science with regard to what is measurable via the scientific method
Scientific method
Scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of...

.
Recognize science's limitations in accounting for judgments of value and in providing a full account of human experience. Thus religious naturalism embraces nature's creativity, beauty and mystery and honors many aspects of the artistic, cultural and religious traditions that respond to and attempt to interpret Nature in subjective ways.
Approach matters of morality, ethics and value with a focus on how the world works, with a deep concern for fairness and the welfare of all humans regardless of their station in life.
Seek to integrate these interpretative, spiritual and ethical responses in a manner that respects diverse religious and philosophical perspectives, while still subjecting them and itself to rigorous scrutiny.
The focus on scientific standards of evidence imbues RN with the humility inherent in scientific inquiry and its limited, albeit ever deepening, ability to describe reality (see Epistemology).
A strong environmental ethic for the welfare of the planet Earth and humanity.
Belief in the sacredness of life and the evolutionary process

The concept of emergence

Emergence

In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence is the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions. Emergence is central to the theories of integrative levels and of complex systems....

has grown in popularity with many Religious Naturalists. It helps explain how a complex Universe and life by self-organization

Self-organization

Self-organization is the process where a structure or pattern appears in a system without a central authority or external element imposing it through planning...

have risen out of a multiplicity of relatively simple elements and their interactions. The entire story of emergence is related in the Epic of Evolution

Epic of Evolution

The phrase Epic of Evolution represents an attempt to create a mythic narrative aimed at reconciling religious and scientific views of cosmic evolution, biological evolution, and sociocultural evolution. According to Taylor's Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature, it is…-History:The term "Epic of...

- the mythic scientific narrative used to tell the verifiable chronicle of the evolutionary process that is the Universe. Most religious naturalist consider the Epic of Evolution a true story about the historic achievement of Nature. “The Epic of Evolution is the 14 billion year narrative of cosmic, planetary, life, and cultural evolution—told in sacred ways. Not only does it bridge mainstream science and a diversity of religious traditions; if skillfully told, it makes the science story memorable and deeply meaningful, while enriching one's religious faith or secular outlook.”

A number of naturalistic writers have used this theme as a topic for their books using such synonyms as: Cosmic Evolution, Everybody’s Story, Evolutionary Epic, Evolutionary Universe, Great Story, New Story, Universal Story. ‘Epic of evolution’ is a term that, within the past three years(1998), has become the theme and title of a number of gatherings. It seems to have been first used by Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson in 1978. ‘The evolutionary epic,’ Wilson wrote in his book On Human Nature, ‘is probably the best myth we will ever have.’ Myth as falsehood was not the usage intended by Wilson in this statement. Rather, myth as a grand narrative that provides a people with a placement in time—a meaningful placement that celebrates extraordinary moments of a shared heritage. The epic of evolution is science translated into meaningful story.”

Evolutionary evangelist minister Michael Dowd

Michael Dowd

Michael Dowd is an American evolutionary theologian, bestselling author, and evangelist for Big History and Religious Naturalism....

uses the term to help present his position that science and religious faith are not mutually exclusive (a premise of religious naturalism). He preaches that the epic of cosmic, biological, and human evolution, revealed by science, is a basis for an inspiring and meaningful view of our place in the universe. Evolution is viewed as a spiritual process that it is not meaningless blind chance. He is joined by a number of other theologians in this position.

Proponents

Ralph Wendell Burhoe
Ralph Wendell Burhoe
Ralph Wendell Burhoe was an important twentieth century pioneer interpreter of the importance of religion for a scientific and technological world. He was awarded the Templeton Prize in 1980....
Donald A. Crosby
Donald A. Crosby
Donald Allen Crosby is currently Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Colorado State University and Adjunct Instructor in the philosophy department at Florida State University. Crosby's interests focus on metaphysics, American pragmatism, philosophy of nature, existentialism, and philosophy of...
Michael Dowd
Michael Dowd
Michael Dowd is an American evolutionary theologian, bestselling author, and evangelist for Big History and Religious Naturalism....
Willem B. Drees
Willem B. Drees
In 2009 Willem B. Drees assumed the editorship of Zygon, Journal of Religion & Science the leading journal of religion and science in the world . It is available in 3,000 academic libraries all over the world and publishes 1000 pages of peer reviewed articles annually...
Ursula Goodenough
Ursula Goodenough
Ursula W. Goodenough is a Professor of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis and author of the best selling book Sacred Depths of Nature...
Philip Hefner
Philip Hefner
Philip Hefner is a professor emeritus of systematic theology at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago His research career has focused on the interaction of religion and science, for which he is most well known. Hefner has held several dozen visiting teaching and lecturing appointments at...
Mordecai Kaplan
Mordecai Kaplan
Mordecai Menahem Kaplan , was a rabbi, essayist and Jewish educator and the co-founder of Reconstructionist Judaism along with his son-in-law Ira Eisenstein.-Life and work:...
Stuart Kauffman
Stuart Kauffman
Stuart Alan Kauffman is an American theoretical biologist and complex systems researcher concerning the origin of life on Earth...
Stanley A. Klein
Stanley A. Klein
Stanley A. Klein is a Professor of Vision Science and Optometry at the University of California at Berkeley and a member of the Visual Processing Laboratory. He is a consulting editor for Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics a publication of the Psychonomic Society which promotes the...
Karl E. Peters
Karl E. Peters
Karl E. Peters is Professor Emeritus of Religion at Rollins College, Winter Park, FL and former adjunct professor of philosophy, University of Hartford, Hartford, CT. He also is the co-editor of Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science, and is a founder, organizer, and first President of the...
Varadaraja V. Raman
Varadaraja V. Raman
Varadaraja V. Raman is Emeritus Professor of Physics and Humanities at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He has lectured and written profusely on many aspects of Indian heritage and culture and authored numerous books, more than 300 book reviews and scores of articles on science and religion...
Chet Raymo
Chet Raymo
Chet Raymo is a noted writer, educator and naturalist. He is Professor Emeritus of Physics at Stonehill College, in Easton, Massachusetts. His weekly newspaper column Science Musings appeared in the Boston Globe for twenty years. This is now a daily blog by him...
Loyal Rue
Loyal Rue
Dr. Loyal D. Rue is professor of religion and philosophy at Luther College of Decorah, Iowa , and focuses on naturalistic theories of religion.He has been awarded two John Templeton Foundation fellowships....
Jerome A. Stone
Jerome A. Stone
Jerome Stone—author, philosopher, and theologian—is best known for helping to develop the religious movement of Religious Naturalism. Dr. Stone is on the Adjunct Faculty of Meadville Lombard Theological School; is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at William Rainey Harper College; is in Preliminary...
Brian Swimme
Brian Swimme
Brian Thomas Swimme is on the faculty of the California Institute of Integral Studies, in San Francisco, where he teaches evolutionary cosmology to graduate students in the humanities. He received his Ph.D. from the department of mathematics at the University of Oregon for work in singularity...
Paul Tillich
Paul Tillich
Paul Johannes Tillich was a German-American theologian and Christian existentialist philosopher. Tillich was one of the most influential Protestant theologians of the 20th century...
Henry Nelson Wieman
Henry Nelson Wieman
Henry Nelson Wieman was an American philosopher and theologian. Hebecame the most famous proponent of theocentric naturalism and the empirical method in American theology and catalyzed the emergence of Religious Naturalism in the latter part of the 20th century.-Religious Naturalism:Wieman was...

Prominent communities and leaders

Religious naturalists sometimes use the social practices of traditional religions, including communal gatherings and rituals, to foster a sense of community, and to serve as reinforcement of its participants' efforts to expand the scope of their understandings. Some known examples of religious naturalists groupings and congregation leaders are:

World Pantheist Movement
World Pantheist Movement
The World Pantheist Movement is the world's largest organization of people associated with pantheism, a philosophy which asserts that spirituality should be centered on nature...

- largely web-based but with some local groups. The WPM is the world’s largest religious naturalist organization
Universal Pantheist Society
Universal Pantheist Society
The Universal Pantheist Society is one of the world's first official organizations dedicated to the promotion and understanding of modern pantheism. The Society does not require its members to hold to any particular creed about Pantheism and recognizes that there are a variety of beliefs that fall...

founded 1975 – Pantheism is an intercepting concept with religious naturalism
Gaia Community - similar viewpoints
Congregation Beth Or, a Jewish congregation near Chicago led by Rabbi David Oler
Congregation of Beth Adam in Loveland Ohio led by Rabbi Robert Barr
Pastor Ian Lawton, minister at the Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, West Michigan and Center for Progressive Christianity

Religious Naturalism is growing in the academic community. Articles appear frequently in Zygon, Religious Humanism and the Journal of Liberal Religion. There are three major electronic discussion groups.

External links

The Great Story leading RN educational website
Naturalism.org
The New Cosmology
SacredRiver.org

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