Jeremy A. Stone Religious Naturalism Today: The Rebirth of a Forgotten Alternative (New York: SUNY Press, 2008), xiv +259 Pps., $75.00.
Jerome A. Stone is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at William Rainey Harper College. He is the coeditor (with Creighton Peden) of both volumes of The Chicago School of Theology: Pioneers in Religious Inquiry, and the author of The Minimalist Vision of Transcendence: A Naturalist Philosophy of Religion, also published by SUNY Press (1996, 1992, respectively). In this title, Stone reviews the history of religious naturalism, noting how it seeks to explain, explore, and encourage ‘religious’ manners of responding to the world without reference to a ground of being (or: God). Naturalism is making a sustained comeback; religious naturalism is making a resurgence also. Both are vying to be viable options to theistic beliefs in the 21st century.
In succession, Stone traces its history and analyzes some of the issues dividing religious naturalists. The book is divided into two parts: part one deals with the birthing of religious naturalism, and is composed of three chapters, two of which deal with major voices of religious naturalism, with the third dealing with the various issues debated by these early naturalists. Part two, composed of four chapters, deals with the ‘rebirth’ of religious naturalism following Bernard Loomer’s presentation at AAR’s national convention (1978/1979) of “The Size of God.” He includes analysis of nearly fifty distinguished philosophers, theologians, scientists, ranging from Ursula Goodenough, Gordon Kaufman, William Dean, and Thomas Berry. Notably, Stone outlines six main sources of data for religious inquiry spawned by this rebirth of religious naturalism: experiences of grace, imperatives of justice, the natural world, science, religious traditions, and literature (143–91). Stone ends the volume with a penetrating personal view of what it is like to live as a religious naturalist: Is nature enough, he queries? No, but it is all we have, and it often suffices ‘magnificently’ (229). Invoking Thoreau, Stone concludes that he has ‘great faith in a seed’ (229).
In sum, Stone seeks to address – not answer per se – such questions as follows from a naturalistic perspective: Is it possible or necessary to hold to a concept of God in a naturalistic framework?, What is the nature of the sacred in naturalism?, Is it possible to find goodness in nature?, Is there a comparable concept to grace in naturalism?, etc. Some of the ‘answers’ will surprise you, but all of them will challenge you to think ‘outside of the box’. In doing this, the book is recommended – at least – for usage in philosophy of religions courses as a supplemental text.
| Bradford McCall, Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA. |