Religious Naturalism Today: The Rebirth of a Forgotten Alternative

Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2009. Paperback. Very Good+/None. Glossy pictorial black softcover with yellow and orange titling; spine is uncreased. (No DJ). A single instance of underlining/light marginalia noted, and a few words lightly penciled on end paper; Otherwise interior is clean and unmarked. 8vo. (6 x 9 ins.) Our photos depict actual book offered for sale. Books are carefully packaged by hand and shipped from our family-owned bookshop in the US. BOOK INFO: See photos for Table of Contents. Looks at the history and revival of religious naturalism, a spiritual path without a supreme being. 'Previously a forgotten option in religious thinking, religious naturalism is coming back. 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. In this book, Jerome A. Stone traces its history and analyzes some of the issues dividing religious naturalists. He includes analysis of nearly fifty distinguished philosophers, theologians, scientists, and figures in art and literature, both living and dead. They range from Ursula Goodenough, Gordon Kaufman, William Dean, Thomas Berry, and Gary Snyder to Jan Christiaan Smuts, William Bernhardt, Gregory Bateson, and Sharon Welch.' (-from the Back cover). Includes bibliography and subject index. '...Stone's book offers landscape as well as portrait, for behind the particular figures in focus, there is a wide range of religious naturalisms depicted in clear perspective and considerable depth of field. As theologian Philip Hefner observes in the foreword, Stone is an expert guide and companion to this broader landscape ... Stone's latest book belongs on any current reading list in religious naturalism and would make a fine centerpiece for an academic course or a book group on the subject.' (review by American Journal of Theology and Philosophy)