ABSTRACT

Ecological crisis is being widely discussed in society today and therefore, the subject of religious naturalism has emerged as a major topic in religion. The Routledge Handbook of Religious Naturalism is an outstanding reference source to the key topics, problems, and debates in this exciting subject and is the first collection of its kind. Comprising thirty-four chapters by a team of international contributors, the Handbook is divided into seven parts:

• Varieties of religious naturalism and its relations to other outlooks

• Some earlier religious naturalists

• Pantheism, materialism, and the value-ladenness of nature

• Ecology, humans, and politics in naturalistic perspective

• Religious naturalism and traditional religions

• Putting religious naturalism into practice

• Critical discussions of religious naturalism.

Within these sections central issues, debates, and problems are examined, including: defining religious naturalism; religious underpinnings of ecology; natural piety; the religious-aesthetic; ecstatic naturalism as deep pantheism; spiritual ecology; African-American religious naturalism; Christian religious naturalism; Dao and water; Confucianism; environmental action; and practices in religious naturalism.

The Routledge Handbook of Religious Naturalism is essential reading for students and researchers in religious studies, theology, and philosophy. The Handbook will also be useful for those in related fields, such as environmental ethics and ecology.

chapter |4 pages

Introduction

part I|26 pages

Varieties of religious naturalism and its relations to other outlooks

chapter 2|12 pages

Religious Naturalism and Its Near Neighbors

Some live options

part II|62 pages

Some earlier religious naturalists

chapter 3|10 pages

Ernst Haeckel’s Creation

Developing a non-reductive religious naturalism

chapter 5|13 pages

A Unity with the Universe

Herder, Schelling, and Dewey on natural piety

chapter 6|12 pages

The Sublime as Sacred

Reading Schopenhauer as a religious naturalist

chapter 7|13 pages

Jaspers’s Philosophical Faith

Toward a form of religious naturalism

part III|47 pages

Pantheism, Materialism, and the Value-Ladenness of Nature

chapter 9|12 pages

Deus Sive Natura

Pantheism as a variety of religious naturalism

chapter 10|11 pages

Matter, Mind, and Meaning

chapter 11|11 pages

The Solemnity of the World

part IV|50 pages

Ecology, Humans, and Politics in Naturalistic Perspective

chapter 12|13 pages

Spiritual Ecology and Religious Naturalism

Exploring their interrelationships

chapter 15|11 pages

Pragmatic Naturalism and Public Theology

Prospects of creative exchange

part V|102 pages

Religious Naturalism and Traditional Religions

chapter 16|12 pages

Buddhism and Religious Naturalism

chapter 19|6 pages

Dao and Water

Rethinking Daoism as naturalism

chapter 20|12 pages

A Christian Religious Naturalism

chapter 21|12 pages

Religious Naturalism

Hindu perspectives

chapter 22|10 pages

Naturalizing Religion 1

part VI|71 pages

Putting Religious Naturalism into Practice

chapter 25|15 pages

Religious Naturalism and the Spirit of Query

Taking adult religious education in a new direction

chapter 27|13 pages

Whither Religious Naturalism?

chapter 29|11 pages

Practices in Religious Naturalism

part VII|46 pages

Critical Discussions of Religious Naturalism

chapter 32|11 pages

Holy Nostalgia

Toward a sympathetic critique of religious naturalism

chapter 33|12 pages

Concerning Consecrated Science

The suspect wonder of the new cosmology

chapter 34|9 pages

Reflecting on Religious Naturalism

Possibilities and critiques