Abstract

Ecstatic naturalism is a form of religious naturalism that has multiple roots. It is a form of naturalism because it affirms that nature is all that there is. It is a form of religious naturalism because it affirms the place of the sacred in nature, but does not see nature per se as sacred, only certain orders and in certain respects. Its initial roots lie in my discovery of Ralph Waldo Emerson in my junior year of High School (1967), which was the same time that I discovered Advaita Vedanta Hinduism as found above all in the Upanishads. In each it became clear to me that one could be both a monist (nature is all that there is) and a pluralist (there are archetypes that project innumerable gods and goddesses). For Emerson and the unknown writers of the Upanishads there is a sense of wholeness combined with a sense of multiplicity. Thus, following William James we can say that there are many ones and many pluralistic centers.