History of Religious Naturalism One can reasonably say that the story of Religious Naturalism begins with the history of Pantheism which may be the world’s oldest religion. Baruch Spinoza, philosopher, presented in 1677 a naturalistic interpretation of previous classical and native beliefs in his Ethics. His rendering was later tagged as pantheism -  Greek: πάν ( 'pan' ) = all;  θεός ( 'theos' ) = God. Paul Harrison’s book Elements of Pantheism relates some of that history. The mid 20th century experienced liberalizations in Christian thinking and that coupled with a robust growth of devout appreciation for Nature resulted in a rise in naturalistic paradigms. That same environmentalism is now beginning to significantly influence many of the major religions. Also driving thinking was the vastly increasing knowledge of the natural world supplied by science, some of which caused doubts about long held religious doctrines. Social freethinkers sparked individualism that was willing to challenge ancient dogma. A scary background of possible nuclear war and ecological disaster provided incentives to develop a religious perspective that focused on the real endangered world and not a supernatural possibility.  Humanity was in danger of extinction, the world of being uninhabitable. The old creeds did not have satisfying answers. New paradigms evolved. Religious Naturalism is one of them. Jerome Stone, PhD, has now provided us a history of the emergence of the Religious Naturalism that resulted from those concerns and trends. His book outline which follows lists many of those involved in increasing the awareness of this compelling world view. Purchase at: http://www.sunypress.edu/results.asp

Religious Naturalism Today: The Rebirth of a Forgotten Alternative - by Jerome A. Stone Religious Naturalism, a once-forgotten option in religious thinking, 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. Part One covers the birth of Religious Naturalism, from Santayana to Wieman. Chapter One deals with philosophers, Chapter Two with theologians. Chapter Three analyzes some of the issues debated between these early naturalists and presents a variety of attempts to develop a naturalist view of the mind.  The Interlude between the first and second parts briefly explores religious naturalism in literature and art. Part Two depicts the rebirth of religious naturalism following the publication of Bernard Loomer’s The Size of God in 1987.  Over twenty current writers are presented.  Chapter Four analyzes three different sources of religious insight among contemporary religious naturalists, including experiences of grace and obligation, nature both as appreciated and as the object of scientific study, and the hermeneutics of religious and literary traditions.  Contested issues are discussed in Chapter Five, including whether nature’s power or goodness is the focus of attention and also on the appropriateness of using the term “God.”  Chapter Six sketches the contributions of other recent religious naturalists. Chapter Seven ends the study by exploring what it is like on the inside to live as a Religious naturalist.                                                          CONTENTS                   Foreword by Philip Hefner                  Preface and Introduction Part One - The Birth of Religious Naturalism      Chapter One - Philosophical Religious Naturalism           I  Santayana           II  Samuel Alexander           III  The Pragmatists (John Dewey, George Herbert Mead)           IV  Roy Wood Sellars           V  John Herman Randall           VI Jan Christian Smuts     Chapter Two - Theological Religious Naturalism          I  The Early Chicago School: George Burman Foster, G. B. Smith, Shailer Mathews, Edward Scribner Ames          II  The Humanists: John Dietrich, The Humanist Manifesto, Julian Huxley,          III  Frederick May Eliot          IV  The New Universalism: Clarence Skinner, Kenneth L.Patton          V  The Later Chicago School: Henry Nelson Wieman, Bernard Meland, Bernard Loomer,  Ralph Burhoe          VI  Others: William Bernhardt, Mordecai Kaplan, Jack Cohen, Gregory Bateson, Albert Einstein, Philip Phenix       Chapter Three - Analyzing the Issues         I  Five Issues among the Early Religious Naturalists         II  A Naturalist View of Mind, Soul or Spirit Interlude:  Religious Naturalism in Literature  Part Two - The Rebirth of Religious Naturalism           Chapter Four - Sources of Religious Insight            I  Experiences of Grace and Obligation: Charley Hardwick, William Jones, Sharon Welch, Jerome Stone            II  Nature as a Source of Religious Insight: Delores LaChapelle, Gary Snyder, Brian Swimme & Thomas Berry, Michael Cavanaugh, Ursula  Goodenough, Karl Peters, Connie Barlow                 III The Hermeneutics of Traditions:  Willaim Dean, Jerome Stone, Willem Drees, Michael Cavanaugh, Karl Peters, Henry Levinson,Charles Milligan       Chapter Five - Current Issues in Religious Naturalism            I  Power and Goodness in the Object of the Religious Orientation:  Stone, Gordon Kaufman, Charley Hardwick, Charles Milligan, William Dean. Brian Swimme & Thomas Berry, Donald Crosby, Sharon Welch, Karl Peters            II  The Use of God-language        Chapter Six - Other Recent Religious Naturalists: Corrington, Bumbaugh, Clark, Gilette, Hammond, Mesle, Murry, Oler, Peden,  Raymo, Shaw, Spretnak       Chapter Seven - Living Religiously as a Naturalist.   256 pages, Publisher: State University of New York Press (Dec. 18, 2008) ISBN-10: 0791475379 http://www.sunypress.edu/results.asp