Religious Naturalism: A Bibliography

The list has been organized in two parts, both in alphabetical order by author:

1. The Short List consists of favorites vouched for by at least two religious naturalists.

2. The Complete List includes all titles nominated by at least one religious naturalist, including those on the short list. Organized into categories, with some annotations.

   Not all the books on these lists directly express ‘religious’ or ‘spiritual’ feelings about nature; some are included because they explore the biological and evolutionary roots of human thought, feeling and morality.

The Short List

• Barlow, Connie (ed. 1991), From Gaia to Selfish Genes: Selected Writings in the Life Sciences (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press).

• Damasio, Antonio (1994), Descartes' Error (New York: Avon).

• Dawkins, Richard (1987), The Blind Watchmaker (New York: Norton).

• Deacon, Terrence W. (1997), The Symbolic Species: The Co-evolution of Language and the Brain (New York: Norton).

• de Waal, Frans (1996), Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).

• Dillard, Annie (1974), Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (New York: Harper).

• Goodenough, Ursula (1998), The Sacred Depths of Nature (New York: Oxford University Press).

• Jeffers, Robinson, The Selected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers, ed. (2001) Tim Hunt (Stanford: Stanford University Press).

• Kaufman, Gordon D. (1993), In Face of Mystery: A Constructive Theology (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).

• Lao Tzu/Laozu/Laotse, Tao Te Ching/Dao De Jing.

• Leopold, Aldo (1949), A Sand County Almanac (New York: Oxford University Press).

• Oliver, Mary (1992), New and Selected Poems (Boston: Beacon Press).

• Snyder, Gary (1990), The Practice of the Wild (New York: North Point Press).

• Stone, Jerome A. (2000), ‘What is Religious Naturalism?’, Journal of Liberal Religion, Fall 2000, reprinted with addendum, Religious Humanism, Winter/Spring 2001, 60-74. Also online at the ">Meadville site.

• Swimme, Brian and Thomas Berry (1992), The Universe Story (San Francisco: Harper Collins).

• Thoreau, Henry David (1854), Walden

The Complete List

Science

• Barlow, Connie (ed. 1991), From Gaia to Selfish Genes: Selected Writings in the Life Sciences (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press).
  Barlow, Connie (ed. 1994), Evolution Extended: Biological Debates on the Meaning of Life (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press).

• Bateson, Gregory (1979), Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity (New York: Bantam).

• Capra, Fritjof (2002), The Hidden Connections: Integrating the Biological, Cognitive, and Social Dimensions of Life into a Science of Sustainability (New York: Doubleday).

• Damasio, Antonio (1994), Descartes' Error (New York: Avon).
  Damasio, Antonio (1999), The Feeling of What Happens (New York: Harcourt).
  Damasio, Antonio (2003), Looking for Spinoza (New York: Harcourt).

• Dawkins, Richard (1987), The Blind Watchmaker (New York: Norton).

• Deacon, Terrence W. (1997), The Symbolic Species: The Co-evolution of Language and the Brain (New York: Norton).

• Dennett, Daniel C. (1995), Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life (New York: Simon & Schuster).

• de Waal, Frans (1996), Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).

• Maturana, Humberto and Francisco Varela (1992), The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding, Revised Edition (Boston: Shambhala, 1998).

• Monod, Jaques (1972), Chance and Necessity (New York: Vintage).

• Prigogine, Ilya and Isabelle Stengers (1984), Order Out of Chaos: Man's new dialogue with nature (New York: Bantam).

• Schacter, Daniel L. (1996), Searching for Memory (New York: Basic).

• Savage-Rumbaugh, Sue and Roger Lewin (1994), Kanzi: The Ape at the Brink of the Human Mind (New York: Wiley).

• Wright, Robert (1994), The Moral Animal: Why We Are the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology (New York: Pantheon).

Reflections on nature, culture, science and experience

• Abram, David (1996), The Spell of the Sensuous (New York: Vintage).

• Berry, Thomas (1988), The Dream of the Earth (San Francisco: Sierra Club).
  Berry, Thomas (1999), The Great Work (New York: Bell Tower).

• Dillard, Annie (1974), Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (New York: Harper).

• Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1836), ‘Nature’

• Goodenough, Ursula (1998), The Sacred Depths of Nature (New York: Oxford University Press).

• Kellert, Stephen R. and Timothy J. Farnham (2002), The Good in Nature and Humanity (Washington: Island Press).

• Leopold, Aldo (1949), A Sand County Almanac (New York: Oxford University Press).

• Nisker, Wes (1998), Buddha's Nature (New York: Bantam).

• Raymo, Chet (1987), Honey from Stone: A Naturalist's Search for God (Hungry Mind Press).

• Rue, Loyal (1989), Amythia (U. Alabama Press).
  Rue, Loyal (1999), Everybody's Story (SUNY Press).

• Seed, John, Joanna Macy, Pat Fleming and Arne Naess (1988), Thinking Like a Mountain: Towards a Council of All Beings (Gabriola Island: New Society).

• Snyder, Gary (1990), The Practice of the Wild (New York: North Point Press).

• Suzuki, David (1997), with Amanda McConnell, The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature (Vancouver: Greystone).

• Swimme, Brian (1988), The Universe is a Green Dragon: A Cosmic Creation Story (Bear & Co.)
  Swimme, Brian and Thomas Berry (1992), The Universe Story (San Francisco: Harper Collins).

• Thoreau, Henry David (1854), Walden

• Walker, Alice (1982), The Color Purple (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich); "From an Interview," "Only Justice Can Stop a Curse," from In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens (New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1983), 244-272, 338-342.

Philosophy and theology

• Cavanaugh, Michael (1996), Biotheology: A New Synthesis of Science and Religion (Lanham, MD: University Press of America).

• Crosby, Donald A. (2002), A Religion of Nature (Albany: State University of New York Press).

• Dewey, John (1933), A Common Faith — in The Later Works of John Dewey: 1933-1934 Essays (Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press); also available elsewhere.

• Drees, Willem (1996), Religion, Science and Naturalism (New York: Cambridge University Press).

• Hardwick, Charley D. (1996), Events of Grace: Naturalism, Existentialism and Theology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)

• Harrison, Paul (1999), The Elements of Pantheism: Understanding the Divinity in Nature and the Universe (Shaftesbury, Dorset: Element Books).

• Kaufman, Gordon D. (1993), In Face of Mystery: A Constructive Theology (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).

• Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson (1999), Philosophy in the Flesh (New York: Basic).

• Loomer, Bernard (1987), The Size of God: The Theology of Bernard Loomer in Context Ed. by William Dean and Larry Axel (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press); also available in American Journal of Theology and Philosophy Vol. 8, Nos. 1&2 (January & May 1987).

• Peters, Karl E. (2002), Dancing with the Sacred: Evolution, Ecology, and God (Harrisburg: Trinity Press, International).

• Stone, Jerome A. (1992), The Minimalist Vision of Transcendence: A Naturalist Philosophy of Religion (Albany: State University of New York Press).
  Stone, Jerome A. "Broadening Care, Discerning Worth: The Environmental Contributions of Minimalist Religious Naturalism," Process Studies, XXII, Winter 1993.
  Stone, Jerome A. (2000), "What is Religious Naturalism?", Journal of Liberal Religion, Fall 2000, www.meadville.edu, reprinted with addendum, Religious Humanism, Winter/Spring 2001, 60-74.

• Varela, Francisco, Evan Thompson and Eleanor Rosch (1991), The Embodied Mind (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press).

• Welch, Sharon D (2000), A Feminist Ethic of Risk, Rev. Ed. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press), esp. chapter 8 "A Theology of Resistance and Hope."

• Wieman, Henry Nelson (1946), The Source of Human Good (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press).

Poetry

• Caddy, John (2003), Morning Earth (Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions).

• Jeffers, Robinson: There are a number of poems by Jeffers which elaborate an austere, non-anthropocentric awe of the universe. A good introduction can be found in Max Oelschlaeger, The Idea of Wilderness, Yale, 1991 chap. 8; see also James Karman, Robinson Jeffers: Poet of California, San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1987, Parts 3 & 4.

• Oliver, Mary (1992), New and Selected Poems (Boston: Beacon Press). Winner of the National Book Award. Oliver received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1984.

• Snyder, Gary (1992), No Nature: New and Selected Poems (New York: Pantheon). A good introduction to Snyder can be found in Max Oelschlaeger, The Idea of Wilderness, Yale, 1991, chap. 8.

• Whitman, Walt (1892), Leaves of Grass.

Ancient texts

• Kabir, One Hundred Poems of Kabir. Translations by Rabindranath Tagore (1915) and Robert Bly.

• Lao Tzu/Laozu. Tao Te Ching/Dao De Jing. The place of religious naturalism in Asian and indigenous philosophies/religion is a large topic, but mention should at least be made of this classic.

• Chuang Tzu/Chuangtse, the other Taoist classic. Many translations; one which also includes the Tao Te Ching is Thomas Cleary (ed./tr. 1992), The Essential Tao (San Francisco: Harper Collins, Castle edition 1998).

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This page last updated 29 March 2004.