A Religion of Nature / Edition 1

by Donald A. Crosby

Overview

The beauty, sublimity, and wonder of nature have been justly celebrated in all of the religious traditions of the world, but usually these traditions have focused on beings or powers presumed to lie behind nature, providing nature's ultimate explanation and meaning. In a radical departure, Donald A. Crosby makes an eloquent case for regarding nature itself as the focus of religion, conceived without God, gods, or animating spirits of any kind, and argues that nature is metaphysically ultimate. He explores the concept of nature, the place of humans in nature, the responsibilities of humans to one another and to their natural environments, and offers a religious vision that grants to nature the kind of reverence, awe, love, and devotion formerly reserved for God. Crosby also shares his personal journey from theistic faith to a religion of nature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780791454541
Publisher:	State University of New York Press
Publication date:	08/01/2002
Series:	Psychoanalysis and Culture Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	212
Sales rank:	868,939
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Donald A. Crosby is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Colorado State University. He has published several books, including The Specter of the Absurd: Sources and Criticisms of Modern Nihilism, also published by SUNY Press, and, most recently, Religion in a Pluralistic Age (coedited with Charley D. Hardwick).

Table of Contents

Preface

PART 1. Introduction

1. From God to Nature:A Personal Odyssey

PART 2. The Nature of Nature

2. Concept of Nature

3. Science and Nature

4. Values in Nature

5. Humans and Nature

PART 3. A Religion of Nature

6. The Nature of Religion and a Religion of Nature

7. Objections to a Religion of Nature

8. The Religious Ultimacy of Nature

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index of Authors and Titles

Index of Subjects

Editorial Reviews

"Our world is being torn apart, on the one hand, by theistic religious fanatics who in the name of their transcendent God destroy cultures and cultural treasures, and murder those who disagree with them; on the other hand, our world is being destroyed by those who run secular enterprises and governments in which profits or political power are pursued without regard for the ecological damage that results. I can think of nothing more timely than a book that asks us to commit ourselves to a love for and a care of the natural order, which is the source of all creatures' existence and of their capacities to contribute creatively to the good it is and makes possible." — George Allan, author of The Patterns of the Present: Interpreting the Authority of Form

"I deeply agree with the general values and norms of this book, and I hope that it will carry a large group of those yearning for a religious home to the destination Crosby depicts." — Frederick Ferré, author of the trilogy Being and Value, Knowing and Value, and Living and Value

From the Publisher

Two dissimilar arguments on nature and religion are here offered by McGrath (theology, Oxford) and Crosby (philosophy, Colorado State Univ.). McGrath claims that humanity's vanishing sense of marvel or enchantment in nature results from scientific rationalism. He maintains that religion, specifically evangelical Christianity, urges humanity to cherish its divine origins and see in the beauty of nature not God but signposts that point to a transcendence wherein we find God. Alongside this, however, McGrath sustains a running quarrel with Lynn White's 1967 article "On the Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis" and Darwinian Richard Dawkins, taking a chapter to prove Dawkins's "strident antireligious advocacy." Not a primer on how to become reenchanted with nature, McGrath's book stands in danger of merely offering a cadre of evangelical proofs against a small, specific scientific community that fails to see nature as God's art. On the other hand, Crosby (Specter of the Absurd: Sources and Criticisms of Modern Nihilism) takes an admittedly atheistic yet blithely optimistic stance. Relying upon philosophers like Alfred North Whitehead and William James, he espouses a literal religion of nature: "we need not go any further than nature to probe the depths of our existence and powers that sustain our being." Seeing nature as metaphysically ultimate, he offers a systematic religious naturalism devoid of God, prayer, or spirituality beyond that found in the beauty and inherent goodness of the earth. Since nature is metaphysically ultimate, Crosby must admit that both good and evil consequently reside there. Thus, humanity's task becomes one of aligning with the good and struggling against evil and how that is discerned, defined, or done is never clearly delineated. Both books are academic in tone and plainly intended for a scholarly audience. Recommended only where religious interest warrants. Sandra Collins, Duquesne Univ. Lib., Pittsburgh Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

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