Naturalizing God?

Mikael Leidenhag

Description

Can nature be considered a religious object? Religious naturalists answer yes, as they seek to carve out a middle path between supernaturalism and atheistic secularism. In this book, Mikael Leidenhag critically examines the religious proposals, philosophical commitments, and ecological ambitions of key religious naturalists, including Willem B. Drees, Charley D. Hardwick, Donald Crosby, Ursula Goodenough, Stuart Kauffman, Gordon Kaufman, Karl Peters, and Loyal Rue. Leidenhag argues that contemporary religious naturalism faces several problems, both with regard to its understanding of naturalism and the ways in which it seeks to uphold a religious conception of reality. He evaluates possible routes for moving forward, considering naturalistic and theistic proposals. He also analyzes the philosophical thesis of panpsychism, the idea that mind is a pervasive feature of the universe and reaches down to the fundamental levels of reality. The author concludes that panpsychism offers the most promising framework against which to understand the metaphysics and eco-ethical ambitions of religious naturalism.
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations

Introduction: The Religious Naturalists to Be Discussed
Current Research on Religious Naturalism
Metaphysical Grounding Problems
Chapter Overview

1. Explicating Religious Naturalism
Introducing Religious Naturalism
The Nature of Naturalism
Religious Aspects of Reality
Religious Naturalism and Traditional Religion
The Function of Religious Language
Conclusions

2. What Is Naturalistic about Religious Naturalism?
The Central Pillars of Naturalism
Monistic Naturalism
Pluralistic Naturalism
Summary of Monistic Naturalism and Pluralistic Naturalism
Conclusions

3. The Metaphysical Grounding Problems of Monism and Pluralism
Monistic Naturalism and the Issue of Antireductionism
Pluralistic Naturalism and Emergence Theory
Some Grounding Problems for Pluralistic Naturalism
Conclusions

4. The Religious Dimension of Religious Naturalism
Religious Realism in Rue and Crosby
Religious Antirealism in Hardwick and Drees
Understanding Pragmatic Religious Realism
Conclusions

5. The Problem of Religious Discourse in Religious Naturalism
The Tension between Physicalism and Christian Faith
Limit-Questions and the Status of Naturalism
Pragmatic Realism
Functional Religion and Theological Realism
Objectivist Religion and the Problem of Evil
Conclusions

6. Alternative Ontology 1: Naturalistic Options
Liberal Naturalism
Agnostic Naturalism
Pragmatic Naturalism
Conclusions

7. Alternative Ontology 2: Theistic Options
Background to Panentheism
Why Panentheism Entails Dualism
The Positive Status of Panentheism and the Question of Religious Naturalism
God and Values: A Proposal by Fiona Ellis
Conclusions

8. Alternative Ontology 3: Panpsychism
Panpsychism Today
Three Arguments for Panpsychism
Between Strong and Weak Panpsychism
The Panpsychist Dimension of Emergence Theory
Metaphysical Objections to Panpsychism
The Religious Relevance of Panpsychism
Conclusions

9. Concluding Remarks and Looking Ahead
Panpsychism and Teleology
Panpsychism and Eco-Ethics
Subjectivity and the Promise of Panpsychism

Notes
References
Name Index
Subject Index

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Philosophie de la religion
• Philosophy of science
• Philosophy of religion

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 juillet 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438484426
• Langue: English

Extrait

Naturalizing God?
Naturalizing God?
A Critical Evaluation of Religious Naturalism
M IKAEL L EIDENHAG
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2021 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Name: Leidenhag, Mikael, 1986– author.
Title: Naturalizing God? : a critical evaluation of religious naturalism / Mikael Leidenhag.
Description: Albany : State University of New York, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021010434 (print) | LCCN 2021010435 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438484419 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438484426 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Naturalism—Religious aspects.
Classification: LCC BL65.N35 L45 2021 (print) | LCC BL65.N35 (ebook) | DDC 210—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021010434
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021010435
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my mother, Carina Leidenhag (1954–2016)
Contents
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction
The Religious Naturalists to Be Discussed
Current Research on Religious Naturalism
Metaphysical Grounding Problems
Chapter Overview
1 Explicating Religious Naturalism
Introducing Religious Naturalism
The Nature of Naturalism
Religious Aspects of Reality
Religious Naturalism and Traditional Religion
The Function of Religious Language
Conclusions
2 What Is Naturalistic about Religious Naturalism?
The Central Pillars of Naturalism
Monistic Naturalism
Pluralistic Naturalism
Summary of Monistic Naturalism and Pluralistic Naturalism
Conclusions
3 The Metaphysical Grounding Problems of Monism and Pluralism
Monistic Naturalism and the Issue of Antireductionism
Pluralistic Naturalism and Emergence Theory
Some Grounding Problems for Pluralistic Naturalism
Conclusions
4 The Religious Dimension of Religious Naturalism
Religious Realism in Rue and Crosby
Religious Antirealism in Hardwick and Drees
Understanding Pragmatic Religious Realism
Conclusions
5 The Problem of Religious Discourse in Religious Naturalism
The Tension between Physicalism and Christian Faith
Limit-Questions and the Status of Naturalism
Pragmatic Realism
Functional Religion and Theological Realism
Objectivist Religion and the Problem of Evil
Conclusions
6 Alternative Ontology 1: Naturalistic Options
Liberal Naturalism
Agnostic Naturalism
Pragmatic Naturalism
Conclusions
7 Alternative Ontology 2: Theistic Options
Background to Panentheism
Why Panentheism Entails Dualism
The Positive Status of Panentheism and the Question of Religious Naturalism
God and Values: A Proposal by Fiona Ellis
Conclusions
8 Alternative Ontology 3: Panpsychism
Panpsychism Today
Three Arguments for Panpsychism
Between Strong and Weak Panpsychism
The Panpsychist Dimension of Emergence Theory
Metaphysical Objections to Panpsychism
The Religious Relevance of Panpsychism
Conclusions
9 Concluding Remarks and Looking Ahead
Panpsychism and Teleology
Panpsychism and Eco-Ethics
Subjectivity and the Promise of Panpsychism
Notes
References
Name Index
Subject Index
Acknowledgments
Writing this book has been both a challenging and a rewarding experience, and I have many people to thank for supporting and inspiring me throughout this time. I owe special thanks to my PhD supervisors, Mikael Stenmark and Ulf Zackariasson, for their support, valuable feedback, and advice during this project.
I would also like to thank the research seminar in Philosophy of Religion at Uppsala University for reading and commenting on various chapters and articles. Those who deserve special mention include Johan Eddebo, Karin Johannesson, Francis Jonbäck, Maria Klasson Sundin, Lotta Knutsson Bråkenhielm, Oliver Li, and Mikael Sörhuus. Niels Henrik Gregersen also deserves special thanks for examining the PhD thesis on which this book is based. During my PhD studies I had the opportunity and privilege to spend two semesters doing research at Princeton Theological Seminary. I would like to thank both Wentzel van Huyssteen and Gordon Graham for supervising me during my time in Princeton, and for including me in such an inspiring research environment.
I am also grateful to Forum Philosophicum for letting me reprint my article “Is Panentheism Naturalistic? How Panentheistic Conceptions of Divine Action Imply Dualism,” in Forum Philosophicum 19, no. 2 (2014): 209–225. This article appears in a modified form in chapter 7 .
Finally, and most importantly, I would like to express my gratitude to my lovely wife, Joanna. She has not only supported me emotionally during stressful times but also read through this book, offered valuable critique, and helped me improve it. Thank you for sharing this journey with me.
Mikael Leidenhag
St. Andrews, July 2020
Abbreviations
Monistic Naturalism
MON1 The natural world is all there is, and all entities are made up of the same constituents.
MON2 If X exists, X is either something material or a property of matter.
MON3 The ultimate cause of things is natural, nonpersonal, nonmental, and nonintentional.
MON4 Higher-level-happening Y corresponds to lower-level-happening X .
MEN1 Physics offers the best description of reality.
MEN2 All truth is determined at the level of physics.
MEN3 S should believe proposition X only if X is well supported or if X has been experimentally verified.
MSN1 Normative statements X, Y, and Z are reducible to the vocabulary of science.
MSN2 Normative statements X, Y, and Z are cognitively meaningless.
Pluralistic Naturalism
PON1 Reality consists of a hierarchy of higher and lower levels.
PON2 Higher-level Y has emerged from lower-level X .
PON3 Higher-level Y cannot be reduced to or be replaced by lower-level X .
PON4 We are epistemologically unable to deduce higher-level entities/properties from low-level physical laws.
PON5 Higher-level phenomena Y can exert causal efficacy on its constituent parts.
PEN1 There are other disciplines than science capable of producing knowledge about reality.
PEN2 There are meaningful claims that fall outside the boundary of science.
PSN1 Teleological language is irreducible and emergent with respect to physics.
PSN2 Some explanations may require vocabularies that go beyond physics, or the natural sciences in general.
Introduction
Once almost extinct, religious naturalism is now making a return to the intellectual scene and is gaining renewed scholarly attention. Jerome A. Stone, in his book Religious Naturalism Today—The Rebirth of a Forgotten Alternative , explores this neglected option through an analysis that begins with the twentieth-century figure George Santayana and the British emergence theorist Samuel Alexander. Stone provides a comprehensive historical survey of religious naturalism, bringing out the similarities and differences between a variety of thinkers, and shows how this form of naturalism has become a viable religious option.
Religious naturalists seek to develop a middle path between scientific reductionism and supernaturalism, neither of which is seen as tenable. For a religious naturalist, nature provides the definitive foundation for a religious way of life. Nature is both metaphysically and religiously ultimate, meaning that there is nothing above and beyond the natural domain. In addition, several religious naturalists maintain that traditional religion, with its distinction between God and nature, is uniquely responsible for the current ecological crisis. The idea here is that traditional religions have failed to appreciate the intrinsic value of nature. Several religious naturalists therefore propose new images of God that are closely related to the workings of nature. Such new images, they argue, can inspire people to adopt more beneficial attitudes toward the natural world and its ecosystems.
My aim is to critically evaluate religious naturalism as a position in the dialogue between science and religion, and to see what possibilities there are for developing and moving this perspective forward.
The Religious Naturalists to Be Discussed
The religious naturalists discussed and critically evaluated in this book construe both naturalism and religion in a number of different ways. In this discussion we find expressions of what is commonly referred to as hard naturalism and soft naturalism. 1 Some opt for a more restrictive (harder) form of naturalism, suggesting that science is the primary, if not the only, source of knowledge. Science therefore sets the boundaries for what can exist. On this more restrictive side of the spectrum are Willem B. Drees and Charley D. Hardwick, whom I will analyze. Both define naturalism in more materialist and physicalist terms, and both see naturalism as an approach continuous with, and intimately linked to, the empirical sciences. Hence, they both understand naturalism to be an approach that takes the methodologies and discoveries of science very seriously.
On the soft side of the spectrum we find those naturalists who maintain that reality is layered, and that consciousness, values, and meaning are fully natural yet irreducible features of reality. There is nothing supernatural about such phenomena, but they transcend the boundaries of empirical inquiry. This form of naturalism is found in the writings of Donald Crosby, Ursula Goodenough, Stuart Kauffman, Gordon Kaufman, Karl Peters, and Loyal Rue. These thinkers will