IngentaConnect RELIGIOUS NATURALISM OR THEOLOGICAL HUMANISM

Author: Klemm, David E.¹

Source: Zygon, Volume 42, Number 2, June 2007 , pp. 357-368(12)

Abstract:

Loyal Rue's book Religion Is Not About God (2005) is a polemic for religious naturalism. In it Rue sets up a general model of religion based on principles of scientific materialism, tests his model against five historical religions, and speculates on the future of religion. He claims that in the West, modern science and pluralism threaten the moral authority of Christianity in facing the environmental crisis, which is fueled by a rival metareligion, consumerism. He concludes that an ecological Doomsday is likely, following which a new religion will arise: religious naturalism. I challenge Rue's account at three levels, from the standpoint of theological humanism. First, as a philosopher of religion, Rue cannot carry through his scientific materialist explanation of religion. The first-person experience of consciousness escapes such an account. Second, as a myth maker, Rue unifies the evolutionary epic retrospectively, where the evidence is thin, and projects the future overconfidently. Third, as a theologian, Rue is wrong to equate God and Nature.

Keywords: religious naturalism; Loyal Rue; scientific materialism; theological humanism

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9744.2007.00357.x

Affiliations: 1: ( ~religion/) is Professor of Theology, Ethics, and Culture in the Department of Religious Studies, University of Iowa, 314 Gilmore Hall, Iowa City, IA 52242;, Email: david-klemm@uiowa.edu., URL: http://www.uiowa.edu/

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RELIGIOUS NATURALISM OR THEOLOGICAL HUMANISM?