Varieties of Religious Naturalism
A conceptual investigation
John Bishop & Ken Perszyk (Auckland/Waikato)
Religious naturalism is an 'umbrella that covers a variety of dialects', to use William Drees' phrase. It is roughly describable as a religious perspective that does not focus on anything 'beyond' or 'above' the natural world of our ordinary experience – 'religion without the supernatural', if you like. We aim to clarify what seem to be the main different conceptions of religious naturalism, and consider the question of what may recommend them as contemporary religious options. We will argue that, while a 'scientistic' naturalism would exclude genuinely religious orientations to the world, there is a broader 'one-world-ist' naturalism that can admit them.