Speculative Naturalism: A Bleak Theology in Light of the Tragic
Issued Date: 28 Aug 2014
Abstract
Theological perspective upon the relationship between deity and creature may not be as radically open to a full range of possible value as has once been thought. If one is seeking a capacious view of deity, creatures, and nature, I contend that not only should one account for continuity, wholeness, healing, salvation, warmth, benevolence, and joy in one’s religious metaphysics, but also for discontinuity, difference, diremption, rupture, trauma, tragedy, melancholy, coldness, and the more somber tones of the divine life. My exploration of this darker side of religious naturalism, a ‘bleak theology’ or ‘speculative naturalism’, as I am calling it, begins by articulating its opposite in the axiologically positive evaluation of nature and deity found within the mainstream of American religious naturalism. I then offer some speculative theses from the bleak or speculative naturalist perspective and argue why this darker side of religious naturalism ought to be accounted for.
Download Media
PDF (Price: £17.50 )
References
Cooper, John W. 2006. Panentheism: The Other God of the Philosophers (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic).
Corrington, R. 1987. ‘Toward a Transformation of Neoclassical Theism’, International Philosophical Quarterly 24.108: 393-408. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5840/ ipq198727425.
———. 1992. Nature and Spirit: An Essay in Ecstatic Naturalism (New York: Fordham University Press).
———. 1993. ‘Peirce the Melancholy Prestidigitator’, Semiotica 94: 85-101.
———. 1996. Nature’s Self: Our Journey from Origin to Spirit (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield).
———. 1997. Nature’s Religion (Lanham: Roman & Littlefield).
———. 1998. ‘Empirical Theology and its Divergence from Process Thought’, in Roger A. Badham (ed.), Introduction to Christian Theology (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1998): 166-79.
———. 2000. A Semiotic Theory of Theology and Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511487644.
———. 2002. ‘My Passage from Panentheism to Pantheism’, The American Journal of Theology and Philosophy 23.2: 129-53.
———. 2013. Nature’s Sublime: An Essay in Aesthetic Naturalism (Lanham: Lexington Books).
Crosby, D. 2002. A Religion of Nature (Albany: State University of New York Press).
Dean, W. 1986. American Religious Empiricism (Albany: State University of New York Press).
Desmond, W. 1995. Perplexity and Ultimacy (Albany: State University of New York Press).
Dewey, J. 1933a. ‘A God or the God: Review of “Is There a God? A Conversation by Henry Nelson Wieman, Douglas Clyde Macintosh, and Max Carl Otto”‘, The Christian Century 8: 193-96.
———. 1933b. ‘Dr. Dewey Replies’, The Christian Century 22: 394-95.
Dorrien, G. 2011. ‘Hegelian Spirit in Question: The Idealistic Spirit of Liberal Theology’, American Journal of Theology & Philosophy 32.1: 3-22.
Emerson, R.W. 2006 [1836]. ‘Nature’, in L. Buell (ed.), The American Transcendentalists (New York: Random House): 31-68.
Hardwick, C. 2005. ‘Worldhood, Betweenness, Melancholy, and Ecstasy: An Engagement with Robert Corrington’s Ecstatic Naturalism’, American Journal of Theology & Philosophy 26.3: 238.
Hartshorne, Charles, and William L. Reese. 1953. Philosophers Speak of God (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Hodgson, Peter. 1997. G.W.F. Hegel: Theologian of the Spirit (Minneapolis: Fortress Press).
Hook, S. 1960. ‘Pragmatism and the Tragic Sense of Life’, Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 33: 5-26. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/ 3129513.
James, W. 1977 [1902]. ‘Is Life Worth Living?’, in J. McDermott (ed.), The Writings of William James (Chicago: University of Chicago Press): 610-29.
Krell, D. 2005. The Tragic Absolute: German Idealism and the Languishing of God (Bloomington: Indiana University Press).
Lucas, G. (ed.). 1986. Hegel and Whitehead: Contemporary Perspectives on Systematic Philosophy (Albany: State University of New York Press).
McDermott, J. 1991. ‘Why Bother: Is Life Worth Living?’, The Journal of Philosophy 88.11: 677-83.
Niebuhr, H.R. 1959. The Kingdom of God in America (New York: Harper & Row).
Rescher, N. 2004. ‘Nature in American Thought’, in J. DeGroot (ed.), Nature in American Philosophy (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press): 157-80.
———. 2010. Axiogenesis: An Essay in Metaphysical Optimalism (Lanham: Lexington Books).
Schelling F.W.J. 1936. On the Essence of Human Freedom (trans. J. Gutmann; Chicago: Open Court).
———. 2000. Ages of the World (trans. J. Wirth; Albany: State University of New York Press).
Stone, J. 2008. Religious Naturalism Today: The Rebirth of a Forgotten Alternative (Albany: State University of New York Press).
Taylor, B. 2010. Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future (Berkeley: University of California Press).
Wheeler, D. 2013. ‘American Religious Empiricism and the Possibility of an Ecstatic Naturalist Process Metaphysics’. Paper presented at the Third International Congress on Ecstatic Naturalism, 12–13 April, Drew University, Madison, NJ.
Wieman, H.N. 1946. The Source of Human Good (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Wilshire, B. 1985. Romanticism and Evolution: The Nineteenth Century (Lanham: University Press of America).
Corrington, R. 1987. ‘Toward a Transformation of Neoclassical Theism’, International Philosophical Quarterly 24.108: 393-408. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5840/ ipq198727425.
———. 1992. Nature and Spirit: An Essay in Ecstatic Naturalism (New York: Fordham University Press).
———. 1993. ‘Peirce the Melancholy Prestidigitator’, Semiotica 94: 85-101.
———. 1996. Nature’s Self: Our Journey from Origin to Spirit (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield).
———. 1997. Nature’s Religion (Lanham: Roman & Littlefield).
———. 1998. ‘Empirical Theology and its Divergence from Process Thought’, in Roger A. Badham (ed.), Introduction to Christian Theology (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1998): 166-79.
———. 2000. A Semiotic Theory of Theology and Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511487644.
———. 2002. ‘My Passage from Panentheism to Pantheism’, The American Journal of Theology and Philosophy 23.2: 129-53.
———. 2013. Nature’s Sublime: An Essay in Aesthetic Naturalism (Lanham: Lexington Books).
Crosby, D. 2002. A Religion of Nature (Albany: State University of New York Press).
Dean, W. 1986. American Religious Empiricism (Albany: State University of New York Press).
Desmond, W. 1995. Perplexity and Ultimacy (Albany: State University of New York Press).
Dewey, J. 1933a. ‘A God or the God: Review of “Is There a God? A Conversation by Henry Nelson Wieman, Douglas Clyde Macintosh, and Max Carl Otto”‘, The Christian Century 8: 193-96.
———. 1933b. ‘Dr. Dewey Replies’, The Christian Century 22: 394-95.
Dorrien, G. 2011. ‘Hegelian Spirit in Question: The Idealistic Spirit of Liberal Theology’, American Journal of Theology & Philosophy 32.1: 3-22.
Emerson, R.W. 2006 [1836]. ‘Nature’, in L. Buell (ed.), The American Transcendentalists (New York: Random House): 31-68.
Hardwick, C. 2005. ‘Worldhood, Betweenness, Melancholy, and Ecstasy: An Engagement with Robert Corrington’s Ecstatic Naturalism’, American Journal of Theology & Philosophy 26.3: 238.
Hartshorne, Charles, and William L. Reese. 1953. Philosophers Speak of God (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Hodgson, Peter. 1997. G.W.F. Hegel: Theologian of the Spirit (Minneapolis: Fortress Press).
Hook, S. 1960. ‘Pragmatism and the Tragic Sense of Life’, Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 33: 5-26. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/ 3129513.
James, W. 1977 [1902]. ‘Is Life Worth Living?’, in J. McDermott (ed.), The Writings of William James (Chicago: University of Chicago Press): 610-29.
Krell, D. 2005. The Tragic Absolute: German Idealism and the Languishing of God (Bloomington: Indiana University Press).
Lucas, G. (ed.). 1986. Hegel and Whitehead: Contemporary Perspectives on Systematic Philosophy (Albany: State University of New York Press).
McDermott, J. 1991. ‘Why Bother: Is Life Worth Living?’, The Journal of Philosophy 88.11: 677-83.
Niebuhr, H.R. 1959. The Kingdom of God in America (New York: Harper & Row).
Rescher, N. 2004. ‘Nature in American Thought’, in J. DeGroot (ed.), Nature in American Philosophy (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press): 157-80.
———. 2010. Axiogenesis: An Essay in Metaphysical Optimalism (Lanham: Lexington Books).
Schelling F.W.J. 1936. On the Essence of Human Freedom (trans. J. Gutmann; Chicago: Open Court).
———. 2000. Ages of the World (trans. J. Wirth; Albany: State University of New York Press).
Stone, J. 2008. Religious Naturalism Today: The Rebirth of a Forgotten Alternative (Albany: State University of New York Press).
Taylor, B. 2010. Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future (Berkeley: University of California Press).
Wheeler, D. 2013. ‘American Religious Empiricism and the Possibility of an Ecstatic Naturalist Process Metaphysics’. Paper presented at the Third International Congress on Ecstatic Naturalism, 12–13 April, Drew University, Madison, NJ.
Wieman, H.N. 1946. The Source of Human Good (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Wilshire, B. 1985. Romanticism and Evolution: The Nineteenth Century (Lanham: University Press of America).
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
