Naturalism and Beyond

This book offers a critical analysis of the varieties of contemporary naturalism - from scientific naturalism to religious naturalism. What are the claims of naturalism apart from its denial of 'the supernatural'? What are the distinctive modes of thought within contemporary religious naturalism? Some argue for a science-based worldview, others for a cosmic view of reality that includes human engagement and religious commitment - with or without God-talk. The book shows how an appeal to what is beyond empirically validated facts resurfaces within most varieties of naturalism. But it also points to the fact that immanentist frameworks are widely presupposed among contemporary theologians who do not describe themselves as 'naturalists'. Rival positions and conflicts of interpretations emerge as to the question of transcendence and the Beyond, and different philosophical theologies are at work - from the strict denial of theism to ground-of-being-theisms to classic and alternative views of the divine.