SHOULD RELIGIOUS NATURALISTS PROMOTE A NATURALISTIC RELIGION

Religious naturalism refers here to a view of reality, and it will be contrasted with versions of supernaturalism and of atheistic naturalis m. Naturalistic religion refers to certain varieties of religion, espe cially some inspired by the universality of science and the need for a global ethics. In this essay I explicate why a religious naturalist n eed not advocate a naturalistic religion. Rather, a religious naturali st can build upon the heritage of religious traditions and be open to, but at the same time be agnostic about, the idea of a nonnatural grou nd of reality. The religious naturalism I defend has been criticized f rom various directions: one reviewer in this journal considered it too much indebted to the traditions, and hence ''reactionary'' and supern aturalistic; another considered it too minimalist in its religion (''v irtually nonexistent'') as a consequence of the preference far a too s ober version of naturalism. My distinction between religious naturalis m and naturalistic religion may answer some of these objections.