THEOLOGICAL NATURALISM AND THE NATURE OF RELIGION: ON NOT BEGGING THE QUESTION

Charley D. Hardwick; Charley D. Hardwick

doi:10.1111/j.1467-9744.1987.tb00833.x

Abstract

Abstract. Too many theologies beg the question about the nature of religion by building metaphysically substantive assumptions into its description. Typically these assumptions are: the object of religious devotion must be both absolute and personal, final causality must be true, and there must be a cosmic conservation of value. Theological naturalism, exemplified in the thought of Henry Nelson Wieman, articulates an entirely formal, yet not substantively empty, conception of religion which does not beg these questions and which is consequently more descriptively adequate to the nature of religion. It cannot therefore be assumed, without begging the question, that religious adequacy requires the metaphysical falsity of philosophical naturalism.

Keywords

Henry Nelson Wieman, demythologizing, empirical theology, definitions of religion, naturalism, contemporary theology

How to Cite

Hardwick, C., (1987) “THEOLOGICAL NATURALISM AND THE NATURE OF RELIGION: ON NOT BEGGING THE QUESTION”, Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 22(1), 21–35. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9744.1987.tb00833.x

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References

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