This article addresses the problem of “eco-anxiety” by integrating results from numerous fields of inquiry. While climate change may cause direct psychological and existential impacts, already now vast numbers of people experience indirect impacts in forms of depression, socio-ethical paralysis, and loss of wellbeing. This is not always evident, because people have in response developed psychological and social defenses, including “socially constructed silence.” I argue that this situation causes the need to frame climate change narratives as emphasizing hope in the midst of tragedy. Framing the situation simply as a threat or a possibility does not work. Religious communities and the use of methods which include spirituality have an important role in enabling people to process their deep emotions and existential questions. I draw also from my experiences from Finland in enabling co-operation between natural scientists and theologians in order to address climate issues.

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Eco‐anxiety, tragedy, and hope: psychological and spiritual dimensions of climate change

A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF MARY WARNOCK’S ARGUMENT FOR THE EXCLUSION OF RELIGIOUS ARGUMENTS FROM PUBLIC MORAL DISCOURSE Mark Wayne Warnock, Ph.D. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2017 Chair: Dr. Theodore J. Cabal Mary Warnock, in her 2010 book Dishonest to God: On Keeping Religion out of Politics, argues for the exclusion of religious arguments from public moral discourse, contending that religious arguments resist moral change, illegitimately impose religious authority upon the public, and are often advanced in manipulative or dishonest ways. This dissertation analyzes and critiques her argument. Chapter 1 introduces Mary Warnock and shows how her argument relates to her philosophical work in imagination, morality, and religion. Chapter 2 examines how Mary Warnock’s view of imagination undergirds key tenets of her views of morality and religion. Chapter 3 critiques her view of the relationship between morality and law, and also her distinction between public and private morality. Chapter 4 examines Warnock’s theologically liberal view of religion, which emphasizes the experiential and aesthetic and minimizes the doctrinal and moral. Chapter 5 examines the first two of Warnock’s three objections to religious argument in the public sphere—that religious arguments resist moral change and impose religious authority upon the public. Chapter 6 examines Warnock’s third objection—that religious arguments are advanced dishonestly in various ways. Chapter 7 concludes the dissertation with an analysis of the state of religious arguments in the American legislative, cultural and jurisprudential context, and proposes an alternate but not new approach to religious arguments in public discourse.

A Critical Analysis of Mary Warnock's Argument for the Exclusion of Religious Arguments from Public Moral Discourse

A practical theological study of community pastoral work : an ecosystemic perspective

............................................................................................ ii Acknowledgements ........................................................................ iii Table of

Transhumanism and the imago Dei : narratives of apprehension and hope

/pdf/beyond-the-scientology-case-towards-a-better-definition-of-3t472hlkzu.pdf

Beyond the Scientology case : towards a better definition of what constitutes a religion for legal purposes in Australia having regard to salient judicial authorities from the United States of America as well as important non-judicial authorities

Religious Naturalism Today: The Rebirth of a Forgotten Alternative

The Minimalist Vision of Transcendence: A Naturalist Philosophy of Religion

The views of eleven writers who develop a naturalized spirituality, from Baruch Spinoza and George Santayana to Sam Harris, Andre Comte-Sponville, Ursula Goodenough, and Sharon Welch and others are presented. Then the writer's own theory is developed. This is a pluralistic notion of sacredness, an adjective referring to unmanipulable events of overriding importance. The difficulties in using traditional religious words, such as God and spiritual are addressed.

Spirituality for naturalists

This article opens with two generic definitions of religious naturalism in general one by Jerome Stone and one by Rem Edwards used by Charley Hardwick. Two boundary issues, humanism and process theology, are discussed. A brief sketch of my own minimalist and pluralist version of religious naturalism follows. Finally, several issues that are, or should be, faced by religious naturalists are explored.

Varieties of Religious Naturalism

is a christian naturalism possible? it sounds like a contradiction in terms. however, depending on the meaning of the terms, it is not only possible but highly desirable. The purpose of this article is to sketch the possibility of a christian naturalism, drawing on a number of twentiethand twenty-firstcentury theologians. naturalism is a contrast term, like “left” or “up,” which gets its meaning partly from opposition to another term, in this case “supernaturalism” or sometimes “supranaturalism.” it is a set of beliefs which focuses on this world. (of course, there is no other world, according to naturalism, but since christians and others have often spoken of god, soul, and/or heaven as distinct from this world, naturalism is a denial of that strand of the christian tradition.) As bernard loomer wrote, it is a shift from living as a pilgrim between this world and the other world to an earth-creature resident in this.1 What would a Christian naturalism be? my suggestion is that, first, a christian naturalist would be willing to use the term “god” as the focus of the religious attitude. This will be a naturalistic theism. Typically such a naturalistic theism will either refer to god as the entire universe in its creative or other aspect (george b. foster, edward s. Ames, bernard m. loomer) or else god as the creative or transformative process or forces within the universe (henry nelson Wieman, Karl Peters). in the second place, if a writer has a discussion of the positive significance of christ, this would further validate the use of the term “christian naturalism.” briefly put, my proposal is that a christian naturalism definitely needs: (a) some notion of god, and (b) probably needs something like a christology, both within the framework of a naturalist world view. This article explores some examples of both of these. Why bother? Well, since naturalism is a major world view today, it would be well for the future of christianity if it could be stated in naturalistic terms without losing too much of its heart.

Jerome A. Stone

Papers

Religious Naturalism Today: The Rebirth of a Forgotten Alternative

The Minimalist Vision of Transcendence: A Naturalist Philosophy of Religion

Spirituality for naturalists

Varieties of Religious Naturalism

Is a "Christian Naturalism" Possible?: Exploring the Boundaries of a Tradition