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.