Abstract

For more than two decades the contemporary movement of religious naturalism has been growing. Developed by such authors as Ursula Goodenough (2000), Charley Hardwick (1996), Jerome A. Stone (1992, 2008), Don Crosby (2002, 2008, 2015), Karl E. Peters (2002), Chet Raymo (2008), Loyal Rue (2012), Carol Wayne White (2016), and other members of the Religious Naturalist Association (2017), today’s religious naturalism is on solid intellectual footing. One of the things that remain to be done is to explore how established world religions might be understood and practiced naturalistically. This Handbook offers work relating naturalism to Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, Shawnee religion, and Judaism. However, many assume that Christianity is not very amenable to being expressed in a naturalistic framework. From my experience with liberal or progressive Christians, I have concluded that many would be open to a naturalistic understanding of a Christian life-way if only they had a coherent presentation of ideas that were both naturalistic and offered helpful understandings and guidance as what it means to follow Jesus. This essay is an attempt to provide that understanding.