A Religion of Nature
Two dissimilar arguments on nature and religion are here offered  by McGrath (theology, Oxford) and Crosby (philosophy, Colorado  State Univ.). McGrath claims that humanity's vanishing sense of  marvel or enchantment in nature results from scientific  rationalism. He maintains that religion, specifically  evangelical Christianity, urges humanity to cherish its divine  origins and see in the beauty of nature not God but signposts  that point to a transcendence wherein we find God. Alongside  this, however, McGrath sustains a running quarrel with Lynn  White's 1967 article "On the Historical Roots of Our Ecological  Crisis" and Darwinian Richard Dawkins, taking a chapter to prove  Dawkins's "strident antireligious advocacy." Not a primer on how  to become reenchanted with nature, McGrath's book stands in  danger of merely offering a cadre of evangelical proofs against  a small, specific scientific community that fails to see nature  as God's art. On the other hand, Crosby (Specter of the Absurd:  Sources and Criticisms of Modern Nihilism) takes an admittedly  atheistic yet blithely optimistic stance. Relying upon  philosophers like Alfred North Whitehead and William James, he  espouses a literal religion of nature: "we need not go any  further than nature to probe the depths of our existence and  powers that sustain our being." Seeing nature as metaphysically  ultimate, he offers a systematic religious naturalism devoid of  God, prayer, or spirituality beyond that found in the beauty and  inherent goodness of the earth. Since nature is metaphysically  ultimate, Crosby must admit that both good and evil consequently  reside there. Thus, humanity's task becomes one of aligning with  the good and struggling against evil and how that is discerned,  defined, or done is never clearly delineated. Both books are  academic in tone and plainly intended for a scholarly audience.  Recommended only where religious interest warrants. Sandra  Collins, Duquesne Univ. Lib., PittsburghCopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.