The Minimalist Vision of Transcendence
A Naturalist Philosophy of Religion
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Jerome A. Stone is Professor of Philosophy at William Rainey Harper College, Palatine, Illinois.
Reviews
"Stone has given us a new articulation and defense of a version of religious naturalism which I regard as entirely viable. He is careful to show the historical antecedents of this position (chiefly in James and Whitehead and Wieman and Meland), skillfully correcting their problematic aspects, and helpfully comparing them with their Continental counterparts.
"In what is probably the finest chapter of all, Stone calls attention to the leading contemporary alternatives (Hartshorne and Ogden, Gilkey, Camus, secular humanism) and offers admirably balanced indications of where and why the minimalist vision of transcendence differs from these. He picks up all that is still most pertinent in the work of H. N. Wieman, A. N. Whitehead, and B. E. Meland, with some nuanced doses of Tillich and Gilkey, and presents the case for a minimalistic, revisionary theism simply and plainly. All of the ideas and thinkers Stone treats are currently undergoing reappraisal, and his study will help to contribute to any future evaluation of twentieth-century American religious naturalism out of the 'Chicago School. '"— Nancy Frankenberry, Dartmouth College