"Speculative Naturalism: A Bleak Theology in Light of the Tragic"
Abstract
Theological perspective upon the
relationship between deity and creature may not be as radically open to a full
range of possible value as has once been thought. If one is seeking a capacious view of deity, creatures, and nature, I contend that not only should one account for
continuity, wholeness, healing, salvation, warmth, benevolence, and joy in one’s
religious metaphysics, but also for discontinuity, difference, diremption, rupture,
trauma, tragedy, melancholy, coldness, and the more “somber” tones of the
divine life. These features seem to be
just as important as any strictly positive evaluation of deity in establishing its full
range of possible value, even its "fading embers" of value that seem to continually ignite ablaze both wrath and love. My exploration
of this “darker” side of religious naturalism, a “bleak theology” as I am
calling it, begins by articulating its opposite in the axiologically positive
evaluation of nature and deity found within the “mainstream” of American religious
naturalism, especially within the 19th and 20th centuries
(including process theology). I then offer some speculative theses about the relationship
between deity and the natural world in more somber dimensions, developing my
reasoning as to why a darker side of deity ought to be accounted for, and can
be accounted for, within a perspective which I call “speculative naturalism,” a “bleak” theology.
"Darkness and occlusion make out the character of primal time. All life is at first night; it gives itself shape in the night...Thus too wrath must be earlier than love." - F.W.J. Schelling
"Darkness and occlusion make out the character of primal time. All life is at first night; it gives itself shape in the night...Thus too wrath must be earlier than love." - F.W.J. Schelling
