Customer Reviews

A Religion of Nature

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The above review does a more than adequate job of showing that the reviewer, Wyote, has virtually no understanding of the arguments presented in this great work, and that his review should not be given any serious consideration whatsoever. This book is in fact not at all difficult to read. Instead, it is exceptionally clear and very well-organized. I am not going to go into any depth concerning this book because I am not all about writing reviews on [...], but I did feel the need to defend this masterful work from such an ignorant review.

Also, there is a terrible mistake in the "Editorial Reviews: From Library Journal" section on this page. I don't know where all this talk of McGrath comes from. Not only did he not pen a single word in this book, but his name is never even mentioned anywhere in the text. In other words, the "Editorial Reviews: From Library Journal" section begins to relate to this book with the sentence that begins "On the other hand..."

This is a beautiful book. It is deeply thought through, deeply referenced and very properly prescriptive. It is the book I have sought through my many decades of environmentalism. What other process do we really have but to mirror our behavior with the ecosystem, if we intend to provide a future for our own kin and that of all the others?
Crosby writes very carefully and with great insight and thoroughness. I can find no niche of disagreement with his humbly suggested plan for this return.
Bruce Hannon

This is a thoroughly academic book; the writing is almost a parody of academic writing. There are so many 70 or 80 word long sentences: clauses within clauses, caveats within caveats. It can be simply painful to read. Not only that, but a lot of his concerns relate to the world of academic philosophy; and even when I was an undergraduate philosophy major I didn't relate to that world. All this is not what I expected; buyer beware.

However, we all have our own idiosyncratic concerns, and the author is dealing with his own here, and the concerns he perceives in his academic community.

As to the content of his thoughts, I generally had little to disagree or comment on; even little to agree with, actually. However, he strained to argue that we can find values within nature, admitting that there are "anti-values" as well. He seemed concerned to avoid admitting that values come from within us; but I'm not sure that his argument amounted to anything more than semantics, a terminological shuffle.

I hesitate to give such negative reviews, especially when I am sure that the author has such good intentions; but I believe that for most people, there are better books out there. Check out Ursula Goodenough.