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When God Is Gone, Everything Is Holy: The Making of a Religious Naturalist [Hardcover]

Chet Raymo
3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (100 customer reviews)

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Book Description

September 1, 2008
Best-selling author of sixteen books and a long-time writer of the popular column "Science Musings" in the "Boston Globe," Chet Raymo invites readers to explore "the beautiful and terrible mystery that soaks creation." In what he describes as a "late-life credo," renowned science writer Chet Raymo narrates his half-century journey from the traditional Catholicism of his youth to his present perspective as a "Catholic agnostic." As a scientist, Raymo holds to the skepticism that accepts only verifiable answers, but as a "religious naturalist," he never ceases his pursuit of "the beautiful and terrible mystery that soaks creation." Raymo assembles a stunning array of scientists, philosophers, mystics, and poets who help him discover "glimmers of the Absolute in every particular." Whether exploring the connection of the human body to the stars or the meaning of prayer of the heart, these challenging reflections will cause believers and agnostics alike to pause and pay attention.

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When God Is Gone, Everything Is Holy: The Making of a Religious Naturalist + The Sacred Depths of Nature + Elements of Pantheism
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Raymo (professor emeritus, Stonehill Coll.; Honey from Stone), a former science columnist, is one of the most articulate and subtly elegant contemporary writers on science and spirit. Here, he offers a new kind of spirituality in the light of empirical science, writing candidly of his Catholic upbringing and his current agnosticism, poised "in the portal between knowledge and mystery, between the commonplace and the divine." He draws on sources ranging from Sigrid Undest to Saint-Exupéry to depict a wonder-filled religious naturalism. In an environment characterized by the strident antireligionism of such writers as Christopher Hitchens, Raymo's eloquence should win many readers. Highly recommended. --Graham Christian, Library Journal, October 1, 2008

Chet Raymo's weekly column "Science Musings" appeared in the Boston Globe for 20 years and is now online at Sciencemusings.com. He is Professor Emeritus at Stonehill College in North Easton, Massachusetts, and author of 12 books including Natural Prayers. In this rigorous and wonder-filled paperback, Raymo describes his "late-life credo," which is a mystical brand of Catholicism. As an elder, he confesses that "faith no longer matters to me so much as attention, wonder, celebration, praise."

In this approach, Raymo takes a cue from the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, the Jesuit priest who loved the natural world and saw it shot through with "the grandeur of God." As a religious naturalist, the author delves into the mystery of the universe and finds "glimmers of the Absolute in every particular." He states that "I don't know" may be science's most important contribution to human civilization. But even though this appreciation of mystery is also the realm of the mystics, the war between science and religion continues. Raymo makes reference to the attacks on religion by what he calls "militant slash-and-burn" atheists. Instead of turning to these God-debunkers or to God-clingers, the author relishes the religious naturalism of the Dominican friar Meister Eckhart.

He concludes that any religion worthy of humankind's future will be ecumenical, ecological, and embrace the scientific story of the world as the most reliable cosmology. He might also have added to the mix the spiritual practice of wonder. When God Is Gone, Everything Is Holy beckons us to wonder in the presence of an enchanted universe infused with mystery. --Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, SpiritualityandPractice.com, October, 2008

From the Back Cover

Chet Raymo has enriched and graced our lives with this wonderfulbook, steeped in wisdom, warmth, and clarity. A classic.
Ursula Goodenough
Author of The Sacred Depths of Nature

Piercing, funny, brilliant, transcendent, angry, eloquent. One of the nation's finest naturalists and writers pours out his heart on the roaring prayer of Everything That Is and the idiocy of arguing over labels and possession of that which is beyond our ken but not our celebration and singing, which is what Raymo does with stunning power and passion.
Brian Doyle
Author of The Wet Engine

This is a magnificent book, but not one for the faint of heart. In an age of militant atheists and strident believers, Chet Raymo dares to stand, where mystics and philosophers have always stood, in the place of mystery.
Douglas Burton-Christie, PhD
Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles

Raymo reminds us that human consciousness is plenty big enough to accommodate both science and a sense of the holy.
Nancy Mairs
Author of A Dynamic God

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 148 pages
  • Publisher: Sorin Books; First Edition edition (September 1, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1933495138
  • ISBN-13: 978-1933495132
  • Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6.6 x 0.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (100 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #675,559 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
39 of 39 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars red wheel barrows glazed with rain water August 28, 2008
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
Chet Raymo's newest book, When God Is Gone, Everything is Holy, follows in the tradition of reflective nature writers like Lewis Thomas and, more recently, Ursula Goodenough. Although repetitious in places, perhaps because at least some of the book reproduces previously published essays, the style is for the most part gracefully fluid and even in places poetic. Such skill is only to be expected from an author who quotes and clearly loves poets: Hopkins, Williams, Wordsworth, Whitman, Kazantzakis.

Raymo defends what he calls religious naturalism, and sometimes calls himself a Catholic agnostic. He long ago dropped the personal theism in which he was raised, but his life-long immersion in science has convinced him that nature is far greater than the human mind will ever encompass, and that the incredible beauty and complexity and mystery of the cosmos properly elicits from us responses of wonderment, reverence, gratitude, and celebration. The 100 trillion neuronal connections in the human brain; the genetically determined flight of a humming bird; the infinite spaces of a starry night that can exhilarate and terrify: these kind of phenomena, explored by science, rather than dusty and arcane tales of miracles, are the stuff of Raymo's religion.

Throughout the book runs a constant encouragement for us to cultivate simple awareness of the realness of things, an awareness of what poet Hopkins called the "inscape." In one of his most enigmatic and yet revelatory poems--one quoted by Raymo--William Carlos Williams reminds us of the basic truth that "so much depends" on our being able to really "see" the simple things of life like red wheel barrows glazed with rain water.
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27 of 27 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Fine contribution to the science-religion debate August 26, 2008
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
Some of the material in the 13 chapters of When God Is Gone, Everything Is Holy was adapted from essays that originally appeared in Notre Dame Magazine, and the 1st chapter is adapted from an essay that originally appeared in Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality (misspelled in Raymo's book as "Spritus"). When God Is Gone is a short book at 148 pages, but it is packed with pithy insights into what it means to apprehend the world in a way that reveals mystery and sacredness without supernaturalism.

While many readers of When God Is Gone will no doubt reject Raymo's rejection of supernaturalism, they may appreciate that Raymo's tone, unlike that of Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris, is neither condescending nor "militantly atheistic" (as Raymo describes Dawkins).

Is it possible to be religious (or spiritual) without believing in a personal creator God? Is it possible to be a "Catholic agnostic"? Is it possible to believe that no such things as immaterial souls exist and that "[w]e are, for better or worse, thinking meat" without losing the very humanity that enables one to experience life as sacred? And as Raymo asks, "If petitionary prayer is ineffectual, is there any sense in which an agnostic might pray?" I think Raymo shows that a worldview informed by science is perfectly compatible with a worldview that is imbued with a robust sense of holiness.

In his endorsement of When God Is Gone, professional skeptic Michael Shermer calls Raymo's book "remarkably thoughtful and balanced," and indeed it is. Raymo remarks that Dawkins and Harris "go at religion like B-movie slashers armed with Ockham's razor, and by the time they are finished there is not much left but the gory shreds of miracles and superstitions. ...
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Religion without God. But Why? September 11, 2008
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
The first couple of chapters were slow-going for me, especially when he was discussing the works of artists, authors, and poets. I'm sure Gerard Manley Hopkins was talented and highly regarded but I just wasn't getting into it. The book later improves as he begins to describe how one can be an unbeliever yet deeply "religious". He beautifully expresses the awe, reverence, and humility he feels "in the face of a mystery that transcends empirical knowing...." (p 104). Unfortunately, he does this repetitively, quoting the same authors and using the same examples chapter after chapter. But he does drive home what it means to be a "religious naturalist" and its rich pedigree. In the end, I was left with a better understanding of religious naturalism, but what I missed was "why". Sure, now I can see that someone *could* be religious but not believe in god, but to what end? By Raymos' own account, although he stopped believing in god he still *felt* religious. It's as though he replaced one object of worship with something else (well, *everything* else). He rationalizes his position by stating that humans have an evolutionary need to "celebrate the unfathomable mystery of creation". But why cling to *any* part of our "tribal inheritance". Because we feel as though we need to? Whether our desire to be religious stems from early childhood indoctrination, evolution, or both, I say let's forsake the entirety of the "worship culture" of our forbears. Why? Because I think that there is an inherent danger in finding *anything* holy or sacred. History has shown that what people see as sacred they also see as immutable. This is antithetical to science.... Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars The Mystery Will Always Remain
I had trouble getting immersed in this book. However, the premise is one that I've always believed. Even as a scientist, I've felt that science has fallen short of really knowing... Read more
Published 2 months ago by P. Kalina
5.0 out of 5 stars Chet Raymo is such a good writer !
Even if you don't subscribe to all his viewpoints, Chet Raymo is a very articulate and engaging writer. Read more
Published 6 months ago by C. R. Michaud
3.0 out of 5 stars A Naturalism for Some
Chet Raymo takes on a great many weighty subjects in his relatively small book, When God is Gone Everything is Holy: The Making of a Religious Naturalist. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Eric Maroney
2.0 out of 5 stars Well-written but unconvincing...
I will concede that the author makes some interesting points and, as other reviewers have aptly expressed, he makes those points with some beautifully written prose. Read more
Published 20 months ago by chilemery
5.0 out of 5 stars a desert island book for the religious naturalist
Raymo has given us an insightful and beautifully written book about religious naturalism, a religious perspective that is becoming more and more highly regarded. Read more
Published on July 9, 2010 by noeton
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book
If you, like Raymo struggle through the known natural world and what seems like the unknown Divine than you must read this book.
Published on July 3, 2010 by jjd1946
3.0 out of 5 stars lost interest
Upon reviewing my vine purchases, I realized I had never reviewed this book. The reason is I completely lost interest in it and couldn't finish it. Read more
Published on April 15, 2010 by Kevin Courcey
2.0 out of 5 stars An unfortunate book.
Ramo's point of view on religious matters is a widespread condemnation without consideration. The man's stances are arrogant. Read more
Published on March 28, 2010 by H. D. Wagener
3.0 out of 5 stars Comforting, but not convincing
Yes, it's beeautifully written, and in many ways it's reassuring to see thoughtful, positive reflections on science from people who consider themselves religious. Read more
Published on November 19, 2009 by Stepone
3.0 out of 5 stars I'm Not Smart Enough to Read this Book
The middle of the road rating on this book is not a reflection on the author, who is obviously an incredibly smart and thoughtful man and a very interesting writer, but on the fact... Read more
Published on September 8, 2009 by Jessica Ferguson
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