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Natural Religion

A None's Journey of Religious Discovery

Davis Baird

$123.95   $104.95

Hardback

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English
Wipf & Stock Publishers
19 June 2025
Davis Baird's grandfather, Earl Clement Davis (1876-1953), was a Unitarian minister from 1905 to 1953. Baird was born a year after his grandfather died and never knew him. But he inherited a trunk of his manuscripts. He grew up without any religion; today he would be called a none--one with no religious affiliation or church membership. This book shares his discovery of his grandfather's approach to religion. His grandfather denied any supernatural sources for, or elements of, religion; he was an enthusiastic advocate for science. He vigorously argued against all authoritarian forms of governance--religious and civil. He believed in human divinity, the power of humans to develop and pursue ideals of truth, beauty, and goodness to make the world better. The living God for his grandfather was a God that lives in humans--has lived in humans for millennia--striving to create a reality of truth, beauty, and goodness, of justice for all, of a heaven on earth. This is what Baird calls natural religion.
By:  
Imprint:   Wipf & Stock Publishers
Dimensions:   Height: 229mm,  Width: 152mm,  Spine: 18mm
Weight:   544g
ISBN:   9798385239894
Pages:   282
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Davis Baird is Distinguished Professor Emeritus and retired provost of Clark University and Distinguished Professor Emeritus and retired Dean of the University of South Carolina. He is the author of Thing Knowledge: A Philosophy of Scientific Instruments (2004) and Inductive Logic: Inferring the Unknown (1988).

Reviews for Natural Religion: A None's Journey of Religious Discovery

""[A] timely and engaging close look at the message of an unheralded Unitarian minister of the first half of the twentieth century in the context of the world today."" --W. Bradford Greeley, Minister Emeritus, Main Line Unitarian Church ""Davis Baird's meticulously mounted presentation of his grandfather's mindset and sermons is both a reaffirmation of Jeffersonian liberal scientific values and a remarkable act of filial piety. One might quarrel with his grandfather's optimism but undeniably his was a clarion and eloquent voice of early twentieth-century American progressivism. With grace and energy Davis Baird has recaptured his grandfather's heartening message."" --John Zeugner, Professor of History Emeritus, Worcester Polytechnic Institute ""In Natural Religion, Davis Baird uses his family's past to explain why religion still matters in the present in ways that few might expect. His elegant, heartfelt, and deeply spiritual analysis of his grandfather's sermons and papers touches themes that resonate with our most important human values: peace, nature, compassion, and most of all, our shared stakes in a world that we have the power to steer in better directions than we have done recently."" --Jack Delehanty, Associate Professor of Sociology, Clark University


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