Book Review
‘The Sacred Depths of Nature’ Second Edition
by Harold Wood

We first wrote a book review of Ursula Goodenough’s book, The Sacred Depths of Nature, in Pantheist Vision in 1999, shortly after the first edition of the book was published. Since then, we've quoted Dr. Goodenough in brief excerpts several times, such as her fine critique of traditional Humanism in a 2010 issue of Pantheist Vision. We’ve listed her book on our website since its first publication on our “Recommended Reading for Pantheists” page. Now, 25 years later, Dr. Goodenough has written a second edition of her book (2023). Her new edition is just as essential reading.

Ursula Goodenough is eminently qualified to write on this topic, bridging science and spirituality. She is a retired Professor of Biology at Washington University and a founder and president of the non-profit Religious Naturalist Association, with whom we work in coalition.

I know people who hold a very negative view of the “reductionist” principles of modern science. They often tell me that their high school or college required biology classes left them cold, giving them the impression that scientific methods removed all the sense of joy, wonder, beauty, awe, and reverence that they could feel outdoors in Nature - but not in the laboratory with its glass beakers and antiseptic surfaces. This book is an antidote to that way of thinking. Dr. Goodenough acknowledges that “many of us, and scientists are no exception, are vulnerable to the existential shudder that leaves us wishing that the foundations of life were something other than just so much biochemistry and biophysics.” In response, she offers the “Mozart metaphor,” explaining how a Mozart sonata is beautiful beyond belief, but its blueprint, emerging from Mozart’s mind, is just so many black specks on paper to be translated into strings hit by tiny hammers. Learning the inner workings of the music, with its chords and phrases and tempos and melodies and patterns, does not diminish the beauty, but helps us to appreciate it even more, to celebrate and even vibrate with it. And so, while Goodenough writes about cell biology, biochemistry, DNA, plant and animal biology, sex and intimacy, and evolution, she does so with a celebratory flair, activating our joy and reverence. Yes, sometimes the science can be described as “reductionist,” but Dr. Goodenough immediately follows such passages with enlightening “synthesis” and re-integration into spiritual meaning.

Extensively revised with full-color photos and diagrams, each chapter begins with a story about the dynamics of Nature, including the origins and evolution of the universe and life on Earth. The book's construction is like a science-based “daily devotional” and can best be read as such. It is rich and detailed enough that you may want to read it over time. Like the first edition, each topic is carefully yet poetically examined objectively through the lens of science, followed by the author’s personal reflections on each. Dr. Goodenough unveils the spiritual sensibilities elicited by what Nature reveals, generating the foundations for a religious naturalist orientation. She avers: “As a cell biologist immersed in these understandings, I experience the same kind of awe and reverence when I contemplate the structure of an enzyme or the flowing of a cascade as when I watch the moon rise or visit Machu Picchu. Same rush, same rapture.” Passages of poetry from the likes of e.e. cummings, Wendell Berry, and Mary Oliver help to further open our eyes to the beauty of Nature – as revealed from the largest natural phenomena to the astonishing complexity of cells and organisms and to the wonder of “deep time,” and biological diversity and evolution.

Dr. Goodenough, who recently became a member of the Universal Pantheist Society, says she calls herself a religious naturalist and not a Pantheist, but she regards the two orientations as deeply congruent. Though Dr. Goodenough is strictly non-theistic, a religious scholar would argue that whatever you ascribe as ultimate meaning and concern is your “god,” and what you “worship” is whatever you place the highest value on. Dr. Goodenough unflinchingly asserts: “And so, I profess my Faith. For me, the existence of all this biological complexity and awareness and intent and beauty and relationship, embedded in its wondrous planetary matrix, serves as the ultimate meaning and the ultimate value.” Her expression aligns precisely with our own Pantheist vision of “a renewed reverence for the Earth and a vision of Nature as the ultimate context for human existence.” Given that her version of divinity is discovered in the sacred depths of nature, her form of religious naturalism seems wholly in accord with modern Pantheism, notwithstanding a different nomenclature. Like Pantheism, religious naturalism “takes Nature to heart.” As Dr. Goodenough explains, reverence is the capacity to perceive the sacred, not in the supernatural, but “to revere the whole enterprise of planetary existence, the whole and all of its myriad parts as they catalyze and secrete and replicate and mutate and evolve.”

This second edition has two new chapters and a new epilogue. The penultimate chapter, on human evolution, explores how we are connected to all creatures, not just in food chains or ecological equilibria, but in a familial way. Our closest cousins are the Chimpanzee and Bonobo. But many of our genes are much more ancient, like those of diatoms or mushrooms or daffodils; we all share a common ancestry. Because we share genes with gorillas and mushrooms, and with bacteria, trees, flowers, and worms, we now recognize a fellowship of life; our kinship with all beings. Yet, we can also “celebrate the human distinctiveness that generates our creative gifts.”

In the final new chapter on morality/ecomorality, Dr. Goodenough explains that “Human morality derives from our communal sensibilities as a social lineage. Religious traditions mold these sensibilities into aspirational mindful virtues – compassion, fair-mindedness, reverence, and courage – that are pitted against our tendencies to be self-serving, proactively aggressive, and xenophobic. These can be broadened in scope to become eco-virtues – respecting, cherishing, nurturing, and celebrating that from which we have come and upon which we depend.”
Her original epilogue on “emergent religious principles” has been expanded a bit, in which she describes religious naturalist principles of ultimacy, gratitude, reverence, compassion, nurture, and a commitment to foster the continuation and flourishing of life. She affirms that “Humans need Myths [stories] that help to orient us in our lives and in the cosmos.” She shows how our responses to the story of life – the Epic of Evolution (or her newly preferred name, “Everybody’s Story”) can irrefutably “yield deep and abiding spiritual experiences” and a new eco-morality. A new final chapter on the Religious Naturalist Orientation explores these ideas further.
Unlike most books, the final endnotes are not to be ignored. They provide valuable anecdotes and a veritable compendium of classic and recent literature on biodiversity, evolution, religious naturalism, and Pantheism, inviting further reading. And the entire book itself, like any “daily devotional,” invites reading and re-reading.

Learn more about the book here: http://sacreddepthsofnature.com
and about the author and the Religious Naturalist Association here: https://religious-naturalist-association.org

Excerpted from:

The Sacred Depths of Nature, 2nd Edition by Ursula Goodenough – Book Review by Harold Wood, excerpted from Pantheist Vision. Vol. 40, No. 1, Spring. 2023.

https://www.pantheist.net ( )

I really appreciate the central insight here, that the natural world, particularly in its biochemical details, provides fertile ground for theological reflection. The particular examples Goodenough uses and the reflections she provides were not always particularly resonant for me (despite the fact that I share both Goodenough's non-theism and membership in a Christian church), but as a model for doing this kind of reflection, this book is a valuable model. ( )

Ursula Goodenough’s The Sacred Depths of Nature is a fascinating introduction to biological science with meditations. 80 percent of this text was spent explaining how the Universe came into existence, life on earth, and its ramifications. It would have been most useful if the writer could have explained such phenomena without delving so heavily into physics and chemistry. But in reading this book it appeared it would take only readers grounded in science to understand much of her discussion, and the diagrams presented.
On the other hand the author’s reflections were helpful. A reader would be able to see more clearly her insights about God and nature. As a religious naturalist Goodenough stood in awe of the mysteries of creation. She unlike some scientists felt inspired by the religions of all faiths and their teachings. Nevertheless the author saw as imperative to love her neighbor as paramount and full of meaning. And she was comfortable with other faiths providing nature was incorporated in their beliefs. Yet Goodenough didn’t consider a Supreme Being as described by theists to be her cup of tea. ( )

Not about Buddhism, but a worthwhile book-length reflection on living a spiritual life while accepting the scientific understanding of how life arose and how it functions.

In this book, an articulate cell biologist strives to "reconcile the modern scientific understanding of reality with our timeless spiritual yearnings for reverence and continuity." The author examines evolution, emotions, sexuality, death and other topics through the lens of science and then focuses on religious emotions elicited by the findings of science. Goodenough describes herself as a"religious naturalist," yet she observes that God may be apprehended "as a pantheistic-inherent in all things." The final chapter describes some "emergent religious principles" which can be derived from our scientific understanding of ourselves & Nature. The questions are the same ones religion has perennially asked: "Why is there anything at all, rather than nothing?" "Why are we here?" But unlike the traditional theist or atheist who responds with what they assert to be the absolute Answers, Goodenough recognizes that the best response to such questions may simply be "a covenant with Mystery."
Note: a new Second edition is expected in 2023! ( )