Recently Published Book Spotlight: Sacred and Secular: Responses to Life in a Finite World

Donald. A Crosby is Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Colorado State University, where he has taught for 36 years. He is the author of eighteen books, including Primordial Time: Its Irreducible Reality, Human Significance, and Ecological Import and The Multiplicity of Interpreted Worlds: Inner and Outer Perspectives. In his seventeenth book Sacred and Secular: Responses to Life in a Finite World, which was released this January, Crosby argues that the sacred and secular aspects of today’s societies are not at odds with one another, but rather, are capable of making important contributions to one another. In this Recently Published Book Spotlight, Crosby discusses this relationship, the relevance of his work to the contemporary world, and the ongoing relationship between his teaching and work.

What is your work about?

The book on which this blog is focused is Sacred and Secular: Responses to Life in a Finite World (State University of New York Press, 2022). In it I argue for the claim that the sacred and the secular aspects of human civilization, and especially of today’s societies, are not opposed to one another but have vitally important things to contribute to one another. I compare them, as the symbolism of the book’s cover indicates, to two biological cells that have distinct roles to play in an organism, but that also have permeable membranes that allow each to interact with and be nourished by the other. The distinctive character of the religious aspect of human life, I contend, can be observed in its preoccupation with the many forms that conceptions of the ontological role of the sacred are accorded in the varieties of religious traditions, religious institutions, recounted religious experiences, and forms of religious life. The secular dimension of culture, for its part, does not center on a perceived ontological sacred but on such concerns as politics, the natural and social sciences, technology, the arts, morality, and the like. I discuss at length the distinctive characters and necessary relationships of these two dimensions of human culture.

The distinguishing focuses of religion and secularism not only allow for, but can be greatly enriched by, their interactions with one another, just as the nuclei of different cells require nourishment and support by their interactions with one another in an animal body. I argue that claims to the exclusive dominance or authority of either the sacred or the secular dimensions of human life and thought are historically implausible and currently unfounded. Each needs the other, and each contributes in crucial ways to the continuing vitality of the other.

Each faces to an open future and must be continually on guard against becoming mired in the past while still continuing to respect and draw on the past as its necessary platform and resource. I illustrate and argue for aspects of these basic themes throughout the book and provide, among other things, discussion of examples of theistic and nontheistic religious traditions and outlooks, an analysis of religious meanings of the sacred, an account of how either religion or secularity can obstruct the interaction and interdependence critical to the health of both, and, in general, how neither can substitute for the other. Hegemonic, absolutistic, and dismissive claims of either in relation to the other must be firmly resisted. I contend, furthermore, that both are critically relevant for effective responses to the current ecological crisis—religion, with its reverence for the pervasive presence of the sacred in all of nature and its creatures, and secularity, with its scientific, moral, aesthetic, and prudential awareness of and desperately needed responses to the crisis.

How is your work relevant to the contemporary world?

I have long been a proponent of a religious outlook in which nature, rather than God, Gods, Goddesses, or the like, is the appropriate focus of religious faith, conviction, and commitment. In other words, nature is the seat of the sacred, and for me there is no such thing as anything supernatural. I defend this thesis in the face of and in acknowledgment of the necessity of the threatening ambiguities of nature. Ongoing creation and destruction go hand-in-hand in any conceivable conception of nature, as I view it. Nature is not single-ordered but many-ordered, and it is not all about or even primarily about any one of its creations, including us humans. It is an unimaginably vast, incredibly multifarious, and continuously expanding reality.

My first development and defense of a thoroughly naturalistic outlook was in the book entitled A Religion of Nature, published by SUNY Press in 2002. I discussed religious naturalism’s metaphysical character in greater detail in Nature as Sacred Ground: A Metaphysics for Religious Naturalism (SUNY, 2015). And I co-edited with Jerome A. Stone The Routledge Handbook of Religious Naturalism (Routledge Press, 2018), which is an anthology of essays by various authors about this religious outlook. The last chapter of Sacred and Secular discusses theistic and naturalistic conceptions of the sacred, with emphases on the radical immanence of the sacred in both cases.

Attuning ourselves to the sacred in all of nature is a matter of the greatest importance in our time of environmental degradation and peril. I have devoted much of my thought and life to elucidating and defending this proposition. My wife Dr. Pam C. Crosby joins me enthusiastically in a wholly naturalistic outlook and commitment, and with ready recognition of the pervasive, alluring, and awesome presence of the sacred in every aspect of nature.

How has your work influenced your teaching?

In my research and writing, I continued to draw on my many years of teaching. I learned much more in the process of teaching and interacting with students, and especially in trying to respond to their often penetrating questions, than I can recount. It was especially important for me to continue being involved in research projects of my own that could inform and enrich my teachings and help to keep me abreast of what is going on in the academic world and in the world at large. Ongoing interactions with colleagues in philosophy and religious studies were always and continue to be important in this regard.

What advice would you give to philosophers and academics who want to remain engaged with their research and the discipline later in their careers?

When I retired at the age of 70 from teaching and researching at Colorado State University, someone from personnel was counseling new retirees. She asked of me, “What do you plan to do in your retirement?” I answered, “I don’t think of as retirement; I think of it as reallocation of my time and energy to do what I have always loved doing.” She then asked, “And what is that?” I responded, “Thinking, reading, and writing.” Since then, over the past 20 years, I have written a number of published books, have completed one being considered for publication, and have still another midway through being written. In addition, I have created a few published articles and have another article now being evaluated for publication. I continue to participate regularly in a professional organization. I am not bragging; I am just trying to indicate what has been important and meaningful to me in my retirement.

My advice to faculty near retirement would be, “This approaching new time is a great opportunity for you to find ways to continue to share the knowledge, skills, and insights that you have built up over your career. Do not stop being a teacher in your writing—if not also in other ways—and being a focused researcher. Continue your dedication to these activities in your retirement as much as possible and give others the benefit of your still developing lifetime of work and learning as an academic. Retirement is a time for ongoing work, not the cessation of useful and helpful activity. Retire to work, not just to rest. A regimen of nothing more than unfocused rest and recreation can get old pretty fast and might make you prematurely old in the process.”

What’s next for you?

I recently submitted to a publisher for consideration a book tentatively entitled The Evolution of Purposive Goals and Values: A Naturalistic Teleology. And I am currently at work on a book entitled Law of the Included Middle: The Crucial Significance of Liminality. I continue to write professional articles and book reviews, and to critically evaluate book proposals and submitted journal articles.

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The purpose of the Recently Published Book Spotlight is to disseminate information about new scholarship to the field, explore the motivations for authors’ projects, and discuss the potential implications of the books. Our goal is to cover research from a broad array of philosophical areas and perspectives, reflecting the variety of work being done by APA members. If you have a suggestion for the series, please contact us here.

Donald A. Crosby

Donald A. Crosby is a Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Colorado State University, where he taught for 36 years. He previously taught philosophy and religion at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky after receiving his doctoral degree in philosophy of religion and ethics from the joint program in religion at Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University. He is the author of eighteen books and his special interests are metaphysics, philosophy of nature, philosophy of religion, and agency theory. He grew up in Pensacola, Florida, and now resides in Tallahassee, Florida, with his wife, Dr. Pamela C. Crosby, who has long been the principal editor of The Journal of College and Character.

Maryellen Stohlman-Vanderveen

Maryellen Stohlman-Vanderveen is the APA Blog's Diversity and Inclusion Editor and Research Editor. She graduated from the London School of Economics with an MSc in Philosophy and Public Policy in 2023 and currently works in strategic communications. Her philosophical interests include conceptual engineering, normative ethics, philosophy of technology, and how to live a good life.