ABSTRACT
Religious naturalism is a form of naturalism, which stipulates that nature is "metaphysically ultimate". Religious naturalists venture that living a religiously fulfilling existence on a fully naturalistic basis—that is, without supernaturalism or supranaturalism—is both possible and desirable. The fundamental theological instinct of pantheism is that the sacred is coincidental with nature in its mysterious, ambiguous, and infinite wholeness. Spinoza's interpreters disagree over the precise meaning of deus sive natura. For some, Spinoza was espousing straightforward pantheism, equating God with the whole of reality. An apophatic pantheism is a naturalistic form of mysticism, pointing to the absolute mystery of nature or God. Apophatic pantheism naturalizes mystery; it is nature that is largely hidden behind a cloud of unknowing. Undoubtedly, apophatic pantheism resembles panentheism in its retention of transcendence. However, it is pantheistic rather than panentheistic because the transcendent is a depth dimension in and of nature—not a divine being in and beyond nature.
