Tradition and Discovery: The Polanyi Society Periodical

Volume 42, Issue 2, February 2016

Response to Walter Gulick’s Observations

In responding to Walter Gulick’s discussion of my writings on Religion of Nature, I stress the pervasive moral ambiguity of nature as a focus of religious commitment andpoint to a similar ambiguity in all of the religious ultimates known to me. I take issue with one aspect of Gulick’s interpretation of the Book of Job. I insist on a balance between discursive and non-discursive modes of expression in religion and warn against excessive and misleading literalism. I explain my views on the natures and relations of aesthetic and religious symbols, and welcome Gulick’s comments on how the symbolism of the Trinity in Christianity can be related to Religion of Nature. I endorse his statements about the close relation of aspects of my work to some key ideas of Michael Polanyi.