Demythologizing the Demythologizers

I suggest that Peter Harrison's Some New World offers an almost Hegelian, or at least dialectical, account of how this 'new world' of naturalism emerged - and could only emerge - because of distinct theological developments in early modernity. In doing so, he invites us to think dialectically about what comes after demythologizing the natural/supernatural distinction itself. I first highlight Harrison's account of naturalism's indebtedness to religious and theological paradigms. This raises important questions about how concepts can be at once inherited and redeployed in new contexts. Could naturalism's debts to religion be forgiven? What would that mean? I then consider and extend some of the conceptual mapping that Harrison undertakes with respect to notion of nature, naturalism, and supernaturalism. I conclude by asking the question that Harrison raised for me: Why do we ('we') want to be naturalists?