The New Cosmic Story, as told by distinguished religion scholar John Haught, situates the science‐and‐religion dialogue in a larger frame than we usually assume. Haught bases his presentation on relatively recent scientific findings that show that our universe has been in a process of development for an exceedingly long time. Only in the last fraction of this period has intelligent life been in the picture. Yet, a very long period of further development may lie ahead. What might that mean for creatures like us?

Only a few hundred years ago, ordinary folks and even scholars as wise as Immanuel Kant saw the human project as resting on an established, unchanging physical world. In recent years, however, scientific research has reached the firm conclusion that the universe has been in existence for an enormous stretch of time, and has been in a continual process of change that seems far from complete.

In proportion to the age of the cosmos, the human story is an exceedingly recent development. This story began with humanlike ancestors a few million years ago, and continued with the emergence of Homo sapiens only some 200,000 years in the past. Yet, with Homo sapiens came a reflective form of intelligence not seen in the universe before, so far as we know. The universe, along with the Earth and its inhabitants, are continuing to develop. The human story has involved a long period of emergence that is not nearly complete.

Between two and three thousand years ago a shift in human consciousness began to occur on Earth that was so unprecedented that it amounts to nothing less than a major new chapter in the history of the universe. Over a period of several centuries, especially in China, India, Europe, and the Near East, the religious quest for meaning became less symbolic and more mystical and theoretical than earlier. “In the teachings of a few exceptional seekers and their followers, religion in these places became less concerned with rituals, petitions, and appeasement of supernatural beings and more preoccupied with personal awakening and spiritual transformation. …[They] began to cultivate the impression that an indestructible dimension of being, goodness, truth, beauty, and unity lies hidden beyond, or deep within, the world of ordinary experience” (10). The purpose of our lives, they taught, is to awaken us to this hidden realm of being and allow our lives to be transformed by it. The German philosopher Karl Jaspers (1883–1969) termed this time the “Axial Age.” The search had begun for a new sense of rightness, and it continues today.

In order to explore the dimensions of this search, Haught divides his book into twelve chapters. In Chapter 1, entitled “Dawning,” he describes the emergence of human subjectivity, which he regards as a major event in the history of the universe and an “undeniable aspect of nature,” for only through subjectivity can the universe acknowledge its own existence. Without it, nothing would matter. Haught believes that the arrival of a religious dimension of human consciousness is “a no less momentous development in the cosmic story than the earlier arrival of life and mind” (20). Like the universe itself, the religious search for rightness remains unfinished. Rightness, in fact, is Haught's term for the basic quality of good in the development of life and mind.

In Chapter 2, “Awakening,” Haught traces the searches for universally good and true values conducted by the various religions. The sense that there is comprehensive rightness to be found leads to a search for “an elusive horizon of unrestricted being, goodness, truth, and beauty,” he observes (28). Furthermore, we sense that our own lives can contribute something to the realization of rightness. And of course, this potential, if not realized, means also a potential for shadows and darkness. This potential may be enhanced by those who deny that there is any possibility for goodness and meaning based on human decisions. Haught, however, maintains that “a fully attentive story cannot ignore the inner drama of a universe gradually awakening to the dawn of rightness” (32).

As a basic way for structuring his examination of this reality, Haught describes three categories of analysis that are currently in use by large numbers of people. One he terms “Archaeonomy.” This form of analysis is deterministic and focuses on physical reality. It denies that the cosmic story has any interior meaning or direction. Elementary units alone are real in this view. The second approach he terms “Analogy.” It fixes attention on the “Eternal Present,” sometimes called God, sometimes Brahman, or by other names. It seeks perfection that lies beyond the physical world. In building its concepts upon an eternal reality, it does not look toward development or the future. Haught favors a third approach that he calls “Anticipation.” It asserts that the universe story has a continuing future, with development beyond present imagination. It looks for meaning in this story, and believes that “more‐being is coming into the universe from up ahead” (36). Unpredictable patterns and important meanings are still out of sight.

In this framework, Haught proceeds to examine the development of religions, seeing them as a new cosmic breakthrough. Religions, of course, are not identical, so to examine them as a group, he extracts twelve shared aspects of religions and examines them one by one, in his twelve chapters. In each, he describes the approaches to this examination taken by archaeonomy, analogy, and anticipation. By analyzing twelve features of the development of the human religions, each in three different ways, Haught gradually lays out his understandings of a universe in which meaning is under continual development, with outcomes beyond our ability to ascertain. The twelve features are Dawning, Awakening, Transformation, the Process of Becoming More, Interiority (the hidden, subjective dimension), Indestructibility, the Permanence of Rightness, Transcendence, Symbolism, Obligation, Purpose, Wrongness, Happiness, and Prayerfulness. To put this quest into context, Haught acknowledges that his thought has been greatly influenced by that of French anthropologist/theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who strongly proposed the new sense of an unfinished universe.

In each chapter, Haught describes the status of that feature in various religions, and also examines the positions of archaeonomic, analogical, and anticipatory expressions of religion. Through this varied analysis, Haught supports his preference for anticipation, although he acknowledges significant contributions from the other two approaches. When this process of analysis is complete, the reader has gained a greatly enhanced view of the development of our universe and our human reality over time.

Central to the process is the expansion of meaning in the universe. Haught writes, “Religion is a grateful response by the universe to the dawning of rightness” (190), the emerging of God‐consciousness, and the deep value of rightness as it becomes ever stronger and more multidimensional. This expansion goes far beyond the acceptance of materialistic determinism so common in our day. It also transcends the belief that all religious reality is rooted in the eternal past. Rather, we may anticipate further dramatic awakening and the deepening of human meaning and freedom.

Haught places us in a reality that is both wider and deeper than most of us consider on a daily basis. He challenges us to situate our actions in terms of their contributions to the future that stretches before us. Our individual callings, if perceptively understood and carried out, will each have consequences for the future that may, in their own way, carry influence forward through generations. This realization may enhance the sense of meaning for each of our lives.

This book constitutes an important counterforce to the simplistic assumptions that characterize the daily life surrounding us. It is a welcome addition.