In this enlightening and original study on the cultivation of a religious understanding of nature, Leon Niemoczynski applies Charles Sanders Peirce's thought on metaphysics to 'ecstatic naturalism,' the philosophical perspective developed by Robert Corrington. Niemoczynski points to Peirce's phenomenological and metaphysical understanding of possibility-the concept of 'Firstness'-as especially critical to understanding how the divine might be meaningfully encountered in religious experience. He goes on to define his own concept of speculative naturalism, offering a new approach to thinking about nature that joins the essence of pragmatism with the heretical boldness of speculative thought.

"Niemcozynski's work provides a thoughtful analysis of Peirce's Firstness that makes novel connections to themes from Schellings and Heidegger, a truly constructive endeavor that creatively weaves traditionally disparate American and Continental resources. Theologically, it provides an important alternative philosophical framework to process thought for those who seek more systematically to develop the idea of God's continual becoming." - American Journal of Theology and Philosophy