Can Clergy Be Religious Without Supernatural Belief? Rethinking Secularity Through Religious Naturalism

This article uses a qualitative case study of nonsupernaturalist clergy to examine a methodological and conceptual question in the study of secularity. Prevailing approaches often distinguish religious from secular populations based on affiliation, institutional participation, or self-identification, yet these indicators do not always reflect individuals’ ontological commitments. Drawing primarily on qualitative interviews with nonbelieving clergy, alongside evidence from other religious contexts, the study explores how ontological naturalism can coexist with religious leadership, participation, and institutional belonging across traditions with varying degrees of theological pluralism. Drawing on classical and contemporary theoretical frameworks, the analysis argues that such cases remain recognizably religious while illustrating processes of internal secularization within historically supernatural traditions. Rather than redefining religion or secularity, the article argues that greater attention to ontological commitments, alongside affiliation, practice, and identity, can improve the conceptual precision of research on secular populations.