Hefner has held several dozen visiting teaching and lecturing appointments at seminaries, colleges, and universities in the United States, Europe, Africa, and Asia.

It distances itself from traditional religions seeing religious aspects in the world which can be appreciated in a naturalistic framework rather than relying on the supernatural.

[7][8] Hefner writes "A second alternative response, often identified as “religious naturalism,” is composed of a cross-section of people, many of whom are scientists, who are fashioning a religious worldview that is consistent with their personal outlook and/or free of those encumbrances of traditional religion which they consider conceptually anachronistic and morally dangerous.

He contributed two essays Creation and Church to the two-volume work, Christian Dogmatics – eds., Carl Braaten and Robert Jenson – Fortress Press, 1984.

His 2002 Rockwell lectures, delivered at Rice University, on the theme of the Created Co-Creator were to be published by Trinity International Press.