My Proposed Gifford Lecture Series -- Sacred Nature Awakened
Sacred Nature Awakened: Reclaiming the Dionysian in Religious Naturalism My Dream for a Proposed Gifford Lecture Series (8 Lectures) University of St. Andrews 2030 Wayne Martin Mellinger, Ph.D. Some dreams feel too bold to speak aloud—but they have a way of charting the future. If I could stand on the Gifford Lectures stage at St. Andrews in 2030, this is the series I would deliver: a sweeping history and passionate renewal of Religious Naturalism, calling it to awaken its Dionysian soul. Religious Naturalism (RN) has emerged over the past century as a bold alternative to both theism and reductive materialism, seeking to ground religious meaning, ethical orientation, and spiritual depth within a fully naturalist worldview. Thinkers from Jerome Stone to Ursula Goodenough, Donald Crosby, Wesley Wildman, Robert Corrington, Carol Wayne White, Loyal Rue, and the naturalistic pagans have crafted diverse visions of sacred nature—ranging from evolutionary epics and tragic ...