The Dionysian Naturalist

DANCING WITH DIONYSUS: ECSTASY, NATURALISM AND RELIGION IN THE AGE OF THE ANTHROPOCENE [chapter forthcoming in John Halstead (editor), Godless Paganism ] by Wayne Martin Mellinger, Ph.D. “ A religion, new or old, that stressed the magnificence of the universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reference and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths. Sooner or later, such a religion will emerge”.  Carl Sagan (1994) Pale Blue Dot My goal in this essay is to explore a form of “Godless Paganism” I refer to as Dionysian Naturalism—an approach to religion ground in scientific evidence but imbued with reverence and awe, and centered around spiritual ecstasy.  I contextualize this “earth-centered” spirituality and search for sacred ways to experience altered states of consciousness within the contours of my autobiography.  The importance of ecstatic experiences in religious behavior is highlighted and I briefly mine the...

NATURE RELIGIONS AND REVOLUTIONARY SOCIAL CHANGE: ADVANCING A PRACTICAL THEOLOGY FOR SPIRITUAL ACTIVISM By Wayne Martin Mellinger, Ph.D. INTRODUCTION By far the greatest challenges that humanity has ever confronted are global climate change and the other environmental problems created by modern industrial civilization.  Monthly the news seems to get worse as we learn that the ecological crisis is far bigger than we first thought and the time left before we face a potential environmental collapse is far shorter.  Some well-informed researchers say that it is already too late to avoid catastrophic destruction of civilization or to “save the planet”.  Joanna Macy, a prominent Buddhist eco-activist, labels our current era “The Great Turning” because it can be a period of transition from the old industrial system, which must be brought to an end, and the new sustainable system, which must emerge very soon 1 .  As she notes, the Earth is both the sto...