The Dionysian Naturalist

About Me and This Blog My name is Wayne Martin Mellinger, Ph.D and I am interested in developing a religious orientation I call "Dionysian Naturalism".  While I attend a Unitarian Universalist (UU) congregation in Santa Barbara and largely accept the progressive humanism espoused there, I also am passionate about elements of spirituality that are more Dionysian.  UUs can sometimes be terribly Apollonian--good at the rational pronouncement of abstract ideas, skilled in crafting logical arguments that build a systematic theology and passionate  relating intellectual scholarship to theological currents.  They are less good at the Dionysian--those spiritual elements that are ecstatic, mystical, corporeal, based in emotion, intuition and instinct. Nietzsche might have been the first modern self-proclaimed Dionysian Naturalist and his thinking greatly inspired me as I sought to create my own personal theology.  Some of the articles found here appeared in No...

Introduction to The Dionysian Naturalist  (November 2024) In Praise of Sacred Nature: Reimagining Reverence, Ritual, and Revolution As the environmental crisis deepens and humanity’s disconnection from the natural world widens, the call for a renewed reverence for “sacred nature” becomes more urgent. This vision of nature transcends its utility as a resource, honoring it as an inherently sacred force—a living presence that envelops, sustains, and compels us toward awe and accountability. To approach nature with reverence is to see it not as other, but as kin and collaborator, a partner in the unfolding dance of existence. It asks of us humility, responsibility, and an open heart to its mysteries. The Dionysian Naturalist: Ecstatic Roots in Sacred Ecology The figure of the Dionysian Naturalist rises in response to this call. Rooted in the soil of Religious Naturalism, it germinates into a wilder, more insurgent spirituality, enriched by the ecstatic energies of Dionysus. Where much...

[appears in the blog Naturalistic  Paganism,  2015] As I look out upon the world the most pressing problem I see confronting humanity is climate change.  If we do not significantly curb our emissions soon and there is a 4° C rise in the global average temperature, most coral reefs would be killed, the Amazon rainforest would dry up and at least 40% of the world’s species would be doomed to extinction.  Our species and our planet have never faced such an enormous human-made crisis.  Modern industrial civilization, fueled as it is by petrochemicals, has drastically damaged the fragile biosphere that supports all life on this planet.  Those of us living through the early 21st century are experiencing the dying of our planet.  A massive wave of extinctions along with the ubiquitous degradation of diverse ecosystems are killing a significant portion of nature’s abundance and diversity.  While during the last few centuries first western societies...