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Posts Tagged ‘religion’

The humors of democracy

Posted in GeoPhilosophy, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 12, 2021 | Leave a Comment »

I had been avoiding the Whitehead Research Project‘s monthly reading groups because of conflicts with other scheduled activities, but today I joined. The reading was a short, unpublished manuscript somewhat misleadingly titled “Freedom and Order,” as it’s mostly about humor, wit, and imagination. Now I understand why I’ve always been put off by, and a […]

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On being a mortal

Posted in SpiritMatter, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 21, 2020 | Leave a Comment »

Some people believe you’re born from nothing; you live, which is something; and then you’re gone again, back to nothing. (Here’s a poignantly compressed version of that, a life in under 6 minutes.) Others believe you’re part of a much larger thing, which keeps recycling itself (including you). Maybe there’s progress or development over the […]

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Long-term civilizational prognosis: a hypothesis

Posted in SpiritMatter, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 14, 2019 | 3 Comments »

Here’s a hypothesis: If the human community exists in some more or less unified form in 880 years (in the year 3000 by our calendar), that feat will have been accomplished, at least in part, in and through the emergence of an ecological religion. What does this mean, and how could we test it? Religion, […]

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Interview & autobio

Posted in SpiritMatter, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 31, 2016 | 4 Comments »

Interviews are funny things: you have to think on the spot, but later realize how deeply and profoundly imperfect (!) was your choice of words. The Imperfect Buddha Podcast has an interview with me in which host Matthew O’Connor (of Post-Traditional Buddhism) and I talk at length about Buddhism, process-relational metaphysics, panpsychism, social constructionism, cognitive science, […]

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A process view of “religious Nones”

Posted in SpiritMatter, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on May 18, 2016 | 4 Comments »

While I’ve done no formal surveys, my best guess is that about half my students here at the U of Vermont (at least those in Environmental Studies) would fit into the category of “religiously unaffiliated,” the so-called “religious Nones” — a category that now makes up almost 1 in 4 Americans and over a third of those […]

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Cultural policy in the 21st century

Posted in MediaSpace, tagged , , , , , , , on January 15, 2015 | Leave a Comment »

A few quick reflections on the Charlie Hebdo affair… 1. In the age of social media, we are all producers of images and meanings. The difference is only a matter of degree. 2.  In a globalized world, those who traffic in media ought to have some knowledge of the cultural and ethical implications of their trafficking. 3. […]

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A cultural cold war wind

Posted in Politics, tagged , , , , , , , , on January 20, 2014 | 2 Comments »

I predicted back in 2010 that globalizing and technological trends would lead disparate religious traditions to find common ground on socially divisive issues like abortion and gay rights. Just as environmentalism, feminism, and indigenous rights were partnering various more liberal church groups with environmental and social justice organizations, contributing to the development of an “eco-egalitarian” global […]

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SAR “Nature, Science, Religion” volume out

Posted in EcoCulture, SpiritMatter, tagged , , , , on May 20, 2012 | 1 Comment »

I received my copies in the mail this week of the book that arose out of the School of Advanced Research seminar on “Nature, Science, and Religion: Intersections Shaping Society and the Environment.” It’s a handsome volume, whose contents provide a level of cross-cutting conversation that, I think, is rare among edited collections. Catherine Tucker […]

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‘Self-help,’ James Ray, and spiritual culture

Posted in SpiritMatter, tagged , , on June 23, 2011 | 1 Comment »

The news that self-help guru James Arthur Ray has been found guilty of three counts of negligent homicide brings to an end (of sorts) a saga that began with three deaths and numerous injuries at an October, 2009, sweat lodge ceremony outside Sedona, Arizona. Since I’ve written a handful of articles and half a book […]

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Enchantments to come

Posted in SpiritMatter, tagged , , , , , , on March 21, 2011 | 1 Comment »

Thoughts for a spring equinox… Complexity theorist (and colleague of mine here at the University of Vermont) Stuart Kauffman takes stock here of the Enlightenment and sings of a re-enchantment to come. Disenchantment and re-enchantment are long-running tropes in the intellectual currents of modernity, which I’ve frequently explored in my writing (see here for a […]

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Religion & the Japanese tragedy

Posted in EcoCulture, MediaSpace, SpiritMatter, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 16, 2011 | 7 Comments »

Just as the Haitian earthquake was followed by a welter of religious interpretations (fundamentalist Christians blaming sinful Haitians for it, Vodoun practitioners weighing in on the events, etc.), so the Japanese quake-tsunami-meltdown trilogy is offering evidence of humanity’s interpretive propensities. You may have already seen the YouTube troll video satirizing right-wing Christian responses, which scandalized […]

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Religious (re)turns in the wake of global nature

Posted in SpiritMatter, tagged , , , , , on January 8, 2011 | 4 Comments »

I’m reorganizing the piece I wrote for the School of Advanced Research workshop on science, nature, and religion so that part of it will fit into the introduction of the book we are producing (which I’m co-writing with the workshop organizer and chair, Catherine Tucker) and the rest will make up the book’s concluding chapter. […]

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