Interesting post from intent.com blog.


Evangelists of a Great Story

Carter Phipps - June 30, 2008

A few years ago I wrote a story on a husband and wife duo who travel around the county, living in an old van, preaching? the “good news” of evolution.

Their names are Connie Barlow and Michael Dowd. Connie is a highly respected science writer, and Michael is a former evangelical and Christian minister, who once upon a time did not believe in evolution at all. Inspired in part by Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme, Connie and Michael have been on the road for the better part of this decade. They visited our offices and retreat center a few years ago, and have returned several times to share the latest offering of their perpetual speaking tour. Michael does the majority of speaking and he is pushing the edge trying to re-interpret many of the great Christian scriptures in an evolutionary worldview. The article I wrote on Michael and Connie for What Is Enlightenment? magazine is called “Preachers of a New Pentecost” and the first few lines give a sense of Michael’s speaking style.

“Humanity is the fruit of fourteen billion years of unbroken evolution, now becoming conscious of itself,” declares the middle-aged speaker as he walks back and forth in front of the audience, punctuating his points with a dramatic gesture or a momentary pause. The reverend is in his element, and today he can feel that the crowd is in the palm of his hand.

“When the Bible speaks about God forming us from the dust of the Earth, it's actually true,” he exclaims, articulating his words like a verbal challenge. “We did not come into this world—we grew out of it, just like an apple grows from an apple tree. That statement from Genesis is a traditional way of saying the same thing. We are not separate beings on Earth, living in a universe. We are a mode of being of Earth, an expression of the universe.”


This kind of perspective puts Michael firmly in the general camp of what is increasingly being called evolutionary spirituality. Now what makes all of this even more interesting is that Michael has just recently hit the big time, scoring alucrative book deal for his new book, Thank God for Evolution. And the New York Times magazine just did an article on Michael and his work, linked here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/magazine/15wwln-essay-t.html?ref=magazine

So what does all of this mean? Well, a few things. First, the ongoing integration of evolution and spirituality is, I am convinced, going to define spirituality in this century. Events like the success of Dowd’s book are some of the first signs of that process in culture. Now it should be said that Thank God for Evolution is very scientifically oriented and he doesn’t really make any major spiritually-oriented assertions that would make hard-core scientists uncomfortable. That may help to explain why he has five Nobel prize-winning scientists endorsing it (which is quite impressive!). But still, it’s also just a sign that our culture is looking for new direction when it comes to the old science and spirit stalemate. We need a new kind of spiritual and philosophical vision that transcends and includes the culture wars, and offers genuinely new ideas and new visions. Dowd’s new book is one of many signs, as is complexity theorist Stuart Kaufmann’s new book I highly recommend both of them.

While both of these books are starting on the science side of the fence and seeking integration from that context, we also need to see serious new evolutionary visions that begin on the spiritual side of the fence and move toward a greater integration. More about that in future posts. To finish, here is a link to one more new >book that any self-respecting “evolutionary should read. In fact, I’m off to interview the author tomorrow in Woodstock, NY. I’ll write more about it, and him, when I return.