Michael Dowd - Beyond Sustainability: A Hopeful, Inspiring Vision of the Next 250 Years

Michael Dowd has the unusual distinction of being twice reborn: once in the image of God, and a second time in the image of Darwin. A former evangelical minister, Dowd—still fiery with the passion of ministry—now travels around the country spreading an evolutionary gospel for the 21st century. His message of faith and free will suggests a hopeful future where science and religion seamlessly combine forces to save not just our souls, but the very planet we live on.

In this event, recorded live in New York City, Dowd explores how the developmental perspective of modern evolution theory and the traditional view of a higher power—God—actually yields a singular vision for the future. In this ultimate synthesis of views and values, Dowd explores the potential for our rapid technological innovation, chaotic social development, and deeply held religious beliefs to actually enhance one another; to describe a model not of conflict, but of ever-increasing harmony and higher integration.

BIO

The Rev. Michael Dowd, a gifted teacher, preacher, and evolutionary theologian. A leading voice in the Evolutionary Spirituality movement, Michael is the author of the 1991 book "EarthSpirit: A Handbook for Nurturing an Ecological Christianity" (Twenty-Third Publications), which was inspired by the writings of cultural historian Thomas Berry, physicist Brian Swimme, and deep ecologist Joanna Macy. During the 1980s and 90s, Michael pastored three United Church of Christ congregations, worked with Jewish, Roman Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical, Unitarian Universalist, and New Thought leaders across America on environmental, peace, and justice issues, and managed government funded Sustainable Lifestyle Campaigns on both coasts. His great joy is telling the 14 billion year history of everyone and everything in ways that evoke awe, gratitude, and trust, inspire faith and openheartedness, and empower people to follow the path where their own great joy and the world's great need intersect.

Since April 2002, Michael and his wife Connie Barlow, an acclaimed science writer, have lived permanently on the road, teaching and preaching "the marriage of science and religion for personal and planetary wellbeing" in churches and living rooms as well as in public and private schools all across North America. Their website The Great Story is one of the best community empowerment tools in the conscious evolution/evolutionary spirituality movement, consistently generates nearly a half million hits per month! It is a leading resource for those working to heal the rift between science and religion, and for those envisioning a just, healthy, beautiful, and sustainably life-giving world for future generations of all species. Michael also has a website specifically for Christians.