Spiritual Naturalisms: Nature Spirituality and Ecological Action Among the “Spiritual but not Religious”
Overview
John Templeton Foundation, Grant ID: 63330, $359,950
This project will study and assess the underlying philosophies and theologies that are operative but implicit rather than explicit in nature-based spiritualities like Undrowned and the Wild Church Network. The goal of the project is to come to deeper understanding of the phenomenon of nature spirituality, why it appears to be increasing, and why it features so prominently among the “spiritual but not religious.” The project aims to increase understanding of nature spirituality among academics who study theology, religion, the psychology of nature spirituality, and the spiritual but not religious, but also to promote greater awareness and understanding among public audiences of nature spirituality and its importance for American religious life. Further aims of the project include exploring the connection between nature spirituality and ecological activity, and assessing the importance of nature spirituality for marginalized communities.
The project explores the following questions:
–To what extent are theologies and traditional religious practices in the background of nature-based spiritualities?
–Are “background” theologies/religious systems necessary for nature-based spiritualities to be comprehensible? In other words, is it possible to develop a nature-based spirituality that does not implicitly assume concepts and frameworks taken from traditional religions?
–If it is common to find theological concepts and religious frameworks operative in nature-based spiritualities, to what extent are practitioners aware of their dependency on these concepts and frameworks?
–For nature-based spiritualities that also promote political or ecological activity, what theological/philosophical beliefs assist them in moving from spirituality to action? What moral/ethical frameworks are assumed?
–Is practicing nature spirituality correlated with a greater likelihood that one will act in ways that express ethical action toward the environment?
–How can insights from the psychological sciences help to explain the empirical mechanisms that contribute to the human ability to experience nature as spiritual?
–How do practitioners of nature spirituality understand their experiences of nature as “spiritual”?
–Is nature spirituality more prominent among marginalized groups such as women, people of color, LGBTQIA+, etc? If it is, why is this the case?
The project will draw from the resources of the sciences (especially the psychological sciences), theology, spiritual traditions and practices, and in-person interviews with practitioners of nature spirituality to produce the first in-depth examination of the phenomenon of nature spirituality among the “spiritual but not religious,” and its significance for understanding trends in US American spirituality more broadly. One of the challenges noted by the researchers who conducted the “Spirituality Among Americans” study from the Pew Research Center is that of defining and delineating differences between the categories of “spiritual” and “religious” (p. 9). This project does not aim to definitely solve this perennial problem; however, it does seek to contribute to bringing greater clarity to the ways in which the categories of the “spiritual” and the “religious” are constantly entangled in the specific instance of nature spirituality among SBNRs. At the same time, through data collection in the form of questionnaires, artistic tasks, and in-person interviews, it also intends to take practitioners of nature spirituality seriously on their own terms, rather than imposing an artificial conceptual clarity onto their experiences “from above,” as it were. One further aim of the project, then, is to create room in the academic literature about SBNRs for appreciation of expressions of lived nature spirituality that do not always map on seamlessly to theological systems or demonstrate complete internal consistency, but are nevertheless meaningful to practitioners. At the same time, this project seeks to pose generative or probing questions to SBNRs to illuminate potential inconsistencies and/or unacknowledged dependencies on religious traditions and theologies.
Biocultural Evolution and Theological Anthropology
Overview
John Templeton Foundation, $206,000 USD, Grant #62619, 2022-2023.
Investigators: Michael Burdett (University of Nottingham, Victoria Lorrimar (University of Notre Dame Australia), Nathan Lyons (University of Notre Dame Australia, Megan Loumagne Ulishney (Gannon University)
This science-engaged theology project will use recent findings in evolutionary biology to clarify the “biocultural” character of human beings in theological anthropology. The primary investigators will examine three particular themes in this area — morality, purposiveness, and aesthetics — and will develop mentoring relationships with practicing scientists to support their investigations.
The project will draw on the latest research on niche construction, gene-culture coevolution, and cultural evolution (including, but not limited to, work done under the banner of the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis) to show the mutually constitutive interplay of biological and cultural processes in hominid evolution. Nature-culture continuities identified in this biology literature will be considered for each of the project’s three theological foci. The project will chart new pathways in science-engaged theological anthropology and contribute to bringing the field up to date in terms of its engagement with current evolutionary thinking.
A workshop and an open access journal special issue will bring a wider network of researchers into the project to treat themes in theological anthropology that are related to, but extend beyond, the three foci of the PIs. These additional themes will include topics such as rationality, language, sociality, domestication, religion, and co-creation. The PIs will also conduct a series of interviews with scientists working on biocultural evolution, which will be published online and will widen the public impact of the project.
Megan Loumagne Ulishney’s research with the grant
Current approaches to sexual selection in evolutionary biology emphasize the role of aesthetic perception in evolutionary dynamics over time, and they highlight the inextricable entanglement of nature and culture in shaping aesthetic perception. Beauty is present and exerts a causal force not only in human culture but also throughout nature and across evolutionary time. This emphasis on the natural standing of aesthetics, extending beyond human culture and including non-human organisms, holds promise for expanding approaches to theological aesthetics. Theological aesthetics has traditionally investigated beauty as a transcendental quality of the divine, and the appreciation of the beautiful as a uniquely human capacity. This project investigates the evolutionary origins of aesthetic appreciation and creativity and the ways in which non-human organisms express these capacities today. We anticipate this research producing a novel approach to theological aesthetics that prioritises the animal origins of aesthetics and moves beyond a nature/culture opposition.
Illuminating Theological Inquiry and Christian Ethics Through Training in Psychological Science (funded by John Templeton Foundation and organized by Baylor University)
My research as part of this project aims to develop a framework for theological aesthetics that is informed by the psychological sciences and that moves beyond some traditional approaches to theological aesthetics that have privileged the white male and the heterosexual toward more inclusive images of and symbols for the divine that will contribute to the flourishing of women, people of color, the poor, and sexual minorities. In conversation with insights from psychology, this project will also consider the ways in which aesthetic appreciation and creativity extend beyond the human realm to explore the ways in which non-human organisms—and even the environment itself—have a role to play in the production of the artistic and conceptions of the beautiful. It will integrate these insights into theology by investigating the roles that non-human organisms and environments can play in contributing to new symbolic approaches to the divine, experiences of the sacred, and theological approaches to aesthetics. A final goal of this project is to draw from insights in psychology to explore the potential role for ecological and environmental aesthetic experiences to be integrated into theological aesthetics and theological understandings of environmental ethics.
Set Foundations Prize for Course Development
In June 2023, I received the SET Foundations Prize for Course Development. Sponsored by the SET Foundations Project at Loyola University Maryland and funded by the John Templeton Foundation, this grant ($25,000) has been awarded to Gannon University for the development of a course that integrates Theology and Philosophy of Science.
Previous Grant Activity
2019-2022 John Templeton Foundation “God and the Book of Nature” Project
- Full-time postdoctoral research grant to participate in a £2.44 million international project organized by the University of Edinburgh.
2021 Course Development Grant (University of St. Andrews and the John Templeton Foundation)
- £2000 to develop a course entitled ‘Sexual ethics in science and religion’
2021 New Visions in Theological Anthropology Fellowship (University of St. Andrews and the John Templeton Foundation)
2021 SET Foundations Seminar Participant (Loyola University Maryland and the John Templeton Foundation)
2018-2019 Academic Coordinator for the Bridging the Two Cultures of Science and the Humanities II Project (funded by the John Templeton Foundation in partnership with Wycliffe Hall (SCIO), University of Oxford