Michael Dowd

{{Short description|American author and advocate of ecotheology and post-doom (born 1958)}}

{{Infobox scientist

|honorific_prefix = The Reverend

|name = Michael Dowd

|image = Michael dowd 2016.jpg

|caption = Dowd delivering sermon, 2016

|birth_date = November 19, 1958

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|death_date = October 7, 2023 (age 64)

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|alma_mater = Evangel University (B.A.)
Palmer Seminary (M.Div.)

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|known_for = Epic of Evolution, evolutionary Christianity, ecotheology, post-doom

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Michael Dowd ({{IPAc-en|d|aʊ|d}}; November 19, 1958 – October 7, 2023) was an American author, Christian minister (United Church of Christ and Universal Life Church[https://www.thegreatstory.org/michaeldowd.html Michael Dowd presentations chronological]), lecturer, and advocate of ecotheology and post-doom.

Evolutionary Christianity

Michael Dowd's 1991 book, EarthSpirit,{{cite book |last1=Dowd |first1=Michael |title=EarthSpirit: A Handbook for Nurturing an Ecological Christianity |date=1991 |publisher=Twenty-Third Publications |location=Mystic, Connecticut |isbn=0-89622-479-1}} launched his public speaking career, grounded in the epic of evolution, religious naturalism, and progressive Christianity.{{cite news |last1=Miller |first1=David Ian |title=FINDING MY RELIGION / Reverend Michael Dowd preaches the wonders of evolution |url=https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/FINDING-MY-RELIGION-Reverend-Michael-Dowd-2639411.php |agency=SFGATE |date=25 April 2005}}{{cite journal |last1=Hassinger |first1=Amy |title=Welcome to the Ecozoic Era |journal=UU World |date=20 February 2006 |url=https://www.uuworld.org/articles/wonder-evolution}}{{cite news |last1=Steigenga |first1=Mark |title=The good news of EVOLUTION |url=https://thegreatstory.org/ludington.pdf |agency=Ludington Daily News (Michigan) |date=22 May 2009}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.enlightennext.org/magazine/bios/michael-dowd.asp |title=Michael Dowd: Biography & Resources |date=2012-02-12 |publisher=EnlightenNext Magazine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120212231036/http://www.enlightennext.org/magazine/bios/michael-dowd.asp |archive-date=February 12, 2012 |access-date=2016-06-01 |url-status=unfit }}{{Citation|last=New Hampshire Public Television|title=One-on-one with Michael Dowd|date=2010-12-20|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyPw0N8DDiE |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/WyPw0N8DDiE |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live|access-date=2016-06-01}}{{cbignore}} "Evolutionary Christianity" was his preferred topic, resulting in his sometimes being called America's "evolutionary evangelist."{{cite journal |last1=Chaffee |first1=Paul |title=Michael Dowd and 'Evolutionary Christianity': Reconciling Science and Faith |journal=The Interfaith Observer |date=15 May 2013 |url=https://www.theinterfaithobserver.org/journal-articles/2013/5/15/michael-dowd-and-evolutionary-christianity.html}}{{cite web |last1=Jacobson |first1=Mike |title=Evolution Evangelists ... Coming to a Church Near You? (2002) |url=https://answersingenesis.org/theistic-evolution/god-and-evolution/evolution-evangelists-coming-to-a-church-near-you/ |website=Answers in Genesis |access-date=28 April 2024}}{{cite journal |last1=Stark |first1=E |title=Evolution's traveling 'evangelists' tell the sacred tale |journal=Research News & Opportunities in Science and Theology |date=2002 |volume=3 |issue=2 |page=35}}{{cite journal |last1=Stuart |first1=Ambury |title=Michael Dowd, itinerant apostle, lives in van, preaches everywhere |journal=Broadview |date=1 September 2013 |url=https://broadview.org/michael-dowd-itinerant-preacher/}} His 2007 book, Thank God for Evolution,{{cite book |last1=Dowd |first1=Michael |title=Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World |date=2007 |publisher=Viking / Penguin |location=New York |isbn=978-0-670-02045-4}} brought him an invitation to contribute a chapter, "A Story Big Enough to Hold Us All," in a book published in 2009.{{cite book |last1=Muir |first1=Frederic |title=The Whole World Kin: Darwin and the Spirt of Liberal Religion |date=2009 |publisher=Skinner House Books |location=Boston |isbn=978-1-55896-556-0 |pages=15–28 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7HwNiVWXZGIC&dq=The+Whole+World+Kin+Fred+Muir&pg=PT52}} It also extended his speaking invitations beyond religious institutions.{{cite news |last1=Bhattacharjee |first1=Yudhijit |title=Darwinists for Jesus |agency=New York Times Magazine |date=15 June 2008}} These included the Values Caucus at the United Nations,{{cite web |last1=California Lutheran University |title=Minister to address evolution in CLU talk (September 2011) |url=https://www.callutheran.edu/news/7818.html |website=California Lutheran University |access-date=28 March 2024}}{{cite news |last1=Foltz |first1=Jordan |title=Realizing religion, sanctifying science: Michael Dowd in Asheville |url=https://mountainx.com/opinion/realizing_religion_sanctifying_science_michael_dowd_in_asheville_april_23-2/ |agency=Mountain Xpress Asheville NC |date=21 April 2013}} The Skeptics Society,{{cite web |last1=Dowd |first1=Michael |title=Distinguished Lecture Series (June 2009 presentation) |url=https://www.skeptic.com/lectures/thank-god-for-evolution/ |website=Skeptic Society|date=7 June 2009 }} the Darwin Day lecture at three universities,{{cite journal |last1=Goodman |first1=Rachel M |title=Celebrate Darwin Day, An Event for Education and Outreach in Evolutionary Biology |journal=Evo Edu Outreach |date=2008 |volume=1 |issue=3 |pages=306–311 |doi=10.1007/s12052-008-0060-9 |url=https://evolution-outreach.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1007/s12052-008 |ref=2008-goodman|doi-access=free }}{{cite web |last1=Campus News |title=UT Darwin Day Programs to Explore Evolution, Education (2006) |url=https://news.utk.edu/2006/02/01/ut-darwin-day-programs-to-explore-evolution-education/ |website=University of Tennessee, Knoxville |date=31 January 2006 |access-date=26 September 2023}}{{cite web |last1=Texas Wesleyan University |title=College Day Event - Spring 2009 |url=https://thegreatstory.org/wesleyan.pdf |website=The Great Story}} and TEDx in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 2012 and 2014.{{cite web |last1=Dewey |first1=Charlsie |title=TEDxGrandRapids reveals speakers (2014) |url=https://www.crainsgrandrapids.com/news/tedxgrandrapids-reveals-speakers/ |website=Crain's Grand Rapids Business |date=14 April 2014 |access-date=26 September 2023}}{{cite news |last1=Dowd |first1=Michael |title=My TEDx Talk: Reality Reconciles Science and Religion (2014) |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tedx-talk-reality-reconci_b_5513264 |agency=Huffington Post |date=20 June 2014}}

File:Quadrune brain with animal names.jpg

In contrast to Christian fundamentalism, Thank God for Evolution presents how an evolutionary understanding can support emotional health in practical ways. Using "the quadrune brain" distinction in medical science,{{cite journal |last1=Dervenis |first1=Kostas |title=The Neurophysiological and Evolutionary Considerations of Close Combat: A modular approach |journal=Hellenic Journal of Nuclear Medicine |date=2017 |url=https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/55003721/The_Neurophysiological_and_Evolutionary_Considerations_of_Close_Combat_-_A_modular_approach_1.0-libre.pdf?1510657689=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DThe_Neurophysiological_and_Evolutionary.pdf&Expires=1727707878&Signature=Wos~GNahnocrJrAGR9LvTJLfLjoWWXgESOpWZ~7EZlyECls4so8GH-b5tzgyez6btZi3Zq~kkwu-opEpuC84WXp12YCVWsKRhH0wNdTDrcRtcSzI8kpjjnOkn75cyv8u9998oW8Y6mbqeoGvAEa~TsHk8qxLdFMyfOY5RkSOjhanXHAasakdTBNRvYHnPT3MEJjrdQ9EHV4NDDz6LgZzkx4aHsAuzedaJdoEPyMk1C4qsO-kCtUo0rcLpcVRgUo--zc9vYFgGo3TFHFMxtJ75Diy2ldDSLKJjt52ES9tNpkmttKyh6jLn0joSXDpNaYVX-cEeV5wT7VJmEs0W13j2Q__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA}} Dowd presents via text and images the challenges for city-based lifestyles of our human brain anatomy that evolved during millions of years of living close to nature. In 2018 a Christian medical journal utilized Dowd's framing and animal metaphors (e.g., "lizard legacy" for the brain stem and cerebellum) to introduce how it can be used by pain management professionals.{{cite journal |last1=Hayes |first1=Chris |title=A multidimensional approach to pain: From Genesis 3 to contemporary pain services |journal=Luke's Journal of Christian Medicine and Dentistry |date=January 2018 |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=25–28 |url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5f322e36d5e561588e310a43/t/5f59b7f28c024b4d4aef1e35/1599715356955/Vol%2B23%2BNo%2B1%2B2018.pdf}}

In 2014 Dowd added climate change activism to his volunteer efforts and his public speaking in church contexts.{{cite news |last1=Catano |first1=Jim |title=Time's Up: It's the End of the World, and We Know It |url=https://www.cityweekly.net/utah/times-up/Content?oid=17298723 |agency=Salt Lake City Weekly |date=15 September 2021}} His speaking schedule in 2014 roughly tracked the cross-USA route of the Great March for Climate Action, including speaking in city parks and local churches in support of the marchers.{{cite web |last1=Dowd |first1=Michael |title=Past Itinerary |url=https://thegreatstory.org/past-itinerary.html |website=The Great Story |access-date=26 September 2023}} In 2014 he adopted a stage name, "Reverend Reality," and began wearing a green clergy shirt (image at right) to exemplify his shift into foregrounding ecotheology in his presentations. He merged the science of ecology with liberal Christian theology by using the term "grace limits" when referring to ecological limits and Earth's carrying capacity.{{cite journal |last1=MacLeod |first1=David |title=Standing for the Future |journal=Resilience |date=10 January 2017 |url=https://www.resilience.org/stories/2017-01-10/standing-for-the-future/}}

He interpreted additional biblical metaphors for his purpose of ecological advocacy. Primary among them was the need for humanity to break away from ecological destruction and to seek redemption as the "prodigal species" who was finally "coming home to Reality." For guidance in how to do this, Dowd offered a set of "Reality's Rules: Ten Commandments to Avoid Extinction and Redeem Humanity."{{cite journal |last1=Dowd |first1=Michael |title=Evidential Medicine for Our Collective Soul: What's Inevitable? What's Redemptive? |journal=Oneing |date=Fall 2016 |volume=4 |issue=2 |url=https://thegreatstory.org/dowd-2016-oneing-essay.pdf}}{{cite web |last1=Dowd |first1=Michael |title=ProFuture Faith - Session 4 (2019) |url=https://livingthequestions.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/PFF-Session-4_Thus-Sayeth-Reality-Part-1.pdf |website=Living the Questions |access-date=16 October 2023}} He wrote and spoke of the ten in the form of "Thus sayeth the Lord":

Stop thinking of me as anything less than the voice of undeniable and inescapable reality.

Stop thinking of ‘revelation’ or ‘divine instruction’ without including evidence.

Stop thinking of Genesis, or your creation story, apart from the history of the universe.

Stop thinking of theology apart from ecology: the interdisciplinary study of my nature.

Stop defining and measuring ‘progress’ in short-term, human-centered ways.

Stop allowing the free or subsidized polluting of the commons.

Stop using renewable resources faster than they can be replenished.

Stop using non-renewable resources in ways that harm or rob future generations.

Stop exploring for coal, oil, and natural gas—keep most of it in the ground.

Stop prioritizing the wants of the wealthy over the needs of the poor.

Postdoom

In 2015 Dowd read the 1980 book by William R. Catton Jr.: Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change. That reading "changed everything" for Dowd and launched him on the path he would later call postdoom.{{cite journal |last1=Dowd |first1=Michael |title=Collapse and Denial: Inevitable and Unstoppable |journal=The New Ecozoic Reader |date=June 2023 |issue=7 |pages=23–26 |url=https://ecozoicstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/NER.N7.2023-06.final_.pdf}} John Halstead described Catton's influence in a memorium for Dowd that he wrote in 2023: "Post-doom teaches that, ironically, it is the very urge to cling to hope and the faith in progress and technology that is driving us faster and faster toward our own annihilation. When we refuse to acknowledge natural limits, then we end up hastening the very outcome that we want to avoid."{{cite journal |last1=Halstead |first1=John |title=It's Not Too Late to Love the World: In memoriam Michael Dowd |journal=A Beautiful Resistance |date=20 October 2023 |url=https://abeautifulresistance.org/site/2023/10/20/its-not-too-late-to-love-the-world-in-memoriam-michael-dowd?fbclid=IwAR2DDok4AzipkuClF7QEwdMg3UOH4xldLWEcoqt1mRxu_hdsUW8bzQUNE5c}}

By 2019 Dowd had pivoted his message to a pastoral form of support for those who, like himself, had lost hope that climate change, ecological overshoot, biodiversity loss and other causes of civilizational collapse already underway could be halted. Post-doom was the word he coined for the process of moving through the stages of grief, then beyond mere acceptance and more fully into "calm, clarity, and courageous love-in-action."{{cite web |title=Beyond Hope and Fear (sermon by Michael Dowd) |url=https://uucnh.org/beyond-hope-and-fear-rev-michael-dowd/ |website=Unitarian Universalist Church of the North Hills, Pittsburgh PA |date=18 November 2021 |access-date=26 September 2023}} Increasingly, he became known as the "postdoom pastor."{{cite web |title=Michael Dowd: Postdoom Pastor |url=https://thegreatstory.org/michaeldowd-postdoom.html |website=TheGreatStory |access-date=7 December 2023}}

In her 2021 book, Victoria Loorz writes of "Michael Dowd's post-doom spirituality" and describes it as "a spirituality that accepts the fullness of our reality: the tragedy as well as the beauty. This spirituality moves into — and then eventually beyond — grief and repentance toward a deeper, more courageous, compassionate, and spiritual aliveness. Post-doom spirituality is, as Dowd says, 'what opens up when we remember who we are, accept the inevitable, honor our grief, and prioritize what is pro-future and soul-nourishing'."{{cite book |last1=Loorz |first1=Victoria |title=Church of the Wild: How Nature Invites Us Into the Sacred |date=2021 |publisher=Broadleaf Books |location=Minneapolis MN |isbn=978-1-5064-6964-5}}

As Dowd reflects in a 2022 essay, "Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance: where are you in the vaunted stages of grief? And is doom automatically the end point?" He continues, "I began to explore (with others) the possibility of compassionate 'post-doom' forms of awareness."{{cite journal |last1=Dowd |first1=Michael |title=My God, What Have We Done? |journal=Progressing Spirit |date=27 January 2022 |url=https://progressingspirit.com/2022/01/27/my-g%F0%9F%8C%8E-d-what-have-we-done/}} His 2023 essay in Progressing Spirit is titled, "The Real End Times: From Doom to Faith." He writes,

A post-doom perspective is practical without promoting nihilism or lethargy. Trust, a secular name for faith, is its foundation. From there, generous and compassionate actions can continue, but they tend to be smaller in scope. They are here and now. They are free of frantic imperatives to engage in protests with the aim of transforming “the system.” Post-doom overall is hope-free. Dipping even one toe into this cool pool of acceptance can begin to yield benefits —

emotional, spiritual, and relational benefits."{{cite journal |last1=Dowd |first1=Michael |title=The Real End Times: From Doom to Faith |journal=Progressing Spirit / Progressive Christianity |date=July 2023 |url=https://thegreatstory.org/dowd-the-real-end-times.pdf}}

An opinion piece published in the UK-based Church Times in 2022 was titled, "What we can learn from the 'post-doomers'.{{cite news |last1=Pott |first1=David |title=What we can learn from the 'post-doomers' |url=https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2022/1-april/comment/opinion/what-we-can-learn-from-the-post-doomers |publisher=Church Times |date=1 April 2022}} The author writes that "spirituality features quite prominently" among those who identify or ally with the post-doom perspective: "Christians such as Michael Dowd and Fr Richard Rohr are making their contributions."

In a 2023 essay, Dowd includes a list of 15 "Postdoom Benefits" developed by Karen Perry. Jem Bendell, the originator of the Deep Adaptation concept, also wrote about Perry's benefits list in 2023.{{cite web |last1=Bendell |first1=Jem |title=The Benefits of Collapse Acceptance |url=https://jembendell.com/2023/09/21/the-benefits-of-collapse-acceptance-part-1/ |website=JemBendell.com |date=21 September 2023 |access-date=26 September 2023}} Dowd features other perspectives on the topic of postdoom in both video and audio formats by conducting conversations with more than 50 people from 2019 through 2023.{{cite web |last1=Dowd |first1=Michael |title=Postdoom Conversations |url=https://postdoom.com/conversations/ |website=Postdoom |access-date=26 September 2023}} These and other resources can be accessed on the website Dowd originated in 2019: Postdoom.com website.{{cite web |title=Postdoom: Regenerative conversations, connections, and resources for moving beyond doom |url=https://postdoom.com/ |website=Postdoom |access-date=26 September 2023}}

He delivered his final sermon, titled Being the Calm in the Storm,{{Citation |title=Being the Calm in the Storm (30-min) Dowd, 2023 | date=21 September 2023 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le1TzMsGXkg |access-date=2023-11-13 |language=en}} at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Flint, Michigan on August 13, 2023.

Personal life and death

In 2020, after living on the road for 18 years with his wife, the science writer Connie Barlow, teaching and preaching on "The Great Story" (Epic of Evolution),{{cite news |last1=Stark |first1=Eric |title=Evolution's Evangelists Tell the Sacred Tale |url=https://thegreatstory.org/dowd-2002-news-sci-theology.pdf |agency=Research News and Opportunities in Science and Theology |date=October 2002}} the covid lockdowns forced the couple to settle. They chose Ypsilanti, Michigan. There, his youngest daughter had recently given birth to Dowd's second grandchild (by his first wife, Alison Rene).{{cite web |title=Michael Dowd - America's evolutionary evangelist |url=https://thegreatstory.org/michaeldowd.html |website=TheGreatStory |access-date=11 April 2025}}

File:Michael Dowd 2019 Thomas Berry grave.jpg

In October 2023 he drove to Poughkeepsie, New York just in time to attend his father's death while in hospice. Two days later, Dowd experienced a massive heart attack at a friend's home and died that night. He was cremated the day after his father's funeral and burial.{{cite web |title=Tributes for Michael Dowd |url=https://postdoom.com/tributes/ |website=Postdoom |access-date=6 December 2023}}{{cite web |last1=Trapani |first1=Tara C |title=Michael Dowd & Post-Doom (October 2023) |url=https://fore.yale.edu/blogs/entry/1698318104 |website=Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology |publisher=Yale School of the Environment |access-date=6 December 2023}}

Commemorating the first anniversary of Dowd's death, Sister Gail Worcelo and Gerry Russell led a ceremony at Green Mountain Monastery in Greensboro, Vermont. There, they and others spread a large portion of his ashes at the boulder marking the grave of Thomas Berry. This was at the request of Michael's widow, who had taken the photo at right in May 2019, their last visit to the monastery and Thomas's grave. A video of the ceremony was posted by Gerry Russell, with music and photos added.{{cite web |title=Michael Dowd - Postdoom Pastor |url=https://thegreatstory.org/michaeldowd-postdoom.html#4b |website=TheGreatStory |access-date=11 April 2025}}

Michael Dowd

Evolutionary Christianity

Postdoom

Personal life and death

References

Further reading