Michael Dowd

Biography

Dowd, raised Roman Catholic, graduated from Evangel University in Springfield, Missouri summa cum laude receiving a B.A. in philosophy and biblical studies. He went on to earn a Master of Divinity degree with honors at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now Palmer Seminary) in Philadelphia. Dowd was ordained as a United Church of Christ minister and served as a congregational minister for nine years in churches in Massachusetts, Ohio, and Michigan.

In 1995 he worked with Jewish, Roman Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical, Unitarian Universalist, and New Thought leaders across America on environmental issues that were being considered by Congress. He was Religious Organizer for the Washington D.C. based National Environmental Trust. From 1997 to 2000 he headed The Portland Sustainable Lifestyle Campaign, in Portland, Oregon, the first government-funded program designed to produce large-scale voluntary citizen behavior change along stewardship lines in the United States. In 2000 and 2001 he served as Campaign Manager of Global Action Plan's EcoTeam and Livable Neighborhood Programs in Rockland County, New York.

He became an itinerant "evolutionary evangelist" in 2002. Dowd and his wife Connie Barlow travel North America, teaching their "Gospel of Evolution." They present their case for "the marriage of religion and science" at events sponsored by a diverse group of denominations, including Christian, Unitarian Universalist, Unity Church, Free Thinkers, Religious Science, secular humanism and Religious Naturalists venues. Barlow is a writer/lecturer with 4 published works. Together they travel the continent by van as nomads, offering a view of evolutionary theology and relating their Great Story (Epic of Evolution) to both secular and religious audiences. Their message embraces both science and religion, combining her scientific humanism with his evolutionary theism, her soft-spoken manner with his zealous preaching style. They draw in Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, and Christians; theists and atheists; scientists and philosophers.

Philosophy and theology

Dowd was a former young earth creationist. Dowd describes himself as having been "born again" while serving in the United States Army in Germany in 1979, and for the next three years living within a fundamentalist culture that was strongly opposed to evolution. Thereafter he came under a more eclectic range of religious influences (including a friendship with a "Buddhist-Christian" former Trappist monk, Tobias Meeker), that opened him up to first intellectual, and then spiritual, acceptance of evolution.

Dowd is pluralistic in his ministry. He teaches that humanity will never see an end to the science and religion war until religious leaders do their part and proclaim a pro-science, evolutionary message from the pulpit. Dowd promotes the Epic of Evolution as a sacred story and Religious Naturalism as his own religious orientation.. It addresses both objective truth and subjective meaning answering questions in ways that are both religiously and scientifically accurate. He claims that science can be interpreted in ways that nourish and inspire people like traditional religious stories do.

Colleen Engel-Brown, former pastor at a First Unity Church believes Dowd has a "very provoking message". Accepting evolution as plausible "disturbs those who take the Bible literally". Even the Dowd vehicle provokes as it displays two fishes kissing with the labels "Jesus" and "Darwin". His message of evolutionary theology attaches a lot of attention as a subject that opens up the debate on the creation-evolution controversy. Both sides of this debate have been at it for a century and a half. Dowd attempts to serve as a pacifier by showing people that celebrating Big History and interpreting it meaningfully will bring them nearer to spiritual fulfillment.

By utilizing traditional religious methods, Dowd invites "people to think about religion in new ways". Stephen Uhl, a former Catholic priest-become humanist psychologist, writes that Dowd does a great job of expanding minds beyond sectarian belief systems and entertains while doing it.

Works

Dowd's Earthspirit: A Handbook for Nurturing an Ecological Christianity (1991, Twenty-third Publications) was inspired by the writings of cultural historian Thomas Berry, cosmologist Brian Swimme, and deep ecologist Joanna Macy. His preachings since 2002 provided material for Thank God for Evolution (2008, influences – Thomas Berry, David Sloan Wilson and others.) Its endorsements includes six Nobel Prize-winning scientists - Craig Mello, John C. Mather, Thomas C. Schelling, Frank Wilczek, Lee Hartwell and Charles Townes. Starting in the spring of 2008, Professor Hogue at the Meadville Lombard Theological School was using Dowd’s book in his course on theology and science. Penguin purchased the worldwide rights to it in mid-2008.

1. * Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World -Viking Adult (June 19, 2008), ISBN 0-670-02045-1
2. * Earthspirit: A Handbook for Nurturing an Ecological Christianity, - 23 Pubns, (April 1991), ISBN 0-89622-479-1
3. * THE MEANING OF LIFE IN THE 1990s: An Ecological, Christian Perspective [5]
4. * Study Guide - Thank God for Evolution, 4 hr DVD [6]