Fourth International Congress on Ecstatic Naturalism

The Institute for Ecstatic Naturalism is issuing a call for papers for the Fourth International Congress on Ecstatic Naturalism to be held at Drew University on April 11th and 12th, 2014.  The theme for this year's Congress is Nature and Psyche although papers on other topics pertinent to ecstatic naturalism will be considered.  The deadline for submission of a 500 word abstract is January 15th.  

  Ecstatic Naturalism is a philosophical perspective that argues that nature is all that there is and that the domains of the sacred are in and of nature.  More particularly, nature is fissured into the great divide between nature naturing (natura naturans) and nature natured (natura naturata).  Nature naturing is defined as “nature perennially creating itself from out of itself alone,” while nature natured is defined as the “innumerable orders of the world.” From this primal distinction/division all else flows. 

  The inaugural text for this movement is Nature and Spirit: An Essay in Ecstatic Naturalism, (Fordham University Press, 1992), by Robert S. Corrington.  The most recent books in this philosophical trajectory are: Nature's Sublime, by Robert S. Corrington, Nature’s Primal Self, by Nam T. Nguyen, Charles Sanders Peirce and a Religious Metaphysics of Nature, by Leon Niemoczynski, and Naturalism’s Philosophy of the Sacred, by Martin O. Yalcin.

  Please send your abstract to: Leon Niemoczynski at [email protected]