RNA Board of Directors

Michael Cavanaugh is a Louisiana lawyer who retired early from active practice to concentrate on figuring out the relation between science and religion. That resulted in several journal articles in the primary science/religion journal (“Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science”) and ultimately produced a book (“Biotheology: A New Synthesis of Religion and Science”). If ever he turns his attention away from administrative matters related to Religious Naturalist Association, he hopes to re-write that book as “Religious Naturalism with a Christian Flavor” to radically naturalize the various concepts (aka doctrines) within Christianity. In the years since Biotheology he spent lots of time in IRAS (The Institute on Religion in an Age of Science) where he encountered religious naturalism and many of its proponents – he served 3 years as president of IRAS and also served as one of the 6 members of the joint publication board of Zygon. He also served as Chaplain at an IRAS conference at the Chautauqua Institution where he used the 6 chapel talks to present a naturalized spirituality. At IRAS he and Terry Deacon co-chaired one of the famous “Star Island Conferences” entitled “Is Nature Enough: The Thirst for Transcendence,” in which he delivered a talk entitled “Toward a Consilient View of Ethics and Morality.”

Terry Findlay designs and customizes websites. He also writes software for Macintosh computers. Terry is a retired teacher who has always had an interest in the sciences and “the big questions”. He was delighted to discover that there was such a thing as religious naturalism and that this perspective was in congruence with his worldview. Wanting to support the Religious Naturalist Association, Terry contacted the directors with an offer to help with their website. Terry continues to enjoy working with the RNA directors in making the website a place for interested people to find up to date information and news about the religious naturalist orientation.

Rex A E Hunt, MSc(Hons) is a religious naturalist, social ecologist, and progressive liturgist. He lives in Australia on the Central Coast (Darkinjung Country) of New South Wales. Fifty years ordained, first as a Presbyterian, he is today a retired minister of the Uniting Church in Australia (formed in 1977), where his last placement was at the progressive Church of St James (2000-2009) in Canberra – the national capital. He served in parish/congregation appointments and was, for nine years, the National Director of Communications with The Assembly, Uniting Church in Australia. He is the Founding Director of Common Dreams Conference of Religious Progressives, Australia/South Pacific and has published nine books.

Jason D. Keune: MD, MBA, FACS is an author, consultant and surgeon based in St. Louis, Missouri. He learned how to meditate as a teenager, encountered Religious Naturalism at the IRAS conference on Star Island in his early 20s, considers the quotidian to be profound, loves trees and derives a great deal of spiritual joy from raising his three children and operating and working in the city where he was born.

Todd Macalister works as a medical writer and designer of professional education programs. He attended the School of Theology at Boston University and is author of Einstein’s God (2008) and Looking to Nature (2019).

Janet Newton was born and raised Unitarian Universalist in the Unitarian Church of Los Alamos, New Mexico. She came to ministry after many years as a high school English and philosophy teacher, receiving a Masters in Divinity from Meadville Lombard Theological School in 2018.. She currently serves as minister of the First Parish Church in Berlin MA. She holds a lifelong affinity with the religious naturalist orientation.

Thomas Rockwell is Senior Creative Director of Global Collaborations at the Exploratorium, San Francisco’s museum of science, art, and human perception. Since joining the Exploratorium in 2005, Tom has led the exhibits and media departments, the development of new galleries for the museum’s move to the waterfront in 2013, as well as the Geometry Playground exhibition and other National Science Foundation supported projects. His interests include exhibiting the human sciences, mathematics, and fundamental physical phenomena, as well as exploring the relationship between science, art, and religion. Prior to coming to San Francisco Tom founded and ran Painted Universe, Inc. where projects included exhibitions such as It’s a Nano World, The Enchanted Museum: Exploring the Science of Art, and illustrations for The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene.

JD Stillwater is a science educator and author based in Harrisburg, PA, and the creator of “Seven Candles: Science for a Deeper Spirituality.” He loves to consider and share the profound implications of natural reality as science reveals it, through speaking, writing, teaching, and collaborating. He has taken his messages to 16 states and Canadian provinces, on college campuses, in churches of many faith traditions, yoga studios, summer camps, academic conferences, activism trainings, and schools. In his youth, JD walked from Los Angeles to Washington DC on the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament, and then from Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) to Moscow on the International Peace Walk. Poetry and percussion are also constant companions. Past president of the Unitarian Church of Harrisburg, JD delights in finding new ways to connect people with each other, the natural universe, and the inner workings of our mysterious material world.

Carol Wayne White is Professor of Philosophy of Religion at Bucknell University, specializing in Poststructuralist Philosophies, Process Theism and Philosophy, Religious Naturalism, Science and Religion, and Critical Theory and Religion. She was recently awarded a Bucknell University Presidential Professorship for 2018-2021. Her books include Black Lives and Sacred Humanity: Toward an African American Religious Naturalism (2016), The Legacy of Anne Conway (1631-70): Reverberations from a Mystical Naturalism (2009), and Poststructuralism, Feminism, and Religion: Triangulating Positions (2002). She has published numerous chapters in edited volumes and articles on religious naturalism, process philosophy, and the creative intersections of critical theory and religion. She is currently writing a new book that explores the tenets and insights of religious naturalism expressed in contemporary American nature poets and writers.