Laurel Kearns is an associate professor of the sociology of religion and environmental studies at Drew University in Madison, N.J. Her main research interests are Christian responses to ecological concerns and nature spirituality. 

Read a Beliefnet.com interview with Ursula Goodenough, a poet, biology professor and “religious naturalist” who has written a book called The Sacred Depths of Nature (Oxford University Press, 2000).

Read the transcript of a March 9, 2001, Religion & Ethics Newsweekly program on Celtic spirituality, which discusses the Celts’ sense of nature as “the theatre of divine presence.”

Read a Beliefnet.com article by Kimberly Winston about the rapid growth of Wicca and other Earth-based religions.

The Witches’ Voice lists outdoor rituals and festivals around the country, including a state-by-state section.

Selena Fox is a high priestess and senior minister of Circle Sanctuary, a Wiccan church and pagan resource center near Mount Horeb, Wisconsin. Wicca is a neopagan faith that relies heavily on nature and a belief in some forms of magic and the supernatural.

Cari Leversee is director of Thresholds Home Funerals. Founded in 2003, Thresholds is a non-embalming funeral establishment in San Diego, Calif. It has offered classes on “reclaiming death as a sacred event.”

Kimberley Campbell runs Memorial Ecosystems Inc., a company that promotes using memorial parks to restore and protect nature by allowing only biodegradable caskets. It is based in Westminster, S.C.