Biography
Bron Taylor is Professor of Religion and Environmental Ethics at the University of Florida, a Fellow of the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany. For 13 years and until he earned a Ph.D. in Religion (Social Ethics) from the University of Southern California in 1988, he served as an Ocean Lifeguard and Peace Officer within the California State Department of Parks and Recreation, regularly surfing along the southern California coast.
Dr. Taylor’s research focuses on the connections between what people construe as ‘nature’ and ‘religion,’ and especially, on the emotional and spiritual dimensions of environmental movements, and he has led and participated in a variety of international initiatives promoting the conservation of biological and cultural diversity. He has published dozens of articles in journals and books and is regularly invited to give keynote or invited lectures: over eighty in the United States and over fifty in 18 other countries. His books include Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future (2010), the award winning Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature (2005), Ecological Resistance Movements: the Global Emergence of Radical and Popular Environmentalism (1995), Avatar and Nature Spirituality (2013), Civil Society in an Age of Monitory Democracy (2013) and Affirmative Action at Work: Law, Politics and Ethics (1992). His wide-ranging writings include analyses of Surfing as “aquatic nature religion,” including as a chapter in Dark Green Religion.
Taylor has led several scholarly initiatives, including to create an academic major in Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, a Ph.D. program in Religion and Nature at the University of Florida, and the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture and its Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, which he edits.
For downloadable articles, his blog, and further information, see www.brontaylor.com.
Publications
Bron Taylors surfing-related articles can be found here (scroll down to “Surfing Spirituality”):
http://www.brontaylor.com/articles/published-articles-subject.html
- Surfing Spirituality see Dark Green Religion, Chapter 5. It is adapted from the articles listed below, which have additional information and sources.
- “Focus Introduction: Aquatic Nature Religion,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 75(4): 863-874, 2007.
- “Surfing into Spirituality and a New, Aquatic Nature Religion,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 75(4): 923-951, 2007.
- “Sea Spirituality, Surfing, & Aquatic Nature Religion,” in Deep Blue: Critical Reflections on Nature, Religion and Water. Eds. Sylvie Shaw and Andrew Francis (London: Equinox, 2008), 213-33.
Taylor also contributed a short article to Surfing Florida (ed. Paul Aho).
Bron Taylor’s video interview on Surfing Spirituality with Munich’s Rachel Carson Center is available here: