THE EMERGENCE OF SELVES AND PURPOSE: with Willem B. Drees, “Naturalism and Religion: Hunting Two Snarks?”; Ursula W. Goodenough and Jeremy E. Sherman, “The Emergence of Selves and Purpose”; Matthew D. MacKenzie, “Spiritual Animals: Sense-Making, Self-Transcendence, and Liberal Naturalism”; Curtis M. Craig, “The Potential Contribution of Awe and Nature Appreciation to Positive Moral Values”; Mark E. Hoelter, “Mysterium Tremendum in a New Key”; Charles W. Fowler, “The Convergence of Science and Religion”; Todd Macalister, “Naturalistic Religious Practices: What Naturalists Have Been Discussing and Doing”; Paul H. Carr, “Theologies Completing Naturalism's Limitations”; James Sharp, “Theistic Evolution in Three Traditions”; Alessandro Mantini, “Religious Naturalism and Creation: A Cosmological and Theological Reading on the Origin/Beginning of the Universe”; and Willem B. Drees, “When to Be What? Why Science-Inspired Naturalism Need Not Imply Religious Naturalism.”

We first consider the concept of emergent properties and constraint-based emergent dynamics, and present a model, based on such dynamics, of the origin of life from nonlife and the subsequent selection and evolution of variant lifeforms. We then explore the concept that each lifeform is a self, engaged in self-maintenance, self-repair, self-protection, and self-reproduction, leading to the endowment of each self with systems of purpose, awareness, attunement, and meaning assessment. Finally, we apply these understandings to humans and suggest their implications for our religious and ecological orientations.