Dennis Rivers, MA, is a systems analyst, computer programmer, writer, mandala maker, and spiritual aspirant/activist, who lives in Eugene, Oregon. (I prefer to write in the first person, so the rest of this summary biography will use “I” rather than “he” and "Dennis".)
In the course of my restless, curious, and somewhat chaotic eighty-one, I have lived in a Sikh ashram, practiced Bhakti Yoga, built a wooden house on a mountain top, gotten arrested several times as an anti-nuclear protester, and earned degrees in business (from UCLA), religious studies (UC Santa Barbara), and communication studies (Vermont College Graduate Program). I also did graduate work in sociology (UC Santa Barbara), theology (Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley), and counseling (Antioch University). I feel that all this wide-ranging study was great preparation for becoming a writer and editor. I needed some time, quite a bit of time, to find my own voice.
I am now the writer/editor/librarian of several large public-service web sites, including LiberationTheology.org, Communication-Skills.net, EarthPrayer.net (green spirituality), and OneEarth.University (peace, ecology and Earth Citizenship). Among the many jobs and work assignments I have had, I worked for fifteen years developing online courses for a small graduate program, hence my interest in curriculum development and online education for the Great Turning. My participation in the Vietnam War turned me into a lifelong peace/forgiveness/reconciliation activist/researcher.
My books include
Prayer Evolving: Five Explorations into the Future of Prayer,
The Seven Challenges Workbook: Communication Skills for Success at Home and at Work,
and two widely distributed manuscripts, one on the topic of conscientious objection, and one on the topic of reverence for life as a spiritual path.
What little I have accomplished in life has always been the result of enormous help from others. The deepest influences on my thinking and writing have been two ecologists, Joanna Macy and Thomas Berry, and four psychologists, Carl Rogers, Carl Jung, Abraham Maslow and Robert Kegan. I am also deeply grateful for the personal and intellectual encouragement that I received from three of my religious studies professors at UC Santa Barbara: Drs. Ramon Panikkar, Richard Comstock and Walter Capps. They encouraged me to keep on wrestling with deep questions, such as what does it mean to be a fully human person in a country and world addicted to war and oppression. That process of wrestling is still going on, as you can see from the documents on this site.