Teaching & Learning Guide for: Religious Environmentalism in the West
This guide accompanies the following article(s): Religious Environmentalism in the West I: a Focus on Christianity, Religion Compass 3/4 (2009) pp. 717-737, 10.1111/j.1749-8171.2009.00161.x Religious Environmentalism in the West. II: Impediments to the Praxis of Christian Environmentalism in Austral...
| Published in: | Religion compass |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley-Blackwell
2010
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| In: |
Religion compass
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| Summary: | This guide accompanies the following article(s): Religious Environmentalism in the West I: a Focus on Christianity, Religion Compass 3/4 (2009) pp. 717-737, 10.1111/j.1749-8171.2009.00161.x Religious Environmentalism in the West. II: Impediments to the Praxis of Christian Environmentalism in Australia, Religion Compass 3/4 (2009) pp. 738-751, 10.1111/j.1749-8171.2009.00162.x Author’s Introduction Religious environmentalism (also termed, amongst others, ‘religion and ecology’) is a growing field of academic study that encompasses disciplines such as ecological theology, ecopsychology, environmental education, political science, environmental sociology and applied ecology. This field of research is of particular political significance as it is argued that the rise of religious environmentalism in the West has been and continues to be a factor in promoting an alliance of socially conservative religion and socially progressive environmentalism. Growing concern about climate change is a factor in the rise of religious environmentalism, in part because the impacts of climate change are seen to be significant for people as well as non-human Nature. Religious groups who have long been concerned with human welfare, often to the exclusion of any form of environmentalism, are increasingly seeing that human welfare and ecological well-being are inextricably linked. Similarly, secular environmentalists and scientists are acknowledging the potentially powerful role that religion and spirituality can play in changing human behaviours for the better. Author Recommends The following recommended works are specific to Christian environmentalism. 1 Hessel, D.T. and Ruether, R.R. (eds.), (2000). Christianity and Ecology: Seeking the Well-Being of Earth and Humans. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press/Centre for the Study of World Religions. This is a large volume of work written by a range of authors. It is a core resource in the field of Christian environmentalism, and provides good coverage of this broad field. 2 Habel, N. (2000). Introducing the Earth Bible. In: N. Habel (ed.), Readings from the Perspective of Earth (Earth Bible Vol. 1), pp. 1-25. Sheffield, Sheffield Academic Press. The Earth Bible is a series of theological texts that amount to an ecologically oriented reinterpretation of biblical texts. 3 Kearns, L. (1996). ‘Saving the creation: Christian environmentalism in the United States’, Sociology of Religion, 57(1), pp. 55-59. http://users.drew.edu/lkearns/creation.pdf Whilst written in a USA context, this relatively short work (which is freely available on-line) provides a classification of religious environmentalism that is useful more widely. It provides some particularly useful background information to important works and events in the development of Christian environmentalism. 4 McDonagh, S. (1990). The Greening of the Church. Quezon City: Claretian Publications. This is a potent earlier work on religious environmentalism in the Catholic Church. The author, himself a Catholic, points out the many contradictions and deficiencies in the Vatican’s then environmental policies and proclamations, including a failure to deal with the issue of human population growth. This publication is a powerful insight into the development of institutional Catholic Church environmentalism. It even addresses the anti-environmentalist views of then Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, who has since promoted a ‘greener’ view. 5 McFarland Taylor, S. (2007). Green Sisters: A Spiritual Ecology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. This text and associated articles in the journals ‘Worldviews’ and ‘Ecotheology’ explores the growing movement of environmentally activist Roman Catholic nuns in North America and the implications of this movement for theorising new directions in religion and culture. 6 Northcott, M.S. (1996). The Environment and Christian Ethics. Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press. The author argues that the ‘natural tradition law’ within Christianity ‘provides significant resources for an ethical response to the environmental crisis of modern civilisation, but only if the humanocentric revision of this tradition by Finnis, Grisez and the Vatican is rejected in favour of an ecologically informed reappropriation of the pre-Enlightenment natural law tradition, focused as it was not just on human life and human moral goods but on the moral significance and moral goods of the natural created order’ p137. 7 Palmer, M. (1992). Dancing to Armageddon. London: Aquarian/Thorsons. An important text dealing with the history of Christianity in relation to environmental thought, differences between Western and Eastern Christianity, and the fact that other faiths are linked to environmental harm i.e. Christianity is not solely or even primarily to blame. Palmer explores some of the ecologically problematic aspects of Christianity, capitalism and Western culture. He recognises that ultimately the ecological and social crises are crises of the mind. 8 Scharper, S.B. (1997). Redeeming the Time: A Political Theology of the Environment. New York: Continuum. An incisive, original and deep investigation into Christianity in the context of the ecological crisis. The author writes: ‘Political theology maintains that this new human-nonhuman relationship is fundamentally moral, not simply biological, and acknowledges, like process theology, a primal interrelationship between the human and nonhuman realms’ p189. The text is readily understood and provides some excellent background to some of the core philosophical and theological issues associated with Christian environmentalism. 9 Berry, T. (1988). The Dream of the Earth. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. An earlier work important in understanding the ‘Creation spirituality’ view within Christian environmentalism. 10 Boff, L. (1997). Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor. New York: Orbis Books. An important text in the context of the development of the ‘eco-justice’ paradigm that links Christian concern for social justice to the more recent concern for ecological justice. Online Materials 1 http://fore.research.yale.edu/index.html This is the website of the Forum On Religion & Ecology (FORE) originally based in Harvard, now at Yale University in the USA. This large and multifaceted website provides a wealth of information to researchers in the field of religious environmentalism. Whilst it provides an abundance of information relating to Christianity, it also deals with other traditions. It is US-centric but is not US-exclusive. Resources include bibliographies and lists of/links to engaged projects operated by various individual, ecumenical and multifaith groups. A Canadian chapter of FORE has also been established (http://www.cfore.ca/) and there is a similar entity in Europe (http://www.hf.ntnu.no/relnateur/). A FORE will be established at Monash University (http://www.monash.edu.au/) in Australian during 2010. 2 http://www.arcworld.org/ This is the website of the Alliance of Religions & Conservation (ARC), a group founded in 1986 by WWF International through its then President, Prince Phillip of the UK. ARC was a pioneering endeavour in the field of religious environmentalism, and is particularly significant given its multifaith basis and its focus on ecological outcomes. ARC continues to grow, including several faith traditions beyond its founding five. The website is updated regularly and contains news and a wide range of resources for researchers. 3 http://www.religionandnature.com/society/index.htm The International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature & Culture is a professional association of particular relevance to researchers in the field of religious environmentalism. The Society holds international conferences and produces a peer-reviewed journal. 4 http://www.ecocongregation.org/ Eco-Congregation developed from a partnership between a UK Government-funded environmental charity and the Environmental Issues Network of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland. It aims to encourage churches to consider environmental issues and to enable local churches to make positive contributions in their life and mission. The project now encompasses the whole of the UK and Canada. Aspects of the project, particularly its environmental audit process for churches, are also in use in Australia. 5 http://creationcare.org/ This is the website of the Evangelical Environment Network (EEN) based in the USA. EEN operated the What Would Jesus Drive website and associated project aimed at discouraging the widespread use of large and inefficient motor vehicles in the USA. EEN also publishes Creation Care magazine. EEN’s website contains, amongst other things, programs with a strong practical focus intended to reduce the ecological footprint of individuals and churches. EEN is a significant factor in what has been termed the rise of the ‘religious left’ in US politics. Sample Syllabus This sample syllabus includes re ... |
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| ISSN: | 1749-8171 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religion compass
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-8171.2010.00213.x |