The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Religion and Ecology E-Book

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: Blackwell Companions to Religion
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 1307

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

In the face of the current environmental crisis--which clearly has moral and spiritual dimensions--members of all the world's faiths have come to recognize the critical importance of religion's relationship to ecology. The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Religion and Ecology offers a comprehensive overview of the history and the latest developments in religious engagement with environmental issues throughout the world. Newly commissioned essays from noted scholars of diverse faiths and scientific traditions present the most cutting-edge thinking on religion's relationship to the environment. Initial readings explore the ways traditional concepts of nature in Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and other religious traditions have been shaped by the environmental crisis. Readings then address the changing nature of theology and religious thought in response to the challenges of protecting the environment. Various conceptual issues and themes that transcend individual traditions--climate change, bio-ethics, social justice, ecofeminism, and more--are then analyzed before a final section examines some of the immediate challenges we face in caring for the Earth while looking to the future of religious environmentalism. Timely and thought-provoking, Companion to Religion and Ecology offers illuminating insights into the role of religion in the ongoing struggle to secure the future well-being of our natural world. With a foreword by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, and an Afterword by John Cobb

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

List of Contributors

Foreword

Preface

Faith Traditions and Ecology

Creation Stories and Inspiration

Dissemination of Faith Traditions

Resistance to Religions’ Ecological Teachings

Space Limitations on Religions’ Consideration

Environment, Ecology, and Economics

Philosophical Ethics and Ethics‐in‐Context

The Contributors’Approaches to Religion and Ecology

The Contributors’ Insights

The

Companion

in Context

Acknowledgments

I. Religions and Ecological Consciousness

CHAPTER 1: God is Absolute Reality and All Creation His

Tajallī

(Theophany)

Introduction

The Metaphysical Foundation

The Role of Religion

Man and the Natural Order

Consciousness

The Face of God

The Role of Man in Relation to Nature

The Obstacle of Scientism

An Islamic Philosophy of Nature

CHAPTER 2:

Swaraj

Introduction

Chipko and the Story of the Forest

Navdanya and the Story of the Seed

CHAPTER 3: Eco‐Kabbalah

Maimonides

Kabbalah and Eco‐theology

Sefirotic Play

Holism

The Earth or Cosmos as Divine Body and Image

God’s Image within the World

Rabbinic Roots and Modern Branches

Dualism and Repairing the Cosmos

Ethics

Contemplation and Ritual

Conclusion

CHAPTER 4:

Laudato Sí

in the Earth Commons—Integral Ecology and Socioecological Ethics

Laudato Sí

: Insights from the Earth Community Commons

Francis of Assisi and Francis I

Laudato Sí

Themes

Earth Commons

Socioecological Praxis Ethics

Dialogic Relational Community in the Common Commons

Integral Ecology and Socioecological Consciousness and Conduct

CHAPTER 5: 神の大経綸

A Vision for the Twenty‐first Century as a Holy Century

The Fundamental Principle for the Yoko Civilization is “The Origin of the World is One”

From an Age of Religion to an Age of Sukyo

A Spirit‐Centered Civilization and “The Principle of the Two‐Dimensional Cross”

The Principle of the Cross

The Convergence of Science and Religion

The Forum of the Cross and the Yoko Civilization

The Great Opportunity for the Renaissance of Sukyo

CHAPTER 6: In the Time of the Sacred Places

Minwenzha

Sacred Stories

Sacred Places

Related Peoples:

Nur

and Human

Copper and Iron, or Wild Rice and Water

The Predator Returns

Doko’oosliid

, Kachinas Mountain, and Recycled Ski Areas

The Auction of the Sacred

Return to Sacred Lifeways

The Living Industrial Predator

Sacred Places Renewed, Sacred Stories Retold, Sacred Lives Relived

CHAPTER 7: Eco‐Theology in the African Diaspora

Eco‐Theology

CHAPTER 8: Buddhist Interdependence and the Elemental Life

The Study of Buddhism and Ecology

The Buddhist Worldview

Buddhist Practice: Elemental Meditations

Seeing the Buddha

Past Life Stories of the Buddha

The Ruby‐Eyed, Silver‐Clawed Blue Bear

Buddhist Ecological Leaders and the Gyalwa Karmapa

Conclusion

CHAPTER 9:

Theodao

A Theanthropocosmic Vision: Both a New and an Ancient Cosmology

Theodao (Theology of Dao): A New Paradigm of Asian Theology

Pneumatosociocosmic Narratives of the Exploited Life: A New Pneumatology of

Ki

II. Care for the Earth and Life

CHAPTER 10: Science, Ecology, and Christian Theology

The Traditional Approach

The Sacramental Approach

The Promissory Approach

CHAPTER 11: Exploring Environmental Ethics in Islam

A Disrupted Tradition—Some Uncomfortable Thoughts

Earth—A Sacred Site

The Doctrine of Divine Unity

Responses to Change

Misali—The Sacred Island

Some Concluding Thoughts

CHAPTER 12: Science and Religion

Christian Authors

Argument from Design

Natural Theology

The Bridgewater Treatises

Creationism and Intelligent Design

Darwin’s Design

Evolution and the Bible

Faith and the Problem of Evil

ID: Imperfect Design, not Intelligent Design

Evolution: Religion’s Disguised Friend

Science and Religion in Concert

CHAPTER 13: The Serpent in Eden and in Africa

Introduction

The Serpent in Eden—Confronting the Myth

The Serpent in Africa: The Ambiguous Premise of Snakes

The Serpent in Popular Literature

The Serpent in Anthropological Literature

The Serpent and the Waters

The Serpent in God’s Creation

The Serpent in Christian Ecological Theology

CHAPTER 14: Jewish Environmental Ethics

Jewish Religious Environmentalism

Principles of Jewish Ethics of Responsibility: Normative Ethics

Theorizing the Ethics of Responsibility: Meta‐Ethics

Conclusion

CHAPTER 15: Ecowomanism and Ecological Reparations

Ecowomanism

Ecowomanism and Ecological Reparations

Reimagining Theology: Ecowomanist Analysis and the Challenge of Reshaping Dualistic Theological Frames

Challenges: Breaking the Addiction to Dualisms in Western Thought

Honoring the Complexity

Conclusion: Ecological Reparations

CHAPTER 16: From Climate Debt to Climate Justice

The Challenge of Moral Agency

The Blinders of Climate Privilege

A Resource in Christian Traditions for Moral Agency: A Subversive Liberative Perspective

Incarnation as Resistance and Rebuilding

In Conclusion

CHAPTER 17: The Vision of St. Maximus the Confessor

The Blessed End of All Things: Unity in God

The Workshop of Unity: The Human Being

The Texture of All Things: The

Logoi

of Beings

The Structure of All Things: Recurring Patterns

The Reclamation of All Things: Asceticism and Transfiguration

Conclusion

III. Ecological Commitment

CHAPTER 18: From Social Justice to Creation Justice in the Anthropocene

CHAPTER 19: Christianity, Ecofeminism, and Transformation

Introduction: Religion, Ecology, and Feminism

Feminism and Ecology: Historical Considerations

Women, Environment, Development, and Sustainability

Ecofeminism

Women/Nature, Feminism/Ecology, and Christian Theologies

Challenges to Ecofeminist Theologies

Larger Horizons

CHAPTER 20: The Face of God in the World

Conservation and Conversion

Ecology and the Church

Cosmic Liturgy

Cosmic Image

Cosmic Vision

The Seed of God

The Distinction between Essence and Energies

God and the World

The Shattered Image

CHAPTER 21: Climate Change and Christian Ethics

The Christian Roots of and Responses to the Ecological Crisis

The Growth of Human Technological Power and the Theologies of Crisis

The Global Economy and the Refusal of Terrestrial Limits to Growth

Caring for the Earth as Spirit‐Infused Divine Creation

Philosophical and Theological Approaches to Ecological Ethics

The Christian Discovery of Environmental (In)Justice

Natural Law and the Ways of the Earth

Eschatology and Ecclesia

CHAPTER 22: Islamic Environmental Teachings

Introduction

Ecofeminism

An Islamic View of the Environment: Relational View

Human Devotional Dimension of the Islamic Environmental View

Knowledge and Activism in the Islamic Environmental View

The Islamic Environmental View and Ecofeminism

Patriarchal Interpretation of the Islamic Perspective on the Environment and Women

Conclusion

CHAPTER 23: The Divine Environment (

al‐Muhit

) and the Body of God

Introduction

Dialoguing Through Differences

The Mysticism of the Body: Universal Self and Universal Man

Conclusion: Revisioning the Dialogue

CHAPTER 24:

Chondogyo

and a Sacramental Commons

Western Civilization, the Ecological Crisis, and Their Influence on Korean Society

Historical Background and Development of the

Chondogyo

Tradition

Christian Sacramental Tradition

Sacramental Universe and Sacramental Commons

Comparative Constructs: Sacramental Commons and

Chondogyo

Mystical Unity of

Bul‐yon‐Ki‐yon

in

Chondogyo

Creation Consciousness as a Common Socioecological Vision

Creation Spirituality and Consciousness

CHAPTER 25: The Religious Politics of Scientific Doubt

Evangelicalism and Science in the Twentieth Century

Evangelicalism and Science

From Evolution to Climate Change

Evangelical Environmentalism

Conclusion

CHAPTER 26: The Covenant of Reciprocity

What Can We Give?

IV. Visions for the Present and Future Earth

CHAPTER 27: Prayer as if Earth Really Matters

Earth‐Awareness in Formal Prayer

Making Public Advocacy Actions Prayerful

CHAPTER 28: The Evolutionary and Ecological Perspectives of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Thomas Berry

Introduction

The Spirit of the Earth

Teilhard’s Life Quest: Seeing

Phenomenology: The Significance of Complexity‐Consciousness

Metaphysics: The Dynamics of Union

Mysticism: The Centering of Person in Evolution

Contributions and Limitations in Teilhard’s Thought

Thomas Berry’s Life Quest: A New Story

Berry’s Intellectual Journey from Human History to Earth History

Historian of Western Intellectual History

Historian of Asian Thought and Religions

Indigenous Religious Traditions

Teilhard’s Influence on the New Story

The Origin and Significance of the New Story

Conclusion

CHAPTER 29: Earth as Community Garden

Introduction: The Burden of More

Industrial Farming and Relentless Growth

City Earth

Hunger, Poverty, and Politics

Permaculture as Ecocentric Liberation

Permaculture Ethics

Shepherds of the Creation

Healing Through Urban Agriculture

Gardening as Liberation

Tendrils of Hope

CHAPTER 30: Theo‐Forming Earth Community

Transcendent Theo‐Formations

Eco‐Religious Responses: Theo‐Forming in an Immanent Frame

Ecology of Experimental Meaning‐Making

CHAPTER 31: Religious Environmentalism and Environmental Activism

Religious Environmentalism Defined

Environmental Activism Defined

What’s the Connection?

Is the Political World Any Place for Religion?

A Historic Shift

When Religions Turn Green

Dilemmas of Religious Environmentalism

Religion? Politics? Both?

Religion’s Political Gifts

Conclusion

CHAPTER 32: Global Heating, Pope Francis, and the Promise of

Laudato Sí

CHAPTER 33: Respect for Mother Earth

Climate Change

Respectful Relations, Not Dominating and Destructive Dominion

Water: Consciousness, Intelligence, Spirit, and Sacredness

Indigenous Traditional Knowledge Confronts Alien Colonial Consciousness

The UNFCCC, Environmental Safeguards, and Human Rights

The Perils of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and (Forest) Degradation

CHAPTER 34: Common Commons

Introduction

Sacred Space, Sacred Commons

Social Space, Social Commons

Common Commons

CHAPTER 35: A New

Partzuf

for a New Paradigm

Remember the One from Whom the Cosmos Emanates/Emerges/is Born

Epiphanies Rather than Theophanies

Prophets’ Voices in the New Paradigm

Renew Creation

Restore Community

Partzufim

through Time: Both Place‐Specific and Intergenerationally Significant

Right Brain and Left Brain Observation and Consideration

Dreaming Dreams and Seeing Visions

The Torah that Transcends Yet Carries Tradition

Beyond False Images

Toward a Global, Universal, and Evolving Spiritual‐Social Consciousness

Afterword

Index

End User License Agreement

List of Illustrations

Chapter 05

Figure 5.1 The Significance of the Ideogram of Hijiri.

Figure 5.2 The Principle of the Cross.

Guide

Cover

Table of Contents

Begin Reading

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The Wiley Blackwell Companions to Religion

The Wiley Blackwell Companions to Religion series presents a collection of the most recent scholarship and knowledge about world religions. Each volume draws together newly‐commissioned essays by distinguished authors in the field, and is presented in a style which is accessible to undergraduate students, as well as scholars and the interested general reader. These volumes approach the subject in a creative and forward‐thinking style, providing a forum in which leading scholars in the field can make their views and research available to a wider audience.

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The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Religion and Ecology

Edited by

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Names: Hart, John, 1943– editor.Title: The Wiley Blackwell companion to religion and ecology / edited by John Hart.Other titles: Wiley‐Blackwell companions to religion.Description: Hoboken, NJ : John Wiley & Sons, 2017. | Series: Wiley Blackwell Companions to Religion |  Includes bibliographical references and index.Identifiers: LCCN 2016052012 (print) | LCCN 2016057682 (ebook) | ISBN 9781118465561 (cloth) |  ISBN 9781118465547 (epdf) | ISBN 9781118465530 (epub)Subjects: LCSH: Ecology–Religious aspects. | Ecology–Moral and ethical aspects.Classification: LCC BL65.E36 W55 2017 (print) | LCC BL65.E36 (ebook) | DDC 201/.77–dc23LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016052012

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List of Contributors

Nawal H. Ammar is a professor of criminology and Dean of the Faculty of Social Science and Humanities, University of Ontario Institute of Technology. Previously, Nawal was a professor at Kent State University, Ohio. Her research areas include environmental justice in Islam, violence against immigrant women, and Muslims in the criminal justice system. Nawal’s recent publications include an edited volume, Muslims in US Prisons (2015).

Francisco J. Ayala is a university professor and Donald Bren Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. He has published over 1,000 articles and is author or editor of 50 books. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. In 2001 he received the US National Medal of Science and in 2010 the Templeton Prize. The New York Times named him “Renaissance Man of Evolutionary Biology.”

Whitney A. Bauman is an associate professor of religious studies at Florida International University, Miami. He is the author of Religion and Ecology: Developing a Planetary Ethic (2014) and Theology, Creation and Environmental Ethics (2009), and editor of Grounding Religion: A Field Guide to the Study of Religion and Ecology (with Kevin J. O’Brien and Richard Bohannon, 2011) and Science and Religion: One Planet Many Possibilities (2014). He was a Fulbright Fellow in Indonesia (2014: “Religion and Globalization”) and a Humboldt Fellow in Germany (2015‒16: “The Religious Underpinnings of Ernst Haeckel’s Understanding of Nature”).

Christopher Key Chapple, Doshi Professor of Indic and Comparative Theology and Director of the MA in Yoga Studies at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, has published more than 20 books, including Yoga and Ecology (2008), Jainism and Ecology (2000), and Nonviolence to Animals, Earth, and Self in Asian Traditions (1993). He serves on several advisory boards, including the Forum on Religion and Ecology (Yale University) and the Jain Studies Centre (London), and edits the journal Worldviews.

John Chryssavgis, Archdeacon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, is special theological advisor to the Office of Ecumenical and Inter‐Faith Affairs of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, coordinates the Social and Moral Issues Commission of the Orthodox Churches in America, and serves as ecological advisor to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I. His books include Light Through Darkness: the Orthodox Tradition (2004) and Beyond the Shattered Image: Insights into an Orthodox Christian Ecological Worldview (1999); he is editor of On Earth as in Heaven (2011) on Patriarch Bartholomew’s ecological vision and activities and, with Pope Francis, of Bartholomew: Apostle and Visionary (2016).

John B. Cobb, Jr. was born in Japan of Methodist missionary parents from Georgia. He earned a PhD from the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. Most of his teaching career was at Claremont School of Theology, California where, with David Griffin, he founded the Center for Process Studies. Among his books are Christ in a Pluralistic Age (with Charles Birch, 1999), The Liberation of Life (1982), and For the Common Good (with Herman Daly, 1994).

Heather Eaton is Full Professor of Conflict Studies, Saint Paul University, Ottawa. Her doctoral studies at the University of Toronto integrated ecology, feminism, theology, and religious pluralism. Heather’s publications include The Intellectual Journey of Thomas Berry (2014), Ecological Awareness: Exploring Religion, Ethics and Aesthetics (with Sigurd Bergmann, 2011), Introducing Ecofeminist Theologies (2005), Ecofeminism and Globalization (with Lois Ann Lorentzen, 2003), and numerous articles. Her most recent work covers religious imagination, evolution, Earth dynamics; peace and conflict studies on gender, ecology, and religion.

Dianne D. Glave is on the staff of the Western Pennsylvania United Methodist Conference Center as coordinator of diversity development. She completed her MDiv degree at the Candler School of Theology, Emory University, Druid Hills, Atlanta. She has served at two churches in Pittsburgh. Dianne’s doctorate in history emphasized African‐American and environmental history, and experience as a professor informs her current position. Her publications include Rooted in the Earth: Reclaiming the African American Environmental Heritage (2010).

Tom B. K. Goldtooth, Diné Nation, is executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN). He has been a social activist for almost 40 years promoting, in his speeches, writing, and nonviolent protest, justice for indigenous peoples and the wellbeing of Mother Earth and all life. He is a member of the International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Climate Change and the Steering Committee of Climate Justice Alliance. He was awarded the Gandhi Peace Award in 2015, and in 2010 was selected as the Sierra Club and NAACP “Green Hero of Color.”

Roger S. Gottlieb is a professor of philosophy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Massachusetts, and the author or editor of 18 books and over 125 articles on environmentalism, political philosophy, spirituality, the Holocaust, and disability. Among his recent works are the Nautilus Book Award winners Spirituality: What it Is and Why it Matters (2012), Engaging Voices: Tales of Morality and Meaning in an Age of Global Warming (2011), and Political and Spiritual: Essays on Religion, Environment, Disability and Justice (2014).

Allison Gray is a doctoral student at the University of Windsor, Ontario pursuing a range of interests in the areas of social justice, criminology, and food studies. She is currently working on projects involving the experiences of contemporary food activists in a consumerist culture, exploring the connections between population demographics and the use of Canada's Food Guide, and the governance of children's brown‐bag school lunches in Ontario.

Tallessyn Zawn Grenfell‐Lee was awarded a doctorate from Boston University School of Theology; her MS in biology from Harvard University, and BS in biology from the Massachusetts Inistitute of Technology. She contributed a chapter on Creation empathy and Christian mission to Ecology and Mission (2015), and has published articles in the Journal of Faith and Science Exchange and James Nash: A Tribute: Environmental Ethics, Ecumenical Engagement, Public Theology (2010); and in the scientific journals PNAS, Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Neuron.

John Grim teaches religion and ecology at Yale University. With Mary Evelyn Tucker he directs the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, which arose from a series of ten conferences they organized at Harvard University and ten edited volumes. John specializes in Native American religions. He is the author of The Shaman (1988) and editor of Indigenous Traditions and Ecology (2001). With Mary Evelyn he edited Worldviews and Ecology (1994), Ecology and Religion (2014), and Thomas Berry’s essays, The Christian Future and the Fate of Earth (1994). John is president of the American Teilhard Association, with Mary Evelyn as vice president.

Melanie L. Harris is an associate professor of religion and ethics at Texas Christian University, Fort Worth. She teaches environmental ethics, womanist ethics, African‐American religion, and Africana studies. She is the author of Gifts of Virtue, Alice Walker and Womanist Ethics (2013). She is editor of Faith, Feminism and Scholarship. (with K. Ott, 2011). Melanie serves on the board of KERA‐TV; her academic leadership positions include member advocate, American Academy of Religion; and board member, Society of Christian Ethics.

John Hart is Professor of Christian Ethics, Boston University School of Theology. His books include Cosmic Commons: Spirit, Science, and Space (2013), Sacramental Commons: Christian Ecological Ethics (2006), What Are They Saying About … Environmental Theology? (2004), Ethics and Technology: Innovation and Transformation in Community Contexts (1997), and The Spirit of the Earth—A Theology of the Land (1984). He has written more than 100 articles, essays, and book chapters, and presented invited lectures on socioecological ethics on five continents, in eight countries, and 35 US states.

John F. Haught is Distinguished Research Professor, Theology Department, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, where he was formerly a professor and Chair. His area of specialization is systematic theology, with a particular interest in issues pertaining to science, cosmology, evolution, and ecology and religion. He has authored 20 books, most on topics in science and religion, including Science and Faith: A New Introduction (2013) and Making Sense of Evolution: Darwin, God, and the Drama of Life (2010), as well as numerous articles and reviews. He lectures internationally on issues related to science, ecology, and religion.

Kapya John Kaoma is a visiting researcher at Boston University’s Center for Global Christianity and Mission, and Adjunct Professor, St. John’s Anglican University College, Zambia. He holds degrees from Evangelical University College, Zambia; Trinity College, England; the Episcopal Divinity School; and Boston University, Massachusetts. He is author of The Creator’s Symphony: African Christianity (2015), Raised Hopes, Shattered Dreams (2015), God’s Family, God’s Earth (2013), and numerous peer‐reviewed articles and book chapters, and is editor of Creation Care in Christian Mission (2015).

Fazlun M. Khalid is the founding director of the Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences (IFEES/EcoIslam). He was named one of 15 leading eco‐theologians in the world (Grist magazine, July 24, 2007) and listed among the “500 Most Influential Muslims in the World” by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre of Jordan. He received the 2004 award for Excellence in Engineering, Science and Technology by the London‐based Muslim News for developing a scientific approach to Islamic environmental practice.

Heup Young Kim is Professor of Theology, Kangnam University, Yongin, South Korea. He was a moderator of the Congress of Asian Theologians, president of the Korean Society for Systematic Theology, and a founding member of the International Society for Science and Religion. He has published numerous works in the areas of East Asian theology, interreligious dialogue, and religion and science, including Christ and the Tao (2010) and Wang Yang‐ming and Karl Barth: A Confucian‒Christian Dialogue (1996).

Robin Wall Kimmerer is SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental and Forest Biology at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, New York, and founding director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment. She is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi, a mother, scientist, and writer. Her publications include Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants (2015) and Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses (2003).

Winona LaDuke is executive director of Honor the Earth, and an Anishinaabe from Round Lake, White Earth reservation, Minnesota. She received her BA in native economic development, Harvard University in 1981, participated in the Community Fellows program, MIT, 1982, and earned her MA in rural development at Antioch University, Yellow Springs, Ohio, in l986. She received the Thomas Merton Award (1996), the Ann Bancroft Award for Women’s Leadership Fellowship, and was named the Ms. magazine Woman of the Year in 1998. She is author of Recovering the Sacred: The Power of Naming and Claiming (2016) and All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life (2016).

Bill McKibben, author and environmentalist, founded 350.org to combat global heating; it has organized 20,000 climate‐related events around the world. He is the Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College,Vermont, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has been awarded the Right Livelihood Prize (2014), the Gandhi Prize (2013), and the Thomas Merton Prize (2013). He has written numerous books, including Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future (2008) and The End of Nature (2006), and articles for The New Yorker, New York Review of Books, National Geographic, and Rolling Stone.

Ian S. Mevorach holds a BA in philosophy from Middlebury College, Vermont, and an MDiv and PhD in theological ethics and constructive theology from Boston University, Massachusetts. He represents the American Baptist Churches USA on the board of Creation Justice Ministries, which is affiliated with the National Council of Churches. He authored “Stewards of Creation: A Christian Calling for Today’s Ecological Crisis,” For Such a Time as This: Young Adults on the Future of the Church (2014).

Cynthia Moe‐Lobeda is Professor of Theological and Social Ethics at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary and the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California. She is author or co‐author of five books, most recently Resisting Structural Evil: Love as Ecological–Economic Vocation, and numerous articles and chapters. Her research focuses on climate justice related to race and class, moral agency, hope, public church, faith‐ based resistance to systemic injustice, economic globalization, and the ethical implications of resurrection and incarnation.

Seyyed Hossein Nasr, world‐renowned scholar on Islam, is University Professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University, Washington, DC. He earned his undergraduate degree in physics and mathematics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and studied geology and geophysics at Harvard University, where he earned his PhD in the history of science and philosophy. He has published over 50 books and hundreds of articles in numerous languages and translations, and is editor‐in‐chief of The Study Quran (2015).

Michael S. Northcott is Professor of Ethics in the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh, an episcopal priest, and a keen gardener. His books and papers are principally in the interdisciplinary area of ecology, religion, and ethics. His most recent books include Place, Ecology and the Sacred: The Moral Geography of Sustainable Communities (2015), A Political Theology of Climate Change (2013), and A Moral Climate: The Ethics of Global Warming (2007). He is editor of Systematic Theology and Climate Change: Ecumenical Perspectives (with Peter Scott, 2014).

Kōō Okada, spiritual leader of Sukyo Mahikari, graduated from Kokugakuin University, Tokyo in 1970 with a major in Shinto archeology. After graduating, he joined the staff of Sukyo Mahikari, while also commencing his formal training in the art of calligraphy under his late father, Yuhkei Teshima, a renowned master calligrapher and designated Person of Cultural Merit by the Japanese government. He is now, under his pen name, Tairiku Teshima, an internationally renowned calligrapher. In 2015, Kōō was appointed by the Agency of Cultural Affairs (Japanese government) as a member of the Religious Juridical Persons Council.

Naomi Oreskes is Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. Her research focuses on the Earth and environmental sciences, with a particular interest in understanding scientific consensus and dissent. Previously she was Professor of History and Science Studies at the University of California, San Diego, and Adjunct Professor of Geosciences at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. She is the author of Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming (with Erik M. Conway, 2011), and a novel, The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View from the Future (2014).

Yongbum Park is an assistant professor of Christian ethics at Honam Theological University and Seminary, Gwangju, South Korea, and concurrently serves as a youth group pastor in Gwangju Bethel Presbyterian Church. He studied philosophy, theology, and ethics in the Master of Sacred Theology program, and theological ethics in the PhD program, at Boston University, Massachusetts. He focuses on the areas of ecological ethics in multicultural contexts, and envisions the construction of a socioecological community in a local area.

Larry L. Rasmussen is Reinhold Niebuhr Professor Emeritus of Social Ethics, Union Theological Seminary, New York City. His books include Earth‐Honoring Faith: Religious Ethics in a New Key (2013), which received the Nautilus Book Award as the Gold Prize winner for Ecology/Environment and as the Grand Prize winner for best 2014 book overall, and Earth Community Earth Ethics (1996), which won the prestigious Grawemeyer Award in Religion in 1997.

David Mevorach Seidenberg teaches ecology and Judaism throughout North America and internationally. He is the author of Kabbalah and Ecology: God’s Image in the More‐Than‐Human World (2015), and created and directs neohasid.org, which disseminates eco‐Torah, liturgy, and Hasidic nigunim (religious songs). He was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary (doctorate in Jewish thought) and by Rabbi Zalman Schachter‐Shalomi. His research interests include midrash (interpretation or commentary on Hebrew scripture) and the Talmud, Nachman of Breslov, Martin Buber, and the theurgy of dance.

Myrna Perez Sheldon, historian of evolutionary theory, holds a joint appointment as an assistant professor of gender and American religion in the Department of Classics and World Religions, and the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program, at Ohio University, Athens, Ohio. She received her PhD in the history of science from Harvard University and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at William Marsh Rice University, Houston, Texas.

Vandana Shiva, quantum physicist, environmental activist, and social justice proponent, has promoted awareness of the adverse impacts of climate change, seed patents, and globalization. Her master’s degree is from Guelph University (1976), and her doctorate from the University of Western Ontario (1978). She founded the Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Ecology, and received the Right Livelihood Award in 1993. Her books include Globalization’s New Wars: Seed, Water, and Life Forms (2005) and Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability, and Peace (2005).

Elizabeth Theokritoff is an independent scholar, freelance theological translator, and occasional lecturer at the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies, Cambridge (England). She is editor of The Cambridge Companion to Orthodox Christian Theology (with Mary B. Cunningham, 2008), and author of Living in God’s Creation: Orthodox Perspectives on Ecology (2009), as well as numerous articles.

Hava Tirosh‐Samuelson is Irving and Miriam Lowe Professor of Modern Judaism at Arizona State University, Phoenix. She is the author of Happiness in Premodern Judaism: Virtue, Knowledge and Well‐Being (2003), Between Worlds: The Life and Work of Rabbi David ben Judah Messer Leon (1991), and numerous essays. She edited Judaism and Ecology: Created World and Revealed World (2002), six collections of essays, and the Library of Contemporary Jewish Philosophers.

Rabbi Zalman Schachter‐Shalomi, a founder of the Jewish Renewal Movement, was its much‐beloved spiritual guide. His roots were in the Chabad‐Lubavitch tradition, an offshoot of Hasidism. He welcomed insights from all religious and spiritual traditions; promoted women’s equality in Judaism, social justice, and environmental wellbeing. He earned an MA degree in the psychology of religion at Boston University and a doctorate in theology at Hebrew Union College‐Jewish Institute of Religion. His books include A Heart Afire and From Age‐Ing to Sage‐Ing.

Mary Evelyn Tucker with John Grim, teaches religion and ecology at Yale University, and directs the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology. Mary Evelyn specializes in Confucianism, is the author of Worldly Wonder: Religions Enter Their Ecological Phase (2003) and Moral and Spiritual Cultivation in Japanese Neo‐Confucianism (1989), and is translator of The Philosophy of Qi (2007). With Brian Swimme, she wrote Journey of the Universe (book and film, 2014). She edited Thomas Berry’s books, The Great Work, Evening Thoughts, and The Sacred Universe.

Arthur Waskow is a rabbi and founder director of The Shalom Center, focused on peace and ecojustice for the Earth, humanity, and all living beings. His books include Seasons of Our Joy (rev. ed., 2012), and Freedom Journeys: The Tale of Exodus and Wilderness Across Millennia (with Rabbi Phyllis Berman, 2011). His latest arrest was during interfaith climate action at the White House before Passover and Palm Sunday, 2013.

Foreword

His All‐Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

In its foremost and traditional symbol of faith, the Christian Church confesses “one God, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible” (Nicene‐Constantinopolitan Creed). If the Earth is created by a loving God, then it is sacred; and if Creation is sacred, then our relationship with the world is sacramental.

From this fundamental principle of the sacredness and sacramentality of all Creation, the Orthodox Church articulates its vital concept of cosmic transfiguration, which is especially evident in its liturgical expressions and spiritual classics. The breadth and depth of cosmic vision implies a humanity that is a part of this transfiguration; at the same time, this worldview is greater than any one individual. Indeed, Orthodox theology takes a further step in recognizing that Creation is inseparable from the destiny of humanity, inasmuch as every human action leaves a lasting imprint on the body of the Earth. Moreover, human attitudes and behavior toward Creation directly impact on and reflect human attitudes and behavior toward other people, toward our brothers and sisters.

In this respect, it is clear that only a cooperative and collective response—by religious and civil leaders, theologians and scientists in dialogue, as well as political authorities and financial corporations—can appropriately and effectively address the challenging issues of climate change in our time. For this reason, on September 1, 1989, Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios issued an encyclical to all Orthodox churches throughout the world, establishing that day, being the first day of the ecclesiastical year, as a day of prayer for the protection and preservation of the natural environment. This dedication was later embraced by the European Council of Churches and, in turn, the World Council of Churches; more recently, Pope Francis formally adopted it for the Roman Catholic Church worldwide, and Archbishop Justin Welby followed suit for the Church of England. Over the past 25 years, we have endeavored to maintain the same sense of urgency with regard to environmental concerns in order to raise popular awareness and render international consciousness more sensitive to the irreversible destruction that threatens our planet today. One lesson that we have learned and repeatedly emphasized over the past decades is the realization that we are all faced with the same predicament: we are all in the same boat! The truth is that none of us—no individual or institution, no segment of society or field of discipline, no religion or race, neither East nor West—can either be blamed or burdened to solve this problem. We must all—together, in partnership and collaboration and communion—humbly accept our responsibility for exploiting and destroying natural resources, while at the same time embracing our vocation to “serve and preserve” (Gen. 2: 15) God’s gift of Creation.

Therefore, it has been encouraging to witness the same conviction and commitment expressed by a diverse group of individuals and wide range of institutions on the relationship between religion and ecology, as well as on the responsibility of religious thought and practice in ecological awareness and action. In this regard, we were deeply moved by the clear and compassionate message conveyed by our beloved brother Pope Francis, with the publication of his encyclical Laudato Si. Similarly, the present anthology of contributions by distinguished scholars of religion and ethics brings together many voices from seemingly divergent fields and contexts, albeit all of them converging on the same teaching and truth —namely, that it is only when we work together for the common good that we can bring about change for a caring world.

“Common commons” is the title of one of the concluding chapters in this volume, composed by its editor, John Hart. It is precisely the approach that we must assume if we are to envisage and expect “a new heaven and a new earth.”

Preface

People around the Earth have an ever‐greater understanding of the interconnectedness, interdependence, and interrelationships among the diverse species that comprise the biotic community, the community of all living beings in the web of life. They understand better, too, how the biotic community—as species and individuals—lives in relation to the Earth, its shared home. Humankind, even without expressing these relationships as ecological, has come to recognize how important local and global ecologies are for conserving, in a sometimes delicate balance, life on Earth.

Accomplished German scientist Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (1834–1919) coined the term “oecology” in 1866. The term comes from two Greek words: oikos (“house”) and logos (“science”). Ecology is the scientific study of the Earth’s household. The science of ecology is about relationships—among biota, and between biota and their environment, the place in which they live.

Faith Traditions and Ecology

People globally in the twenty‐first century who are members of a specific faith tradition, whether theists (who believe in a meta‐material Being who—or that—is distinct from the material, physical world), or atheists (who believe that there is no meta‐material Being), are exploring their respective traditions to find teachings or doctrines about human relations with and responsibilities toward the Earth and its biota. Theists, for example, might discover or rediscover religio‐ecological instructions that originated millennia or generations ago; or they might formulate or reformulate religio‐ecological understandings that originated not in ages past but in the past century (or decade). Believers, then, are becoming conscious or more conscious of the relationship between beliefs and moral norms that seemingly transcend origins in or interactions with the world. Perceptive believers recognize and acknowledge that there is no abrupt break between material and meta‐material realities: the latter emerge on Earth in specific times and places. The meta‐material is formed in part by the physical setting of its origin: if only in the believers’ faith, of giving verbal expression to a spiritual experience in which a transcendent or transcendent‐immanent Spirit provides, through words heard or visions seen, teachings about spiritual matters or conduct in community on Earth. People’s faith expresses insights received through and for what they consider to be their religion or their spiritual way, which they describe often as their “spirituality.”

The Wiley‐Blackwell Companion to Religion and Ecology, in its title but not its intent, gathers all these belief systems under the umbrella of religion. Volumes of elaboration would be needed to discuss the nature and function of “religion,” more appropriately called “religions” since they have different understandings of God, Allah, Yahweh, Wakantanka (Lakota), Masau’u (Hopi), and “spirituality” because of their respective origins from, and later historical development within, diverse social, cultural, and geographic locales. In the title and text of the Companion, therefore, the term “religion” should be understood to refer generically to any kind of body of belief, structured or unstructured, institutionally organized or not, that provides a foundation for individuals’ and social groups’ spiritual or Spirit‐derived or Spirit‐oriented way of life.

Religions across the world have diverse understandings of a transcendent sacred Presence. It might be a conscious, independent divine Spirit or a present energy; identified with the world or the cosmos, or developing with the world or cosmos; a companion Being solicitous of other beings, or an observer of what transpires with them—alone or when engaged with others—and sometimes or never intervening; an immanent existence‐permeating Spirit, a transcendent Spirit, or an immanent‐transcendent Spirit. Other possibilities, beyond number, exist among peoples of Earth.

Creation Stories and Inspiration

Religions that have Creation stories provide distinctive narratives about how the Earth and cosmos came into being. People within a particular faith tradition often think that theirs is the only story about the origins of existence, or that it is the only “true” account of how this transpired. People open to stories from traditions other than their own come to understand that all such stories are narratives from a particular cultural understanding in a particular geographical place at a particular time in human history. This knowledge enables each and all to have an ecumenical appreciation of the richness of the heritage of distinct traditions that seek to understand, in their own way and to the extent possible in their time and place, the origins of all that is.

Two decades ago students’ reactions to my presentation of Creation stories from diverse traditions around the world was particularly instructive. I was teaching an undergraduate course on the Hebrew scriptures at a Catholic college. I decided to discuss Creation stories complementary to but decidedly distinct from the Genesis Creation stories. Many of the students were amazed: they had believed that the Genesis biblical story (actually, two complementary stories that originated in different historical eras and cultural periods) was the only Creation story, and that it was literal truth, provided to the ancient Hebrews by divine inspiration, having been directly dictated by God to a revered leader. They came to learn and then appreciate, over time, that religion‐ or spirituality‐based Creation stories were told in diverse cultural and historical contexts. Each story was distinct, since it originated from a specific culture, but every story first emerged from sincere people seeking cosmic truth: to understand and express, from the knowledge and beliefs of a particular time and place, the creative work of a transcendent Being or Beings, understood in diverse ways.

The storytellers (originally speaking, later writing) shared a common purpose: to narrate for a particular people, in their own language (and therefore culturally conditioned, since language conveys and is limited by the culture in which it emerges and evolves) speculation about origins: their own, their world’s, and the vast cosmos seen at night. In order for the insights revealed in Creation (and other) sacred stories from diverse traditions to be understood and appreciated by people in later eras, biblical (and other) religious inspiration cannot be understood as or believed to be divine dictation, or express scientific understandings, or relate historically accurate events. On the contrary, both science and history continue to be enriched, enhanced, and enabled to be more accurate over time, as new data are found. The Bible and other sacred texts are not science or history books; they are expositions of religions’ or spiritual traditions’ beliefs and values; they originate and develop when culturally distinct people ponder and interact with the world and wonder about the mysteries of the distant stars. In the earliest science available, for example, where visual observation provided most information that served as a foundation for exposition, the Sun was thought to orbit the Earth, while stars and other “heavenly bodies” were thought by some to be lights in the solid vault of the sky, the heavens, that followed certain tracks around this material “ceiling” for the Earth, and kept cosmic waters above separate from Earth water below; everything visible in the sky was believed to circle the Earth, which was perceived to be the center of the universe around which all revolved—until Copernicus and Galileo proved otherwise with their mathematical calculations and optical telescopes.

If inspiration is not dictation in sacred stories, what is it? Inspiration might be defined or described in this way: “Inspiration is a religious insight, given to an historical person, for people of their era (a particular time and place with its culture, language, and religious/spiritual beliefs) to understand, and for future generations to discern.” This inspiration might be revealed in direct or symbolic language to the revered person, but in either case it can only be conveyed to the community in their own language, using a seer’s setting, their local environment’s natural phenomena—rocks, mountains, trees, desert, animals, rivers, and so on—historical events (present or past), and religious beliefs. Its original meaning might best be understood in that place and time. It might carry over, in whole or in part, to future generations living in a variety of places and historical moments, and perhaps having their own religious traditions and stories (some biblical stories, for example, are based on older Babylonian myths).

Dissemination of Faith Traditions

In contemporary social contexts, faith‐based thinkers, whether theists who believe in a divine Being or transcendent Being, or atheists who believe that there is no divine or transcendent Being, are enabled to present their beliefs and ideas globally via emails or social media. This is a benefit of our communications‐laden and influenced era, since religious beliefs, speculative thinking, and teachings can be globally and thoughtfully engaged with and considered. Sometimes, however, it seems that no opinion, however well‐ or ill‐founded, goes unexpressed. “Everyone is entitled to their opinion” is fine, but when opinion becomes “fact” that transition can be problematic. The ideas and beliefs of religions, which are founded in faith and reason culturally expressed, are particularly vulnerable in such a communication milieu when aspects or segments of their broader array of religious thought are derided, without reference to historical context or mode of elaboration.

In recent decades this has been the case with regard to religions’ teachings on social justice and ecological responsibility. When people are challenged by these teachings they can reflect deliberatively on their own consciousness and conduct vis‐à‐vis particular teachings, or they can dismiss them outright, especially but not exclusively in individualism‐based, consumption‐oriented, religious psychological wellbeing and security, and economic comfort‐seeking nations and communities.

Resistance to Religions’ Ecological Teachings

Earth is in an ever‐growing ecological crisis. When leaders or believers in specific faith traditions call for humans to accept responsibility for what they have been doing to the air, soil, and water in the name of “growth” and “progress,” and their supposed individual “right” to consume the Earth’s natural goods at an alarming rate, despite how this impacts people, the planet, and all biota today and intergenerationally, their teachings are dismissed as just opinions, no matter the state of the Earth and no matter that science provides evidence of global and regional ecological deterioration. Such irresponsibility might well relegate their progeny and their planet to an undesirable state. The global warming deniers (including energy corporations determined to keep burning fossil fuels, prioritizing profits over people, and the politicians and scientists whom they fund) have succeeded, through supposed “science” research, propaganda, and press releases in an organized disinformation campaign, to manipulate people’s thinking and continue “business as usual” for the most part. However, calls to conversion from consumption to conservation have increasingly met with some success. Climate heating, for example, has been assessed by groups as diverse as the World Council of Churches, the Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences, the National Association of Evangelicals, the Coalition on Environment and Jewish Life, and the Vatican. Faith traditions are complemented by the Union of Concerned Scientists, United Nations agencies, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Nobel Peace Laureate, science‐based Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. As with the prophets of ancient Israel, religious thinkers’ and leaders’ voices may be ignored or rejected by many people, but are heard by some; a critical mass is developing that could catalyze change. In this Companion, the voices of people from diverse religious and spiritual traditions from around the world call on their co‐believers and others, and the public at large, to see what is transpiring as a consequence of human acts harmful to the Earth and all life, and to strive to transform human consciousness, culture, and conduct such that people care for their common home. Current global warming is a particular event that calls for a response and action, since every year is hotter than its predecessor, and species are being extincted by humankind at an alarming rate. (Several contributors in this volume address climate change directly or indirectly.)

Space Limitations on Religions’ Consideration

In The Wiley‐Blackwell Companion to Religion and Ecology a diversity of religions and spiritual understandings is represented by culturally distinct thinkers. Space limitations restricted the extent to which a single religion, let alone all religions, could be represented. In order for readers to have a deeper understanding of insights from a particular religion, when possible several authors from multiple cultures and generations have contributed to the volume. Scores of other potential authors were invited to submit a chapter but reluctantly declined and expressed their regret about not being able to do so because of particular current writing projects to which they were committed (often by contract), or by personal or professional obligations and constraints.

Religions or spiritual ways represented here include Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Eastern Christianity, Western Christianity (Catholic and Protestant), indigenous peoples, and Shintoism. All authors were invited to approach an ecological issue from within the perspective of their tradition, particularly by exploring a new insight or a new approach to an existing teaching. All chapters are original, whether authors are familiar names in or newly arrived on the religion–ecology scene, or senior or early‐career scholars. Some authors’ professional lives are principally involved with academic institutions and scholarship, while others are primarily community‐engaged; all have insights that address religion–ecology constructively.

An especially gratifying experience for me as editor was to renew contact with several old friends and acquaintances when I asked them to contribute a chapter. I was particularly moved when I reconnected with Rabbi Zalman Schachter‐Shalomi, whom I had last seen in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio after he spoke and led prayer at the dusk‐to‐dawn all‐religions service. Previously, he had accepted my invitation to speak at a conference, “Religion in the 21st Century,” which I had organized in 1987 for Carroll College, Helena, Montana. I had his email address from our conversations in years past, and wrote to him. I knew he was approaching 90 years of age, but I decided that it would be good to communicate with him again, whether or not he contributed a chapter. After a brief exchange of emails, he suggested that we Skype, and so we did. He sent me an article he had written a decade before and suggested that I find someone in the Jewish tradition to revise it. When I read it, I knew that we had complementary and at times identical spiritual–social understandings. I spent six hours making revisions to update his paper, as I thought about how he might develop further ideas he had elaborated. I sent the revised paper to him; he liked it a great deal and suggested that we continue working together. We had warm and wonderful conversations. He said at one point that he had not thought that he might make contact with friends after many years’ separation and how good that would be, and so he was happy when I contacted him. After I declined to be listed as co‐author, he decided that the paper should be published as a conversation between us. And so it is. One week after he sent final revisions, he passed on to another dimension of reality. He remains very much a part of me.

Environment, Ecology, and Economics

The words environment and ecology are sometimes used interchangeably. They do, however, have distinct meanings. Environment is a place, a discrete context for abiota and biota. When places are contiguous, they might be viewed as particular regions within the Earth’s place: an ecosystem or a watershed, for example. Ecology is the relationships in a place: Earth–biota, biota–biota, humankind–other biota, as elaborated earlier. So, ecology studies the relationships that exist in a particular environment, a particular earth‐place on Earth. Environments change, due to external and internal factors (earthquakes, floods, fires; human‐caused private property divisions, river diversions, forest clearcuts, and climate changes). Ecologies similarly change (species extinction through biological evolution, human extinction of species, invasive species disrupting relationships, species with a swelling population, or a new migration competing with other migrating species or native species for equally desired or needed available natural goods).