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Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future
by
Bron Taylor
3.89 · Rating details · 94 ratings · 15 reviews
In this innovative and deeply felt work, Bron Taylor examines the evolution of “green religions” in North America and beyond: spiritual practices that hold nature as sacred and have in many cases replaced traditional religions. Tracing a wide range of groups—radical environmental activists, lifestyle-focused bioregionalists, surfers, new-agers involved in “ecopsychology,” and groups that hold scientific narratives as sacred—Taylor addresses a central theoretical question: How can environmentally oriented, spiritually motivated individuals and movements be understood as religious when many of them reject religious and supernatural worldviews? The “dark” of the title further expands this idea by emphasizing the depth of believers' passion and also suggesting a potential shadow side: besides uplifting and inspiring, such religion might mislead, deceive, or in some cases precipitate violence. This book provides a fascinating global tour of the green religious phenomenon, enabling readers to evaluate its worldwide emergence and to assess its role in a critically important religious revolution. (less)
Review
“This ambitious work seeks to set forth a new religious tradition characterized by its central concern for the fate of the planet.”(Nova Religio: The Journal Of Alternative & Emergent Religions 2011-05-04)
“Dark Green Religion is intelligent, well-written, and very much worth reading.”(Worldviews 2011-05-04)
“Names levels of spirituality that are often unacknowledged, unattended to, or rejected, and demonstrates how a new global spirituality (DGR) is becoming a force for positive change on our planet.”(Isle: Interdis Stds In Lit & Environ 2012-01-30)
“Taylor aims to illustrate the existence of an ideological current in contemporary North American society that has nature as its focus, and to argue that this is socially and politically significant.”(Emma Tomalin Environment & History 2011-11-01)
“Recommended.”(Choice 2010-05-01)
"Taylor examines the evolution of 'green religions' in North America, that is, spiritual practices that hold nature as sacred and have in many cases replaced traditional religions."(Leslie Lewis The Compendium Newsletter 2015-07-01)
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From the Inside Flap
“A love of green may be a human universal. Deepening the palette of green scholarship, Bron Taylor proves remarkably to be both an encyclopedist and a visionary.”―Jonathan Benthall, author of Returning to Religion: Why a Secular Age is Haunted by Faith
"This important book provides insight into how a profound sense of relation to nature offers many in the modern world a vehicle for attaining a spiritual wholeness akin to what has been historically associated with established religion. In this sense, Dark Green Religion offers both understanding and hope for a world struggling for meaning and purpose beyond the isolation of the material here and now."―Stephen Kellert, Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
"In this thought-provoking volume, Bron Taylor explores the seemingly boundless efforts by human beings to understand the nature of life and our place in the universe. Examining in depth the ways in which influential philosophers and naturalists have viewed this relationship, Taylor contributes to the further development of thought in this critically important area, where our depth of understanding will play a critical role in our survival."―Peter H. Raven, President, Missouri Botanical Garden
"Carefully researched, strongly argued, originally conceived, and very well executed, this book is a vital contribution on a subject of immense religious, political, and environmental importance. It's also a great read."―Roger S. Gottlieb, author of A Greener Faith: Religious Environmentalism and our Planet's Future
"A fascinating analysis of our emotional and spiritual relationship to nature. Whether you call it dark green religion or something else, Bron Taylor takes us through our spiritual relationship with our planet, its ecosystems and evolution, in an enlightened and completely undogmatic manner."―Dr. Claude Martin, Former Director General, World Wildlife Fund
"An excellent collection of guideposts for perplexed students and scholars about the relationships of nature religions, spirituality, animism, pantheism, deep ecology, Gaia, and land ethics―and for the environmentalist seeking to make the world a better place through green religion as a social force."―Fikret Berkes, author of Sacred Ecology: Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Resource Management
"Dark Green Religion shows conclusively how nature has inspired a growing religious movement on the planet, contesting the long reign of many older faiths. Taylor expertly guides us through an astonishing array of thinkers, past and present, who have embraced, in part or whole, the new religion. I was thoroughly convinced that this movement has indeed become a major force on Earth, with great potential consequences for our environmental ethics."―Donald Worster, University of Kansas
"In this exceptionally interesting and informative book, Bron Taylor has harvested the fruits of years of pioneering research in what amounts to a new field in religious studies: the study of how religious/spiritual themes show up in the work of people concerned about nature in many diverse ways. Taylor persuasively argues that appreciation of nature's sacred or spiritual dimension both informs and motivates the work of individuals ranging from radical environmentalists and surfers, to eco-tourism leaders and museum curators. I highly recommend this book for everyone interested learning more about the surprising extent to which religious/spiritual influences many of those who work to protect, to exhibit, or to represent the natural world."―Michael E. Zimmerman, Director, Center for Humanities and the Arts, University of Colorado at Boulder
Biography
Overview
Trained in ethics, religious studies, and social scientific approaches to understanding human culture, Bron Taylor's scholarly work engages the quest for environmentally sustainable societies. Appearing in articles, books, and a multi-volume encyclopedia, he examines a wide range of phenomena, especially grassroots environmental movements and organizations, and international institutions, with special attention to their moral and religious dimensions. An academic entrepreneur and program builder, he led the initiative to create an academic major in the Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, later initiated and was elected the first president of the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture, while also founding its affiliated journal. Recruited to fill the Samuel S. Hill Ethics Chair at the University of Florida and appointed in 2002, he played a leading role in constructing the world's first Ph.D. program with an emphasis in Religion and Nature. Most recently, he has been involved in an international think tank exploring ways to more effectively promote an environmentally sustainable future, and has published articles on surfing (oceanic not websites) as "aquatic nature religion." His most recent book is mysteriously titled Dark Green Religion: Nature Religion and the Planetary Future.
Personal Biographical Statement
Because our values are embedded in our own stories and these in turn grow from the broader narratives of our cultures, here is a brief personal biography, offered in the hopes that it will help those reading my published work to better understand and evaluate it.
Born and raised in Southern California, my earliest memories include being unable to bicycle home from a swimming pool because of air pollution-induced "lung burn," and the outrage I felt at the bulldozing for new homes of my childhood woodland playground near Los Angeles. Moving to the coast on my 13th birthday, I found cleaner air and discovered a love for the ocean. I studied at Ventura High School and Community College, and finished an undergraduate education at California State University, Chico, earning degrees in Religious Studies and Psychology.
My enduring interest in radical religions, as well as in environmental ethics, politics, and related policy issues (such as those related to biological and cultural diversity) was spawned during an undergraduate course on Latin American Liberation Theology. This course examined the religious ideas, social analyses, and political impacts of such movements. Through this course I began to understand the many connections between the violation of human rights and environmental degradation.
To pursue these issues I entered Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, focusing my studies on Liberation Theology and religious ethics, while serving as the Chair of its student-led Human Concerns Committee. Fueled by youthful idealism we campaigned for social justice, promoted divestment in South Africa, fought U.S. military involvement in Latin America, and sought to eradicate nuclear weapons. A prominent Rector and Rabbi, consequently, asked me to serve as the initial director of the Interfaith Center to Reverse the Arms Race. I agreed, and afterward, enrolled at the University of Southern California, eventually earning a Ph.D. in Religion and Social Ethics.
Throughout my undergraduate and graduate years, I served as an Ocean Lifeguard (and eventually also as a Peace Officer), with the California State Department of Parks and Recreation. Working summers and most weekends along the Southern California Coast throughout the year, I learned a lot about about urban violence, human stupidity and courage, as well as public lands resource conflicts. I saw the California Brown Pelican disappear from the coast due to DDT poisoning, but then return a number of years later, when their numbers boomeranged after the pesticide was banned. All these experiences intensified my desire to bring ethical reflection down from the ivory tower into the morally muddy landscape of everyday life.
About the time I was finishing my dissertation exploring empirically the impacts of affirmative action policies on ordinary people, and using my own empirical data as grist for ethical reflection on these policies, I noticed that environmentalists had begun to deploy sabotage in their efforts to arrest environmental decline. I soon surmised that, like the liberation movements I had studied, the emerging, 'radical environmental' groups were animated by religious perceptions and ideals. Intrigued, I left for the woods to learn more. This turned into a long-term research trajectory exploring the many dimensions of and forms of contemporary grassroots environmentalism, especially the most radical ones.
This research drew me increasingly to the environmental sciences, in part as a means to evaluate the often apocalyptic environmental claims the activists I had encountered were making. I became increasingly convinced about the importance of a truly interdisciplinary Environmental Studies, if Homo sapiens were to grapple toward environmentally sustainable lifeways. Consequently, I led a faculty initiative to create such a program at the University of Wisconsin, where I took a teaching position in 1989.
In the last several years my research into the religious dimensions of contemporary environmentalism broadened yet again into an interest in the role of religion in all nature-human relationships. Thus, it drew me to the emerging field known as Religion and Ecology and to my editorship of the (now award winning) Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature,(2005) which has helped provide me with the background needed to develop a graduate program to explore these themes.
I am now editing the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture and was the founding President of the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture, both of which endeavor to explore the religion/nature/culture nexus, and which can be found at www.religionandnature.com. See www.brontaylor.com for further information pertinent to my research, teaching, and activist interests.
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Jun 24, 2010Bart Everson rated it it was amazing
Here's a rarity — an academic book that is also a page-turner, at least for me. I couldn't put it down. This is a broad survey of an emergent global phenomenon which might be called earth worship or nature spirituality or "dark green religion." Bron Taylor defines religion broadly and looks a range of cultures and subcultures, from radical environmentalism to surfing to Disney films and many more. I was a bit disappointed that contemporary Paganism got such scant coverage — only about two and a half pages plus some scattered references. Perhaps that's because Taylor seems preoccupied with folks who don't explicitly consider themselves to be practicing "religion" in the most familiar sense of the word. The term "dark" in the title is supposed to connote a sense of potential peril, but according to the author that mostly seems to be in the eyes of Abrahamic practitioners. He hints early in the book that he might examine the potential dangers of ecofascism, but this is never really explored in depth. I suspect there may be a resonance between racism and "dark green religion," especially in Europe, that bears a closer look. But I quibble. This is a good one which I recommend to anyone interested in ecology or religion. (less)
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Jun 17, 2018Steph Mecham rated it it was amazing
Shelves: favorites
THIS BOOK. IS SO GOOD. Honestly articulated and strengthened my belief system and values in a way never accomplished by any other singular work, except possibly Ishmael by Daniel Quinn (which as it happens is quoted several times in this book). Beautiful!
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Nov 01, 2015Tommy /|\ rated it really liked it
An interesting read on looking at our planet and environment in terms of ecological awareness. Perhaps the only qualm I have with this book is that it is written from a rather academic perspective, making much of the terminology a bit inaccessible for the average reader. But the topic, on the other hand, is on target and on-point. In changing the mindset of people throughout the entire planet towards one of conserving what we have, preserving it for the future sustainability of life on this planet - the language used within is sometimes blunt and to the point, but very necessary, in my opinion. Dark Green Religion is embodied in a single quote that Taylor borrows from David Suzuki: "Go out into nature....Feel the rain and wind on your face, smell the fragrance of the soil and ocean, gaze at the spectacle of the myriad of stars in clear air or countless animals making their annual migration. Doing so will rekindle that sense of wonder and excitement we all had as children discovering the world and will engender a feeling of peace and harmony at being in balance with the natural world that is our home. Nature is not our enemy, it is our home; in fact, it sustains us and is in every one of us. All living things are our relatives and belong with us in the biosphere."
One of the more endearing moments in the book, was where I stumbled upon a lovely discussion of Disney's Animal Kingdom, particularly the discussion on the gigantic sculpture that dominates this part of the Disney Park system in Florida: The Tree of Life. I was there just two years ago, and found my time in this part of the Disney theme parks to be one of the most enjoyable days of my entire vacation. A secondary discussion concerning Captain Planet and the Planeteers was a small moment of reconnecting with a part of my childhood that I remember being influential on the Pagan practices I have today.
There is a lot more information to take in - from those that pioneered the movement that Taylor describes to even more radical elements. All of these help to define parts of what Taylor calls "Dark Green Religion"...and which is parsed into separate descriptives as well. All in all, its an interesting several steps into an area where environmentalism, ecology, and spirituality all intersect.
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Aug 08, 2012Michael Pauldine rated it it was amazing
Recommends it for: everyone
I will have to read this comprehensive and scholarly book again. It has caused me to contemplate some complex paradoxes regarding certain sports I love and their affect on the environment. The ecological impact and carbon footprint left by so many of my beloved sports is immense and disturbing. Bron Taylor examines the evolution of Green Religion in America along with our spiritual connection to nature as sacred and fundamental to our collective evolution. We all love the outdoors and joy of experiencing play and sport in nature. I am now motivated to become more involved in environmental activism. I have a deep love for the mountains and the numerous activities available to residents. I want to play and fill my spirit with the sacred Flow experience of sport and play in the wilderness. If I want to enjoy these experiences I must step up my stewardship and responsibility for preservation of those balanced ecosystems. Certain thrills and adrenaline rides that have inspired my way of life will need to be reevaluated. I would like to think I am adopting a more minimalist lifestyle. I must find my Flow States in more harmony with ecology and my spiritual connection to Nature. After watching this program I am planning an early 2013 fall camping trip to Yosemite. Off Season ~ 10 full days of absorbing the healing and generative powers of this majestic monastery. I want to feel a shred of the great Mystery that John Muir experienced their.http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/ (less)
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Jun 20, 2015Terri rated it it was amazing
I received this audio book as a gift for the purpose of me listening to it an writing a honest and unbiased review.
This subject is both interesting &and informative. This author discusses many different forms of religion , both past and present, many of which I never even knew existed. Religions such as Green Religion and Dark Green Religion and so on. How nature relates with these religions and who has done these religions past and present. Also how these religions fit in with past, present and future of our planet and what these religions do for our planet.
The author, Bron Taylor does a good job of explaining things. He ventures into many different areas, all of which are new to me. I am not a religious person, yet I found it fascinating that there are so many religions out there. The narrator, Jack Chekijian, does a really good job delivering all this information. He reminds me of the narration on the Discovery Channel. I finished this book yesterday, but just now getting around to writing my review. (less)
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Dec 08, 2011Mary Kay rated it liked it
Am not so sure that he makes a convincing case for biophilia as religion and most definitely he does not justify the "darkness" in his nomenclature but his historical survey of the development of environmentalism from the perspective of its spiritual dimensions is a great review of developments. And I applaud his effort at constructing an essay on the spirituality of surfing. Again, I did not get the sense that it is definitive but this chapter alone should make the book useful in coastal academic libraries where, in my experience, students do want to explore this topic. The book's references and bibliography are very comprehensive and will serve future investigators well as a goldmine for more work in this interesting subject area. PS I am no expert opinion, just an interested reader who thinks the attempt to tie all this material together is fascinating and the book rewarding. (less)
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Jan 13, 2016Jeffrey Keefer rated it it was amazing
Scholarly approach to nature-focused groups in the US, including those that are involved in structured eco-action-oriented groups. These are not the ones that immediately come to mind, such as druidry, heathenism, or the like, and in seeing some of these trends with various thinkers and authors whose works were quoted, I feel my horizon in this area is now broader. In many ways this text explored nature groups whose members have a political and social action perspective, and in doing so I found ...more
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Aug 13, 2014Jan rated it really liked it
Taylor's book is a scholarly investigation in the rise of nature spirituality and its impact on the world, ranging from environmental activists to participants in UN summits. The author outlines the emergence of this spontaneous phenomenon which at times is hard to disentangle and to identify, though he is attentive to the vocabulary of the movement inherent to many speeches, novels, films, media campaigns and more. As a pantheist I approached this book with different expectations; however, it reassured me on the enduring influence that Earth-centred spirituality can have on the course of human history. (less)
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Apr 19, 2015Jim Rossi rated it it was amazing
Terrific, surprisingly relevant book with an engaging tone that I use as a source in my upcoming book "Solar's Crucible: Vegas, Fraud & the Story of Energy." Environmentalism may in fact be a religion, Bron Taylor argues, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Dominion vs. stewardship in science AND religion, materialism vs. spirituality... These are urgent questions, especially with all the Big Data arguments about assumptions, variables... Values help determine those. If you're interested in better understanding climate change, renewable energy, population, and sustainability that's more about synthesis and understanding,less about polarization and polemics, give "DGR" a read. (less)
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May 17, 2010Mark rated it really liked it
Something of a consensus has been developing world-wide that the natural world has vast intrinsic value that can best described by saying it is sacred, and many people, when they encounter the natural world in the raw, have powerful feelings that can described as ‘rellgous’ in a broad sense. Taylor’s work is a survey of the diverse forms in which these feeling of awe or reverence have begun to manifest themselves in the contemporary world, from the scientific community to, neopagans, ecofeminists, and even the surfing community. (less)
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Jun 15, 2015Jan rated it did not like it
Shelves: audiobook-blast, chekijian
Clearly aimed at the scholarly upper echelon, this work seems to find it's goal attainable by repeating Dark Green Religion several times per paragraph, introducing arcane terminology, and beating the reader over the head with it before moving on to the next OED term. I found the presentation annoying and condescending with an end result of obfuscation rather than clarity.
Kudos to the narrator for laboring to attempt to make this palatable.
I am thankful that I did not have to pay for this item
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Dec 06, 2015Deedra rated it liked it
This was a very long book that basically breaks down to...every culture has religion that is earth based.Due to the American Indian tribes being so hard to break into and learn their teachings,Mr Taylor went to learn Asian cultures and their earth based /body based attitudes and religions.Jack Cheikijan does a fine job narrating,but I found the repetition and long winded explainations tedious and boring.
"This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of Audiobook Blast." (less)
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Aug 25, 2011Bron rated it it was amazing
Shelves: environmentalism, nature-spirituality
Well, I'm biased, of course, but don't take my word for it being worth the read, see the supplemental materials, including all the published reviews (including about my other books), at my website: brontaylor.com
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Dec 21, 2016Mandi rated it did not like it
Shelves: spiritual
Zero Stars. NEW AGE GARBAGE. I PRAY YOU FIND JESUS <3
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Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future First Edition
by Bron Taylor (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars 21 customer reviews
Ron Arnold
5.0 out of 5 starsThe best guide to a serious movement against industrial civilizationFebruary 6, 2013
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
In Dark Green Religion, Bron Taylor has given us a well-conceived, highly detailed, and profoundly grounded portrait of a global movement to save nature. No other writer comes within light years of Taylor's personal experience with the environmental movement's most radical elements or can claim a more even-handed analysis of the spiritual meaning of the still-evolving movement now struggling to find salvation for our planet in religious terms. His long career as a university professor of religion tempers what could easily have become an insignificant rant but emerges as a deeply felt and vivid exploration of the "nature spirituality" in the book's subtitle.
Readers will admire the care Taylor gives to explaining why he considers the growing social and political spiritual/environmental movement to be a religion (or religious) and how important it is to see it in the religious terms in which its adherents see it. Readers will also thank Taylor for his intellectual honesty in choosing "Dark" as the first word in the title, meaning both the darker, deeper shade of green in nature spirituality and the sense of planetary emergency that could drive adherents to global violence. This book takes on some very tough questions that we all need to think about.
Critics will disagree with Taylor's views on the intrinsic value of nature that he champions, citing the intrinsic value of humans that he seems to scant. I have known Taylor enough years to advise them not to underestimate his human compassion.
Even though I disagree with a number of Taylor's views and conclusions about industrial civilization - as I am sure some readers will also - I respect his judgment sufficiently to ask his critique of points in my own writings before I send them to my editor. He has been a good friend to me, and I am reasonably sure that most readers will feel the same about him after reading this magisterial work, which is a virtual Guide for the Perplexed in the 21st Century..
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Ms. A. Ormsby
5.0 out of 5 starsDark Green ReligionsMarch 12, 2011
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
I am so glad Dr. Taylor wrote this book and firmly named the concept of "Dark Green Religion." I'm glad he defined and delimited its boundaries, but left passageways to other green spiritualities - notably gardening and birdwatching, two of the closest ways, I think, a person can get to 'nature'; and above all, I am glad he gave our vague feelings of 'caring more for the earth than being traditionally religious' a name, a heritage, an academic rigor with a vast bibliography, and a path to the future, cleared of dead ends, such as New Age spirituality (which was no longer working for me) consisting only of altars, candles, incense and chants, lovely though they are. The other dead end I am glad he especially clouted was 'greening Christianity'. The more I study Christianity, especially the virulent fundamentalist evangelism so prevalent today and so opposed to environmentalism, the more I know Christianity is an opponent, not something to 'make nice with'. Dr. Taylor gives us a coherent foundational history, which I had only known as scattered actions, such as tree sitting escapades, and towering personages, such as John Muir, so lofty and inspired as to be intimidating, but now I know him and the other pioneers as family. I am more firmly on the "Dark Green Path", and am henceforth fiercely inspired and spiritually armed to help fight environmentalism's battles for the rest of my life.
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Ryan Croken
5.0 out of 5 starsTaylor has created a new and necessary languageApril 17, 2010
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
This is truly a remarkable work that has connected many isolated dots that have long belonged together. At first glance, Edmund Burke, radical "eco-terrorists," the Little Mermaid, surfers, Alice Walker, Spinoza and Al Gore might seem to have little in common, but Taylor brings these and many other influential persons, places and things together into a loose but convicted community of phenomena that all share a common belief: the notion that nature has intrinsic value and is worthy of reverent care. "Dark green religion" may be a new phrase, but Taylor shows that it is an ancient force that has been rumbling in the depths of human consciousness for centuries. Now, in 2010, in the context of our growing incredulity regarding revealed religions and our increasing anxieties over the ecological crisis that confronts us, the elements that comprise dark green religion just might be poised to make their way to the forefront.
In his work, Taylor serves as an erudite and impassioned tour guide of the "deep roots and modern expressions" of this hitherto unnamed religion, providing, along with his powerful yet undogmatic analysis, an instructive compendium of ideas and actions that cogently legitimize dark green religion as a concept with significant explanatory power. Through this book we hear of 18th-century philosophers expressing sensations of oceanic unity, modern-day mainstream scientists reflecting upon the "being-ness" of trees, surfers earnestly scrambling to find words to explain the satori that occurs inside the tube of a wave, and Disney's Pocahontas imploring Western colonialists to stop and "ask the grinning bobcat why he grins." It is precisely this diversity of thinkers coupled with the synchronicity of their thoughts that makes Taylor's thesis so compelling. While some may feel that the Earth is sentient and/or animals have souls, and others might take a more naturalistic approach, most all of the "practitioners" of dark green religion share a sense of felt kinship with nonhuman life and a sense of wonder at the structure and flow of the interconnected Earth and cosmos. This religious, or "para-religious," cosmological outlook occasions an ecological conscience that sensitizes humans to the condition of the planet with a depth of feeling that secular, humanistic concerns of sustainability might have a hard time matching. Many of the excerpted passages from Taylor's book are not only extremely convincing, but also extremely moving. If you are at all receptive to these sorts of sentiments, you might find Dark Green Religion to be a source not only of information, but also inspiration.
On a personal level, for most of my life I have found myself violently vacillating between a soothing belief in a supernatural power and a sort of dreary conviction that there is nothing "more" to the universe than the atheism that meets the human eye. Taylor's work implicitly addresses this existential quandary and posits a resolution to it by reconceptualizing the definition of religion, releasing it from a requisite belief in a transcendent sky god, effectively endowing people with the "right" to feel religious even if the lack of scientific support for traditional religions alienates them from what they might sense to be "sacred" in the natural order. In this manner, Taylor enacts an empowering, redemptive paradigm shift, one that enables people to worship the creation even if they're not sure about the existence of a creator. After reading this book, I have looked at the world through slightly more enchanted eyes, as I now find cosmogonic merit in reading "the odyssey of evolution," for example, as a sacred text, and contemplating the simple fact of existence as a miracle comparable to anything that any saint may or may not have done.
This does not, however, mean that there is no place for the supernaturalistic in the scattered yet inclusive church of dark green religion. On the contrary, the book is replete with examples of people who believe that Mother Earth is a conscious entity and/or feel that tactile or telepathic communication between humans and non-humans are spiritual possibilities. Taylor brings to light the ways in which these forms of "spiritual animism" and "Gaian spirituality" (he shies away from such terms as "paganism" and "panentheism" because of the baggage they carry), have manifested themselves throughout history, and muses on the role that such beliefs may play in "the planetary future."
There does seem to be a bit of tension between what Taylor calls dark green religion and the Abrahamic religious traditions. Many -- if not most -- of the scholars, scientists, surfers and activists that Taylor references express a potent condemnation of the overall effects that the Abrahamic religions have had on the planet and its human and non-human inhabitants, criticizing these faiths for their hubristic anthropocentrism, which allegedly led to the domination and desecration of entire continents and the brutal persecution of indigenous peoples who live(d) in a more ecologically sustainable manner. Taylor notes that these Abrahamic religions have experienced a kind of "greening" in the past few decades in response to such criticisms, but he appears to be skeptical that these established traditions can, on balance, ultimately play a constructive role in the protection and restoration of the environment. While this is not the main focus of Taylor's book, it is important to open this subject to debate. Many environmental observers feel that the human species will not be inspired enough to save the planet unless they consider it to be sacred, in one way or another, to the degree that its ruin would be regarded not only as a physical, but also a spiritual tragedy.
In sum, this is a groundbreaking work that comes to us at a crucial moment. By the time you come to the end of this book, you feel as if "the planetary future" is just about to begin, and its outcome is in many ways up for grabs. If you have any interest in how this larger story will unfold, Taylor's book is a must read.
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