2019/02/25

Bron Taylor - Wikipedia Dark green religion



Bron Taylor - Wikipedia



Bron Taylor
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Bron Raymond Taylor (born 15 April 1955) is an American scholar and conservationist. He is Professor of Religion and Nature at the University of Florida and has also been an Affiliated Scholar with the Center for Environment and Development at the University of Oslo. Taylor works principally in the areas of religion and ecology, environmental ethicsand environmental philosophy. He is also a prominent historian and ethnographer of environmentalism and especially radical environmentalist movements, surfing culture and nature-based spiritualities. Taylor is also Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature and subsequently founded the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, serving as its President from 2006-2009. He also founded the Society’s affiliated Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, serving as its editor since 2007.


Contents
1Dark green religion
1.1Dark green versus green religion

2Selected publications
3See also
4References
5External links


Dark green religion[edit]

Taylor is credited with coining the term "dark green religion" or "dark green spirituality",[1]which he broadly defines as a religion, or a "religion-resembling" set of beliefs and practices, characterized by a central conviction that "nature is sacred, has intrinsic value, and is therefore due reverent care."[2][3] Tied in with this belief is a felt kinship with non-human entities and a conscious awareness of the interconnected and interdependent nature of life on the planet. 

Taylor argues that dark green religion possesses many of the characteristics of established religions, such as sacred texts (a book such as Walden, for example), prophets (writers and activists such as Henry David Thoreau, John Muir and Rachael Carson), rituals ("soul surfers" meeting the ocean at dawn) and elements some consider dangerous (radical "eco-terrorists"). Dark green religion also has an inherently political component with regards to environmentalism; the idea that nature is sacred comes with an ethical responsibility to treat it as such.

As outlined in Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future, Taylor asserts that belief in the sacrality of nature may or may not involve a belief in supernatural beings or forces. An atheist who reads evolution as an epic narrative of spiritual significance may be engaging in dark green religion, as would a pantheist who is humbled by the structure of the cosmos. Those who perceive the Earth to be like an organism if not also a sentient being (Gaianism), or intuit that animals and trees possess spiritual intelligences (animism), may also be viewed as engaging in dark green religion, according to Taylor. Dark green religion often finds common ground with religious traditions such as paganism and shamanism, as well as philosophical belief systems such as deep ecology, Aldo Leopold's theory of land ethic, and James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis.

Taylor's conviction that "religion" is a paradigm that can be understood to include entirely naturalistic worldviews puts him at odds with many of the new atheist thinkers such as Christopher Hitchens and especially Richard Dawkins, whom he discusses directly in his book.

Taylor contends that dark green religiosity has deep roots and has manifested itself in a diversity of ways throughout human history. He finds eco-spiritual synchronicity, for example, in phenomena as seemingly disparate as surfing magazines and the writings of Edmund Burke. Other cultural actors and elements explored by Taylor include Charles Darwin, Jane Goodall, Edward Abbey, Alice Walker, tree-sitting activists, the Earth Liberation Front, the Animal Liberation Front, Al Gore, Orion magazine and Disney films such as The Lion King and Pocahontas.[3]

Taylor has also written about James Cameron's film Avatar and its relevance to dark green religion. He argues that the widespread popularity of the film, in which nature is regarded as sentient and sacred, is a testament to the growing appeal of dark green spirituality around the world.[4]

Taylor also finds an emerging global receptivity to dark green religious sentiment in political institutions such as the United Nations. He has observed that, as concerns over the state of the environment intensify, global summits aimed at addressing the ecological crisis have assumed a decidedly spiritual tenor. He points to the opening ceremony of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development as one example of this trend.[5] He argues that current trends in earthen spirituality might even presage the emergence of a “civil earth religion” that promotes loyalty to the biosphere rather than to nation states.[6]

Dark green versus green religion[edit]

Taylor makes a distinction between dark green religious phenomena (which emanate from a belief that nature is sacred), and the relatively recent "greening" of certain sectors of established religious traditions (which see eco-friendly activities as a religious obligation). Many of the central figures and seminal texts of dark green religion, as curated by Taylor, express a strong condemnation of Abrahamic theism, which, dark green religionists allege, as Lynn Townsend White, Jr. did in a famous Science essay[7] in 1968, is deeply linked to an anthropocentric worldview that sees human beings as above nature and divinely endowed with the right to dominion over the biosphere. Those aligned in the dark green religion camp have alleged that this cosmogony has played a major role in the desecration and exploitation of the natural world.

For this reason, those engaged in dark green religion are often skeptical that conventional religions can play a constructive role in halting and reversing ecological degradation. While the environmentalist efficacy of the stewardship model, which some think is mandated by Judaism, Christianity and Islam alike, remains a hotly disputed issue,[8] many dark green thinkers believe that efforts to preserve the ecosystem will not succeed unless underlying spiritual attitudes are shifted towards a more biocentric perspective. To this point, in a 2010 interview with the online magazine Religion Dispatches, Taylor stated, "Although it is not my intent to annoy those with conventional religious understandings, few such religionists will welcome the evidence assembled in Dark Green Religion, or my supposition based on this evidence, that eventually their religions are likely to be supplanted by naturalistic forms of nature spirituality."[9] Taylor has thus drawn criticism from those who believe that conventional religious ethics and infrastructure can be effective agents of environmental preservation.

Selected publications[edit]


See also[edit]



References[edit]

  1. ^ Gary Laderman; Luis D. León (2003). Religion and American cultures: an encyclopedia of traditions, diversity, and popular expressions, Volume 3. ABC-CLIO. Retrieved 5 August2010.
  2. ^ Tomalin, Emma (2009). Biodivinity and Biodiversity: The Limits to Religious Environmentalism. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 0-7546-5588-1. Retrieved 5 August2010.
  3. ^ Jump up to:a b Taylor, Bron (2010). Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future. University of California Press, Berkeley. ISBN 978-0-520-26100-6
  4. ^ Taylor, Bron. "War of the Worldviews: Why Avatar Lost", Religion Dispatches, 11 May 2010.
  5. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-06-24. Retrieved 2010-08-03."Welcome Ceremony at the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development," Johannesburg, 25 August 2002.
  6. ^ Taylor, Bron. "Reconsidering Civil Religion, The Politics of Spirituality: Civil Earth Religion Versus Religious Nationalism", The Immanent Frame, 30 July 2010.
  7. ^ White, Lynn Townsend Jr. "The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis", Science, Washington, D.C., 10 March 1968.
  8. ^ Jacobs, Tom. "A New Genesis: Getting World Religions to Worship Ecologically"Archived March 18, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, Miller-McCune, 29 April 2009.
  9. ^ Taylor, Bron. "Losing Old Gods, Finding Nature", Religion Dispatches, 21 January 2010.

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Religious naturalism - Wikipedia



Religious naturalism - Wikipedia



Religious naturalism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Religious Naturalism)
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The interconnectivity of nature is a key postulate in religious naturalism.

Religious naturalism (RN) combines a naturalist worldview with perceptions and values commonly associated with religions.[1][2] In this, "religious" is understood in general terms, separate from established traditions, in designating feelings and concerns (e.g. gratitude, wonder, humility, compassion) that are often described as spiritual or religious.[3][4][5] Naturalism refers to a view that the natural world is all we have substantiated reason to believe exists, and there is no substantiated reason to believe that anything else, including deities, exists or may act in ways that are independent of the natural order.[6][7]

Areas of inquiry include attempts to understand the natural world and the spiritual and moral implications of naturalist views.[8] Understanding is based in knowledge obtained through scientific inquiry and insights from the humanities and the arts.[9] Religious naturalists use these perspectives in responding to personal and social challenges (e.g. finding purpose, seeking justice, coming to terms with mortality) and in relating to the natural world.[8]


Contents
1Naturalism
2Religious
3History
4Tenets
5Varieties
6Shared principles
7Notable proponents and critics
7.1Proponents
7.2Critics
8Prominent communities and leaders
9See also
10References
11Further reading
12External links
Naturalism[edit]

Naturalism is the "idea or belief that only natural (as opposed to supernatural or spiritual) laws and forces operate in the world".[10]

All forms of religious naturalism, being naturalistic in their basic beliefs, assert that the natural world is the center of our most significant experiences and understandings. Consequently, nature is considered as the ultimate value in assessing one's being. Religious naturalists, despite having followed differing cultural and individual paths, affirm the human need for meaning and value in their lives. They draw on two fundamental convictions in those quests: the sense of Nature's richness, spectacular complexity, and fertility, and the recognition that Nature is the only realm in which people live out their lives. Humans are considered interconnected parts of Nature.

Science is a fundamental, indispensable component of the paradigm of religious naturalism. It relies on mainstream science to reinforce religious and spiritual perspectives. Science is the primary interpretive tool for religious naturalism, because, scientific methods are thought to provide the most reliable understanding of Nature and the world, including human nature.


"Truth is sought for its own sake. And those who are engaged upon the quest for anything for its own sake are not interested in other things. Finding the truth is difficult, and the road to it is rough."[11]


Therefore, the seeker after the truth is not one who studies the writings of the ancients and, following his natural disposition, puts his trust in them, but rather the one who suspects his faith in them and questions what he gathers from them, the one who submits to argument and demonstration, and not to the sayings of a human being whose nature is fraught with all kinds of imperfection and deficiency. Thus the duty of the man who investigates the writings of scientists, if learning the truth is his goal, is to make himself an enemy of all that he reads, and, applying his mind to the core and margins of its content, attack it from every side. He should also suspect himself as he performs his critical examination of it, so that he may avoid falling into either prejudice or leniency.[12]
Religious[edit]

A religious attitude towards nature

Religious naturalists use the term "religious" to refer to an attitude – of being appreciative of and interested in concerns that have long been parts of religions.[13][14] These include:[15]
A spiritual sense (which may include a sense of mystery or wonder or feelings of reverence or awe in response to the scope and power and beauty of the natural world)
A moral sense (with compassion, desire for justice, and attempts to do what is right – with respect to other people, other creatures, and the natural environment)

As the source of all that is and the reason why all things are as they are, the natural world may be seen as being of ultimate importance.[16]

As in other religious orientations, religious naturalism includes a central story – a modern creation myth – to describe ourselves and our place in the world. This begins with the Big Bang and the emergence of galaxies, stars, planets, and life, and evolution that led to the presence of human beings. As this gives insight into who we are and how we came to be, religious naturalists look to the natural world (the source of our intelligence and inclinations) for information and insights that may help us to understand and respond to important questions:
Why do we want what we want?
Why we do the things we do?
What we might try to point ourselves toward?

and to try to find ways to minimize problems (in ourselves and in our world), become our better selves, and relate to others and the world we are part of.[17]

When discussing distinctions between "religious" naturalists and "plain old" (secular) naturalists, Loyal Rue said: "I regard a religious or spiritual person to be one who takes ultimate concerns to heart."[18]

He noted that, while "plain old" naturalists are concerned with morals and may have emotional responses to the mysteries and wonders of the world, those who describe themselves as religious naturalists take it more "to heart" and show active interest in this area.[19]
History[edit]

Core themes in religious naturalism have been present, in varied cultures, for centuries. But active discussion, with use of this name, is relatively recent.

Zeno (c. 334 – c. 262 BCE, a founder of Stoicism) said:


All things are parts of one single system, which is called Nature ... Virtue consists in a will which is in agreement with Nature.[20]

Views consistent with religious naturalism can be seen in ancient Daoist texts (e.g., Dao De Jing) and some Hindu views (such as God as Nirguṇa Brahman, God without attributes). They may also be seen in Western images that do not focus on active, personal aspects of God, such as Thomas Aquinas' view of God as Pure Act, Augustine's God as Being Itself, and Paul Tillich's view of God as Ground of Being. As Wesley Wildman has described, views consistent with RN have long existed as part of the underside of major religious traditions, often quietly and sometimes in mystical strands or intellectual sub-traditions, by practitioners who are not drawn to supernatural claims.[21]

The earliest uses of the term, religious naturalism, seem to have occurred in the 1800s. In 1846, the American Whig Review described "a seeming 'religious naturalism'",[22] In 1869, American Unitarian Association literature adjudged:"Religious naturalism differs from this mainly in the fact that it extends the domain of nature farther outward into space and time. ...It never transcends nature".[23] Ludwig Feuerbach wrote that religious naturalism was "the acknowledgment of the Divine in Nature" and also "an element of the Christian religion", but by no means that religion's definitive "characteristic" or "tendency".[24]

Lao Tzu, traditionally the author of the Tao Te Ching

In 1864, Pope Pius IX condemned religious naturalism in the first seven articles of the Syllabus of Errors.

Mordecai Kaplan (1881–1983), one of the great rabbis of the 20th century and the founder of the Jewish reconstructionismmovement,[25] early advocated religious naturalism. He believed that a naturalistic approach to religion and ethics was possible in a desacralizing world. He saw God as the sum of all natural processes.[26]

Other verified usages of the term came in 1940 from George Perrigo Conger[27] and from Edgar S. Brightman.[28] Shortly thereafter, H. H. Dubs wrote an article entitled Religious Naturalism – an Evaluation (The Journal of Religion, XXIII: 4, October, 1943), which begins "Religious naturalism is today one of the outstanding American philosophies of religion…" and discusses ideas developed by Henry Nelson Wieman in books that predate Dubs's article by 20 years.

In 1991 Jerome A. Stone wrote The Minimalist Vision of Transcendence explicitly "to sketch a philosophy of religious naturalism".[29] Use of the term was expanded in the 1990s by Loyal Rue, who was familiar with the term from Brightman's book. Rue used the term in conversations with several people before 1994, and subsequent conversations between Rue and Ursula Goodenough [both of whom were active in IRAS (The Institute on Religion in an Age of Science) led to Goodenough's use in her book "The Sacred Depths of Nature" and by Rue in "Religion is not about God" and other writings. Since 1994 numerous authors have used the phrase or expressed similar thinking. Examples are Chet Raymo, Stuart Kauffman and Karl E. Peters.

Ursula Goodenough

Mike Ignatowski states that "there were many religious naturalists in the first half of the 20th century and some even before that" but that "religious naturalism as a movement didn't really come into its own until about 1990 [and] took a major leap forward in 1998 when Ursula Goodenough published The Sacred Depths of Nature, which is considered one of the founding texts of this movement."[30]

Biologist Ursula Goodenough states:


I profess my Faith. For me, the existence of all this complexity and awareness and intent and beauty, and my ability to apprehend it, serves as the ultimate meaning and the ultimate value. The continuation of life reaches around, grabs its own tail, and forms a sacred circle that requires no further justification, no Creator, no super-ordinate meaning of meaning, no purpose other than that the continuation continue until the sun collapses or the final meteor collides. I confess a credo of continuation. And in so doing, I confess as well a credo of human continuation[31][32]

Donald Crosby's Living with Ambiguity published in 2008, has, as its first chapter, Religion of Nature as a Form of Religious Naturalism.[33]

Loyal Rue's Nature is Enough published in 2011, discusses "Religion Naturalized, Nature Sanctified" and "The Promise of Religious Naturalism".[34]

Jerome A. Stone

Religious Naturalism Today: The Rebirth of a Forgotten Alternative is a history by Dr. Jerome A. Stone (Dec. 2008 release) that presents this paradigm as a once-forgotten option in religious thinking that is making a rapid revival. It seeks to explore and encourage religious ways of responding to the world on a completely naturalistic basis without a supreme being or ground of being. This book traces this history and analyzes some of the issues dividing religious naturalists. It covers the birth of religious naturalism, from George Santayana to Henry Nelson Wieman and briefly explores religious naturalism in literature and art. Contested issues are discussed including whether nature's power or goodness is the focus of attention and also on the appropriateness of using the term "God". The contributions of more than twenty living Religious Naturalists are presented. The last chapter ends the study by exploring what it is like on the inside to live as a religious naturalist.[35]

Chet Raymo writes that he had come to the same conclusion as Teilhard de Chardin: "Grace is everywhere",[36] and that naturalistic emergence is in everything and far more magical than religion-based miracles. A future humankind religion should be ecumenical, ecological, and embrace the story provided by science as the "most reliable cosmology".[37]

As P. Roger Gillette summarizes:


Thus was religious naturalism born. It takes the findings of modern science seriously, and thus is inherently naturalistic. But it also takes the human needs that led to the emergence of religious systems seriously, and thus is also religious. It is religious, or reconnective, in that it seeks and facilitates human reconnection with one's self, family, larger human community, local and global ecosystem, and unitary universe (…) Religious reconnection implies love. And love implies concern, concern for the well-being of the beloved. Religious naturalism thus is marked by concern for the well-being of the whole of nature. This concern provides a basis and drive for ethical behavior toward the whole holy unitary universe.[38]
Tenets[edit]

Due to the high importance placed on nature, some religious naturalists have a strong sense of stewardship for the Earth. Luther College professor Loyal Rue has written:


Religious naturalists will be known for their reverence and awe before Nature, their love for Nature and natural forms, their sympathy for all living things, their guilt for enlarging the ecological footprints, their pride in reducing them, their sense of gratitude directed towards the matrix of life, their contempt for those who abstract themselves from natural values, and their solidarity with those who link their self-esteem to sustainable living.[39]
Varieties[edit]

The literature related to religious naturalism includes many variations in conceptual framing. This reflects individual takes on various issues, to some extent various schools of thought, such as basic naturalism, religious humanism, pantheism, panentheism, and spiritual naturalism that have had time on the conceptual stage, and to some extent differing ways of characterizing Nature.

Current discussion often relates to the issue of whether belief in a God or God-language and associated concepts have any place in a framework that treats the physical universe as its essential frame of reference and the methods of science as providing the preeminent means for determining what Nature is. There are at least three varieties of religious naturalism, and three similar but somewhat different ways to categorize them. They are:
A kind of naturalism that does use theological language but fundamentally treats God metaphorically.
A commitment to naturalism using theological language, but as either (1) a faith statement or supported by philosophical arguments, or (2) both, usually leaving open the question of whether that usage as metaphor or refers to the ultimate answer that Nature can be.
Neo-theistic (process theology, progressive religions) – Gordon Kaufman, Karl E. Peters, Ralph Wendell Burhoe, Edmund Robinson[40]
Non-theistic (agnostic, naturalistic concepts of god) – Robertson himself, Stanley Klein, Stuart Kauffman, Naturalistic Paganism.
atheistic (no God concept, some modern naturalisms, Process Naturalism, C. Robert Mesle, non-militant atheism, antitheism) – Jerome A. Stone, Michael Cavanaugh, Donald A. Crosby,[41] Ursula Goodenough, Daniel Dennett [42]
A hodgepodge of individual perspectives – Philip Hefner

The first category has as many sub-groups as there are distinct definitions for god. Believers in a supernatural entity (transcendent) are by definition not religious naturalists however the matter of a naturalistic concept of God (Immanence) is currently debated. Strong atheists are not considered Religious Naturalists in this differentiation. Some individuals call themselves religious naturalists but refuse to be categorized. The unique theories of religious naturalists Loyal Rue, Donald A. Crosby, Jerome A. Stone, and Ursula Goodenough are discussed by Michael Hogue in his 2010 book The Promise of Religious Naturalism.[43]

God concepts[44]
Those who conceive of God as the creative process within the universe – example, Henry Nelson Wieman
Those who think of God as the totality of the universe considered religiously – Bernard Loomer.
A third type of religious naturalism sees no need to use the concept or terminology of God, Stone himself and Ursula Goodenough

Stone emphasizes that some Religious Naturalists do not reject the concept of God, but if they use the concept, it involves a radical alteration of the idea such as Gordon Kaufman who defines God as creativity.

Ignatowski divides RN into only two types – theistic and non-theistic.[30]
Shared principles[edit]

Biological classification

There are several principles shared by all the aforementioned varieties of religious naturalism:[45]
All varieties of religious naturalism see humans as an interconnected, emergent part of nature.
Accept the primacy of science with regard to what is measurable via the scientific method.
Recognize science's limitations in accounting for judgments of value and in providing a full account of human experience. Thus religious naturalism embraces nature's creativity, beauty and mystery and honors many aspects of the artistic, cultural and religious traditions that respond to and attempt to interpret Nature in subjective ways.
Approach matters of morality, ethics and value with a focus on how the world works, with a deep concern for fairness and the welfare of all humans regardless of their station in life.
Seek to integrate these interpretative, spiritual and ethical responses in a manner that respects diverse religious and philosophical perspectives, while still subjecting them and itself to rigorous scrutiny.
The focus on scientific standards of evidence imbues RN with the humility inherent in scientific inquiry and its limited, albeit ever deepening, ability to describe reality (see Epistemology).
A strong environmental ethic for the welfare of the planet Earth and humanity.
Belief in the sacredness of life and the evolutionary process

The concept of emergence has grown in popularity with many Religious Naturalists. It helps explain how a complex Universe and life by self-organization have risen out of a multiplicity of relatively simple elements and their interactions. The entire story of emergence is related in the Epic of Evolution – the mythic scientific narrative used to tell the verifiable chronicle of the evolutionary process that is the Universe. Most religious naturalist consider the Epic of Evolution a true story about the historic achievement of Nature.[46][47][48] "The Epic of Evolution is the 14 billion year narrative of cosmic, planetary, life, and cultural evolution—told in sacred ways. Not only does it bridge mainstream science and a diversity of religious traditions; if skillfully told, it makes the science story memorable and deeply meaningful, while enriching one's religious faith or secular outlook."[49]

A number of naturalistic writers have used this theme as a topic for their books using such synonyms as: Cosmic Evolution, Everybody's Story, Evolutionary Epic, Evolutionary Universe, Great Story, New Story, Universal Story. 'Epic of evolution' is a term that, within the past three years(1998), has become the theme and title of a number of gatherings. It seems to have been first used by Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson in 1978. 'The evolutionary epic,' Wilson wrote in his book On Human Nature, 'is probably the best myth we will ever have.' Myth as falsehood was not the usage intended by Wilson in this statement. Rather, myth as a grand narrative that provides a people with a placement in time—a meaningful placement that celebrates extraordinary moments of a shared heritage. The epic of evolution is science translated into meaningful story."[50]

Evolutionary evangelist minister Michael Dowd uses the term to help present his position that science and religious faith are not mutually exclusive (a premise of religious naturalism). He preaches that the epic of cosmic, biological, and human evolution, revealed by science, is a basis for an inspiring and meaningful view of our place in the universe. Evolution is viewed as a spiritual process that it is not meaningless blind chance.[51] He is joined by a number of other theologians in this position.[52][53][54]
Notable proponents and critics[edit]
Proponents[edit]

Support for religious naturalism can be seen from two perspectives. One is individuals, in recent times, who have discussed and supported religious naturalism, per se. Another is individuals from earlier times who may not have used or been familiar with the term, "religious naturalism", but who had views that are compatible and whose thoughts have contributed to development of religious naturalism.

People who have been supportive of and who discussed religious naturalism by name include:

Chet Raymo
Loyal Rue
Donald A. Crosby
Jerome A. Stone
Michael Dowd
Ursula Goodenough
Terrence Deacon
Loren Eiseley
Philip Hefner
Ralph Wendell Burhoe
Mordecai Kaplan
Henry Nelson Wieman
George Santayana
Gordon D. Kaufman
Stuart Kauffman
Stanley A. Klein
C. Robert Mesle
Karl E. Peters
Varadaraja V. Raman
Ian Barbour
Robert S. Corrington

People from earlier times, who did not use the term, religious naturalism, but who had compatible views, include:
Lao-Tzu
Albert Einstein
W.E.B. Du Bois
Aldo Leopold
Critics[edit]

Religious naturalism has been criticized from two perspectives. One is that of traditional Western religion, which disagrees with naturalist disbelief in a personal God. Another is that of naturalists who do not agree that a religious sense can or should be associated with naturalist views. Critics in the first group include supporters of traditional Jewish, Christian, and Islamic religion. Critics in the second group include:
Richard Dawkins [55]
John Haught [56]
Prominent communities and leaders[edit]

Religious naturalists sometimes use the social practices of traditional religions, including communal gatherings and rituals, to foster a sense of community, and to serve as reinforcement of its participants' efforts to expand the scope of their understandings. Some other groups mainly communicate online. Some known examples of religious naturalists groupings and congregation leaders are:[57]
Religious Naturalist Association[58]
Spiritual Naturalist Society[59]
Unitarian Universalist Religious Naturalists[60]
Religious Naturalism Facebook Group[61]
World Pantheist Movement – largely web-based but with some local groups.[62]
Universal Pantheist Society founded 1975 – Pantheism is an intercepting concept with religious naturalism[63]
Congregation Beth Or, a Jewish congregation near Chicago led by Rabbi David Oler[64]
Congregation of Beth Adam in Loveland Ohio led by Rabbi Robert Barr[65]
Pastor Ian Lawton, minister at the Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, West Michigan and Center for Progressive Christianity[66][67]

Religious Naturalism is the focus of classes and conferences at some colleges and theology schools.[68][69] Articles about religious naturalism have appeared frequently in journals, including Zygon, American Journal of Theology and Philosophy, and the International Journal for Philosophy and Religion.[70]
See also[edit]
Creation Spirituality
Creativity (religion)
Daoism
Epic of evolution
Epicureanism
Fitra
Liberal naturalism
Liberal religion
List of new religious movements
Naturalistic pantheism
Philosophical theism
Postsecularism
Process theology
Secular paganism
Spiritual naturalism
World Pantheist Movement
Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science
References[edit]

^ Jerome Stone, Religious Naturalism Today, SUNY Press 2008, page 1
^ Michael S. Hogue, The Promise of Religious Naturalism, Rowman & Littlefield 2010, pages xix-xx
^ Varadaraja V. Raman, Book-jacket review of Loyal Rue's "Nature is Enough", SUNY Press 2012
^ Loyal Rue, Nature is Enough, SUNY Press 2012, page 114
^ Michael Cavanaugh, "What is Religious Naturalism?", Zygon 2000, page 242
^ Loyal Rue, Nature is Enough, SUNY Press 2012, page 91
^ Wesley Wildman. Religious Naturalism: What It Can Be, and What It Need Not Be. Page 36
^ Jump up to:a b Ursula Goodenough, NPR 13.7 Blog, November 23, 2014: What is religious naturalism?
^ Michael S. Hogue. Religion Without God: An Essay on Religious Naturalism. The Fourth R 27:3 (Spring 2014)
^ Oxford English Dictionary Online naturalism
^ Alhazen (Ibn Al-Haytham) Critique of Ptolemy, translated by S. Pines, Actes X Congrès internationale d'histoire des sciences, Vol I Ithaca 1962, as referenced in Sambursky 1974, p. 139
^ (Sabra 2003)
^ Loyal Rue, Nature is Enough, State University of New York Press, 2011. Page 91
^ Varadaraja V. Raman. Back-cover review of Loyal Rue's "Nature is Enough"
^ Ursula Goodenough. Religious Naturalism and naturalizing morality. Zygon 38 2003: 101-109.
^ Donald Crosby. Living with Ambiguity: Religious Naturalism and the Menace of Evil, SUNY Press, 2008, page ix-x
^ Loyal Rue, Nature is Enough, State University of New York Press, 2011. Pages 93-96
^ Loyal Rue, Nature is Enough, State University of New York Press, 2011. Page 110
^ Loyal Rue, Nature is Enough, State University of New York Press, 2011. Pages 110-111
^ Sharon M. Kaye; Paul Thomson (2006). Philosophy for Teens: Questioning Life's Big Ideas,. Prufrock Press Inc. p. 72. ISBN 9781593632021.
^ Wildman, Wesley. Religious Naturalism: What It Can Be, and What It Need Not Be. Philosophy, Theology, and the Sciences. 1(1). 2014. Pages 49-51.
^ George Hooker Colton; James Davenport Whelpley (1846). The American Review: A Whig Journal, Devoted to Politics and Literature. p. 282.
^ Athanasia. American Unitarian Association. 1870. p. 6.
^ Ludwig Feuerbach; George Eliot (1881). The Essence of Christianity. Religion. Trübner. p. 103.
^ Alex J. Goldman - The greatest rabbis hall of fame, SP Books, 1987, page 342, ISBN 0933503148
^ Rabbi Emanuel S. Goldsmith - Reconstructionism Today Spring 2001, Volume 8, Number 3,Jewish Reconstructionist Federation retrieved 4-1-09
^ Perrigo Conger, George (1940). The Ideologies of Religion. p. 212. Retrieved 29 November 2010.
^ Brightman, Edgar S (1940). God as the Tendency of Nature to Support or Produce Values (Religious Naturalism). A Philosophy of Religion. p. 148.
^ Stone, Jerome A (1991). The Minimalist Vision of Transcendence. p. 9. ISBN 9780791411599.
^ Jump up to:a b Ignatowski, Mike (June 25, 2006). Religious Naturalism. Kingston. Retrieved 2009-03-07.
^ Goodenough, Ursula (2000). The Sacred Depths of Nature. Oxford University Press. p. 171. ISBN 0195136292.
^ "Video Interview - Speaking of Faith". Krista's Journal. April 7, 2005. Archived from the original on October 11, 2008.
^ Crosby, Donald A (2008). Living with Ambiguity. SUNY Press. p. 1. ISBN 0791475190.
^ Loyal Rue. Nature is Enough: Religious Naturalism and the Meaning of Life. SUNY Press. 2011.
^ Religious Naturalism Today: The Rebirth of a Forgotten Alternative
^ When God is Gone Everything is Holy – The Making of a Religious Naturalist, Chet Raymo, 2008, p 136
^ Chet Raymo - When God is Gone Everything is Holy, Soren Books, 2008, page 114, ISBN 1-933495-13-8
^ Gillette, P. Roger. "Theology Of, By, & For Religious Naturalism". Archived from the original on 2009-11-14. Retrieved 2009-03-09.
^ Loyal D. Rue - RELIGION is not about god, Rutgers University Press, 2005, page 367, ISBN 0813535115
^ Robinson, Rev. Edmund. "2029 Presentation of Skinner Award-Winning Social Justice Sermon". archive.uua.org. Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 29 November 2010.
^ Crosby, Donald A. A Religion of Nature. amazon.com. ISBN 0791454541.
^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5tGpMcFF7U
^ The Promise of Religious Naturalism – Michael Hogue, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., Sept.16, 2010, ISBN 0742562611
^ Rev. Dr. Jerome Stone's Presentation. "3062 Religious Naturalism: A New Theological Option". Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 29 November 2010.
^ "Introduction, page xviii" (PDF). Taylor's Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature.
^ How Grand a Narrative– Ursula Goodenough
^ " Epic, Story, Narrative – Bill Bruehl
^ How Grand a Narrative – Philip Hefner
^ "The Epic of Evolution". Taylor's Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature. 2004.
^ Connie Barlow - The Epic of Evolution: Religious and cultural interpretations of modern scientific cosmology. Science & Spirit Archived 2006-05-23 at the Wayback Machine
^ "Thank God for Evolution". thankgodforevolution.com.
^ Eugenie Carol Scott, Niles Eldredge, Contributor Niles Eldredge, - Evolution Vs. Creationism: An Introduction, University of California Press, 2005, page 235, ISBN 0520246500 - [1]
^ John Haught - God After Darwin: A Theology of Evolution, Westview Press, 2008ISBN 0813343704
^ Quotes of Berry and Hefner
^ Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, Houghton Mifflin 2006, pages 14,15,19
^ Loyal Rue, Nature is Enough, SUNY Press 2011, pages 116-122
^ Jerome A. Stone – Religious Naturalism Today: The Rebirth of a Forgotten Alternative, State U. of New York Press (Dec 2008), pages 10, 11, 141,ISBN 0791475379
^ "Religious Naturalist Association". Retrieved September 17, 2015.
^ "Spiritual Naturalist Society". Retrieved February 22, 2018. Serving Religious and Spiritual Naturalists.
^ "Unitarian Universalist Religious Naturalists". Retrieved September 17, 2015.
^ "Religious Naturalism Facebook Group". Retrieved September 17, 2015.
^ "World Pantheism: The online community for naturalistic Pantheists". Retrieved June 24,2010.
^ Jerome A. Stone – Religious Naturalism Today: The Rebirth of a Forgotten Alternative, State U. of New York Press, page 10 (Dec 2008)
^ Jerome A. Stone – Religious Naturalism Today: The Rebirth of a Forgotten Alternative, State U. of New York Press, page 221 (Dec 2008)
^ A Jewish Perspective Archived 2009-01-17 at the Wayback Machine retrieved 2/15/2010
^ "Ian Lawton". Center for Progressive Christianity. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 29 November 2010.
^ "Ian Lawton's Page".
^ "Religious Naturalism Resources". Retrieved September 17, 2015.
^ "International Congress on Religious Naturalism". Retrieved September 17, 2015.
^ Template:Cite web name=web search "journal article religious naturalism"
Further reading[edit]
2015 – Donald A. Crosby – More Than Discourse: Symbolic Expressions of Naturalistic Faith, State University of New York Press, ISBN 1438453744
2015 – Nathan Martinez – Rise Like Lions: Language and The False Gods of Civilization, ISBN 1507509901
2008 – Donald A. Crosby – The Thou of Nature: Religious Naturalism and Reverence for Sentient Life, State University of New York Press, ISBN 1438446691
2011 – Loyal Rue – Nature Is Enough, State University of New York Press, ISBN 1438437994
2010 – Michael Hogue – The Promise of Religious Naturalism, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., Sept.16, 2010, ISBN 0742562611
2009 – Michael Ruse & Joseph Travis – Evolution: The First Four Billion Years, Belknap Press, 2009, ISBN 067403175X
2008 – Donald A. Crosby – Living with Ambiguity: Religious Naturalism and the Menace of Evil, State University of New York Press, ISBN 0791475190
2008 – Michael Dowd – Thank God for Evolution:, Viking (June 2008), ISBN 0670020451
2008 – Chet Raymo – When God Is Gone, Everything Is Holy: The Making of a Religious Naturalist, Sorin Books, ISBN 1933495138
2008 – Kenneth R. Miller – Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul, Viking Adult, 2008, ISBN 067001883X
2008 – Eugenie C. Scott – Evolution vs. Creationism: An Introduction, Greenwood Press, ISBN 978-0313344275
2007 – Eric Chaisson – Epic of Evolution, Columbia University Press (March 2, 2007), ISBN 0231135610
2006 – John Haught – Is Nature Enough?, Cambridge University Press (May 31, 2006), ISBN 0521609933
2006 – Loyal Rue – Religion Is Not About God, Rutgers University Press, July 24, 2006, ISBN 0813539552
2004 – Gordon Kaufman – In the Beginning... Creativity, Augsburg Fortress Pub., 2004, ISBN 0800660935
2003 – James B. Miller – The Epic of Evolution: Science and Religion in Dialogue, Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2003, ISBN 013093318X
2002 – Donald A. Crosby – A Religion of Nature – State University of New York Press, ISBN 0791454541
2000 – Ursula Goodenough – Sacred Depths of Nature, Oxford University Press, USA; 1 edition (June 15, 2000), ISBN 0195136292
2000 – John Stewart – Evolution's Arrow: The Direction of Evolution and the Future of Humanity, Chapman Press, 2000, ISBN 0646394975
1997 – Connie Barlow – Green Space Green Time: The Way of Science, Springer (September 1997), ISBN 0387947949
1992 – Brian Swimme – The Universe Story: From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era, HarperCollins, 1992, ISBN 0062508350

Reading lists – Evolution Reading Resources[permanent dead link], Books of the Epic of Evolution, Cosmic Evolution
External links[edit]
Look up religious naturalism in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Religious naturalism

Religious Naturalist Association
Religious Naturalism
Religious Naturalism Resources Boston University
The Great Story leading RN educational website
Naturalism.org
The New Cosmology
SacredRiver.org
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Spiritual ecology - Wikipedia



Spiritual ecology - Wikipedia



Spiritual ecology
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Spiritual ecology is an emerging field in religion, conservation, and academia recognizing that there is a spiritual facet to all issues related to conservation, environmentalism, and earth stewardship. Proponents of Spiritual Ecology assert a need for contemporary conservation work to include spiritual elements and for contemporary religion and spirituality to include awareness of and engagement in ecological issues.


Contents
1Introduction
2History
3Indigenous wisdom

4Current trends
4.1Science and academia
4.2Religion and ecology
4.3Earth-based traditions and earth spirituality
4.4Spirituality and ecology
4.5Environmental conservation

5Opposing views

6See also
7References
8Further reading
9External links
Introduction[edit]

Contributors in the field of Spiritual Ecology contend there are spiritual elements at the root of environmental issues. Those working in the arena of Spiritual Ecology further suggest that there is a critical need to recognize and address the spiritual dynamics at the root of environmental degradation.[1]

The field is largely emerging through three individual streams of formal study and activity: science and academia, religion and spirituality, and ecological sustainability.[2]

Despite the disparate arenas of study and practice, the principles of spiritual ecology are simple: In order to resolve such environmental issues as depletion of species, global warming, and over-consumption, humanity must examine and reassess our underlying attitudes and beliefs about the earth, and our spiritual responsibilities toward the planet.[3]U.S. Advisor on climate change, James Gustave Speth, said: "I used to think that top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and climate change. I thought that thirty years of good science could address these problems. I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy, and to deal with these we need a cultural and spiritual transformation."[4]

Thus, it is argued, ecological renewal and sustainability necessarily depends upon spiritual awareness and an attitude of responsibility. Spiritual Ecologists concur that this includes both the recognition of creation as sacred and behaviors that honor that sacredness.

Recent written and spoken contributions of Pope Francis, particularly his May 2015 Encyclical, Laudato si', as well as unprecedented involvement of faith leaders at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris[5] reflect a growing popularity of this emerging view. The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, stated on December 4, 2015, that “Faith communities are vital for global efforts to address the climate challenge. They remind us of the moral dimensions of climate change, and of our obligation to care for both the Earth’s fragile environment and our neighbours in need.” [5]
History[edit]

Spiritual ecology identifies the Scientific Revolution—beginning the 16th century, and continuing through the Age of Enlightenment to the Industrial Revolution—as contributing to a critical shift in human understanding with reverberating effects on the environment. The radical expansion of collective consciousness into the era of rational science included a collective change from experiencing nature as a living, spiritual presence to a utilitarianmeans to an end.[6]

During the modern age, reason became valued over faith, tradition, and revelation. Industrialized society replaced agricultural societies and the old ways of relating to seasons and cycles. Furthermore, it is argued that the growing predominance of a global, mechanized worldview, a collective sense of the sacred was severed and replaced with an insatiable drive for scientific progress and material prosperity without any sense of limits or responsibility.[6]

Some in Spiritual Ecology argue that a pervasive patriarchal world-view, and a monotheistic religious orientation towards a transcendent divinity, is largely responsible for destructive attitudes about the earth, body, and the sacred nature of creation.[7] Thus, many identify the wisdom of indigenous cultures, for whom the physical world is still regarded as sacred, as holding a key to our current ecological predicament.

Spiritual ecology is a response to the values and socio-political structures of recent centuries with their trajectory away from intimacy with the earth and its sacred essence. It has been forming and developing as an intellectual and practice-oriented discipline for nearly a century.[8]

Spiritual ecology includes a vast array of people and practices that intertwine spiritual and environmental experience and understanding. Additionally, within the tradition itself resides a deep, developing spiritual vision of a collective human/earth/divine evolution that is expanding consciousness beyond the dualities of human/earth, heaven/earth, mind/body. This belongs to the contemporary movement that recognizes the unity and interrelationship, or "interbeing," the interconnectedness of all of creation.

Visionaries carrying this thread include Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) who founded the spiritual movement of anthroposophy, and described a "co-evolution of spirituality and nature"[9] and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a French Jesuit and paleontologist (1881-1955) who spoke of a transition in collective awareness toward a consciousness of the divinity within every particle of life, even the most dense mineral. This shift includes the necessary dissolution of divisions between fields of study as mentioned above. "Science, philosophy and religion are bound to converge as they draw nearer to the whole."[10]

Thomas Berry, the American Passionist priest known a 'geologian' (1914-2009), has been one of the most influential figures in this developing movement, with his stress on returning to a sense of wonder and reverence for the natural world. He shared and furthered many of Teilhard de Chardin’s views, including the understanding that humanity is not at the center of the universe, but integrated into a divine whole with its own evolutionary path. This view compels a re-thinking of the earth/human relationship: "The present urgency is to begin thinking within the context of the whole planet, the integral earth community with all its human and other-than-human components."[11]

More recently, leaders in the Engaged Buddhism movement, including Thich Nhat Hanh, also identify a need to return to a sense of self which includes the Earth.[12] Joanna Macydescribes a collective shift – referred to as the "Great Turning" – taking us into a new consciousness in which the earth is not experienced as separate.[13] Sufi teacher Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee similarly grounds his spiritual ecology work in the context of a collective evolutionary expansion towards oneness, bringing us all toward an experience of earth and humanity – all life – as interdependent. In the vision and experience of oneness, the term "spiritual ecology" becomes, itself, redundant. What is earth-sustaining is spiritual; that which is spiritual honors a sacred earth.[14][15]

An important element in the work of these contemporary teachers is the call for humanity’s full acceptance of responsibility for what we have done – physically and spiritually – to the earth. Only through accepting responsibility will healing and transformation occur.[14][15][16]

Including the need for a spiritual response to the environmental crisis, Charles, Prince of Wales in his 2010 book Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World, writes: "A specifically mechanistic science has only recently assumed a position of such authority in the world... (and) not only has it prevented us from considering the world philosophically any more, our predominantly mechanistic way of looking at the world has also excluded our spiritual relationship with Nature. Any such concerns get short shrift in the mainstream debate about what we do to the Earth."[17] Prince Charles, who has promoted environmental awareness since the 1980s,[18] continues: "... by continuing to deny ourselves this profound, ancient, intimate relationship with Nature, I fear we are compounding our subconscious sense of alienation and disintegration, which is mirrored in the fragmentation and disruption of harmony we are bringing about in the world around us. At the moment we are disrupting the teeming diversity of life and the ‘ecosystems’ that sustain it—the forests and prairies, the woodland, moorland and fens, the oceans, rivers and streams. And this all adds up to the degree of ‘disease’ we are causing to the intricate balance that regulates the planet’s climate, on which we so intimately depend."[19]

In May 2015 Pope Francis’s Encyclical, “Laudato Si’: On Care for our Common Home,”endorsed the need for a spiritual and moral response to our environmental crisis, and thus implicitly brings the subject of spiritual ecology to the forefront of our present ecological debate. This encyclical recognizes that “The ecological crisis is essentially a spiritual problem,” [20] in line with the ideas of this developing field. American environmentalist, author, and journalist Bill McKibben who has written extensively on the impact of global warming, says that Pope Francis has "brought the full weight of the spiritual order to bear on the global threat posed by climate change, and in so doing joined its power with the scientific order."[21]

Scientist, environmentalist, and a leader in sustainable ecology David Suzuki also expresses the importance of including the sacred in addressing the ecological crisis: "The way we see the world shapes the way we treat it. If a mountain is a deity, not a pile of ore; if a river is one of the veins of the land, not potential irrigation water; if a forest is a sacred grove, not timber; if other species are biological kin, not resources; or if the planet is our mother, not an opportunity—then we will treat each other with greater respect. Thus is the challenge, to look at the world from a different perspective."[22]

Historically we see the development of the foundational ideas and perspective of spiritual ecology in mystical arms of traditional religions and spiritual arms of environmental conservation. These ideas put forth a story of an evolving universe and potential human experience of wholeness in which dualities dissipate—dualities that have marked past eras and contributed to the destruction of the earth as "other" than spirit.

A Catholic nun interviewed by Sarah MacFarland Taylor, author of the 2009 book, “Green Sisters: Spiritual Ecology” (Harvard University Press, 2009), articulates this perspective of unity: “There is no division between planting new fields and prayer.”[23]
Indigenous wisdom[edit]

Many in the field of spiritual ecology agree that a distinct stream of experience threading throughout history that has at its heart a lived understanding of the principles, values and attitudes of spiritual ecology: indigenous wisdom. The term "indigenous" in this context refers to that which is native, original, and resident to a place, more specifically to societies who share and preserve ways of knowing the world in relationship to the land.[24] For many Native traditions, the earth is the central spiritual context.[25] This principle condition reflects an attitude and way of being in the world that is rooted in land and embedded in place.[26] Spiritual ecology directs us to look to revered holders of these traditions in order to understand the source of our current ecological and spiritual crisis and find guidance to move into a state of balance.

Features of many indigenous teachings include life as a continual act of prayer and thanksgiving, knowledge and symbiotic relationship with an animate nature, and being aware of one’s actions on future generations. Such understanding necessarily implies a mutuality and reciprocity between people, earth and the cosmos.

The above historical trajectory is located predominantly in a Judeo-Christian European context, for it is within this context that humanity experienced the loss of the sacred nature of creation, with its devastating consequences. For example, with colonization, indigenous spiritual ecology was historically replaced by an imposed Western belief that land and the environment are commodities to be used and exploited, with exploitation of natural resources in the name of socio-economic evolution. This perspective "... tended to remove any spiritual value of the land, with regard only given for economic value, and this served to further distance communities from intimate relationships with their environments,"[27]often with "devastating consequences for indigenous people and nature around the world."[28][29] Research on early prehistoric human activity in the Quaternary extinction event, shows overhunting megafauna well before European colonization in North America, South America and Australia.[30][31][32][33][34][35][36] While this might cast doubt upon the view of indigenous wisdom and the sacred relationship to land and environment throughout the entirety of human history, it this does not negate the more recent devastating effects as referenced.

Along with the basic principles and behaviors advocated by spiritual ecology, some indigenous traditions hold the same evolutionary view articulated by the Western spiritual teachers listed above. The understanding of humanity evolving toward a state of unity and harmony with the earth after a period of discord and suffering is described in a number of prophecies around the globe. These include the White Buffalo prophecy of the Plains Indians, the prophecy of the Eagle and Condor from the people of the Andes, and the Onondaga prophecies held and retold by Oren Lyons.[37][38][39]
Current trends[edit]

Spiritual ecology is developing largely in three arenas identified above: Science and Academia, Religion and Spirituality, and Environmental Conservation.
Science and academia[edit]

Among scholars contributing to spiritual ecology, five stand out: Steven Clark Rockefeller, Mary Evelyn Tucker, John Grim, Bron Taylor and Roger S. Gottlieb.[40]

Mary Evelyn Tucker[41] and John Grim[42] are the co-ordinators of Yale University’s Forum on Religion and Ecology,[43] an international multi-religious project exploring religious world-views, texts ethics and practices in order to broaden understanding of the complex nature of current environmental concerns.

Steven C. Rockefeller is an author of numerous books about religion and the environment, and is professor emeritus of religion at Middlebury College. He played a leading role in the drafting of the Earth Charter.[44]

Roger S. Gottlieb[45] is a professor of Philosophy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute is author of over 100 articles and 16 books on environmentalism, religious life, contemporary spirituality, political philosophy, ethics, feminism, and the Holocaust.

Bron Taylor at the University of Florida coined the term "Dark Green Religion" to describe a set of beliefs and practices centered on the conviction that nature is sacred.[46]

Other leaders in the field include: Leslie E. Sponsel at the University of Hawai'i,[47] Sarah McFarland Taylor at Northwestern University,[48] Mitchell Thomashow at Antioch University New England and the Schumacher College Programs.[49]

Within the field of science, spiritual ecology is emerging in arenas including Physics, Biology (see: Ursula Goodenough), Consciousness Studies (see: Brian Swimme; California Institute of Integral Studies), Systems Theory (see: David Loy; Nondual Science Institute), and Gaia Hypothesis, which was first articulated by James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis in the 1970s.[citation needed]

Another example is scientist and author Diana Beresford-Kroeger, world recognized expert on how trees chemically affect the environment, who brings together the fields of ethnobotany, horticulture, ecology, and spirituality in relation to the current ecological crisis and stewardship of the natural world. She says, "... the world, the gift of this world is fantastic and phenomenal. The molecular working of the world is extraordinary, the mathematics of the world is extraordinary... sacred and science go together."[50][51]

Religion and ecology[edit]

Within many faiths, environmentalism is becoming an area of study and advocacy.[52]Pope Francis’s May 2015 encyclical, Laudato si', offered a strong confirmation of spiritual ecology and its principles from within the Catholic Church. Additionally, over 150 leaders from various faiths signed a letter to the UN Climate Summit in Paris 2015, “Statement of Faith and Spiritual Leaders on the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP21 in Paris in December 2015”, recognizing the earth as “a gift” from God and calling for climate action. These contemporary events are reflections of enduring themes coming to the fore within many religions.

Christian environmentalists emphasize the ecological responsibilities of all Christians as stewards of God's earth, while contemporary Muslim religious ecology is inspired by Qur'anic themes, such as mankind being khalifa, or trustee of God on earth (2:30). There is also a Jewish ecological perspective based upon the Bible and Torah, for example the laws of bal tashchit (neither to destroy wantonly, nor waste resources unnecessarily). Engaged Buddhism applies Buddhist principles and teachings to social and environmental issues. A collection of Buddhist responses to global warming can be seen at Ecological Buddhism.[53]

In addition to Pope Francis, other world traditions currently seem to include a subset of leaders committed to an ecological perspective. The "Green Patriarch," Bartholomew 1, the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church,[54] has worked since the late nineties to bring together scientists, environmentalists, religious leaders and policy makers to address the ecological crisis, and says protecting the planet is a "sacred task and a common vocation… Global warming is a moral crisis and a moral challenge.”[55] The Islamic Foundation For Ecology And Environmental Sciences (IFEES)[56] were one of the sponsors of the International Islamic Climate Change Symposium held in Istanbul in August 2015, which resulted in "Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change"—a declaration endorsed by religious leaders, noted Islamic scholars and teachers from 20 countries.[57] In October, 2015, 425 rabbis signed "A Rabbinic Letter on the Climate Crisis", calling for vigorous action to prevent worsening climate disruption and to seek eco-social justice.[58] Hindu scriptures also allude strongly and often to the connection between humans and nature, and these texts form the foundation of the Hindu Declaration on Climate Change, presented at a 2009 meeting of the Parliament of World Religions.[59]Many world faith and religious leaders, such as the Dalai Lama, were present at the 2015 Climate Change Conference, and shared the view that: "Saving the planet is not just a political duty, but also a moral one."[60][61] The Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, has also stated, "The environmental emergency that we face is not just a scientific issue, nor is it just a political issue—it is also a moral issue.”[62]

These religious approaches to ecology also have a growing interfaith expression, for example in The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development (ICSD) where world religious leaders speak out on climate change and sustainability. And at their gathering in Fall 2015, the Parliament of World Religions created a declaration for Interfaith Action on Climate Change, and "brought together more than 10,000 activists, professors, clergy, and global leaders from 73 countries and 50 faiths to confront climate change"[63]
Earth-based traditions and earth spirituality[edit]

Care for and respect to earth as Sacred—as Mother Earth (Mother Nature)—who provides life and nourishment, is a central point to Earth-based spirituality. PaGaian Cosmology is a tradition within Earth-based spirituality that focuses particularly in Spiritual Ecology and celebrating the sacredness of life. Glenys Livingstone describes it in her book as "an ecospirituality grounded in indigenous Western religious celebration of the Earth-Sun annual cycle. By linking to story of the unfolding universe this practice can be deepened. And a sense of the Triple Goddess—central to the cycle and known in ancient cultures—may be developed as a dynamic innate to all being. The ritual scripts and the process of ritual events presented here, may be a journey into self-knowledge through personal, communal and ecological story: the self to be known is one that is integral with place."[64]

Spirituality and ecology[edit]

While religiously-oriented environmentalism is grounded in scripture and theology, there is a more recent environmental movement that articulates the need for an ecological approach founded on spiritual awareness rather than religious belief. The individuals articulating this approach may have a religious background, but their ecological vision comes from their own lived spiritual experience.[65][66] The difference between this spiritually-oriented ecology and a religious approach to ecology can be seen as analogous to how the Inter-spiritual Movement moves beyond interfaith and interreligious dialogue to focus on the actual experience of spiritual principles and practices.[67] Spiritual ecology similarly explores the importance of this experiential spiritual dimension in relation to our present ecological crisis.[14]

The Engaged Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh speaks of the importance of mindfulness in taking care of our Mother Earth, and how the highest form of prayer is real communion with the Earth.[68] Sandra Ingerman offers shamanic healing as a way of reversing pollution in Medicine for the Earth.[69] Franciscan friar Richard Rohr emphasizes the need to experience the whole world as a divine incarnation. Sufi mystic Llewellyn Vaughan-Leedirects our attention not just to the suffering of the physical world, but also its interior spiritual self, or anima mundi (world soul). Bill Plotkin and others are involved in the work of finding within nature the reconnection with our soul and the world soul.[70] These are just a few of the many different ways practitioners of spiritual ecology within different spiritual traditions and disciplines bring our awareness back to the sacred nature of creation.
Environmental conservation[edit]
Main article: Conservation movement

The environmental conservation field has been informed, shaped, and led by individuals who have had profound experiences of nature’s sacredness and have fought to protect it. Recognizing the intimacy of human soul and nature, many have pioneered a new way of thinking about and relating to the earth.

Today many aspects of the environmental conservation movement are empowered by spiritual principles and interdisciplinary cooperation.

Robin Wall Kimmerer, Professor of Environmental and Forest Biology at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, has recently founded the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment[71] which bridges scientific based study of ecology and the environment with traditional ecological knowledge, which includes spirituality. As she writes in this piece from Oxford Journal BioScience: "Traditional ecological knowledge is increasingly being sought by academics, agency scientists, and policymakers as a potential source of ideas for emerging models of ecosystem management, conservation biology, and ecological restoration. It has been recognized as complementary and equivalent to scientific knowledge... Traditional ecological knowledge is not unique to Native American culture but exists all over the world, independent of ethnicity. It is born of long intimacy and attentiveness to a homeland and can arise wherever people are materially and spiritually integrated with their landscape."[72]

In recent years, the World Wildlife Fund (World Wide Fund for Nature) has developed Sacred Earth: Faiths for Conservation, a program to collaborate with spiritual leaders and faith communities from all different spiritual traditions around the world, to face environmental issues including deforestation, pollution, unsustainable extraction, melting glaciers and rising sea levels. The Sacred Earth program works with faith-based leaders and communities, who "best articulate ethical and spiritual ideals around the sacred value of Earth and its diversity, and are committed to protecting it."[73]

One of the conservation projects developed from the WWF Sacred Earth program is Khoryug,[74] based in the Eastern Himalayas, which is an association of several Tibetan Buddhist monasteries that works on environmental protection of the Himalayan region through apply the values of compassion and interdependence towards the Earth and all living beings that dwell here. Organized under the auspices of His Holiness, the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, the Khoryug project resulted in the publication of environmental guidelines for Buddhists and "more than 55 monastery-led projects to address forest degradation, water loss, wildlife trade, waste, pollution and climate change."[75]

Krishna Kant Shukla, a physicist and musician, is noted for his lectures on "Indian villages as models of sustainable development" and his work in establishing Saha Astitva a model eco village and organic farm in tribal Maharashtra, India.

One trend to note is the recognition that women—by instinct and nature—have a unique commitment and capacity to protect the earth’s resources. We see this illustrated in the lives of Wangari Maathai, founder of Africa’s Green Belt Movement, which was initially made up of women planting trees; Jane Goodall, innovator of local sustainable programs in Africa, many of which are designed to empower girls and women; and Vandana Shiva, the Indian feminist activist working on a variety of issues including seed saving, protecting small farms in India and protesting agri-business.

Other contemporary inter-disciplinary environmentalists include Wendell Berry, a farmer, poet, and academic living in Kentucky, who fights for small farms and criticizes agri-business; and Satish Kumar, a former Jain monk and founder of Schumacher College, a center for ecological studies.
Opposing views[edit]

Although the May 2015 Encyclical from Pope Francis brought the importance of the subject spiritual ecology to the fore of mainstream contemporary culture, it is a point of view that is not widely accepted or included in the work of most environmentalists and ecologists. Academic research on the subject has also generated some criticism.[76][77]

Ken Wilber has criticized spiritual ecology, suggesting that “spiritually oriented deep ecologists” fail to acknowledge the transcendent aspect of the divine, or hierarchical cosmologies, and thus exclude an important aspect of spirituality, as well as presenting what Wilber calls a one-dimensional “flat land” ontology in which the sacred in nature is wholly immanent. But Wilber's views are also criticized as not including an in-depth understanding of indigenous spirituality.[78]

See also[edit]

Ecology portal
Cultural ecology
Deep ecology
Ecopsychology
Religion and ecology
Ecofeminism
References[edit]

^ White, Lynn (1967-03-10). "The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis". Science. 155(3767): 1203–1207. doi:10.1126/science.155.3767.1203. ISSN 1095-9203. PMID 17847526.
^ Sponsel, Leslie E. (2012). Spiritual Ecology: A Quiet Revolution. Praeger. pp. xiii. ISBN 978-0-313-36409-9.
^ This theme is developed further in the work of Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Sandra Ingerman, Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim: http://fore.research.yale.edu, Leslie Sponsel: http://spiritualecology.info, and others.
^ Crockett, Daniel. "Connection Will Be the Next Big Human Trend", Huffington Post, Aug 22, 2014.
^ Jump up to:a b Vidal, John. "Religious leaders step up pressure for action on climate change", The Guardian, December 4, 2015.
^ Jump up to:a b Mary Evelyn Tucker, "Complete Interview", Global Oneness Project video. See also: Worldviews & Ecology: Religion, Philosophy, and the Environment, Mary Evelyn Tucker and John A. Grim (eds.), and the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology
^ See Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, The Return of the Feminine and the World Soul, ch. 3, "Patriarchal Deities and the Repression of the Feminine."
^ See Leslie E. Sponsel, Spiritual Ecology: A Quiet Revolution, ch. III, "Branches", 69-83 and specifically ch. 12, "Supernovas."
^ Leslie E. Sponsel, Spiritual Ecology: A Quiet Revolution, p. 66.
^ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man, p. 30.
^ Thomas Berry, The Great Work, p. 105.
^ Confino, Jo. "Beyond environment: falling back in love with Mother Earth," The Guardian, Feb. 2010.
^ Joanna Macy (2009-10-07). "The Great Turning". Joannamacy.net. Retrieved 2015-08-28.
^ Jump up to:a b c Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee. "Spiritual Ecology". Spiritual Ecology. Retrieved 2015-08-28.
^ Jump up to:a b "Home". Working with Oneness. Retrieved 2015-08-28.
^ Also see the video Taking Spiritual Responsibility for the Planet with Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, and Engaged Buddhism
^ Charles HRH The Prince of Wales. Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World, ch. 1, pp. 10–11.
^ Gayathri, Amrutha. "Prince Charles Warns of ‘Sixth Extinction Event,’ Asks People to Cut Down on Consumption," International Business Times, Sept. 9, 2011.
^ Charles HRH The Prince of Wales. Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World, ch. 1, p. 27.
^ 'Metropolitan John Zizioulas: Laudato Si' give Orthodox 'great joy'", Vatican Radio, June 16, 2015.
^ McKibben, Bill. "Pope Francis: The Cry of the Earth," New York Review of Books, NYDaily, June 18, 2015.
^ The David Suzuki Reader, p. 11.
^ See Harvard University Press, Interview with Sarah McFarland Taylor on the HUP Podcast.
^ John Grim, "Recovering Religious Ecology with Indigenous Traditions", available online at: Indigenous Traditions and Ecology, Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology.
^ Mary Evelyn Tucker and John A. Grim (eds.), Worldviews & Ecology: Religion, Philosophy, and the Environment, p. 11.
^ Tu Wei-Ming, "Beyond Enlightenment Mentality", published in Worldviews & Ecology: Religion, Philosophy, and the Environment, Mary Evelyn Tucker and John A. Grim (eds.), p. 27.
^ Ritskes, Eric. “A Great Tree Has Fallen: Community, Spiritual Ecology, and African Education", AJOTE, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Toronto, Canada, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2012.
^ See "Environment and Imperialism: Why Colonialism Still Matters,"[1] Joseph Murphy, Sustainability Research Institute (SRI), School of Earth and Environment, The University of Leeds, U.K., Oct. 2009, page 6.
^ See also "Healing Ecological and Spiritual Connections through Learning to be Non-Subjects'[2], Charlotte Šunde, Australian eJournal of Theology 8, Oct 2006.
^ Edwards, William Ellis. (1967). “The Late-Pleistocene Extinction and Diminution in Size of Many Mammalian Species.” In Pleistocene Extinctions: The Search for a Cause. Paul S. Martin and H.E. Wright, Jr., eds. Pp. 141-154. New Haven: Yale University Press
^ "...all of these [data] indicate human involvement in megafauna extinctions as not only plausible, but likely." Humans and the Extinction of Megafauna in the Americas, Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Science, Spring 2009
^ Gibbons, Robin (2004). Examining the Extinction of the Pleistocene Megafauna. Stanford Undergraduate Research Journal, Spring 2004, pp. 22-27
^ Grayson, Donald K. (1984). “Archaeological Associations with Extinct Pleistocene Mammals in North America.” Journal of Archaeological Science 11(3):213-221
^ Martin, Paul S. (1967). “Prehistoric Overkill.” In Pleistocene Extinctions: The Search for a Cause. Paul S. Martin and H.E. Wright, Jr., eds. Pp. 75-120. New Haven: Yale University Pressre.
^ Martin, Paul S. (1984). “Prehistoric Overkill: The Global Model.” In Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution. Paul S. Martin and Richard G. Klein, eds. Pp. 354-403. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
^ Roberts, Richard G. et al. (2001). “New Ages for the Last Australian Megafauna: Continent-Wide Extinction About 46,000 Years Ago.” Science 292:1888-1892
^ "Chief Arvol Looking Horse Speaks of White Buffalo Prophecy". YouTube. 2010-08-26. Retrieved 2015-08-28.
^ Vaughan, Emmanuel (2015-04-25). "An Invitation". Global Oneness Project. Retrieved 2015-08-28.
^ "The Faithkeeper | Film Reviews | Films | Spirituality & Practice". Spiritualityandpractice.com. Retrieved 2015-08-28.
^ Leslie E. Sponsel, Spiritual Ecology: A Quiet Revolution, ch. 12, "Supernovas", p. 83.
^ "About | Mary Evelyn Tucker". Emerging Earth Community. Retrieved 2015-08-28.
^ "About | John Grim". Emerging Earth Community. 2015-02-03. Retrieved 2015-08-28.
^ "The Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology". Fore.research.yale.edu. Retrieved 2015-08-28.
^ "Earth Charter | Overview". Emerging Earth Community. Retrieved 2015-08-28.
^ Roger S. Gottlieb, Professor of Philosophy, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
^ "Exploring and Studying Environmental Ethics & History, Nature Religion, Radical Environmentalism, Surfing Spirituality, Deep Ecology and more". Bron Taylor. Retrieved 2015-08-28.
^ "Spiritual Ecology | Leslie E. Sponsel". Spiritualecology.info. Retrieved 2015-08-28.
^ Sarah McFarland Taylor (2008). Green Sisters: a Spiritual Ecology. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674034952.
^ "Transformative Learning through Sustainable Living". Schumacher College. Retrieved 2015-08-28.
^ Harris, Sarah, (Reporter and Producer) "Sacred and science go together" for botanist Diana Beresford-Kroeger North Country Public Radio, May 15, 2014.
^ See also: Hampson, Sarah. The tree whisperer: science, spirituality and an abiding love of forests The Globe and Mail, Oct. 17, 2013.
^ "Religious agency in sustainability transitions: Between experimentation, upscaling, and regime support". Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions. 27: 4–15. 2018-06-01. doi:10.1016/j.eist.2017.09.003. ISSN 2210-4224.
^ "Home". Ecobuddhism. Retrieved 2015-08-28.
^ "Home - The Ecumenical Patriarchate". Patriarchate.org. Retrieved 2015-08-28.
^ Bingham, John. "Science alone cannot save the planet, insists spiritual leader of Orthodox Church" The Telegraph, Nov. 3, 2015.
^ The Islamic Foundation For Ecology And Environmental Sciences (IFEES)
^ Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change
^ Link to the text of the Rabbinic Letter and its signers
^ Hindu Declaration on Climate Change, presented at the Parliament of the World’s Religions, Melbourne, Australia, Dec. 8, 2009.
^ Religious leaders as climate activists: Saving planet is moral duty", DPA (German Press Agency News), Nov 4, 2015.
^ See also Greenfield, Nicole "In the Spiritual Movement to Fight Climate Change, the Pope Is Not Alone," originally published by the Natural Resource Defense Council, June 22, 2015.
^ Rohn, Roger. "For Buddhist Leader, Religion And the Environment Are One: Interview with H.H. The Karmapa, Yale Environment 360, April 16, 2015.
^ "7 Ways the Parliament Stepped Up to Challenge Climate Change in 2015," Parliament of World Religions, Dec. 14, 2015.
^ "PaGaian Cosmology". PaGaian Cosmology. 2013-07-16. Retrieved 2015-08-28.
^ Raymond., Taylor, Bron (2010). Dark green religion : nature spirituality and the planetary future. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520237759. OCLC 313078466.
^ "Eco-Spirituality in Environmental Action: Studying Dark Green Religion in the German Energy Transition | Koehrsen | Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture". journals.equinoxpub.com. doi:10.1558/jsrnc.33915. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
^ Interspirituality moves a step beyond interfaith dialogue and is a concept and term developed by the Catholic Monk Wayne Teasdale in 1999 in his book The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World’s Religions. Also see "New Monasticism: An Interspiritual Manifesto for Contemplative Life in the 21st Century", by Rory McEntee & Adam Bucko, p. 22, and Wayne Teasdale, A Monk in the World, p.175. Furthermore, interspirituality has an ecological dimension. See "The Interspiritual Age: Practical Mysticism for a Third Millennium", Wayne Teasdale, (1999).
^ "Thay: Beyond Environment". Ecobuddhism. Retrieved 2015-08-28.
^ "Sandra Ingerman". Sandra Ingerman. Retrieved 2015-08-28.
^ "A New Book by Bill Plotkin, Ph.D". Nature and the Human Soul. Retrieved 2015-08-28.
^ See SUNY-ESF Center for Native Peoples and the Environment
^ Kimmerer, Robin Wall. "Weaving Traditional Ecological Knowledge into Biological Education: A Call to Action," Oxford Journals: Science & Mathematics, BioScience, Vol. 52, Issue 5, Pp. 432-438.
^ See Sacred Earth: Faiths for Conservation at WWF.
^ See Khoryug.
^ http://www.worldwildlife.org/initiatives/sacred-earth-faiths-for-conservation#close/
^ See Murray, Tim. Seeking an Ecological Rescue: Do We Need a Spiritual Awakening—or a Scientific Understanding?, Humanist Perspectives: a Canadian Journal of Humanism, Issue 86, Autumn 2013.
^ See also Sponsel, Leslie E. Religion, nature and environmentalism Archived 2014-05-30 at the Wayback MachineEncyclopedia of the Earth, published July 2, 2007 (updated March 2013).
^ See Zimmerman, Michael E. Ken Wilber's Critique of Ecological Spirituality, Integral World, published August 2003.
As of 15 December 2015, this article is derived in whole or in part from spiritualecology.org. The copyright holder has licensed the content in a manner that permits reuse under CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL. All relevant terms must be followed. The original text was at "About Spiritual Ecology".
Further reading[edit]
Beresford-Kroeger, Diana, The Global Forest: Forty Ways Trees Can Save Us. Penguin Books, 2011. ISBN 978-0143120162
Berry, Thomas, The Dream of the Earth. Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, 1988. ISBN 1578051355
Berry, Thomas, The Sacred Universe. Essays edited by Mary Evelyn Tucker. Columbia University Press, New York, 2009. ISBN 0231149522
Hayden, Thomas, The Lost Gospel of the Earth. Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, 1996.
Jung, C.G., The Earth Has A Soul, The Nature Writings of C.G. Jung, North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, 2002. ISBN 1556433794
Koehrsen, Jens, Religious agency in sustainability transitions: Between experimentation, upscaling, and regime support, in: Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions 27, p. 4-15.
Laszlo, Ervin & Allan Coombs (eds.), Thomas Berry, Dreamer of the Earth: The Spiritual Ecology of the Father of Environmentalism. Inner Traditions, Rochester, 2011. ISBN 1594773955
Livingstone, Glenys, Pagaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth Based Goddess Religion. iUniverse, Inc, 2008. ISBN 978-0-595-34990-6
Macy, Joanna, World as Lover, World as Self. Parallax Press, Berkeley, 2007. ISBN 188837571X
McFarland Taylor, Sarah, Green Sisters: A Spiritual Ecology. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA. ISBN 9780674034952
Nelson, Melissa (ed.), Original Instructions, Indigenous Teachings for a Sustainable Future. Bear & Co., Rochester, 2008. ISBN 1591430798
Maathai, Wangari, Replenishing the Earth: Spiritual Values for Healing Ourselves and the World. Doubleday Religion, New York, 2010. ISBN 030759114X
McCain, Marian Van Eyk (ed.), GreenSpirit: Path to a New Consciousness. O Books, Washington, 2010. ISBN 184694290X
McDonald, Barry (ed.), Seeing God Everywhere, Essays on Nature and the Sacred. World Wisdom, Bloomington, 2003. ISBN 0941532429
Newell, John Philip, A New Harmony, The Spirit, The Earth, and The Human Soul. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 2011. ISBN 0470554673
Plotkin, Bill, Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World. New World Library, Novato, 2007. ISBN 1577315510
Plotkin, Bill, Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche. New World Library, Novato, 2003. ISBN 1577314220
Sponsel, Leslie E., 'Spiritual Ecology in Ecological Anthropology' in Environmental Anthropology Today. Ed. Helen Kopnina and Eleanor Shoreman-Ouimet. Routledge, 2011. ISBN 978-0415781565.
Suzuki, David; McConnell, Amanda; and DeCambra, Maria The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature. Greystone Books, ISBN 978-1553651666
Stanley, John, David Loy and Gyurme Dorje (eds.), A Buddhist Response to the Climate Emergency. Wisdom Publications, Boston, 2009. ISBN 0861716051
Thich Nhat Hanh, The World We Have. Parallax Press, Berkeley, 2008. ISBN 1888375884
Vaughan-Lee, Llewellyn Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth. The Golden Sufi Center, 2013. ISBN 978-1-890350-45-1; downloadable in PDF
External links[edit]
ARC: the Alliance of Religions and Conservation
Bioneers National Conference, Oct 18-20, 2013: Spiritual Ecology: A Spiritual Response to the Ecological Crisis, with Dekila Chungyalpa, Director of the World Wildlife Fund’s Sacred Earth program; Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Sufi teacher and author; Joanna Macy, legendary activist and scholar of systems theory, deep ecology and Buddhism
The Earth Charter
Center for Earth Jurisprudence
Faith Statements on the Environment at Earth Ministry
Ecological Buddhism: A Buddhist Response to Global Warming
Emerging Earth Community: John Grim and Mary Evelyn Tucker, Co-Directors of the Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale University
Genesis Farm: Exploring the sacred unity of life, humanity and Earth within a single, unfolding Universe
Global Peace Initiative of Women, Sacred Earth Community
Pickards Mountain Eco-Institute
Schumacher College
"Ecology, Spirituality, Sustainability: Feminist and Indigenous Interventions" April 2014 The 21st Annual Women's Studies Conference at Southern Connecticut State University
Spiritual Ecology: Welcome to the Revolution, website and academic resources from Dr.Leslie E.Sponsel, Department of Anthropology, University of Hawai`i
Spiritual Ecology: A Spiritual Response to Our Present Ecological Crisis by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee & Others
Spiritual Ecology Youth Fellowship Program
Project on Spiritual Ecology at St Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation & Peace, London, UK
The Thomas Berry Foundation
The Wendell Berry Center
The Work that Reconnects: First emerging in 1978, this pioneering, open-source body of work has its roots in the teachings and experiential methods of Joanna Macy
World Wildlife Program—Sacred Earth: Faiths for Conservation
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