Chapter 8: Ecological Religious Studies

Question 1

What did Lynn White Jr say about Christianity in 1967?

Answer 1

• it is the most anthropocentric religion
• it insists that it is God’s will that man exploit nature for his proper ends
• White traced late medieval reinterpretation from emphasis on tilling & replenishment to overusing resources

Question 2

Heavenism

Answer 2

• Focused on ascetic renunciation of this world
• opens the door to callous use of nature as a resource to fulfill human desire
• 18th and 19th century Protestant heavenism is credited with fueling industrial capitalism

Question 3

Western loss of confidence in the future Hulme (2011)

Answer 3

• we need faith, hope, and love
• religion can awaken a new reverence for life and other ways of envisioning the future in which human imagination will create radically different social, cultural, and political worlds

Question 4

Gottlieb (2006)

Answer 4

religion tells us how to think about and relate to everything on Earth we didn’t create ourselves

Question 5

Jenkins (2017)

Answer 5

insofar as religion is involved in how people inhabit and interpret their world, it is involved in ecologies

Question 6

Axial Religions

Answer 6

• religions that trace their origins to a “pivotal age” of civilization’s development 3,500 years ago
• Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Confucianism, Hinduism, and Daoism
• divided reality between physical nature and the metaphysical spiritual world

Question 7

Abrahamic religions

Answer 7

• Christianity, Islam, Judaism
• monotheistic with a God who stands apart from his creation

Question 8

Paganism

Answer 8

gods are in nature; gods are everywhere, in everything

Question 9

Creation Care (Earth Charter Commission, 2000)

Answer 9

everyone shares a responsibility for the present and future well-being of the human family and larger living world

Question 10

Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home (Pope Francis, 2015)

Answer 10

calls for an ecological conversion whereby the effects of Christians’ encounter with Jesus are evident in their relationship with the world around them

Question 11

Religion is the most important shaper of worldviews for what percentage of people?

Answer 11

85%

Question 11

Ecology and Religion

Answer 11

• Ecology (HOW) describes how organisms interact with other organisms, energy, and matter in complex systems that determine the abundance and distribution of organisms
• Religion (WHY/WHAT) asks what the value of each organism is, why they exist, what their purpose is, and what duties they owe each other/God

Question 12

Tucker & Grim (2017)

Answer 12

Religion can provide an important critique of the Anthropocene’s environmental disasters and an alternative (non-materialistic) vision of “the good life”

Question 13

3 Basic Questions of Religious Ecology

Answer 13

1. Reinterpretation: How can traditional scriptures, teachings, rituals, and beliefs be reinterpreted to support an environmental ethic?
2. Recovery: How can marginalized, apocryphal, and ignored texts and teachings that support an environmental ethic be restored to the canon?
3. Revision: How can new beliefs, values, and practices be developed consistent with the religious tradition that will support an environmental ethic?

Question 14

Environmental Ethics (Taylor, 2010)

Answer 14

a system of values guiding human treatment of and behavior in the natural world

Question 15

Common Religious Ecological Principles

Answer 15

• The natural world has an intrinsic value and does not exist solely to serve human needs
• God/the cosmic order requires humans to apply moral consideration, such as justice, compassion, and reciprocity, to non-human others
• There are legitimate and illegitimate uses of nature; restraint and protection are commended, greed and destructiveness are condemned
• Humans are obliged to live in harmony with the natural world and should follow the specific practices prescribed by their traditions

Question 16

Confessional Literature

Answer 16

reinterpreting and reimagining the traditions and doctrine in answer to Anthropogenic crises

Question 17

Engaged Buddhism (Thich Hahn)

Answer 17

includes the active pursuit of ecological justice

Question 18

Georeligion (Thomas Berry)

Answer 18

combines the teachings of many different faiths with Earth sciences

Question 19

Religious Activism

Answer 19

how are the defense of sacred land, ecojustice, and other environmental causes taken up by congregations?

Question 20

Bergmann’s 4 Practical Ways to Investigate Environmental Problems

Answer 20

1. Use religious teachings and techniques to soothe, comfort, and uplift the suffering
2. Use your tradition’s non-verbal methods to help ground people in their place
3. Remind your faith community about your religious tradition’s prohibitions on worshiping or abusing money
4. Study your religion’s wisdom and tools for learning how to be-at-home-in-the-world

Question 21

Ecotheology (Rigby, 2017)

Answer 21

teaches that Earth is a home we share with a democracy of all creatures joined in praise for the Creator