Ecotheology
Encyclopedia
Ecotheology is a form of constructive theology
that focuses on the interrelationships of religion
and nature
, particularly in the light of environmental concerns. Ecotheology generally starts from the premise
that a relationship exists between human religious/spiritual worldview
s and the degradation of nature
. It explores the interaction between ecological values, such as sustainability
, and the human domination of nature. The movement has produced numerous religious-environmental projects around the world.
The burgeoning awareness of environmental crisis has led to widespread religious reflection on the human relationship with the earth. Such reflection has strong precedents in most religious traditions in the realms of ethics
and cosmology
, and can be seen as a subset or corollary to the theology of nature. Christian ecotheology draws on the writings of such authors as Jesuit priest
and paleontologist
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead
, and is well-represented in Protestantism
by John B. Cobb, Jr. and Jürgen Moltmann
and in Ecofeminism
by theologians Rosemary Radford Ruether
, Catherine Keller
and Sallie McFague
. Creation theology is another important expression of ecotheology that has been developed and popularized by Matthew Fox
, a former Catholic
priest. Abraham Joshua Heschel
and Martin Buber
, both Jewish
theologians, have also left their mark on Christian ecotheology, and provide significant inspiration for Jewish ecotheology.
Hindu
ecotheology includes writers such as Vandana Shiva
. Seyyid Hossein Nasr, a liberal Muslim
theologian, was one of the earlier voices calling for a re-evaluation of the Western relationship to nature.
has often been viewed as the source of positive values towards the environment, and there are many voices within the Christian tradition whose vision embraces the well-being of the earth and all creatures. While St. Francis of Assisi
is one of the more obvious influences on Christian ecotheology, there are many theologians and teachers whose work has profound implications for Christian thinkers. Many of these are less well-known in the West because their primary influence has been on the Orthodox Church
rather than the Roman Catholic Church
.
The significance of indigenous traditions for the development of ecotheology can also not be understated.
in 1967, following the publication of the article, "The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis, " by Lynn White, Jr., Professor of History at the University of California at Los Angeles. In this work, White puts forward a theory that the Christian model of human dominion over nature has led to environmental devastation.
In 1973, theologian Jack Rogers
published an article in which he surveyed the published studies of approximately twelve theologians which had appeared since White's article. They reflect the search for "an appropriate theological model" which adequately assesses the biblical data regarding any relationship of God, humans, and nature.
is a biologist
who promotes a vision she believes will result in the sustainable
health and well-being of humanity within the larger living system
s of Earth and the cosmos. She is a lecturer in Gaia Theory and a co-worker with James Lovelock
and Lynn Margulis
.
Annie Dillard
, Pulitzer Prize
-winning American author, also combined observations on nature and philosophical explorations in several ecotheological writings, including Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
.
Valerie Brown is a science and environmental journalist
based in Portland, Oregon
, whose work has appeared in Environmental Health Perspectives, 21stC, and other publications. She writes regularly about ecotheology.
Terry Tempest Williams
is a Mormon
writer who sensitively and imaginatively explores ecotheology in her very personal writing.
The majority of the content of Indians of the Americas, by former Bureau of Indian Affairs head John Collier, concerns the link between ecological sustainability and religion among Native North and South Americans.
Constructive Theology
Constructive theology is the re-definition of what has historically been known as systematic theology. The reason for this reevaluation stems from the idea that, in systematic theology, the theologian attempts to develop a coherent theory running through the various doctrines within the tradition...
that focuses on the interrelationships of religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
and nature
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...
, particularly in the light of environmental concerns. Ecotheology generally starts from the premise
Premise
Premise can refer to:* Premise, a claim that is a reason for, or an objection against, some other claim as part of an argument...
that a relationship exists between human religious/spiritual worldview
World view
A comprehensive world view is the fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society encompassing the entirety of the individual or society's knowledge and point-of-view, including natural philosophy; fundamental, existential, and normative postulates; or themes, values, emotions, and...
s and the degradation of nature
Environmental degradation
Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems and the extinction of wildlife...
. It explores the interaction between ecological values, such as sustainability
Sustainability
Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...
, and the human domination of nature. The movement has produced numerous religious-environmental projects around the world.
The burgeoning awareness of environmental crisis has led to widespread religious reflection on the human relationship with the earth. Such reflection has strong precedents in most religious traditions in the realms of ethics
Ethics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
and cosmology
Cosmology
Cosmology is the discipline that deals with the nature of the Universe as a whole. Cosmologists seek to understand the origin, evolution, structure, and ultimate fate of the Universe at large, as well as the natural laws that keep it in order...
, and can be seen as a subset or corollary to the theology of nature. Christian ecotheology draws on the writings of such authors as Jesuit priest
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
and paleontologist
Paleontology
Paleontology "old, ancient", ὄν, ὀντ- "being, creature", and λόγος "speech, thought") is the study of prehistoric life. It includes the study of fossils to determine organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments...
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ was a French philosopher and Jesuit priest who trained as a paleontologist and geologist and took part in the discovery of both Piltdown Man and Peking Man. Teilhard conceived the idea of the Omega Point and developed Vladimir Vernadsky's concept of Noosphere...
and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead
Alfred North Whitehead
Alfred North Whitehead, OM FRS was an English mathematician who became a philosopher. He wrote on algebra, logic, foundations of mathematics, philosophy of science, physics, metaphysics, and education...
, and is well-represented in Protestantism
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
by John B. Cobb, Jr. and Jürgen Moltmann
Jürgen Moltmann
Jürgen Moltmann is a German Reformed theologian. The 2000 recipient of the Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion.-Moltmann's Youth:...
and in Ecofeminism
Ecofeminism
Ecofeminism is a social and political movement which points to the existence of considerable common ground between environmentalism and feminism, with some currents linking deep ecology and feminism...
by theologians Rosemary Radford Ruether
Rosemary Radford Ruether
Rosemary Radford Ruether is an American feminist scholar and theologian.-Biography:Ruether was born in 1936 in Georgetown, Texas, to a Roman Catholic mother and Episcopal father. She has reportedly described her upbringing as free-thinking and humanistic as opposed to oppressive...
, Catherine Keller
Catherine Keller (theologian)
Catherine Keller is a Process Theologian and is currently a professor of Constructive Theology at New Jersey's Drew University. Like most major voices in Process theology, she studied directly with John B...
and Sallie McFague
Sallie McFague
Sallie McFague is an American feminist Christian theologian, best known for her analysis of how metaphor lies at the heart of how we may speak about God. She has applied this approach in particular to ecological issues, writing extensively on care for the earth as if it were God’s ‘body’.McFague...
. Creation theology is another important expression of ecotheology that has been developed and popularized by Matthew Fox
Matthew Fox (priest)
Matthew Fox is an American priest and theologian. Formerly a member of the Dominican order within the Roman Catholic Church, Fox is now a member of the Episcopal Church....
, a former Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
priest. Abraham Joshua Heschel
Abraham Joshua Heschel
Abraham Joshua Heschel was a Polish-born American rabbi and one of the leading Jewish theologians and Jewish philosophers of the 20th century.-Biography:...
and Martin Buber
Martin Buber
Martin Buber was an Austrian-born Jewish philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of religious existentialism centered on the distinction between the I-Thou relationship and the I-It relationship....
, both Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
theologians, have also left their mark on Christian ecotheology, and provide significant inspiration for Jewish ecotheology.
Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
ecotheology includes writers such as Vandana Shiva
Vandana Shiva
Vandana Shiva , is a philosopher, environmental activist, and eco feminist. Shiva, currently based in Delhi, has authored more than 20 books and over 500 papers in leading scientific and technical journals. She was trained as a physicist and received her Ph.D...
. Seyyid Hossein Nasr, a liberal Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
theologian, was one of the earlier voices calling for a re-evaluation of the Western relationship to nature.
Precedents in religious thought
ChristianityChristianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
has often been viewed as the source of positive values towards the environment, and there are many voices within the Christian tradition whose vision embraces the well-being of the earth and all creatures. While St. Francis of Assisi
Francis of Assisi
Saint Francis of Assisi was an Italian Catholic friar and preacher. He founded the men's Franciscan Order, the women’s Order of St. Clare, and the lay Third Order of Saint Francis. St...
is one of the more obvious influences on Christian ecotheology, there are many theologians and teachers whose work has profound implications for Christian thinkers. Many of these are less well-known in the West because their primary influence has been on the Orthodox Church
Orthodox Christianity
The term Orthodox Christianity may refer to:* the Eastern Orthodox Church and its various geographical subdivisions...
rather than the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
.
The significance of indigenous traditions for the development of ecotheology can also not be understated.
Background
The relationship of theology to the modern ecological crisis became an intense issue of debate in Western academiaAcademia
Academia is the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research.-Etymology:The word comes from the akademeia in ancient Greece. Outside the city walls of Athens, the gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning...
in 1967, following the publication of the article, "The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis, " by Lynn White, Jr., Professor of History at the University of California at Los Angeles. In this work, White puts forward a theory that the Christian model of human dominion over nature has led to environmental devastation.
In 1973, theologian Jack Rogers
Jack Rogers
John Rogers was a footballer who played in The Football League for Aberdare Athletic, Sunderland and Norwich City . He also played for Crystal Palace.-References:...
published an article in which he surveyed the published studies of approximately twelve theologians which had appeared since White's article. They reflect the search for "an appropriate theological model" which adequately assesses the biblical data regarding any relationship of God, humans, and nature.
Further exploration
Elisabet SahtourisElisabet Sahtouris
Elisabet Sahtouris is a Greek-American evolutionary biologist, futurist, business consultant, event organizer and UN consultant on indigenous peoples...
is a biologist
Biologist
A biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of life. Typically biologists study organisms and their relationship to their environment. Biologists involved in basic research attempt to discover underlying mechanisms that govern how organisms work...
who promotes a vision she believes will result in the sustainable
Sustainability
Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...
health and well-being of humanity within the larger living system
Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....
s of Earth and the cosmos. She is a lecturer in Gaia Theory and a co-worker with James Lovelock
James Lovelock
James Lovelock, CH, CBE, FRS is an independent scientist, environmentalist and futurologist who lives in Devon, England. He is best known for proposing the Gaia hypothesis, which postulates that the biosphere is a self-regulating entity with the capacity to keep our planet healthy by controlling...
and Lynn Margulis
Lynn Margulis
Lynn Margulis was an American biologist and University Professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is best known for her theory on the origin of eukaryotic organelles, and her contributions to the endosymbiotic theory, which is now generally accepted...
.
Annie Dillard
Annie Dillard
Annie Dillard is an American author, best known for her narrative prose in both fiction and non-fiction. She has published works of poetry, essays, prose, and literary criticism, as well as two novels and one memoir. Her 1974 work Pilgrim at Tinker Creek won the 1974 Pulitzer Prize for General...
, Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning American author, also combined observations on nature and philosophical explorations in several ecotheological writings, including Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is a 1974 nonfiction narrative book by American author Annie Dillard. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1975, and has continued to receive acclaim from both critics and writers. In 1999 it was listed in Modern Library' 100 Best Nonfiction Books.The book is about Dillard's...
.
Valerie Brown is a science and environmental journalist
Environmental journalism
Environmental journalism is the collection, verification, production, distribution and exhibition of information regarding current events, trends, issues and people that are associated with the non-human world with which humans necessarily interact...
based in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, whose work has appeared in Environmental Health Perspectives, 21stC, and other publications. She writes regularly about ecotheology.
Terry Tempest Williams
Terry Tempest Williams
Terry Tempest Williams , is an American author, conservationist and activist.Williams’ writing is rooted in the American West and has been significantly influenced by the arid landscape of her native Utah in which she was raised...
is a Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
writer who sensitively and imaginatively explores ecotheology in her very personal writing.
The majority of the content of Indians of the Americas, by former Bureau of Indian Affairs head John Collier, concerns the link between ecological sustainability and religion among Native North and South Americans.
See also
- Stewardship (theology)Stewardship (theology)Stewardship is a theological belief that humans are responsible for the world, and should take care of it. It can have political implications, such as in Christian Democracy.-Implications:...
- KaitiakiKaitiakiKaitiaki is a New Zealand term used for the Māori concept of guardianship, for the sky, the sea, and the land. A kaitiaki is a guardian, and the process and practices of protecting and looking after the environment are referred to as kaitiakitanga and include rāhui and tapuThe term kaitiaki is also...
- Faith in PlaceFaith in PlaceFaith in Place is an American organization based in Chicago, Illinois that coordinates religious leaders to address environmental sustainability issues. Partnering with religious congregations, Faith in Place promotes clean energy and sustainable farming...
- Human ecologyHuman ecologyHuman ecology is the subdiscipline of ecology that focuses on humans. More broadly, it is an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary study of the relationship between humans and their natural, social, and built environments. The term 'human ecology' first appeared in a sociological study in 1921...
- Spiritual ecologySpiritual ecologySpiritual ecology is a recent term that refers to the intersection between religion and spirituality and environment . Practitioners of spiritual ecology fall into three categories: the scientific and academic, spiritual or religious environmentalism, and religious or spiritual individuals who...
- Religion and ecologyReligion and ecologyReligion and environmentalism is an emerging subfield in the academic discipline of religious studies.-Crisis of values:This subfield is founded on the understanding that, in the words of Iranian-American philosopher Seyyed Hossein Nasr, "the environmental crisis is fundamentally a crisis of...
- Hima (environmental protection)
- Christianity and environmentalism
External links
- MarvelBelieveCare.org provides free online educational materials about the Bible and caring for God's creation
- ARC - Alliance of Religions and Conservation (Bath UK)
- CCC - Catholic Conservation Center (Wading River NY US)
- CofDE - Church of Deep Ecology (Minneapolis MN USA)
- COEJL - Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (NYC US)
- CRLE - Center for Respect of Life and Environment (Washington DC US)
- EEN - Evangelical Environmental Network (Suwanee Ga US)
- EJP - Environmental Justice Program (USCCB (U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops) SDWP, Washington DC US)
- The Forum on Religion and Ecology (Harvard University, Cambridge Ma US)
- ISSRNC - International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture (Dept. of Religion, Univ. of Florida, Gainesville FL US)
- NCC - Eco-Justice Program (Natl Council of Churches of Christ, Washington DC US)
- NRPE - National Religious Partnership for the Environment (Amherst Ma US)
- Web of Creation (Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago IL US)
- Christians' Ecological Responsibility
- The Ecotheology of Annie Dillard Annie DillardAnnie DillardAnnie Dillard is an American author, best known for her narrative prose in both fiction and non-fiction. She has published works of poetry, essays, prose, and literary criticism, as well as two novels and one memoir. Her 1974 work Pilgrim at Tinker Creek won the 1974 Pulitzer Prize for General...
- - The rise of ecotheology
- Ecotheology: The Journal of Religion, Nature and the Environment
- Category List --- Religion-Online.org "Ecology/Environment"