Ecology and Religion
From the Psalms in the Bible to sacred rivers in Hinduism, the natural world has been integral to the world’s religions. John Grim and Mary Evelyn Tucker argue that today’s growing environmental challenges make the relationship ever more vital.
The authors explore the history of religious traditions and the environment, and the emergence of religious ecology. They then describe four fundamental aspects of religious life: orienting, grounding, nurturing, and transforming. Readers see how these phenomena are experienced in a Native American religion, Orthodox Christianity, Confucianism, and Hinduism. In this concise primer, Grim and Tucker elegantly illustrate religion’s role in sustaining people and ecosystems. Students of environmental ethics, theology and ecology, world religions, and environmental studies will receive a solid grounding in the burgeoning field of religious ecology.
Chapter 1: The Nature of Religion: Orienting, Grounding, Nurturing, Transforming
Chapter 2: Problems and Promise of Religions: Limiting and Liberating
Chapter 3: Building on Diversity and Dialogue: Toward a Global Ethics
Chapter 4: Ecology, Conservation, and Ethics
Chapter 5: Religious Ecology and Views of Nature in the West
Chapter 6: Orienting: Orthodox Christianity and the Green Patriarch
Chapter 7: Grounding: Confucianism and Views of Nature
Chapter 8: Nurturing: The Salish Winter Dance
Chapter 9: Transforming: Hinduism and the Yamuna River in India
Epilogue: The Challenge Ahead: Creating Ecological Cultures
Appendices
Questions for Discussion
References
Further Reading
Glossary
Index
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