This course will explore the intersection between religious traditions and ecological activism, with special attention to current conversations about sustainable agriculture and ethical eating. We will consider both the resources that religious traditions provide to ecological activists and the ways these activists have challenged aspects of traditional religion. The course will also function as a general introduction to the multiple ways of knowing that comprise the scholarly study of religion, with attention to scriptural interpretation, history, ethnography, theology, ethics, spirituality, and ritual.
“Religion and ecology” is one of the fastest-growing sub-fields within the study of religion, and our approach to this topic will be broadly “ecological,” which is to say that we will attend to the interconnections linking seemingly disparate phenomena and to the ways in which all phenomena are continually evolving in mutual relationship. During the first part of the course, we consider the scope of the fields designated as “religion” and “ecology”and the ways in which these fields intersect and contribute to one another’s ongoing development. During the second part, we will explore the ecological dimensions of specific sub-fields within the study of religion. In the third part, and in field trips spread throughout the semester, we will explore the ways both religion and ecology shape human practices of agriculture and eating.
Course Goals
- Students will reflect critically and constructively on the ways religious traditions shape and are shaped by human interactions with nature.
- Students will develop a capacity to think ecologically—with close attention to interconnections among diverse phenomena and to the ways all phenomena are continually evolving—about both religion and the environmental movement.
- Students will demonstrate a broad familiarity with the various subfields that comprise the academic study of religion.
- Students will gain a detailed understanding of the ways religious traditions shape human practices of eating and agriculture.
Books to Purchase
John Grim and Mary Evelyn Tucker. Ecology and Religion. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2014. ISBN 9781597267083
Bron Taylor. Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009. ISBN 9780520261006
Michael Schut, ed., Food and Faith: Justice, Joy, and Daily Bread. 2d ed. Morehouse Publishing, 2010. ISBN 9780819224118
Laurel Kearns and Catherine Keller, eds. Ecospirit: Religions and Philosophies for the Earth. New York: Fordham, 2007. ISBN 9780823227464
Sherry Wildfeuer. Stella Natura 2015 Biodynamic Planting Calendar. ISBN 978-0-9853658-4-4
Note on Readings
In addition to readings from the assigned books, I have chosen several articles published in scholarly journals, especially the two main journals in the field of religion and ecology: Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology and the Journal for Religion, Nature, and Culture (formerly Ecotheology). All of these articles should be available online for students using a Harvard computer. There are several pathways one can follow to find full-text articles. One that I find helpful is https://hul.harvard.edu/lib/sfxmini.html . Students are also encouraged to browse additional articles in the two journals.
Course Calendar
Part I: Defining the Field of Religion and Ecology
Week 1: The “Ecological Turn” in World Religions
Lesson 1: Course Introduction
Lesson 2: Reading: Grim and Tucker, Ecology of Religion, pp. 1-84; Discussion Starter: Please come to class prepared to discuss ways the physical environment—the things you see during your daily routine, what you and your neighbors eat and wear, etc.—has been shaped by religious traditions (as conventionally understood, e.g. Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, etc.).
Lesson 3: Reading: Grim and Tucker, Ecology of Religion, pp. 85-95, 154-70, plus ONE of the skipped chapters; Discussion Starter: Please come to class prepared to describe one example of how a religious tradition has changed in response to current environmental challenges. This might be a ritual, an activist organizaiton, a new interpretation of religious texts, or a work of art.
Week 2: Ecology as Religion
Lesson 4: Reading: Bron Taylor, Dark Green Religion, pp. 1-41; Discussion Starter: Please come to class prepared to describe a movement or organization that is not conventionally understood as “religious” but that might fruitfully be studied using tools borrowed from the academic study of religion.
Lesson 5: Reading: Bron Taylor, Dark Green Religion, pp. 71-126, 180-99; Discussion Starter: Please brainstorm at least one way in which the concept of “dark green religion” contributes to a better understanding of environmental activism, and at least one way in which it obscures our understanding.
Week 3: Food and Faith
Lesson 6: Reading: Michael Schut, Food and Faith, pp. 10-35, 62-77, 142-47; Discussion Starter: Please come to class prepared to describe some of your own eating practices. Are there certain foods you choose not to eat? How much do you know about the sources of your food? To what extent do religious traditions shape your eating choices?
Part II: Ecological Dimensions of Subfields in the Study of Religion
Week 4: Scripture
Lesson 7: Reading: James Nash, “The Bible vs. Biodiversity,” with responses by Robb, Northcott, Childs, Davis, Farmelli, Deane-Drummond, Zaleha, and McDaniel, Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture 3/2 (June 2009): 213-94
Lesson 8: S. Nomanul Haq, “Islam and Ecology: Toward Retrieval and Reconstruction,” in Daedalus (Fall 2001): 141-78; Vasudha Narayanan, “Water, Wood, and Wisdom: Ecological Perspectives from the Hindu Traditions,” in Daedalus (Fall 2001): 179-206; Donald K. Swearer, “Principles and Poetry, Places and Stories: The Resources of Buddhist Ecology,” in Daedalus (Fall 2001): 225-42. Link: https://www.amacad.org/multimedia/pdfs/publications/daedalus/fall2001/01_fall_daedalus.pdf
Week 5: History
Lesson 9: Reading: Rudolf Steiner, Agriculture Course, lectures 1, 2, 4, available at https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA327/English/BDA1958/Ag1958_index.html ; Lynn White, “The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis,” Science (March 1967): 1203-1207.
Lesson 10: Reading: Selections by Rosemary Radford Ruether, “Mother Earth and the Megamachine,” Christianity and Crisis 31/21 (December 13, 1971): 267-72; Thomas Berry,”Spirituality of the Earth,” Anima 6/1 (Fall Equinox 1979): 11-20; Thomas Berry, “The New Story: Comments on the Origin, Identification and Transmission of Values,” Cross Currents 37/2-3 (Summer Fall 1987): 187-199; Thomas Berry, “The Dream of the Earth: Our Way into the Future,” Cross Currents 37/2-3 (Summer Fall 1987): 200-215
Week 6: Ethnography
Lesson 11: Reading: Sarah McFarland Taylor, “Eating Spirit: Food, Faith, and Spiritual Nourishment in the Lives of the Green Sisters,” Ecotheology 11/4 (December 2006): 445-64; Alexander H. Kaufman, “Organic Farmers’ Connectedness with Nature: Exploring Thailand’s Alternative Agriculture Network,” Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology 16/2 (2012): 154-78.
Lesson 12: Reading: Eliza F. Kent, “Sacred Groves and Local Gods: Religion and Environmentalism in South India,” in Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture & Ecology 13/1 (2009): 1-39; Yaa Ntiamoa-Baidu, “Indigenous Beliefs and Biodiversity Conservation: The Effectiveness of Sacred Groves, Taboos and Totems in Ghana for Habitat and Species Conservation,” Journal of Nature, Religion, and Culture 2/3 (2008): 309-326
Week 7: Theology
Lesson 13: Reading: Jay McDaniel, “Ecotheology and World Religions,” in Kearns & Keller, Ecospirit, 21-44; Mark Wallace, “Sacred-Land Theology: Green Spirit, Deconstruction, and the Question of Idolatry in Contemporary Earthen Christianity,” in in Kearns & Keller, Ecospirit, 291-314; Lawrence Troster, “Hearing the Outcry of Mute Things: Toward a Jewish Creation Theology,” in Kearns & Keller, Ecospirit, 337-52
Lesson 14: Reading: Catherine Keller, “Talking Dirty,” in Kearns & Keller, Ecospirit, 63-76; Barbara Muraca, “Getting Over ‘Nature’: Modern Bifurcations, Postmodern Possibilities,” in Kearns & Keller, Ecospirit, 156-77; Luke Higgins, “Toward a Deleuze-Guattarian Micropneumatology of Spirit-Dust,” in Kearns & Keller, Ecospirit, 252-63; Whitney A. Bauman, “Creatio ex Nihilo, Terra Nullius, and the Erasure of Presence,” in Kearns & Keller, Ecospirit, 353-72
Week 8: Spirituality
Lesson 15: Reading: Glen Mazis, “Ecospirituality,” in Kearns & Keller, Ecospirit, 125-55; Anne Daniell, “Divining New Orleans,” in Kearns & Keller, Ecospirit, 454-67; Douglas Christie, “Practicing Paradise: Contemplative Awareness and Ecological Renewal,” Anglican Theological Review, 94/2 (Spring 2012): 281-303.
Lesson 16: Reading: Jack D. Forbes, “Indigenous Americans: Spirituality and Ecos,” in Daedalus (Fall 2001): 283-300.
Week 9: Ethics
Lesson 17: Reading: Anna L. Peterson, “Talking the Walk,” in Kearns & Keller, Ecospirit, 45-62; Laurel Kearns, “Cooking the Truth,” in Kearns & Keller, Ecospirit, 97-124; Daniel T. Spencer, “Restoring Earth, Restored to Earth: Toward an Ethic for Reinhabiting Place,” in Kearns & Keller, Ecospirit, 415-32
Lesson 18: Reading: Willis Jenkins, “After Lynn White: Religious Ethics and Environmental Problems,” Journal of Religious Ethics 37/2 (June 2009): 283-309; “Ecological Management, Cultural Reform, and Religious Creativity,” Union Seminary Quarterly Review 63/1-2 (2010):1-17.
Week 10: Ritual
Lesson 19: Reading: Nickell and Troster, “Cries of Creation,” in Kearns & Keller, Ecospirit, 517-30; Heather Elkins, “The Firm Ground for Hope,” in Kearns & Keller, Ecospirit, 531-35; Karen Baker-Fletcher, “Musings,” in Kearns & Keller, Ecospirit, 536-42
Part III: Religion, Ecology, Agriculture & Food
Lesson 20: Reading: Schut, Food & Faith, pp. 88-141
Lesson 21: Reading: Stella Natura Calendar; A. Whitney Sanford, “Transforming Agricultural Practice: Hindu Narrative and the Moral Imagination,” World views 15 (2011): 88-116
Lesson 22: Reading, Schut, Food & Faith, pp. 180-205; R. J. Berry, “Fabricated Nature: Where Are the Boundaries?” Ecotheology 11/1 (March 2006): 9-31; Christopher Key Chapple, “Ethics of Synthetic Life: A Jaina Perspective,” Worldviews 17 (2013): 77-88
Lesson 23: Reading: Unitarian Universalist Statement of Conscience on “Ethical Eating,” https://www.uua.org/statements/statements/185320.shtml ; Schut, Food & Faith, pp. 148-80
Lesson 23: Conclusion and Presentation of Final Projects