This course welcomes students to current conversations about the relationships between religions and the environment, and about the responses of religious traditions the ecological challenges humanity faces. Topics include: challenges to the Christian tradition; Judaism, Islam, South Asian Traditions (Hinduism, Jainism), Chinese Traditions (Taoism, Confucianism), Japanese Traditions, Buddhism and Emerging Religions, Buddhism as crucial voices in developing a global perspective; and personal, religious, and social responses to such concerns as biodiversity and global warming.
Course Goals:
By the end of the course students should:
(1) be conversant with major religious perspectives, both historical and contemporary, on the human relationship with the environment;
(2) be able to identify religious or ethical underpinnings of factions within the contemporary environmental movement;
(3) be able to think and write critically about religion and environmental issues.
Required Text
WorldViews, Religion and The Environment: A Global Anthology by Richard A. Foltz.
Additional Readings will be distributed on Blackboard, on Reserve in the Library ?(online) or in class—these readings will be announced 1 week or more prior to the class.
Fieldwork Papers: Attend two different religious rituals during the course of the semester. Include description, comments and documentation in your interview report(s).
Two 5-7 page papers on each fieldwork experience that engages the course themes in relation to your fieldwork is due on Tuesday April 24th.
Fieldtrip Paper: All students are required to attend the fieldtrip to Animal Place, a Farm Animal Sanctuary, tentatively scheduled to be held on April 19th. A 5-7 page paper engaging the course themes in relation to the Animal Place is due on Tuesday, April 24th. If you cannot make the date of the fieldtrip, please speak to the Professor immediately and an alternative field experience will be discussed.
In-Class Fieldwork Presentations to your Group: Each student will present their field research to their group. Presentations will be made to your assigned groups. Presentations should run 35-40 minutes. Guidelines for your fieldwork Presentations projects will be distributed in class.
Course Schedule
Week 1:
COURSE INTRODUCTION: Assessment/Quiz; Class Processes.
Assignment: One page paper on your religious experience – what you were born into and what you are currently involved in/practicing now, and/or why you are not practicing your birth religion.
Week 2 : COURSE INTRODUCTION: Syllabus; Group Assignments; Group Processes.
LECTURE: Background of the Contemporary Religious and Environment Movement
Week 3: Worldviews and the Ecological Crisis; INDIGENOUS TRADITIONS
Readings: All readings in Worldviews, Religion and the Environment by Foltz (W, R and E by Foltz): Worldviews and the Ecological Crisis
- Preface, Introduction, pp. xiii-xvii, pp. 1-7; Part One: Environmental Crisis, Spiritual Crisis; pp. 9–76, Indigenous Traditions
- Part Two: Interpreting Tradition, pp. 77-78; Chapter 3: First Peoples Traditions, pp. 79-111; “An Aboriginal Perspective on the Integrity of Creation” by Stan McKay (TSE)
- “Biodiversity and Tradition in Malaysia” by Patrick Segundad (TSE)
- “Learning to Connect Spirit, Mind, Body, and Heart to the Environment: A Healer’s Perspective” by Lea Bill-Rippling Water Woman (TSE)
- www.ienearth.org, www.culturalsurvival.org
- Task: Discussion Group Leaders present questions to Professor by e-mail/Blackboard.
Week 4: JEWISH TRADITION
Readings: W, R and E by Foltz: Chapter 8; pp.279-317
Online on Reserve at Library:
- “Jews, Jewish Texts and Nature: A Brief History” by Daniel Swartz (TSE)
- “Jewish Theology and the Environmental Crisis” by Eilon Schwartz (TEC)
- Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life = www.coejl.org
- National Partnership on Religion and the Environment = www.npre.org
- Forum on Religion and Ecology = www.religionandecology.org
- Task: Discussion Group Leaders present questions to Professor by e-mail/Blackboard.
Week 5: CHRISTIAN TRADITION
Readings: W, R and E by Foltz: Chapter 9; Christianity, pp. 318 – 349.
Online on Reserve at Library:
- “Christianity as Ecologically Harmful” and “Christianity as Ecologically Responsible” by David Kinsley
- “The Ecological Crisis: A Common Responsibility” by Pope John II (TSE)
- “Radical Catholicism, Popular Resistance and Material Culture in El Salvador” by Lois Ann Lorentzen
- “Catholic Social Teaching and Environmental Ethics” by United States Catholic Conference (TSE)
- National Council of Churches on Ecojustice = www.nccecojustice.org
- Evangelical Environmental Network = www.creationcare.org
- United States Catholic Conference of Bishops = www.usccb.org
- National Partnership on Religion and the Environment = www.npre.org
- Task: Discussion Group Leaders present questions to Professor by e-mail/Blackboard.
- NOTE: Research Topics, Fieldwork Proposals Finalized.
Week 6: ISLAMIC TRADITION
Readings: W, R and E by Foltz: Chapter 10, pp. 358 – 391
Online on Reserve at Library:
- “An Islamic Response to the Manifest Ecological Crisis: Issues of Justice” by Nawal H. Ammar (TSE)
- “Islamic Environmental Ethics, Law and Society” by Mawil Y. Izzi Deen (EE)
- Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Science = www.ifees.org.uk
- Task: Discussion Group Leaders present questions to Professor by e-mail/Blackboard.
Week 7: BUDDHIST TRADITION
Readings: W, R and E by Foltz: Chapter 5, pp. 161 – 207
Online on Reserve at Library:
- “The Buddhist Attitude Towards Nature” by Lily de Silva (EE)
- “Early Buddhist Views on Nature” by Chatsumaru Kabilsingh (TSE)
- “The Greening of Buddhist Practice” by Kenneth Kraft on www.crosscurrents.org/greening
- Engaged Buddhist Organization called Sarvodaya = www.Sarvodayausa.org
- Forum on Religion and Ecology = www.religionandecology.org
- Task: Discussion Group Leaders present questions to Professor by e-mail/Blackboard
Week 8: ECOFEMINISM and ECOWOMANISM
Readings: W, R and E by Foltz: Chapter 11, pp. 456 – 492
Online on Reserve at Library:
- “The Power and Promise of Ecological Feminism” by Karen Warren (EE)
- “Something or Nothing: An Eco-Womanist Essay on God, Creation and Indispensability” by Karen Baker-Fletcher (TSE)
- “Indigenous Feet: Ecofeminism, Globalization, and the Case of Chiapas” by Lois Lorentzen (EG).
- “The Chipko Women’s Concept of Freedom” by Vandana Shiva .(TSE)
- Task: Discussion Group Leaders present questions to Professor by e-mail/Blackboard
Guest Speaker
Week 9: MIDTERM EXAMINATION
Week 11: HINDUISM, JAINISM, TAOISM, CONFUCIANISM
Readings: W, R and E by Foltz: Chapter 4: “South Asian Traditions,” pp. 112-160
Online on Reserve at Library:
- “Satyagraha for Conservation: Awakening the Spirit of Hinduism,” by O.P. Dwivedi (TSE)
- “Hinduism and Deep Ecology” by Christopher Chapple (DEWR)
- “Ecological Themes in Taoism and Confucianism” by Mary Evelyn Tucker in Foltz, pp. 217-223
- Forum on Religion and Ecology: www.religionandecology.org
- Task: Discussion Group Leaders present questions to Professor by e-mail/Blackboard
Week 12: TWO-THIRDS WORLD RELIGIOUS RESPONSES and ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM
Readings: W, R and E by Foltz: Chapter 14: “Voices from the Global South;” pp. 493 – 523
Online on Reserve at Library:
- “African-American Resources for a More Inclusive Liberation Theology” by Theodore Walker, Jr. (TSE)
- “Central African Resources on the Human-Environment Relationship” by Richard B. Peterson (TSE)
- “Seeking Eco-justice in the South African Context” by Ernst Conradie, Charity Majiza, Jim Cochrane, Welile T. Sigabi, Victor Molobi and David Field (TSE)
- “Principles of Environmental Justice” by The First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit (TSE)
- “Whose Earth is it Anyway?” by James H. Cone (EH)
- “Race, Sacrifice and Native Lands” by Jonna Higgins-Freese and Jeff Tomhave (TSE)
- Task: Discussion Group Leaders present questions to Professor by e-mail/Blackboard.
Guest Speaker
Week 13: PART I: RELIGIOUS RESPONSES TO ANIMALS
Online on Reserve at Library:
- “Caught with ourselves in the Net of Life and Time: Traditional Views of Animal in Religion” by Kimberly Patton (COS)
- “Seeing the Terrain We Walk: Features of the Contemporary Landscape of ‘Religion and Animals’ by Paul Waldau (COS)
- “Animal Protection and the Problem of Religion: An Interview with Peter Singer” by Paul Waldau (COS)
- “The Dance of Awe” by Jane Goodall (COS)
- “A Communion of Subjects and a Multiplicity of Intelligences” by Mary Evelyn Tucker (COS)
- “The Emotional World of Farm Animals: A Study Guide” by Animal Place (handout)
- www.animalplace.org
- www.hsus.org/religion
- www.crle.org
- www.humanecalifornia.org
- Films: Peaceable Kingdom/The Emotional Life of Farm Animals
- Task: Discussion Group Leaders present questions to Professor by e-mail/Blackboard.
Guest Speaker
Week 14 (April 22) EMERGING RELIGIOUS GROUPS and COSMOLOGIES (EARTH DAY)
Readings: W, R and E by Foltz: Chapter 11: “Emerging Religions” pp. 392- 428; W, R and E. by Foltz: Chapter 15: “New Cosmologies and Visions” pp. 524-560
“Toward the Isle of Birds” in The Earth Path by Starhawk
Task: Discussion Group Leaders present questions to Professor by e-mail/Blackboard.
Assignment: Finish fieldwork this week
Week 15: STUDENT RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS
Week 16: STUDENT RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS
FINAL EXAM REVIEW
RESEARCH PAPER DUE
_____________________________________
Other Texts:
TEC = Theology for Earth Community: Field Guide, Dieter Hessel, ed.
TSE = This Sacred Earth: Religion, Nature and the Environment, Roger Gottlieb, ed.
EE = Environmental Ethics: Readings in Theory and Application, Louis P. Pojman & Paul Pojman, eds.
CEE = Christian Environmental Ethics: A Case Method Approach, James B. Martin Schramm and Robert L. Stivers
DEWR = Deep Ecology and World Religions, David Landis Barnhill and Roger S. Gottlieb, eds.
EG = Ecofeminism and Globalization: Exploring Culture, Context and Religion, Lois Ann Lorentzen and Heather Eaton, eds.
COS = A Community of Subjects: Animals in Religion, Science and Ethics, Paul Waldau and Kimberly Patton, eds.
EH = Earth Habitat: Ecojustice and The Church’s Response, Dieter Hessel and Larry Rasmussen, eds.
This Syllabus pertains to when the course was offered in Spring Semester 2008