Earth Day prayers, blessings of natural resources and bicycles, national campaigns such as “What Would Jesus Drive?” all signal the latest wave of environmentalism, one in which religion is playing a key role. What can religion offer? Sustained prayer and attention, a language, ethical exploration of the implications of scientific discoveries, and more. Whenever a society has had to make a radical shift in fundamental values and perspectives, religious practices, vocabulary, and thought have offered direction. This course introduces religious environmentalism while simultaneously inviting students to engage in activism and reflect on the roots of their own ethical commitments and those of the University. Thus key components of the class are student projects that encourage sustainability and writing and discussions that allow students opportunities to reflect on their own values, practices, commitments, and ethics. “A many-faceted alliance of religion and ecology along with a new global ethics is awakening around the planet…This is a new moment in the world’s religions, and they have a vital role to play in the emergence of a more comprehensive environmental ethics. The urgency cannot be underestimated. Indeed, the flourishing of the Earth community may depend on it. “-Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim
In this class the student will
- Learn more about the intersection of religion and the environment
- Develop and practice skills related to project management
- Help this University reach some of her sustainability goals
- Explore his/her own commitment to the environment and its roots and come to articulate them clearly
Books
(All books are or will be available for purchase at the bookstore except the SEAC organizing guide.)
selections from Roger Gottlieb’s Engaging Voices
Sallie McFague. Blessed Are the Consumers: Climate Change and the Practice of Restraint.
Stephanie Kaza. Mindfully Green: A Personal and Spiritual Guide to Whole Earth Thinking.
Julia Butterfly Hill. The Legacy of Luna.
Bill McKibben, Hundred Dollar Holiday
SEAC Organizing Guide (please download from: http://www.campusactivism.org/displayresource-33.htm)
Discussion leader role:
At the beginning of the semester, students will sign up to be the discussion leader for particular class sessions. The discussion leader reads the postings from students on Blackboard and brings questions based on her/his own reading of the text as well as based on these postings. It is important that the discussion leader be aware of and have notes pertaining to which student wrote about what, so the discussion leader can call on that student to summarize his/her view and to share more related to that view. The discussion leader will listen and follow the class conversation closely, seeing where the group is stuck/confused, what interesting things have been said but not really heard, how the group might proceed to learn to listen to each other. The discussion leader brings these issues to light during the conversation to allow the strongest conversation possible.
Blackboard Postings: Often during the semester (as per this syllabus), students will post to blackboard 1-page responses to the reading for that day. While the main purpose of these postings is to help you involve yourself as deeply as possible in the material of the course and to allow you a mechanism to integrate different aspects of the course, the discussion leader will study these postings before class in order to lead the discussion well, too. These postings will also likely form the foundation of one’s essays, so they are very important to many different aspects of the class. Each posting should note what the reading was (ex. Kaza chs 1-6) and include your name.
Sustainability Project: During the initial sessions of the class, we investigate the sustainability commitments Sewanee has made, the work of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, and work with Marvin Pate, Director of the Office of Sustainability, to discern what projects teams of students in this class will undertake. You will turn in a project proposal, discuss it with the instructor, and proceed to engage in the project. Thereafter progress reports are due every two weeks—in writing in class. By the end of class you will have successfully completed your project and you will submit a final report.
Essays: Twice during the semester and then again at the end, you will write essays. Your reading, Blackboard postings, class discussions, and projects form the foundation of your essay. More instructions on how to write an excellent personal essay will be given as the semester progresses. For now simply remember to read carefully, think thoroughly, listen well, and write, write, write.
Introduction to the class, topic, and possible projects: Read Gottlieb’s short story “Whose Woods Are These?” and please write a few notes on these topics:
- Which character do you most relate to and why?
- What parts of the story do you find most intriguing and why?
- What aspects of the complexity of the relationship between religion and the environment do you see demonstrated in this story?
NOTE: your professor is aware that this story is not great literature. Please consider it a way to begin our conversation.
Big picture of Sewanee’s sustainability work and some context with Director of Sustainability, Marvin Pate. Read and acquaint yourself with various documents as per the Blackboard site (where the links and pdfs are for all of this) for this class. Pay particular attention to the documents and parts of documents that the Blackboard site tells you to. Take some notes in your journal!
Read carefully: The Earth Charter
Become familiar with: the University’s Sustainability Master Plan pay particular attention to the part under Human Resources entitled, “Employee Orientation, Professional Development, and Policies.”
Also become familiar with the Talloires Declaration, the Presidential Climate Commitment, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education and its STARS program, and the view of the Episcopal Church on policy and sustainability. Use the longer, older version of the University Sustainability Master Plan to get a more detailed view of any part of the (shorter, newer) master plan as you like…
One-page reflection on the following reading posted on Blackboard
Reflection on project possibilities
Religious environmentalism: One Christian theologian’s (Sallie McFague’s) view
McFague Preface, chs 1 and 2
One-page reflection on the following reading posted on Blackboard
McFague chs 3 & 4
Project work—by now you know what project you want to engage in and with whom you will be working. So for class, read over and bring to class the Prioritized Plan from Blackboard and work on filling it out.
Begin keeping your project log (find that sheet on Blackboard). Each student keeps his/her own log and enters time spent on the project every time s/he works on the project—whether the student is reading for the project, making phone calls related to the project, or whatever….
Each team POSTS to Blackboard its prioritized plan.
One-page reflection on the following reading posted on Blackboard
McFague chs 5 & 6
One-page reflection on the following reading posted on Blackboard
McFague chs 7 & 8
EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITY: God’s Earth: Call for Environmental Stewardship (57 mins.) “This program, narrated by Catholic priest, ecologist, and author, Paul Collins, presents a well-rounded, intellectual discussion of the Judeo-Christian elevation of humankind at the expense of nature and the environment. Beginning with Plato and his emphasis on the spiritual, theologians and ecologists trace the philosophy as it veers toward increasingly anthropocentric ideas. The Bible’s mandates for humans to ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it’ are discussed within the context of overpopulation and pollution. The entire discussion is presented as a philosophical, ethical, and practical challenge to modern western religions to accept their role as stewards of the environment.”
Essay #1, Draft workshop: Bring a complete draft of your paper to class for peer review; failure to have a paper for review will have strong, negative consequences on your grade.
Project Work: Bring your team’s prioritized plan and each student bring his/her log with hours worked totaled clearly on the form.
Essay #1 due.
One-page reflection on the following reading posted on Blackboard.
Religious Environmentalism: One Buddhist thinker’s view: Stephanie Kaza
Kaza, introduction and chs 1, 2, & 3
One-page reflection on the following reading posted on Blackboard
Kaza chs 4 & 5
Project work
Bring your team’s prioritized plan and each student bring his/her log with hours worked totaled clearly on the form.
One-page reflection on the following reading posted on Blackboard
Kaza chs 6, 7, 8, & 9
One-page reflection on the following reading posted on Blackboard
Blackboard reading TBA, probably Swearer’s “An Assessment of Buddhist Eco-Philosophy”
EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITY: Either Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Self (26 mins.) Ecopsychology represents an attempt to find ecology within the context of human psychology and, in turn, to find human psychology in the context of ecology. The feelings of isolation and dysfunction that are so pervasive today have at their root a denial of our essential connection to nature and the non-human world. To heal, we must find our way back home. OR Pad Yatra: A Green Odyssey (72 mins.) “A Green Odyssey is the adventure of 700 people trekking across the Himalayas with a call to save the planet’s “3rd pole,” a glacial region now devastated by the climate chaos associated with global warming. Battling the most treacherous terrain on the planet, the trekkers spread their message of ecological compassion through human’s most basic means -by walking on foot, village to village, and showing by example. Surviving harrowing injuries, illness, and starvation, they emerge with nearly half a ton of plastic litter strapped to their backs, triggering an historic green revolution across the rooftop of the world.”
Essay #2, Draft workshop: Bring a complete draft of your paper to class for peer review; failure to have a paper for review will have strong, negative consequences on your grade.
Project work: Bring your team’s prioritized plan and each student bring his/her log with hours worked totaled clearly on the form.
Essay #2 due.
One-page reflection on the following reading posted on Blackboard
Environmentalism as religion
Blackboard readings on nature spirituality
One-page reflection on the following reading posted on Blackboard
Environmentalism as religion: Julia Butterfly Hill’s view
Hill prologue and chs 1-4
EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITY: If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (85 mins.) “The remarkable story of the rise and fall of the Earth Liberation Front, a radical environmental group that the FBI calls America’s ‘number one domestic terrorist threat,’ told through the transformation and radicalization of one of its members, Daniel McGowan. Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Marshall Curry weaves a chronicle of McGowan facing life in prison with a dramatic investigation of the events that led to his involvement with the ELF.”
One-page reflection on the following reading posted on Blackboard
Hill chs 5, 6, & 7
Project work
Bring your team’s prioritized plan and each student bring his/her log with hours worked totaled clearly on the form.
One-page reflection on the following reading posted on Blackboard
Hill chs 8 – 11
Gottlieb’s “Pass the Turkey” (short story on Blackboard)
One-page reflection on the following reading posted on Blackboard
Hill, finish book
Project discussion
Due: Project report and log sheets with hours worked totale
One-page reflection on the following reading posted on Blackboard.
McKibben’s Hundred Dollar Holiday (entire book—it’s short)
Final project report due (including all project reports and logs and peer assessments)
Final essay due (with draft workshop completed outside class and attached)