SYS 6004 Theology, Ecology, Spirituality – Spring
Professor: Jim Perkinson (313) 567-0173 jperkinson@etseminary.edu
Mission Statement
Ecumenical Theological Seminary provides a multi-confessional Christian theological education within an urban context, while initiating interfaith engagement. Our approach creates spiritual leadership through personal transformation, social responsibility, critical reflection and academic rigor. ETS graduates are prepared to lead communities of faith while sharing God’s compassion in relationship to various ecumenical, interfaith, political, social, economic, and cultural contexts.
MDiv Program Objectives Relevant for this Course
The M. Div. program executes the mission of ETS of developing faithful and effective church leaders predominantly through student engagement with the following curricular components: ethically-based theological curriculum, leadership education grounded in experience, ecumenical openness and respect, a multicultural (sub)urban learning community, critical reflection on tradition and contemporary issues, interreligious dialogue, and biblical/theological/spiritual maturity.
In this particular course we will focus on elements of critical reflection on tradition in relation to contemporary ecological and justice issues and development of a mature spirituality, grounded both in theology and in interreligious dialogue with indigenous cultures.
Course Description
This course takes its motive force from the multiple and cascading crises of our time (such as climate change, species extinction, acidification of the oceans, soil degradation and loss, water pollution and salinization, etc.) that point toward a profound alienation between human communities and the rest of the biosphere. The aim is to open up perspective on the role of otherkind (plants, animals, waters, mountains, etc.) within the Christian tradition, and recovery of a more sustainable and just relationship to local and regional watersheds and ecologies, provoked by deep listening to indigenous cultures, re-examination of Christian theological and spiritual traditions, and re-imagination of incarnation.
The course will range across the following topics:
- Scientific articulations of the ecological crises of our time
- Historical and anthropological attention to our bioregion, informed by Native American experience and concerns
- Biblical and theological traditions read through the lens of indigenous and ecological orientations
- Exploration of the implications for our own spiritualities and ethics
Course Objectives
Students successfully completing this course will have:
1.) heightened their awareness and understanding of the seriousness of the ecological and economic crises facing the planet and the questions they raise about modern “civilization”
2.) deepened their appreciation for and knowledge of the local bioregional and the layers of history and meaning it carries
3.) increased their capacity to listen to the wisdom and struggles of older traditions in the area (Ojibwe, Shawnee, Potawatomie, etc.) in their own engagements with the bioregion
4.) re-conceived their understanding of biblical orientations towards land, plants, animals, waters, mountains, storms, etc. in perceiving and responding to “the holy” in the bioregions of the ancient Near East.
5.) gained an overview of the uses and abuses of Christian traditions and theologies over two millennia in negotiating relationship with the ecosphere.
6.) gained an appreciation for scientific insights into the origins of the cosmos and its ever-evolving interdependencies
7.) probed their own personal response to other kind, to bioregional concerns centered in our local watershed, and to the possibility of global apocalypse
8.) worked towards a practical commitment to respond to the above in a manner integrating theology, spirituality, ancient wisdom, and new science on a local scale
9.) increased their skills in communicating, both orally and in writing, about the above.
Course Requirements
1.) Class participation (25% of one’s grade).
Class participation will include dyads, group discussion, and presentations. For each of the 4 major authors read (Berry, Corbett, Edwards, and Santmire), write down 3 quotations that especially engaged or troubled you, the word or idea that most deeply captured your attention (positively or negatively), accompanied by 1 question you wish to have discussed in our classroom time together (if time permits). Due weeks 3, 5, 7, and 9.
2.) Reflection Paper (2-3 pages; 10% )
Each student will write a short reflection paper identifying the student’s deepest experience to date with a plant, animal, body of water, storm, land feature, etc. and its relationship to a sense of spirituality. Due week 2.
3.) Spiritual Discipline (2-3 pages: 10%)
At least once per week spend at least five minutes with a plant or animal to which you offer praise and thanks-giving for its life, asking it to teach you about what it knows, and then listening “beyond your merely verbal awareness” for its response. Write down your response to what happens (feeling amazed, feeling touched, feeling bored, feeling like this is stupid, the “thing” can’t communicate to me, etc.). Due week 9.
4.) News Discipline (5 %)
At least 5 times during the course, glean news on the state of the globe (ecologically and/or economically) from an alternative news source (either Democracy Now or from another country—Al Jazeera, RT, etc.) and be prepared to share in class what you discovered.
5.) Site Visit Description (4-5 pages each: 10%)
Each student will visit an organization (church, para-church ministry, or community group) responding in some way to a local ecological issue and write up a summary of the experience, including the participants’ motivation to respond, their vision of change, their “operative” spirituality (if one is in evidence), their emphasis on modern technology or on more indigenous modes of responsibility; your own personal response to the initiative; and a theological assessment of what you saw using ideas from at least two of the major books discussed in class. Due week 8.
6.) Reflective Journal (5-8 pages total: 15%).
Keep a journal in which you reflect at least once a week on the readings from Abram (Becoming Animal). By the third or fourth class session, one student may be asked to share one of his/her reflections per class. Three of those reflections will be turned in for review (not grading). Due week 10.
7.) Book Report (oral 10%)
Students will be divided into two groups to collectively report on Santmire or Edwards.
5.) Final Paper (15 %)
Each student will write a 10-page paper on a subject/book to be cleared with the instructor in advance. Due week 10.
Required Texts
Abram, David. 2010. Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology. New York: Pantheon Books ISBN-10: 0375713697 ISBN-13: 978-0375713699
Berry, Thomas. 1988. The Dream of the Earth. San Francisco: Sierra Book Club. ISBN-10: 1578051355 ISBN-13: 9781578051359
Corbett, Jim. 2005. A Sanctuary for All Life: the Cowbalah of Jim Corbett. Englewood, CO: Howling Dog Press. ISBN: 1882863739
Perkinson, James W. 2013. Messianism Against Christology: Resistance Movements, Folk Arts, and Empire. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 978-1-137-33227-1 (the paperback version is available from Amazon or Palgrave for $39.99)
Prechtel, Martín. 2012. “Star Arches, the Lurching Earth, and the Seed-Eyed God (Ch. 2),” “The Unlikely Peace at Cuchumaquic (Ch 3),” The Unlikely Peace at Cuchumaquic: The Parallel Lives of People as Plants: Keeping Seeds Alive. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 12-34, 35-66.
Assigned in class
Edwards, Denis. 2011. Ecology at the Heart of Faith: the Change of Heart that Leads to a New Way of Life. Maryknoll: Orbis Books. ISBN-10: 1570756651 ISBN-13: 9781570756658
Santmire, H. Paul. 2000. Nature Reborn: The Ecological and Cosmic Power of Christian Theology. Minneapolis: Fortress. ISBN: 0800632346
Northcott, Michael S. 2013. A Political Theology of Climate Change. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. ISBN 9780802870988
Handouts in class.
Daneel, M. L. 1994. “African Independent Churches Face the Challenge of Environmental Ethics,” Eco-theology: Voices from South and North. Ed. David G. Hallman. Maryknoll: Orbis, 248-263..
Heinrichs, Steve. 2013. “Introduction: An Indigenous Intrusion Troubles the House: A Call to Decolonization,” Buffalo Shout, Salmon Cry: Conversations on Creation, Land Justice, and Life Together. Waterloo, Ontario/Harrisonburg, VA: Herald Press, 13-30.
Jensen, Derrick. 2001. “Saving the Indigenous Soul: An Interview with Martin Prechtel,” https://www.thesunmagazine.org/issues/304/saving_the_indigenous_soul
Jensen, Robert. 2013. “Get Apocalyptic: Why Radical is the New Normal,” Yes Magazine (Summer 2013). https://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/love-and-the-apocalypse/radical-is-the-new-normal
Myers, Ched. 2013. “From Garden to Tower: Genesis 1-11 as a Critique of Civilization and an Invitation to Indigenous Re-visioning,” Buffalo Shout, Salmon Cry: Conversations on Creation, Land Justice, and Life Together. Waterloo, Ontario/Harrisonburg, VA: Herald Press, 109-121.
Orenstein, Gloria. 1993. “Toward an Ecofeminist Ethic of Shamanism and the Sacred,” in Ecofeminism and the Sacred, ed.
Carol J. Adams. New York: Continuum, 172-190.
Perkinson, James W. 2000. “Jubilee in the Biblical Tradition and in Modernity,” Facilitators’ Manual for joint American Bible Society/Ecumenical Theological Seminary Jubilee Encounter Series, Detroit, Sept., 2000.* [or amplified version: Perkinson, J. W. (2016). “Religion and the Class Status Quo,” In J. Vereecke (Ed.), Macmillan Interdisciplinary Handbook on Religion: Religion-Just Religion, Greenhaven Press, Macmillan Reference, USA, Farmington, MI: Gale/Cenage Learning, 199-217].
Perkinson, James W. 2016. “The Sabbath-Jubilee Correction: What the Bible Says about Economics,” 1.
Perkinson, James W. 2016 “Jubilee Community in the Apocalyptic City,” (forthcoming in Council for World Missions Biblical Studies Book Project), 1-16.
Others as indicated in class (perhaps)
Tentative Course Outline
1st Session Introductions, Syllabus, The Crises Today, “Crossing Over and Coming Back”
Reading: Perkinson, Jim. 2000. “Jubilee in the Biblical Tradition and in Modernity,” (review)
Perkinson, Messianism, 172-178;
Perkinson, “The Gospel of Water.”
Video*: “Frank Brown Story” (Haida Restorative Justice)
* Videos listed in syllabus are possible showings in class (though if you want to view
them on your own, of course, that is fine).
2nd Session Crossing Over: Tracking Indigenous Experience
Reading: Prechtel, “Saving the Indigenous Soul” (Interview with D. Jensen), 1-13.
Prechtel, ix-xix, 3-11, 12-34, 35-66.
Jensen, R, “Get Apocalyptic,” 1-5 (Google on-line; address under Handouts, above)
Video: “The Real Avatar: Mine-Story of a Sacred Mountain.”
Guy McPherson (Bluegrass Bioneers, 2012),
David Roberts (“Climate Change is Simple,” 2012, TED),
Naomi Klein (Naomi Klein & Avi Lewis | 2013 Lannan Symposium | America from the
Outside: How the World Sees US: Vimeo.com/65059134)
3rd Session Coming Back: Tracking Sabbath/Jubilee as Indigenous Biblical Experience
Reading: Heinrichs, 13-30.
Perkinson, Messianism, 70-84.
Perkinson, “The Sabbath-Jubilee Correction: What the Bible Says about Economics,” 1.
Perkinson, “Jubilee Community in the Apocalyptic City,” 1-16.
Video: Brock Dolman – Watershed City 2.0 Re-thinking and Retrofitting for Resilience –
TEDxMission: City2.0
4th Session What the Earth Dreams: New Story and Native Experience
Reading: Berry, 1-162
Video: We Shall Remain: Tecumseh’s Vision
5th Session What the Earth Dreams: Bioregionalism and Native Experience
Reading: Berry, 163-223
Video: Ojibwe: Waasa Inaabida: We Look All Directions (40950)
6th Session The Biblical Tradition
Reading: Perkinson, 1-23.
Myers, 109-121
Corbett, 9-82
Video: Robin Kimmerer (Reclaiming the Honorable Harvest: Robin Kimmerer, 2012, TED)
7th Session The Biblical Tradition
Reading: Corbett, 83-328 (as much as you can)
Video: Animal Communication : Understanding Between All Living Beings”; “Animal
Communicator: The Incredible Story of How Leopard Diablo Became Spirit”
8th Session Ecology, Faith, and Roman Catholicism
Reading: Corbett, 83-328
Book Report: Edwards
Video: ““From the Heart of the World” (Kogi).
9th Session Ecology, Faith, and Protestantism
Book Report: Santmire
Reading: Northcott (as assigned)
Daneel, “African Independent Churches . . . “
Orenstein, Gloria. 1993. “Toward an Ecofeminist Ethic of Shamanism and the Sacred,”
In Ecofeminism and the Sacred, ed. Carol J. Adams. New York: Continuum, 172-190.
(maybe also do Illuminated MSS)
10th Session Ecology, Hip-Hop, and the Powers
Reading: Perkinson, “Tupac Shakur as Ogou Achade.”
Perkinson, Messianism, Ch 4 (Principalities and Powers).
Perkinson, “From Megalith to Mack Daddy” (if time).
Supplemental Bibliography
Awareness:
Barlow, Maude and Tony Clarke. Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water. New York: The New Press, 2002.
Berry, Thomas. The Dream of the Earth. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1988.
________. The Great Work: Our Way into the Future. New York: Bell Tower, 2000.
Bouma-Prediger, Steven. For the Beauty of the Earth: A Christian Vision for Creation Care. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academics, 2001.
Brown, Lester R. Outgrowing the Earth: The Food Security Challenge in an Age of Falling Water Tables and Rising Temperatures. New York: W. W. Norton, 2004.
Caldicott, Helen. If You Love this Planet: A Plan to Heal the Earth. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1992.
Cohen-Kiener, Andrea. Claiming Earth as Common Ground: The Ecological Crisis through the Lens of Faith. Woodstock, VT: Skylight Paths Publishing, 2009.
Dempsey, Dave. On the Brink: The Great Lakes in the 21st Century. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2004.
Hawken, Paul. Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and why No One Saw It Coming. New York: Viking, 2007.
Pearce, Fred. With Speed and Violence: Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change. Boston: Beacon, 2007.
Pollan, Michael. In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto. New York: Penguin Books, 2008.
Sperling, Daniel & Deborah Gordon. Two Billion Cars: Driving Toward Sustainability. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Swimme, Brian. The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos: Humanity and the New Story. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1996.
Tucker, Mary Evelyn & John Grim, eds. Worldviews and Ecology: Religion, Philosophy, and the Environment. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1994.
Cross Disciplinary:
Capra, Fritjof. The Hidden Connections: Integrating the Biological, Cognitive, and Social Dimensions of Life into a Science of Sustainability. New York: Doubleday, 2002.
Keck, L. Robert. Sacred Quest: the Evolution and Future of the Human Soul. West Chester, PA: Chrysalis Books, 2000.
Korten, David C. The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community. Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press, 2006.
Stone, Michael K. and Zenobia Barlow. Ecological Literacy: Educating Our Children for a Sustainable World. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 2005.
Toolan, David. At Home in the Cosmos. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2001.
Ethics:
Bullard, Robert D., ed. The Quest for Environmental Justice: Human Rights and the Politics of Pollution. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 2005.
Gudorf, Christine E. and James E. Huchinson. Boundaries: A Casebook in Environmental Ethics. Washington, DC: Georgetwon University Press, 2003.
Rasmussen, Larry L. Earth Community, Earth Ethics. Maryknoll: Orbis, 1996.
Smith, Pamela. What Are They Saying About Environmental Ethics? New York: Paulist, 1997.
McDonagh, Sean. Passion for the Earth: The Christian Vocation to Promote Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation. Maryknoll: Orbis, 1994.
Other Voices:
Boff, Leonardo. Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1997.
Boff, Leonardo. Ecology & Liberation: A New Paradigm. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1995.
Boff, Leonardo. Essential Care: An Ethics of Human Nature. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2008.
The Dalai Lama. The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality. New York: Morgan Road Books, 2005.
Gebara, Ivone. Longing for Running Water: Ecofeminism and Liberation. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1999.
Hallman, David G. EcoTheology: Voices from South and North. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1994.
Maathai, Wangari. The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the Approach and the Experience. New York: Lantern Books, 2006.
Ress, Mary Judith. Ecofeminism in Latin America: Women from the Margins. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2006.
Ruether, Rosemary Radford. Women Healing Earth: Third World Women on Ecology, Feminism, and Religion. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1996.
Shiva, Vandana. Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability, and Peace. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2005.
Shiva, Vandana. Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in an Age of climate Crisis. Brooklyn, NY: South End Press, 2008.
Shiva, Vandana. Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2000.
Shiva, Vandana. Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2002.
Spirituality:
Camara, Helder. Sister Earth: Ecology & the Spirit. London: New City, 1990.
Cohen-Kiener, Andrea. Claiming Earth as Common Ground: The Ecological Crisis through the Lens of Faith. Woodstock, VT: Skylight Paths Publishing, 2009.
Cummings, Charles. Eco-Spirituality: Toward a Reverent Life. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1991.
Fischer, Kathleen. Loving Creation: Christian Spirituality, Earth-Centered and Just. New York: Paulist Press, 2009.
Gottlieb, Roger S. A Spirituality of Resistance: Finding a Peaceful Heart and Protecting the Earth. New York: Crossroad, 1999.
Hamma, Robert M. Earth’s Echo: Sacred Encounters With Nature. Notre Dame: Sorin Books, 2002.
Heffern, Rich. Adventures in Simple Living: A Creation-Centered Spirituality. New York: Crossroad, 1994.
Jung, L. Shannon. Food for Life: The Spirituality and Ethics of Eating. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004.
Jung, Shannon. We Are Home: A Spirituality of the Environment. New York: Paulist Press, 1993.
Leite, Elizabeth. Simply Beautiful: Living with the Earth in Mind. Happy Camp, CA: PRISM Editions, Naturegraph Publishers, Inc., 1980.
McDaniel, Jay B. Earth, Sky, Gods & Mortals: Developing an Ecological Spirituality. Mystic, CT: Twenty-Third Publications, 1990.
O’Murchu, Diarmuid. Evolutionary Faith: Rediscovering God in Our Great Story. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2002.
Prevallet, Elaine M. A Wisdom for Life: A Series of Presentations on Earth Spirituality. Nerinx, KY: 1995.
Snyder, Mary Hembrow, Ed. Spiritual Questions for the Twenty-First Century. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2001.
Swedish, Margaret. Living Beyond the “End of the World”: A Spirituality of Hope. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2008.
Theology:
Acton Institute. Environmental Stewardship in the Judeo-Christian Tradition: Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant Wisdom on the Environment. Grand Rapids, MI: Acton Institute, 2007.
Edwards, Denis. Jesus the Wisdom of God: An Ecological Theology. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1995.
Harrel, Daniel M. Nature’s Witness: How Evolution Can Inspire Faith. Nashville: Abingdon, 2008.
Hessel, Dieter T., ed. Theology for Earth Community: A Field Guide. Maryknoll: Orbis, 1996.
Johnson, Elizabeth. Women, Earth, Creator Spirit. New York: Paulist Press, 1993.
LaChance, Albert J., and John E. Carroll, eds. Embracing Earth: Catholic Approaches to Ecology. Maryknoll: Orbis, 1994.
MacKinnon, Mary Heather & Moni Mclntyre. Readings in Ecology and Feminist Theology. Kansas City, MO: Sheed & Ward, 1995.
Mc Daniel, Jay B. With Roots and Wings: Christianity in an Age of Ecology and Dialogue. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1995.
McFague, Sallie. A New Climate for Theology: God, the World, and Global Warming. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2008.
McFague, Sallie. Life Abundant: Rethinking Theology and Economy for a Planet in Peril. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2000.
McFague, Sallie. Super, Natural Christians: How we should love nature. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1997.
McFague, Sallie. The Body of God: An Ecological Theology. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993.
Peters, Ted and Martinez Hewlett. Evolution from Creation to New Creation: Conflict, Conversation, and Convergence. Nashville: Abingdon, 2003.
Ruether, Rosemary Radford. Gaia & God: An Ecofeminist Theology of Earth Healing. San Francisco: Harper Collins Publishers, 1992.
Wessels, Cletus. Jesus and the New Universe Story. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2003.
Some Internet Links/Resources
Union of Concerned Scientists: www.ucsusa.org
Public Citizen – Energy Program: www.citizen.org
National Religious Partnership for the Environment: www.nrpe.org
Climate Change: An Evangelical Call to Action
Alternatives for Simple Living: www.simpleliving.org
Interfaith center on Corporate Responsibility: www.iccr.org
The Earth Charter Initiative: www.earthcharter.org
Yes Magazine: https://www.yesmagazine.org
Center for Ecoliteracy: https://www.ecoliteracy.org
The Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology: https://fore.research.yale.edu