This course introduces the Western religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam in relation to the emerging field of religion and ecology. This overview course identifies developments in the traditions that highlight their ecological implications into the contemporary period. In particular, it relates theological and religious concepts within the traditions to engaged, on-the-ground environmental projects. It investigates the symbolic and lived expressions in religious texts, ethics, and practices that can be defined as religious ecologies. Similarly, it identifies narratives in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam that orient humans to the cosmos, namely, religious cosmologies. This interrelationship of narratives and religious environmentalism provides pathways into the study of religion and ecology.
Required Texts:
Online Journal/Daedalus:
Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, eds., “Religion and Ecology: Can the Climate Change?” Daedalus, Fall 2001. (https://www.amacad.org/content/publications/publication.aspx?d=845).
Encyclopedia of Religion online articles:
1) on Judaism, Christianity and Islam;
2) on Judaism and Ecology, Christianity and Ecology, Islam and Ecology
Recommended Texts:
Judaism and Ecology: Created World and Revealed Word. Edited by Hava Tirosch-Samuelson, Harvard Center for the Study of World Religions, 2002, selected articles, online.
Christianity and Ecology: Seeking the Well-Being of Earth and Humans. Edited by Dieter Hessel and Rosemary Radford Reuther, Harvard Center for the Study of World Religions, 2000, selected articles, online.
Islam and Ecology: A Bestowed Trust. Edited by Richard Foltz, Frederick Denny, and Azizan Baharuddin, Harvard Center for the Study of World Religions, 2003, articles, online.
Background Texts for Western Religions:
John Esposito, Darrell Fasching, Todd Lewis, eds., World Religions Today. Oxford, 2013.
Chapters on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. F.E. Peters, The Children of Abraham. Princeton University Press, 2005.
Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, eds., Worldviews & Ecology: Religion, Philosophy and the Environment. Orbis Books, 2000.