Worldviews, Religion, and the Environment A Global Anthology

by Foltz, Richard C.

• ISBN13: 9780534596071
• ISBN10: 053459607X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-06-25
• Publisher: Cengage Learning

Summary

Perhaps unprecedented in scope, this anthology explores current environmental and ecological issues amidst the various worldviews, cultures, and traditions that constitute the world's major religions. Presenting a global conceptual landscape in part one with selections that focus on the spiritual and environmental crises associated with modernity, this volume, with typical skillful editing in part two, distills all of the major world religions' perspectives-Eastern, Western, and newly emerging-on contemporary ecological issues. Part three rounds out this extraordinary collection of insights with an exploration of other cross-cutting motifs in today's enviro-cultural criticism, including radical environmentalism, ecofeminism, ecojustice, and the rising voice of the Global South.

Table of Contents

Preface	xiii
Introduction Understanding Our Place in a Global Age	1	(8)
Part One Environmental Crisis, Spiritual Crisis	9	(68)
The Seeds of a Green Theology	10	(28)
The Eleventh Commandment	12	(4)
Walter C. Lowdermilk
A Theology for Earth	16	(4)
Joseph Sittler
The Problem	20	(10)
Seyyed Hossein Nasr
The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis	30	(8)
Lynn White Jr.
Humans, Nature, and Modernity	38	(39)
Dominion over Nature	39	(10)
Carolyn Merchant
The New Nature	49	(9)
Gregg Easterbrook
In the Absence of the Sacred	58	(8)
Jerry Mander
The Religion of the Market	66	(11)
David R. Loy
Part Two Interpreting Tradition	77	(352)
First Peoples	79	(33)
Sacred Places and Moral Responsibility	81	(8)
Vine Deloria Jr.
Some Thoughts about the Philosophical Underpinnings of Aboriginal Worldviews	89	(8)
Mary Graham
Traditional African Land Ethics	97	(7)
C. K. Omari
Cultural Parallax in Viewing North American Habitats	104	(8)
Gary Paul Nabhan
South Asian Traditions	112	(49)
Contemporary Jaina and Hindu Responses to the Ecological Crisis	113	(6)
Christopher Chapple
Dharmic Ecology	119	(11)
O. P. Dwivedi
Water, Wood, and Wisdom: Ecological Perspectives from the Hindu Traditions	130	(13)
Vasudha Narayanan
Idioms of Degeneracy: Assessing Ganga's Purity and Pollution	143	(18)
Kelly D. Alley
Buddhism	161	(47)
Toward a Buddhist Environmental Ethic	163	(8)
Rita M. Gross
Ecological Buddhism?	171	(10)
Ian Harris
The Hermeneutics of Buddhist Ecology in Contemporary Thailand: Buddhadasa and Dhammapitaka	181	(12)
Donald K. Swearer
To Save all Beings: Buddhist Environmental Activism	193	(15)
Stephanie Kaza
Chinese Traditions	208	(38)
The Continuity of Being: Chinese Visions of Nature	209	(8)
Tu Weiming
Ecological Themes in Taoism and Confucianism	217	(7)
Mary Evelyn Tucker
On the Environmental Ethics of the Tao and the Ch'i	224	(12)
Chung-Ying Cheng
Fengshui and the Chinese Perception of Nature	236	(10)
Ole Bruun
Japanese Traditions	246	(33)
Japanese Religions	247	(5)
Brian Bocking
The Japanese Appreciation of Nature	252	(8)
Yuriko Saito
Culture in Japanese Nature	260	(8)
Arne Kalland
Nature Tamed	268	(11)
Joy Hendry
Judaism	279	(39)
Genesis I---The Most Misunderstood Part of the Bible	280	(10)
Aloys Hutterman
Ecology in a Biblical Perspective	290	(6)
Tikva Frymer-Kensky
The Unnatural Jew	296	(10)
Steven S. Schwarzschild
And the Earth Is Filled with the Breath of Life	306	(12)
Arthur Waskow
Christianity	318	(39)
In and of the World? Christian Theological Anthropology and Environmental Ethics	319	(15)
Anna Peterson
An Ecological Christology: Does Christianity Have It?	334	(8)
Sallie Mcfague
The World of the Icon and Creation: An Orthodox Perspective on Ecology and Pneumatology	342	(7)
John Chryssavgis
The Three Big Questions	349	(8)
Calvin Dewitt
Islam	357	(35)
Islamic Environmentalism in Theory and Practice	358
Richard C. Foltz
Toward an Islamic Ecotheology	336	(40)
K. L. Afrasiabi
An Islamic Response to the Manifest Ecological Crisis: Issues of Justice	376	(9)
Nawal H. Ammar
The Disconnected People	385	(7)
Fazlun M. Khalid
Emerging Religions	392	(37)
A Baha'i Perspective on an Ecologically Sustainable Society	394	(9)
Robert A. White
Mormon Values and the Utah Environment	403	(10)
Richard C. Foltz
Theology and Ecology at the Birthplace of Krsna	413	(7)
Bruce M. Sullivan
Paganism and the Environment	420	(9)
Graham Harvey
Part Three Contemporary Perspectives	429	(162)
Ecocentrism and Radical Environmentalism	430	(26)
Excerpts from A Sand County Almanac	431	(3)
Aldo Leopold
Principles of Deep Ecology	434	(7)
Bill Devall
George Sessions
The Ecological Self: Postmodern Ground for Right Action	441	(6)
Joanna Macy
Earth First!: From Primal Spirituality to Ecological Resistance	447	(9)
Bron Taylor
Ecofeminism	456	(37)
The Ecology of Feminism and the Feminism of Ecology	457	(7)
Ynestra King
Ecofeminism: The Challenge to Theology	464	(8)
Rosemary Radford Ruether
Ecology Is a Sistah's Issue Too: The Politics of Emergent Afrocentric Ecowomanism	472	(9)
Shamara Shantu Riley
Ecofeminism and Ecosocialism	481	(12)
Mary Mellor
Voices from the Global South	493	(31)
On Sustainability	495	(5)
B. D. Sharma
Science, Technology, Power, and Liberation Theology	500	(3)
Leonardo Boff
Earthkeeping Churches at the African Grass Roots	503	(12)
Marthinus L. Daneel
The Earth Is the Indian's Mother, Nhandecy	515	(9)
Eliane Potiguara
Leland Robert Guyer
Karen J. Warren
New Cosmologies and Visions	524	(37)
The New Story	525	(6)
Thomas Berry
God and Gaia	531	(9)
James Lovelock
Breakthrough in Evolution: Toward a Partnership Future	540	(14)
Riane Eisler
A Spirituality of Resistance: Finding a Peaceful Heart and Protecting the Earth	554	(7)
Roger S. Gottlieb
Globalization, Community, and Ecojustice	561	(30)
The Failures of Bretton Woods	562	(6)
David C. Korten
The Pressure to Modernize and Globalize	568	(8)
Helena Norberg-Hodge
Does Community Have a Value?	576	(6)
Wendell Berry
Global Eco-Justice: The Church's Mission in Urban Society	582	(9)
Larry Rasmussen
Appendix: The Earth Charter	591	(6)
Resources	597