“The Ecological Imagination: Reflections on Nature, Place, and Spirituality”
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA
October 25–29, 2000

The Ecological Imagination conference is an invitational conference of leading American nature writers. Public poetic and prose readings, sponsored by the Cambridge Forum, will be held at 7:30 pm on October 26th, 27th, and 28th at the Unitarian Church in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

For more information on this event, see the supporting materials listed below or contact Mary Evelyn Tucker.

Additional Materials on “The Ecological Imagination:
Reflections on Nature, Place, and Spirituality”

Introduction
Leading American writers with an environmental sensibility are awakening their readers to intricate human relations with the earth. This invitational event will allow participants to collectively reflect on the deepening of the ecological imagination by integrating the cosmological and the particular. Four key themes will be presented:

1. The Cosmology of Science
2. The Cosmology of Religions
3. Nature Writing in America
4. Mutually Enhancing Human-Earth Relations

The conference will begin with a discussion of emergent cosmological concerns from the perspective of the epic of evolution and be accompanied by the cosmological resources of the world's spiritual traditions. It will also provide opportunities for us to travel to Walden to reflect on how Native American peoples (and others, such as Henry David Thoreau) have played important roles in the fostering of an ecological imagination. The conference will also allow participants to consider the manner in which place based and bioregional sensibilities can ground the human in a world of texture, meaning, and tradition. Opportunities will also be available to share musical and personal reflections and discussions.

The four primary themes in the conference are linked to four scriptural resources described in medieval Christian theology and identified in a fresh way by Thomas Berry.

Primary Themes	Link	Scriptural Resource
1. Epic of Evolution 2. Cosmology of Religions 3. Nature Writers in America 4. Human-Earth Relations	Space/Macrocosm Traditions/Community Time/Memory Place/Microcosm	Cosmological Religious Historical Personal

Ecological Imagination List of Participants

David Abram	Author, The Spell of the Sensuous
Thomas Berry	Author, The Great Work
Lawrence Buell	Harvard University Author, The Environmental Imagination
Douglas Burton-Christie	Loyola Marymount University Author, The Word in the Desert
Gary Holthaus	Institute for the Humanities at Salado Author, Wide Skies: Finding a Home in the West
Ursula Goodenough	Washington University Author, The Sacred Depths of Nature
John Grim	Bucknell University Author, The Shaman
Gary Holthaus	Institute for the Humanities at Salado Author, Wide Skies: Finding a Home in the West
William Kittredge	Author, Who Owns the West?
Laurie Kutchins	Author, The Night Path
David Lee
Barry Lopez	Author, About This Life
Bill McKibben	Author, Hope, Human, and Wild
Melinda Mueller
Roderick Nash	University of California, Santa Barbara Author, The Rights of Nature
Richard Nelson	Author, The Island Within
Simon Ortiz	Author, Men on the Moon
Chet Raymo	Stonehill College Author, Skeptics and True Believers
Pattiann Rogers	Author, Eating Bread and Honey
Scott Russell Sanders	Indiana University Author, Writing From the Center
Carolyn Servid	The Island Institute
Gary Snyder	Author, Mountains and Rivers Without End
Brian Swimme	California Institute of Integral Studies Co-author, The Universe Story
John Tallmadge	Union Institute Author, Meeting the Tree of Life: A Teacher’s Path
Mary Evelyn Tucker	Bucknell University Author, Moral and Spiritual Cultivation in Japanese Neo-Confucianism
Benjamin Webb	Editor, Fugitive Faith
Tu Weiming	Harvard-Yenching Institute Author, Confucian Thought: Selfhood as Creative Transformation
Terry Tempest Williams	Author, Refuge
Slava Yastremski	Bucknell University Author, Strolls With Pushkin

Conference Observants
Bruce Bochte	Center for the Story of the Universe
Marion Gilliam	Orion Society
Martin Kaplan	Hale and Dorr
Laurie Lane-Zucker	Orion Society
Dorik Mechau	The Island Institute
Donald Swearer	Swarthmore College and Harvard Divinity School
Lisbeth Tarlow	Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities
Mark Tredinnick	University of Western Sydney, Australia
Tim Wirth	United Nations Foundation
Wren Wirth	Winslow Foundation

Ecological Imagination: Conference Schedule
October 25, 2000
6:30	Dinner
October 26, 2000 All events this day will be held at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
9:00–9:15	Opening Comments Mary Evelyn Tucker John Grim
9:15–10:30	Theme 1: Cosmology of Science Thomas Berry Terry Tempest Williams
10:30–10:45	Coffee and Tea break
10:45–12:00	Pattiann Rogers Brian Swimme
12:00–1:15	Lunch
1:15–2:30	Ursula Goodenough Chet Raymo
	Theme 2: Cosmology of Religions
2:30–3:45	East Asian Confucianism Tu Weiming Mary Evelyn Tucker
3:45–4:15	Coffee and Tea Break
4:15–5:30	Christianity Barry Lopez Doug Burton-Christie Response: Ben Webb
5:30–6:00	Reception
6:00–7:15	Dinner
8:00	Public Readings At First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church Church Street (Harvard Square) David Abram Laurie Kutchins Barry Lopez
October 27, 2000	Theme 3: Nature Writing in America
All events held today take place at either Walden Pond or the Thoreau Institute
9:00	Bus leaves from Irving House
9:45–11:45	Arrive at Walden Pond Selected Readings from Thoreau's Works at Walden John Tallmadge Richard Nelson Carolyn Servid Followed by walking time
11:45–1:00	Lunch at Thoreau Institute on Baker Farm Road near Walden Pond
1:00–2:15	Reflections on Thoreau and the Ecological Imagination Larry Buell Scott Russell Sanders
2:15–3:45	Native American Traditions Simon Ortiz John Grim
3:45	Return to Cambridge Dinner on your own in Cambridge
8:00	Public Readings At First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church Church Street (Harvard Square) Chet Raymo Pattiann Rogers Scott Russell Sanders
October 28, 2000	Theme 4: Mutually Enhancing Human-Earth Relations
All events are held at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
9:00–10:15	Laurie Kutchins Richard Nelson
10:15–10:30	Coffee and Tea break
10:30–11:45	Melinda Mueller Gary Holthaus
11:45–1:00	Lunch
1:00–2:15	Bill Kittredge David Abram
2:15–3:30	Carolyn Servid David Lee
3:30–4:00	Coffee and Tea Break
4:00–5:15	Bill McKibben Roderick Nash
5:30–6:00	Reception
6:00–7:15	Dinner
8:00	Public Readings At First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church Church Street (Harvard Square) Richard Nelson Simon Ortiz Terry Tempest Williams
October 29, 2000 All events are held at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
9:00–12:00	Music and Personal Reflections

Sponsors
This event has been sponsored by the following organizations:

Cambridge Forum
Forum on Religion and Ecology
Harvard-Yenching Institute
Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities
Orion Society Winslow Foundation