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Religions of the
World and Ecology:
Discovering the Common Ground
Mary Evelyn Tucker
and John Grim
Yale University
The environmental crisis is one that is well documented
in its various interlocking manifestations of industrial
pollution, resource depletion, and population explosion.
The urgency of the problems are manifold, namely, the
essential ingredients for human survival, especially
water supplies and agricultural land, are being threatened
across the planet by population and consumption pressures.
With the collapse of fishing industries and with increasing
soil erosion and farm land loss, serious questions are
being raised about the ability of the human community
to feed its own offspring. Moreover, the widespread
destruction of species and the unrelenting loss of habitat
continues to accelerate.
Clearly religions need to be involved with the development
of a more comprehensive worldview and ethics to assist
in reversing this trend. Whether from an anthropocentric
or a biocentric perspective, more adequate environmental
values need to be formulated and linked to areas of
public policy. Scholars of religion can be key players
in this articulation process. Moreover, there are calls
from other concerned parties to participate in a broader
alliance to halt the loss of species, topsoil, and natural
resources. It is our hope to expand this alliance of
scholars and activists by creating common ground for
dialogue and creative partnership in envisioning and
implementing long range solutions to some of our most
pressing environmental problems. This is critical because
the attitudes and values that shape people’s concepts
of nature come primarily from religious worldviews and
ethical practices. The moral imperative and value systems
of religions are indispensable in mobilizing the sensibilities
of people toward preserving the environment for future
generations.
One of the greatest challenges to contemporary religions,
then, is how to respond to the environmental crisis
which some believe has been perpetuated by the enormous
inroads of materialism and secularization in contemporary
societies, especially those societies arising in or
influenced by the modern West. Others such as the medieval
historian Lynn White have suggested that the emphasis
in Judaism and Christianity on the transcendence of
God above nature and the dominion of humans over nature
has led to a devaluing of the natural world and a subsequent
destruction of its resources for utilitarian ends.1
While the particulars of this argument have been vehemently
debated, it is increasingly clear that the environmental
crisis presents a serious challenge to the world’s
religions. This is especially true because many of these
religions have traditionally been concerned with the
paths of personal salvation which frequently emphasize
other worldly goals and reject this world as corrupting.
How to adapt religious teachings to this task of revaluing
nature so as to prevent its destruction marks a significant
new phase in religious thought. Indeed, as the historian
of religions, Thomas Berry, has so aptly pointed out,
what is necessary is a comprehensive reevaluation of
human-earth relations if the human is to continue as
a viable species on an increasingly degraded planet.
In addition to major economic and political changes,
this will require adopting worldviews that differ from
those which have captured the imagination of contemporary
industrialized societies that view nature as a commodity
to be exploited. How to utilize the insights of the
world’s religions is a task of formidable urgency.
Indeed, the formulation of a new ecological theology
and environmental ethic is already emerging from within
several of the world’s religions. Clearly each
of the world’s religious traditions has something
to contribute to this discussion.
It is, however, with some encouragement that we note
the growing call for the world’s religions to participate
in these changes toward a more sustainable planetary
future. There have been various appeals from environmental
groups and from scientists and parliamentarians for
religious leaders to respond to the environmental crisis.
In addition, there has been a striking growth in monographs
and journal articles in the area of religion and ecology.
Several national and international meetings have also
been held on this subject. For example, environmental
groups such as World Wildlife Fund (WWF) have sponsored
interreligious meetings, such as the one in Assisi in
1986. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
in North America has established an annual Environmental
Sabbath and distributes thousands of packets of materials
for uses in congregations throughout the United States
and Canada. The Parliament of World Religions, held
in Chicago in 1993 and attended by some 8,000 people
from all over the globe, issued a Global Ethics of Cooperation
of Religions on Human and Environmental Issues statement.
International meetings on the environment such as the
Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders
have been held in Oxford (1988), Moscow (1990), Rio
(1992), and Kyoto (1993). These included religious leaders
such as the Dalai Lama as well as diplomats and heads
of state such as Mikhail Gorbachev, who hosted the Moscow
conference and attended the Kyoto conference to set
up an International Green Cross for environmental emergencies.
Since 1995 a critical Alliance of Religions and Conservation
(ARC) has been convening conferences and publishing
books on this topic in England. In the United States,
the National Religious Partnership for the Environment
(NRP) has organized the Jewish and Christian communities
on this issue. The time is thus propitious for a broad
investigation of the contributions of particular religions
to solving the ecological crisis, especially by developing
a more comprehensive environmental ethic.
It is within this context that a series of conferences
on “Religions of the World and Ecology” were
held at Harvard University. The aims of these conferences
were to provide a forum for reflection on:
- Reconceptualizing attitudes toward nature by examining
perceptions from religions of the world with attention
to the complexity of history and culture.
- Contributing to the articulation of functional
environmental ethics grounded in religious traditions
and inspired by broad ecological perspectives.
- Identifying the institutional grounds for systematic
changes to be effected within religious traditions
for long-term transformation regarding attitudes toward
the environment.
- Stimulating the interest and concern of religious
leaders as well as students and professors of religion
in seminaries and universities.
- Linking the transformative efforts of the world’s
religions to larger international movements working
toward global ethics for a humane and sustainable
future.
- Joining with those in ecological sciences, public
policy, economics, business, health, education, and
media who wish to reinvent industrial society.
The conferences, then, had several key objectives,
namely to stimulate original research and thinking,
to encourage further educational initiatives, and to
promote outreach in relation to religious institutions
and policy centers with common concerns for environmental
awareness and preservation. One of the primary goals
of these conferences was to link scholars in the academic
study of religion with the people, proposals, and institutions
that are implementing ethical change with regard to
the environmental crisis. More than 1,000 scholars and
activists participated in the series creating an important
network for future cooperative endeavors.
The Center for the Study of World Religions (CSWR) at
Harvard Divinity School was an ideal setting for such
a series of conferences. Dedicated to the study of the
world’s religions in their varied forms, it has
supported the research of both graduate students and
post graduate fellows since its founding in 1959. There
are numerous scholars of religion in North America and
abroad who are beginning to engage this new field of
study, research, and practical outreach. They welcomed
the opportunity to come to Harvard to enter into discussions
of common environmental concerns. Moreover, the implications
of these discussions for religious institutions and
public policy centers are of enormous significance.
Three culminating conferences were held at the conclusion
of the ten-part Harvard series. The first was at the
American Academy of Arts and Science in Cambridge, Massachusetts
from September 17–20, 1998. The second was a press
conference and symposium at the United Nations (UN)
on October 20, 1998 and the third was a conference at
the American Museum of Natural History in New York on
October 21, 1998.
The culminating conferences aimed to create the grounds
for further partnership of religion with other key sectors
working toward implementing sustainable policies and
practices to ensure the well-being of future generations.
Clearly religions have a central role in the formulation
of worldviews that orient us to the natural world and
the articulation of ethics that guide human behavior.
The size and complexity of the problems we face require
collaborative efforts both among the religions and in
dialogue with other key domains of human endeavor.
Religions, thus, need to be in conversation with sectors—science,
economics, education, and public policy—that have
addressed environmental issues. Environmental changes
will be motivated by these disciplines in very specific
ways: namely, economic incentives will be central to
adequate distribution of resources, scientific analysis
will be critical to understanding nature’s economy,
educational awareness will be indispensable to creating
modes of sustainable life, public policy recommendations
will be invaluable in shaping national and international
priorities, and moral and spiritual values will be crucial
for the transformations required for life in an ecological
age.
Thomas Berry has observed that assisting humans by
degrading the natural world cannot lead to a sustainable
community. The only sustainable community is one that
fits the human economy into the ever-renewing economy
of the planet. The human system, in its every aspect,
is a subsystem of the Earth system, whether we are speaking
of economics or physical well-being or rules of law.
In essence, human flourishing and planetary prosperity
are intimately linked.
The culminating conferences, thus, had as one of their
overall objectives, the establishment of common ground
between disciplines for long-term solutions to environmental
problems. Religions come as partners to these discussions,
not as definitive agents of moral authority. To create
a broader context for reformulating effective public
policies on environmental issues it will be helpful
to set in motion three ongoing strategies. The first
strategy is to place disciplines in dialogue with one
another respecting the different approaches and examining
the values embedded in each discipline. The second strategy
is to create the grounds for disciplines to work in
partnership toward common environmental concerns by
recognizing the need for interdisciplinary cooperation
on issues of sustainability. The third strategy is to
form alliances for future collaborative projects that
will mobilize both the ethical transformations and practical
policies needed for reinventing industrial society on
a sustainable basis.
During the culminating conference at Harvard, reports
by specialists in each of the traditions were presented
and subsequently published in Earth Ethics 10,
no. 1. In addition, panel discussions involving selected
participants from the sectors of science, education,
economics, and public policy were held at the culminating
conference. The intention was to set the stage for future
alliances between religion and other disciplines so
as to motivate individuals, communities, and institutions
toward long-range environmental changes. At the culminating
conference at the UN on October 20th an ongoing Forum
on Religion and Ecology (Forum) was announced to pursue
these strategies.
The remarkable interest generated by the three year
series on “Religions of the World and Ecology”
has called for some further thought on how to build
on the concerns and commitments sparked by participants
of these conferences. A strong sense that religions
need to play a role in helping to solve the environmental
crisis has emerged from these conferences. Yet religious
voices need to be thoughtfully nuanced and morally persuasive
so as to be effective in further discussions with both
religious adherents and policymakers. The issues facing
us in this environmental crisis are too pressing and
complex for mere rhetorical appeals or simplistic answers.
Here we suggest some ways to build on the energies and
ideas of the conference series and to bring this emerging
alliance to its next stage, a Forum on Religion and
Ecology. The Forum will focus on three strategic objectives:
To ground a field
of study in religion and ecology within the academic
context.
To publish and
disseminate curricular materials for classroom use and
to make available information that will be useful to
religious communities, seminaries, and other related
institutions.
To foster the religious
voice in policy issues concerning the environment. The
Forum hopes to encourage the intersection of religion
with key sectors such as science, education, economics,
and public policy.
Such a forum will have various component parts which
will serve to integrate this movement on both a theoretical
and practical level over the next several years. The
Forum will function as an umbrella to draw together
key movements, individuals, and institutions working
in this area. Partner organizations include the Harvard University Center for the Environment, the Harvard-Yenching
Institute, the Center for Respect of Life and Environment,
and the Department of Religion at Bucknell University.
The conference proceedings are being published by the
Center for the Study of World Religions. The first four
volumes, Buddhism and Ecology, Confucianism and Ecology,
Christianity and Ecology, and Hinduism and Ecology,
are now available through Harvard University Press.
A synthesizing volume analyzing and highlighting what
has been learned from the series and what ethical resources
from the world’s religions will contribute to sustainable
practices, will also be published.
Because this is such a new field of study and there
are few monographs available, these volumes are critical
publications that begin to define areas for further
research and courses development. Consequently, the
series will be available in both hard back editions
for libraries and scholars as well as paperback editions
for undergraduate and graduate students. We are especially
eager to encourage graduate students by suggesting areas
for further research.
It is our hope that in addition to a scholarly volume
resulting from each of the conferences we may be able
to encourage publications in religious journals or bulletins
intended for a wider audience. For example, the journal,
Worldviews: Environment, Culture, and Religion,
has been an important avenue for publishing articles
on this topic. There are numerous venues for such discussions
in and among particular religious denominations. We
believe the conferences and publications will be of
interest to students and teachers in seminaries as well
as religious leaders and lay persons. For educators,
materials will be developed emphasizing the role of
religion in environmental issues for secondary schools
and college level classes. Summer workshops for teachers
regarding the integration of religion into environmental
education will also be developed.
The project has sparked other initiatives including
conferences on “World Religions and Animals,”
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