BOARD OF EDITORS David Apter, David Baltimore, Daniel Bell, Guido Calabresi, Natalie Z. Davis, Wendy Doniger, Clifford Geertz, Stephen J. Greenblatt, Vartan Gregorian, Stanley Hoffmann, Gerald Holton, Donald Kennedy, Sally F. Moore, W. G. Runciman, Amartya K. Sen, Steven Weinberg PHYLLIS S. BENDELL Managing Editor SARAH M. SHOEMAKER Associate Editor MARK D. W. EDINGTON Consulting Editor SASIMA CHUAPRASERT Circulation and Editorial Office Assistant ANTHONY P. CREMA Circulation and Editorial Office Assistant Cover design by Michael Schubert, Director of Ruder-Finn Design Printed on recycled paper frontmatter fa2001.p65 1 08/29/01, 3:20 PM DÆDALUS JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES Religion and Ecology: Can the Climate Change? Edited by Mary Evelyn Tucker and John A. Grim Fall 2001 Issued as Volume 130, Number 4, of the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences This issue was made possible through the generous support of the Germeshausen Foundation. frontmatter fa2001.p65 2 08/29/01, 3:20 PM Fall 2001, “Religion and Ecology: Can the Climate Change?” Issued as Volume 130, Number 4, of the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. ISBN 0-87724-027-2 © 2001 by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. “Indigenous Americans: Spirituality and Ecos” © 2001 by Jack D. Forbes. Library of Congress Catalog Number 12-30299. Editorial Offices: Dædalus, Norton’s Woods, 136 Irving Street, Cambridge, MA 02138. Telephone: (617) 491-2600; Fax: (617) 576-5088; Email: [email protected] Dædalus (ISSN 0011-5266) is published quarterly by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. U.S. subscription rates: for individuals—$33, one year; $60.50, two years; $82.50, three years; for institutions—$49.50, one year; $82.50, two years; $110, three years. Canadian subscription rates: for individuals—$42, one year; $78.75, two years; $109.50, three years; for institutions—$60, one year; $102, two years; $138.50, three years. All other foreign subscribers must add $7.00 per year to the price of U.S. subscriptions. Replacement copies for damaged or misrouted issues will be sent free of charge up to six months from the date of original publication. Thereafter, back copies are available for the current cover price plus postage and handling. GST number: 14034 3229 RT. All subscription orders, single-copy orders, and change-of- address information must be sent in writing to the Dædalus Business Office, 136 Irving Street, Suite 100, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A. Printed in the United States of America. Printing Office: 2901 Byrdhill Road, Richmond, VA 23228. U.S.A. newsstand distribution by Eastern News Distributors, Inc., 2020 Superior Street, Sandusky, OH 44870 Telephone: 800-221-3148. Periodicals postage paid at Boston, MA, and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to DÆDALUS, 136 Irving Street, Suite 100, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A. frontmatter fa2001.p65 3 08/29/01, 3:20 PM Contents Mary Evelyn Tucker and John A. Grim 1 Introduction: The Emerging Alliance of World Religions and Ecology George Rupp 23 Religion, Modern Secular Culture, and Ecology Michael B. McElroy 31 Perspectives on Environmental Change: A Basis for Action Donald A. Brown 59 The Ethical Dimensions of Global Environmental Issues J. Baird Callicott 77 Multicultural Environmental Ethics World Religions Hava Tirosh-Samuelson 99 Nature in the Sources of Judaism Sallie McFague 125 New House Rules: Christianity, Economics, and Planetary Living S. Nomanul Haq 141 Islam and Ecology: Toward Retrieval and Reconstruction Vasudha Narayanan 179 Water, Wood, and Wisdom: Ecological Perspectives from the Hindu Traditions Christopher Key Chapple 207 The Living Cosmos of Jainism: A Traditional Science Grounded in Environmental Ethics Donald K. Swearer 225 Principles and Poetry, Places and Stories: The Resources of Buddhist Ecology frontmatter fa2001.p65 4 08/29/01, 3:20 PM Through the generosity of the Germeshausen Foundation, we are pleased to offer the entire contents of this special issue on religion and ecology on the Web. Please visit our site at: http://www.amacad.org/publications/daedalus.htm. How to Get Permission to Reprint DÆDALUS Articles If you wish to reprint an article from Dædalus in another publication or to reproduce an article for classroom or other use, please send a written request to: Permissions Manager Dædalus 136 Irving Street Cambridge, MA 02138 Permission can be granted in most cases; charges vary according to use of the copyrighted materials. If you have any questions, call (617) 491–2600 between 9:00 A.M. and 5:00 P.M. Eastern time and ask to speak with our permissions manager. frontmatter fa2001.p65 5 08/29/01, 3:20 PM frontmatter fa2001.p65 6 08/29/01, 3:20 PM Tu Weiming 243 The Ecological Turn in New Confucian Humanism: Implications for China and the World James Miller 265 Envisioning the Daoist Body in the Economy of Cosmic Power Jack D. Forbes 283 Indigenous Americans: Spirituality and Ecos Bill McKibben 301 Where Do We Go from Here? frontmatter fa2001.p65 7 08/29/01, 3:20 PM Emerging Alliance of World Religions and Ecology 1 Mary Evelyn Tucker and John A. Grim Introduction: The Emerging Alliance of World Religions and Ecology HIS ISSUE OF DÆDALUS brings together for the first time diverse perspectives from the world’s religious traditions T regarding attitudes toward nature with reflections from the fields of science, public policy, and ethics. The scholars of religion in this volume identify symbolic, scriptural, and ethical dimensions within particular religions in their relations with the natural world. They examine these dimensions both historically and in response to contemporary environmental problems. Our Dædalus planning conference in October of 1999 fo- cused on climate change as a planetary environmental con- cern.1 As Bill McKibben alerted us more than a decade ago, global warming may well be signaling “the end of nature” as we have come to know it.2 It may prove to be one of our most challenging issues in the century ahead, certainly one that will need the involvement of the world’s religions in addressing its causes and alleviating its symptoms. The State of the World 2000 report cites climate change (along with population) as the critical challenge of the new century. It notes that in solving this problem, “all of society’s institutions—from organized re- ligion to corporations—have a role to play.”3 That religions have a role to play along with other institutions and academic disciplines is also the premise of this issue of Dædalus. The call for the involvement of religion begins with the lead essays by a scientist, a policy expert, and an ethicist. Michael Mary Evelyn Tucker is a professor of religion at Bucknell University. John A. Grim is a professor of religion and chair of the religion department at Bucknell University. 1 Tucker and Grim.p65 1 08/29/01, 3:22 PM 2 Mary Evelyn Tucker and John A. Grim McElroy, chairman of the Harvard University department of earth and planetary sciences, outlines the history of the earth’s evolution, thus providing a comprehensive context for under- standing the current impact of humans on global climate change. As McElroy observes, while the earth’s evolution has occurred over some 4.6 billion years, Homo sapiens sapiens appeared only some 150,000 years ago. Moreover, in the last few hun- dred years of the industrial revolution, humans have radically altered the nature of the planet—warming its climate, depleting its resources, polluting its soil, water, and air. He cites the cultural historian Thomas Berry and his perspective on the evolutionary story of the emergence of life as providing “our primary revelatory experience of the divine.” McElroy ob- serves that to change the global environment irreversibly with- out concern for the consequences to present or future genera- tions creates a fundamental challenge for the moral principles of the world’s religions. Public-policy expert Donald Brown elaborates further on the nature of contemporary climate change and the human impact on this process. He echoes McElroy’s call for the ethical involvement of the world’s religions in mitigating the human causes and planetary effects of climate change. Environmental ethicist J. Baird Callicott proposes a method to bring together the larger scientific story of evolution outlined in McElroy’s essay with the diversity of the world’s religions. He describes this as an “orchestral approach” em- bracing the varied ethical positions of the world’s religions in an emerging global environmental ethics. No definitive attempt is made in this issue to articulate a comprehensive environmental ethics. However, the essays that follow, written by scholars of religion, suggest manifold ways of creatively rethinking human-Earth relations and of activat- ing informed environmental concern from the varied perspec- tives of the world’s religions. The objective here is to present a prismatic view of the potential and actual resources embedded in the world’s religions for supporting sustainable practices toward the environment. An underlying assumption is that most religious traditions have developed attitudes of respect, rever- Tucker and Grim.p65 2 08/29/01, 3:22 PM Emerging Alliance of World Religions and Ecology 3 ence, and care for the natural world that brings forth life in its diverse forms. Furthermore, it is assumed that issues of social justice and environmental integrity need to be intricately linked for creating the conditions for a sustainable future. Several qualifications regarding the various roles of religion should be mentioned at the outset. First, we do not wish to suggest here that any one religious tradition has a privileged ecological perspective. Rather, multiple perspectives may be the most helpful in identifying the contributions of the world’s religions to the flourishing of life for future generations.