RELI 6XX: Religion And The Natural Environment

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Department/Unit: Religious Studies Course Subject/Number: RELI 636

Submitted by: Maria Massi Dakake Ext: 3-1297 Email: [email protected]

Course Title: Religion and the Natural Environment

Effective Term (New/Modified Courses only): Fall 2008 Final Term (deleted courses only):

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Provost Office representative: ______Date: ______JUSTIFICATION FOR NEW COURSE RELI 636 RELIGION AND THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

The question of humanity’s relationship with nature—including its moral responsibility for the ecological soundness of the environment and the religious ethics involved in the human use and misuse of the natural world—has represented one of the major areas of academic inquiry in the field of Religious Studies since the late 1980s. Concern for the environment from the late 20th century onward has opened up an entirely new branch of theological and ethical study. Most work in this area has been done by Western ethicists and Christian theologians, and there is already a substantial, diverse, and self-critical body of literature available on the subject from these perspectives. More recently, other religious traditions have begun to draw upon their own, traditional views of moral responsibility toward nature to address the contemporary and unprecedented environmental issues we face today. The new adaptations of traditional religious thought to contemporary environmental issues by Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, and Confucian religious thinkers bear both critical consideration in themselves and comparative examination with Western and Christian views. Perhaps the most significant aspect of this branch of religious study, however, is the extent to which it lends itself to, and has inspired, inter-religious cooperation and dialogue. Given the global character of environmental issues, religious and ethical thought on the environment has profound implications for promoting understanding between different world religions; and because of the extent to which many people around the world are motivated by religious sentiment, the involvement of religious thinkers with this issue may represent one of the most important fronts on which struggle for greater worldwide environmental responsibility may be advanced.

The increasing importance and prominence of this area of academic inquiry in the field of Religious Studies well justifies the addition of a course on this subject to the university curriculum. The large and differentiated body of scholarly literature on the subject provides the instructor with many innovative and penetrating studies through which to introduce students to this area of religious thought, although some of the most serious and important works on the subject are written for the advanced student of Religious Studies. For this reason, I propose to teach this course at the graduate level, and to add it to the graduate curriculum for students of the MAIS concentration in Religion, Culture, and Values housed in the Religious Studies Department. As one of the primary goals of the RCV concentration is to educate students in the ways in which religion informs, influences, and is influenced by contemporary ethical concerns and social realities, this course is particularly relevant and significant for students in this concentration. COURSE CATALOG DESCRIPTION

636 Religion and the Natural Environment (3:3:0) Explores contemporary religious thought on the morality and ethics of environmental responsibility. Begins with an exploration of this issue in Western Christian thought and examines religious approaches to the environment in the traditional and contemporary thought of other major world religions, including Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and the Chinese traditions. SYLLABUS: (Dr. Maria Massi Dakake)

RELI 636: Religion and the Natural Environment

Course Description: This course will examine a variety of religious perspectives on ecology and the natural environment. It will begin with an examination of the ecological views embedded in the Judeo-Christian creation narrative, in relation to other religious and scientific theories of origin, and then trace the lengthy intellectual history of Western religious attitudes to the natural world, comparing medieval and modern theologies of nature in the Christian tradition. After examining internal and external, theological and scientific, critiques of contemporary Christian ecological perspectives, the course explores views on the ecology and the relationship of human beings to the natural environment from the perspective of other major world religions. The course concludes with an examination of the ways in which religion may both help and hinder contemporary attempts to achieve global sustainability.

Course Objectives: At the end of this course, the student should be familiar with the intellectual perspectives and writings of leading contemporary religious thinkers on the question of the natural environment and the existing environmental crisis, and have an appreciation of the variety of ways in which religion has historically shaped humanity’s perceptions and treatment of the natural world. The student will be conversant with the scriptural and traditional sources of ecological thinking in all of the world’s major religions, and will develop an ability to write and think critically about the role of religion in efforts to develop a shared ethics of environmental responsibility.

Course Procedures: This class meets once a week, and will be conducted in a seminar format. All students will come prepared for sustained discussion of the assigned texts, and will submit a one-page outline of key issues and criticisms they intend to raise during discussion. Each week, one student will be responsible for opening class discussion of the readings, and depending on the number of students in the class, this responsibility will rotate throughout the semester. Given that much of the course work will be done in the seminar itself, attendance is mandatory, and even a single unexcused absence will negatively affect the student’s grade. At the end of the semester, students will submit a 15-20 page research paper on a topic relevant to religion and ecology. In Week 7, class will be devoted to student presentations on their research topic and class feedback.

Evaluation Seminar performance and weekly outlines 40% Class presentations 10% Research Paper 50%

Required Readings Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. Religion and the Order of Nature, Oxford University Press, 1996. Attfield, Robin. The Ethics of Environmental Concern (2nd ed.), University of Georgia Press, 1991. Ruether, Rosemary R. Gaia and God: An Ecofeminist Theology of Earth Healing, Harper San Francisco, 1992. Sorell, Roger. St. Francis of Assisi and Nature: Tradition and Innovation in Western Christian Attitudes toward the Environment. Oxford University Press, 1988. McFague, Sallie. The Body of God. Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 1993. Beisner, E. C. Where Garden Meets Wilderness: Evangelical Entry into the Environmental Debate. Eerdmans, 1997. Sideris, Lisa. Environmental Ethics, Ecological Theology, and Natural Selection. Columbia University Press, 2003. Elder, John and Steven Rockefeller, Spirit and Nature: Why the Environment is a Religious Issue. Beacon, 1992. Tirosh-Samuelson, Hava. Judaism and Ecology: Created World and Revealed Word. Harvard, 2002. Foltz, Denny, Baharuddin (eds.) Islam and Ecology: A Bestowed Trust. Harvard, 2003. Nelson, Lance. Purifying the Earthly Body of God: Religion and Ecology in Hindu India, SUNY Press, 1998. Tucker, Mary Evelyn and John Berthrong, Confucianism and Ecology: The Interrelation of Heaven, Earth and Humans, Harvard, 1998. Coward, Harold and Daniel Maguire, Visions of a New Earth: Religious Perspectives on Population, Consumption and Ecology. SUNY Press, 2000. Course Outline:

Week 1 Introduction: Religious and Moral Dimensions of the Environmental Crisis Nasr, Religion and the Order of Nature, Introduction, 1-2.

Week 2 Sacred Earth/Accursed Earth: Cosmogenesis in Judaism, Christianity and its Antecedents Attfield, Ethics of Environmental Crisis, ch. 1-5. Ruether, Gaia and God, ch. 1-4. Week 3 Medieval Christian and Enlightenment Views of Nature and Natural Law Sorrell, St. Francis of Assisi and Nature. Nasr, ch. 3-5

Week 4-5 Modern Christian approaches: Ecotheology, Ecofeminism, and Evangelical Views McFague, The Body of God. Ruether, ch. 6-10. Beisner, ch. 1-2, 4, 6, Appendices 1-2.

Week 6 Critiques of the Ecotheological Perspective: Scientific, Secular and Religious Sideris, Environmental Ethics, Ecological Theology, and Natural Selection.

Week 7 STUDENT PRESENTATIONS

Week 8-9 Jewish and Islamic Views Elder and Rockefeller, Spirit and Nature, ch. 2, 5. Tirosh-Samuelson, Judaism and Ecology (selections). Foltz, Denny et al, Islam and Ecology (selections).

Week 10-11 South Asian and Chinese Religious Perspectives Nelson, ch. 2-5, 7, 9. Tucker and Berthrong, Confucianism and Ecology (selections) .

Week 12-13 Global Sustainability and the Ethics of Consumption: Religious Perspectives Coward and Maguire, Visions of New Earth. Nelson, ch. 8. Elder and Rockefeller, Spirit and Nature, ch. 4

Week 14 A Unified Religious Approach to the Environment?/Course Conclusions Nasr, ch. 6-8. Elder and Rockefeller, Spirit and Nature, ch. 8-9