DOCSLIB.ORG

(HGI) Environment Initiative Faculty Workshop

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
(HGI) Environment Initiative Faculty Workshop 16-17 A RVA RD L O BA L N ST I T U T E September H G I 2016 EN V I RO N M EN T I N I T I AT I V E FACU LT Y W O RK SH O P 2 HGI Environm ent Init iat ive Facult y Workshop 16-17 Sept em ber 2016 3 The Har var d Global Institute (HGI) was founded by Pr esident Dr ew Faust in October 2015 to suppor t scholar ship and progr ams that w ill deepen Har var d's inter national engagement and promote Univer sity-w ide r esear ch on major global challenges. MESSAGE As par t of the HGI, the Environmental Humanities Initiative (Environment Initiative) ? cur r ently in its seed-gr ant phase ? is dedicated to developing multifaceted inter disciplinar y r esear ch FROM THE progr ams focused on how human communities from earliest times to the pr esent, w ithin and across national bor der s, gr apple w ith ecological challenges. In the spir it of the fir st HGI gr ants, the HGI DIRECTOR Environment Initiative is China-inclusive, not China-exclusive. This w eekend's w orkshop, the fir st of its kind at Har var d, br ings together faculty member s, postdoctor al fellow s, and gr aduate students from 10 Har var d schools ? Har var d Business School, Har var d Divinity School, Faculty of Ar ts and Sciences, Gr aduate School of Design, Har var d Gr aduate School of Education, Har var d John A. Paulson School of Engineer ing and Applied Sciences, Har var d Kennedy School, Har var d Law School, Har var d Medical School, and Har var d T.H. Chan School of Public Health ? as w ell as sever al leading scholar s from outside the univer sity. Par ticipants have been asked to talk br iefly about the kinds of questions they ask, the methodologies they deploy, and the types of mater ials they use in their r esear ch on environmental challenges, as w ell as about the impact of their w ork. The objectives ar e 1) to introduce to one another colleagues w orking on environmental challenges in differ ent fields/Har var d schools, and 2) to help us think together about the kinds of futur e collabor ative w ork across fields, disciplines, and schools ? both in r esear ch and in teaching ? that ar e most needed going for war d and w hich w e should highlight in the Environment Initiative full funding proposal to be submitted to the univer sity in July 2017. The environmental humanities ar e an emerging tr ansdisciplinar y enter pr ise that is becoming a key par t of the liber al ar ts and an indispensable component of the tw enty-fir st centur y univer sity. This field br ings together scholar s from a w ide r ange of disciplines (including but also extending far beyond the humanities), providing a shar ed space in w hich to engage w ith some of the planet's gr eatest environmental challenges. Ultimately, the aim is to promote the cultur al tr ansfor mations necessar y for r educing ecological devastation and anticipating an incr easingly uncer tain and potentially tr aumatic futur e. The European Science Foundation Responses to Environmental and Social Challenges for Our Unstable Ear th (RESCUE) Initiative has proposed a Radically Inter - and Tr ansdisciplinar y Resear ch Environment (RITE) model ? one alr eady used in medicine ? "to ensur e that all r elevant know ledge is har nessed collabor atively from the outset w hen approaching a problem, and no single discipline maintains over all dominance." This is pr ecisely w hat w e ar e endeavor ing to achieve at Har var d. Welcome! Kar en Thor nber Dir ector , Har var d Global Institute Environmental Humanities Initiative Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations and of Compar ative Liter atur e Victor and William Fung Dir ector , Har var d Univer sity Asia Center Chair , Har var d Univer sity Council on Asian Studies 4 HGI Environm ent Init iat ive Facult y Workshop Friday, Sept em ber 16, 2016 FRIDAY 8:00am ? 8:30am ? Br eak fast/Coffee and Regi str ati on (Room S030) 8:30am ? 8:40am ? Intr oductor y Rem ar k s by Kar en Thor nber SCHEDULE (Room S020) Panel 1 ? 8:45am ? 10:15am Mike McElroy Dan Schr ag Emmanuel Akyeampong Xiaoxuan Lu Jennifer Nash Discussant: Peter Per due Panel 2 ? 10:20am ? 11:50am Ned Fr iedman Ian Miller Gillian Osbor ne Kr isten Stilt Chr is Gr een Discussant: Stephanie LeMenager LUNCH ? 11:50am ? 1:00pm (Room S030) Panel 3 ? 1:00pm ? 2:30pm David Chr istiani Joseph Br ain Jeffr ey Schnapp Sophia Roosth Discussant: Ling Zhang 16-17 Sept em ber 2016 5 Panel 4 ? 2:35pm ? 4:05pm Fr ank Clooney Benny Schaffer Amy Zhang Dor is Sommer Mar iano Siskind Discussant: Stephanie LeMenager COFFEE BREAK ? 4:05pm ? 4:20pm Panel 5 ? 4:20pm ? 5:50pm Rema Hanna Cor ey Byr nes James Robson Tina Grotzer Peter Galison Discussant: Sar a Pr itchar d OPEN DISCUSSION (ful l gr oup) ? 6:00pm ? 6:45pm ? faci l i tated by Peter Per due DINNER: 7:00pm ? Har var d Facul ty Cl ub - Nor th Di ni ng Room , 20 Qui ncy Str eet Al l panel s take pl ace on the l ower l evel of the CGIS South Bui l di ng, 1730 Cam br i dge Str eet i n Cam br i dge, i n the Bel fer Case Study Room , S020. Coffee br eak s and l unches take pl ace i n S030, al so on the l ower l evel of the CGIS South Bui l di ng. 6 HGI Environm ent Init iat ive Facult y Workshop Sat urday, Sept em ber 17, 2016 SATURDAY 8:30am ? 9:00am ? Br eak fast/Coffee (Room S030) SCHEDULE Panel 6 ? 9:00am ? 10:30am Sunil Amr ith Melissa Ragain Laur a Jane Mar tin Mark Wu Richar d Lazar us Discussant: Sar a Pr itchar d Panel 7 ? 10:35am ? 12:15pm Iza Ding Joyce Chaplin Julia Tanner Munjed Mur ad Dan McKanan Discussant: Aaron Sachs LUNCH ? 12:15pm ? 1:00pm (Room S030) Panel 8 ? 1:00pm ? 2:30pm Aaron Allen Ver ena Conley Pier r e Bélanger Eli Nelson Discussant: Aaron Sachs WRAP-UP DISCUSSION (ful l gr oup) ? 2:30pm ? 3:15pm ? faci l i tated by Ed Russel l , Kar en Thor nber , and Li ng Zhang 16-17 Sept em ber 2016 7 CGIS South Bui l di ng Har var d Facul ty Cl ub DIRECTIONS/ 1730 Cambr idge Str eet 20 Quincy Str eet Cambr idge, MA 02138 Cambr idge, MA 02138 MAPS For dinner on Fr iday, September 16, 2016, the walk from the CGIS South Building to the Har var d Faculty Club takes approximately 4 minutes. 8 HGI Environm ent Init iat ive Facult y Workshop PEOPLE In alphabeti cal or der by fi r st nam es: Aaron Allen Kar en Thor nber Aaron Sachs Kr isten Stilt Amy Zhang Laur a Jane Mar tin Benny Schaffer Ling Zhang Chr is Gr een Mar iano Siskind Cor ey Byr nes Mark Wu Dan McKanan Melissa Ragain Dan Schr ag Mike McElroy David Chr istiani Munjed Mur ad Dor is Sommer Ned Fr iedman Ed Russell Peter Galison Eli Nelson Peter Per due Emmanuel Akyeampong Pier r e Bélanger Fr ank Clooney Rema Hanna Gillian Osbor ne Richar d Lazar us Ian Miller Sar a Pr itchar d Iza Ding Sophia Roosth James Robson Stephanie LeMenager Jeffr ey Schnapp Sunil Amr ith Jennifer Nash Tina Grotzer Joseph Br ain Ver ena Conley Joyce Chaplin Xiaoxuan Lu Julia Tanner 16-17 Sept em ber 2016 9 Aar on Al l en Aaron S. Allen is Dir ector of the Environmental and Sustainability Studies Progr am and Associate Professor of Music at the Univer sity of Nor th Carolina at Gr eensboro (UNCG). Allen ser ved as UNCG?s fir st Academic Sustainability Coor dinator , helped establish the Sustainability Faculty Fellow s Progr am, and continues to ser ve on the executive committee of the UNCG Sustainability Council and on the UNCG Gr een Fund. He co-edited Current Directions in Ecomusicology (w ith Kevin Daw e, 2016) and is w orking on a book tentatively titled ?Fidelio in Italy: Beethoven Reception, Histor iogr aphy, and the Cr isis of 19th-Centur y Oper a.? Aar on Sachs Aaron Sachs is Professor of Histor y and Amer ican Studies at Cor nell Univer sity, w her e he founded the Cor nell Roundtable on Environmental Studies Topics in 2010. He is also a Faculty Fellow at Cor nell's Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Futur e. Sachs is the author of The Humboldt Current: Nineteenth-Century Exploration and the Roots of American Environmentalism (2006) and Arcadian America: The Death and Life of an Environmental Tradition (2013). Am y Zhang Amy Zhang is the 2016-2017 An Wang Postdoctor al Fellow at Har var d's Fair bank Center for Chinese Studies. She is a cultur al and environmental anthropologist focusing on the ecological, political, and social processes of city making in China. Her book project examines the waste management cr isis in Guangzhou and tr aces how the mater ial pr actices of infor mal collector s, as w ell as the grow ing contentions by citizens and environmentalists, challenge the state's vision of development, moder nization, and planned cities.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Beyond Stewardship: Toward an Agapeic Environmental Ethic
    Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette Dissertations, Theses, and Professional Dissertations (1934 -) Projects Beyond Stewardship: Toward an Agapeic Environmental Ethic Christopher J. Vena Marquette University Follow this and additional works at: https://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations_mu Part of the Ethics in Religion Commons, Philosophy Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Vena, Christopher J., "Beyond Stewardship: Toward an Agapeic Environmental Ethic" (2009). Dissertations (1934 -). 16. https://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations_mu/16 BEYOND STEWARDSHIP: TOWARD AN AGAPEIC ENVIRONMENTAL ETHIC by Christopher J. Vena, B.A., M.A. A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School, Marquette University, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Milwaukee, Wisconsin December 2009 ABSTRACT BEYOND STEWARDSHIP: TOWARD AN AGAPEIC ENVIRONMENTAL ETHIC Christopher J. Vena, B.A., M.A. Marquette University, 2009 One of the unfortunate implications of industrialization and the rapid expansion of global commerce is the magnification of the impact that humans have on their environment. Exponential population growth, along with growing technological capabilities, has allowed human societies to alter their terrain in unprecedented and destructive ways. The cumulative effect has been significant to the point that the blame for widespread environmental degradation must be pinned squarely on human shoulders. Because of our dependence on these systems for survival, the threat to the environment is a threat to human life. The root of the ecological crisis is found in human attitudes and behaviors. In the late 1960’s it was suggested that Christianity was a key source of the problem because it promoted the idea of human “dominion” over creation.
    [Show full text]
  • The Context of Eco-Theology
    CHAPTER 29 The Context of Eco-theology Laurel Icearns The phrase "I'm a tree-hugging Jesus freak," a self-description uttered recently by a Pentecostal environmentalist, demonstrates the complexity of contemporary eco- theology and religious ecological activism. For the past two decades or more, the com- bination of these two identities seemed unthinkable, for Christians were still struggling to articulate a response, much less a response that would appeal to Pentecostals, usually viewed as un-ecological. This chapter examines many of the historical and more contemporary contexts that shape what is now a rich eco-theological conversation. Although the chapter tries to give a broad international sense of the movement, it draws heavily upon the US context where a diverse and multi-faceted conversation about eco-theology has been going on for over three decades. Furthermore, while there are now ecological voices within all the major religious traditions, this chapter will primarily focus on Christianity as the context of eco-theology. While there are many historical precedents that one could acknowledge leading into the contemporary environmental movement, such as Aldo Leopold's Sand Country Almanac (1949),most scholars agree it began in the 1960s, marked by a variety of pub- lications that brought attention to the issues at hand. In fact, many historians of the movement date the birth of the modern environmental movement to Rachel Carson's 1962 paradigm-changing book Silent Spring, which detailed the damage wrought by pesticides throughout the ecological web. Garrett Hardin's "Tragedy of the Commons" (1968),a doomsday scenario about population growth, was published toward the end of the decade.
    [Show full text]
  • I a NEW ANTHROPOLOGY for ECOTHEOLOGY: RETHINKING
    A NEW ANTHROPOLOGY FOR ECOTHEOLOGY: RETHINKING THE HUMAN IN THE WORLD WITH MERLEAU-PONTY’S PHENOMENOLOGY OF FLESH By Dorothy Chappell Dean Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Religion May 11, 2018 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: Ellen T. Armour, Ph.D. Paul J. Dehart, Ph.D. Kelly Oliver, Ph.D. Laurel C. Schneider, Ph.D. i To the memory of my mother, whose accomplishments inspired me to persevere, and to Jarod, the best partner anyone could ask for. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Vanderbilt University’s GDR, the dedicated theology faculty, and my committee, for making this dissertation possible. An especially big thank you to my advisor, Ellen, for providing an open-minded sounding board for my ideas, and for your patient and detailed constructive criticism over the life of this project. You have made me a better writer and theologian. Thank you to my students at Antioch College; our classroom discussions illuminated new aspects of texts that I thought I already knew, and enriched this dissertation. I am grateful to the Religion and Ecology Unit of the AAR; being able to present elements of this research there aided me immensely in articulating my perspective. This project would not exist were it not for Kelly Oliver’s seminar Continental Philosophy and Animals, which introduced me to Merleau-Ponty and Toadvine. Thank you to my friend and colleague Ryan Brand, who encouraged me to enroll in Kelly’s class in the first place, and whose enthusiasm for animals and philosophy empowered me to embrace my secret passion for ecotheology.
    [Show full text]
  • Christocentric Ecotheology and Climate Change
    Open Journal of Philosophy 2013. Vol.3, No.1A, 126-130 Published Online February 2013 in SciRes (http://www.scirp.org/journal/ojpp) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ojpp.2013.31A021 Christocentric Ecotheology and Climate Change Ezichi A. Ituma Department of Religion and Cultural Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria Email: [email protected] Received September 15th, 2012; revised October 13th, 2012; accepted October 30th, 2012 Christocentric ecotheology is a concept that examines ecological phenomena from Christian theological perspective. This research was therefore required to examine the theological implications of climate change with the aim of bridging the gaps between theological and scientific interpretation of the events. Comparative phenomenological methodology was adopted in view of the fact that theological interpreta- tions of events needed to be compared with scientific ideas so as to ascertain the meeting point. The re- search noted that the areas of variance between theological beliefs and climate change are as a result of wrong interpretation of theological events. Keywords: Ecotheology; Climate; Greenhouse; Christocentric Introduction standpoint of one who wants to extricate God from all intellec- tual dispositions. Santmire (2000) has identified two most for- Christocentric ecotheology is a religious concept that ad- midable schools of thought in ecotheology as reconstructionist dresses ecological problems from Christian religious approach. and apologists, each towing lines of endless arguments why a According to Unitingearthweb (2008), “Ecotheology is a form new course of biblical interpretation must be extricated from of constructive theology that focuses on the interrelationships the traditional hermeneutics. The reconstructionists, identified of religion and nature, particularly in the light of environmental with McFague, hold that the cosmos is the body of God, there- concerns.
    [Show full text]
  • Ecotheology 10.2 (2005) 254-272] Ecotheology (Print) ISSN 1363-7320 Ecotheology (Online) ISSN 1743-1689
    [Ecotheology 10.2 (2005) 254-272] Ecotheology (print) ISSN 1363-7320 Ecotheology (online) ISSN 1743-1689 Book Reviews Marius de Geus, Ecological Utopias: Envisioning the Sustainable Society (Utrecht: Inter- national Books, 1999). Paperback £12.50, ISBN 9-0572-7019-6. The background to de Geus’s book is neatly summarized in his opening quotation from Andrew Dobson: ‘…the utopian vision provides the indispensable funda- mentalist well of inspiration from which green activists, even the most reformist and respectable, need continually to draw’. As a project, Marius de Geus’s attempt to explore the legacy of the utopian vision is to be applauded. In its execution however, it reveals some fundamental shortcomings, which raise further issues about the nature of the relationship between green politics and the utopia tradition. The first issue concerns definition of just what constitutes a utopia. Unfortunately, de Geus simply defines the utopian tradition in such a broad fashion as to be able to include any ‘detailed model of a society without the shortcomings and disadvantages of the current political system’ (p. 19). He qualifies this by suggesting that utopias have ‘a ficticious character’ and ‘at least in words, contain the ‘blueprints’ for a completely new state’ (p. 19). This breadth enables him to include the writings of both Peter Kropotkin and Murray Bookchin, both anarchist theorists, but neither of whom wrote conventional utopias, more conventionally defined (in the British tradition at least) as being narrative fictions depicting the good society (Kumar 1991). He proceeds further to make a characterization of the utopian tradition as separable between ‘ “ecological utopias” or “utopias of sufficiency…and “technological utopias” or “utopias of abundance”… The basic difference between these lies in the notion of whether an ideal society should enjoy material abundance and luxury or be based on satisfaction and sufficiency’ (p.
    [Show full text]
  • An Earthly Cosmology
    Forum on Religion and Ecology Indigenous Traditions and Ecology Annotated Bibliography Abram, David. Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology. New York and Canada: Vintage Books, 2011. As the climate veers toward catastrophe, the innumerable losses cascading through the biosphere make vividly evident the need for a metamorphosis in our relation to the living land. For too long we’ve ignored the wild intelligence of our bodies, taking our primary truths from technologies that hold the living world at a distance. Abram’s writing subverts this distance, drawing readers ever closer to their animal senses in order to explore, from within, the elemental kinship between the human body and the breathing Earth. The shape-shifting of ravens, the erotic nature of gravity, the eloquence of thunder, the pleasures of being edible: all have their place in this book. --------. The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-Human World. New York: Vintage, 1997. Abram argues that “we are human only in contact, and conviviality, with what is not human” (p. ix). He supports this premise with empirical information, sensorial experience, philosophical reflection, and the theoretical discipline of phenomenology and draws on Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy of perception as reciprocal exchange in order to illuminate the sensuous nature of language. Additionally, he explores how Western civilization has lost this perception and provides examples of cultures in which the “landscape of language” has not been forgotten. The environmental crisis is central to Abram’s purpose and despite his critique of the consequences of a written culture, he maintains the importance of literacy and encourages the release of its true potency.
    [Show full text]
  • Appeals to the Bible in Ecotheology and Environmental Ethics: a Typology of Hermeneutical Stances
    ORE Open Research Exeter TITLE Appeals to the Bible in ecotheology and environmental ethics: a typology of hermeneutical stances AUTHORS Horrell, David G.; Hunt, Cherryl; Southgate, Christopher JOURNAL Studies in Christian Ethics DEPOSITED IN ORE 19 August 2008 This version available at http://hdl.handle.net/10036/35893 COPYRIGHT AND REUSE Open Research Exeter makes this work available in accordance with publisher policies. A NOTE ON VERSIONS The version presented here may differ from the published version. If citing, you are advised to consult the published version for pagination, volume/issue and date of publication APPEALS TO THE BIBLE IN ECOTHEOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS : ∗ A TYPOLOGY OF HERMENEUTICAL STANCES David G. Horrell, Cherryl Hunt, Christopher Southgate Dept of Theology, University of Exeter, Amory Building, Rennes Drive, Exeter, EX4 4RJ, UK Abstract This article surveys and classifies the kinds of appeal to the Bible made in recent theological discussions of ecology and environmental ethics. These are, first, readings of ‘recovery’, followed by two types of readings of ‘resistance’. The first of these modes of resistance entails the exercise of suspicion against the text, a willingness to resist it given a commitment to a particular (ethical) reading perspective. The second, by contrast, entails a resistance to the contemporary ethical agenda, given a perceived commitment to the Bible. This initial typology, and the various reading strategies surveyed, are then subjected to criticism, as part of an attempt to begin to develop an ecological hermeneutic, a hermeneutic which operates between recovery and resistance with an approach that may be labelled ‘revision’, ‘reformation’, or ‘reconfiguration’.
    [Show full text]
  • Will Non-Humans Be Saved ? an Argument on Ecotheology
    Will non-humans be saved? An argument in ecotheologyjrai_1568* 459..475 B L Sciences Po The growing interest in ecology has had the unexpected effect of granting new relevance to a theology interested not so much in the salvation of humans as in the salvation of the whole creation – non-humans included. Since science studies has for many years probed several alternatives to the modernist divide between subject and object, it is interesting to combine the tools of science studies and theology to elicit a new contrast between nature and creation. Using tools from an anthropological inquiry of the moderns, the article draws a different connection between religion and science that bypasses the notion of nature. Does it not happen that, when you now admit the salvation of only the soul you ascribe it to men at the cost of half their nature? What is the good of believing in the resurrection, unless your faith embrace the whole of it? Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh, chap. LVII Since I have been known for some years, rather infamously, for showing too much interest in non-humans, for having given them pride of place in social theory, for having even pretended that they should sit in a ‘parliament of things’, instead of retreating to safer humanist grounds, I have decided to seize the occasion and the honour bestowed on me by the Henry Myers Lecture on religion to push the argument even further, by asking the following improbable question: will non-humans benefit, like humans, from the promise of salvation? In other words, will non-humans be resurrected too? Odd as it might sound, this question has suddenly become very contemporary because of the increasing intensity of the ecological crisis and the devel- opment of what is called ‘ecotheology’ – a strange field I want to probe in this article.
    [Show full text]
  • What Is the Competence of Theology in Environmental Discourse?
    Ecotheology - What is the competence of theology in environmental discourse? Book presentation "Christian Environmental Ethics" on 15.4.2021 by Markus Vogt, LMU. I present some theological aspects of the book "Christian Environmental Ethics"1 in the form of five theses for discussion. The aim is to use a language that is accessible from both religious and secular perspectives and that brings both into conversation with each other. 1. Ecotheology is the often too superficially understood core competence of the churches in the environmental discourse. The ecological crisis has an eminently religious dimension. It is productive of religion: it generates a new form of questioning what sustains our existence, gives it future and meaning. What deeply concerns people today is not - as in the 16th century, for example - the salvation anxiety "How can I get a merciful God?" but the question of what justifies our actions before future generations. What enables us individually and collectively to effectively confront the ecosocial burnout of our civilization? This question is a crucial starting point today for the search for what matters, what counts, and thus also for new perspectives on the question of God. In other words, the environmental crisis in the Anthropocene is a "sign of the times" that can and must prove whether theology has something to say for our present and whether it is able to convey hope. A theology of the signs of the times assumes that it is God himself who speaks to us through the departures and upheavals of the present time and demands a response. Ecological transformation is a locus theologicus, a place of God's speech today, where the "presence of mind" of theology and the church is decided.
    [Show full text]
  • Ecotheology: an Opportunity for Transformed Evangelical Environmental Vision Annalise Chesen
    Ecotheology: An Opportunity for Transformed Evangelical Environmental Vision Annalise Chesen Evangelical Christians have been criticized for embracing theologies that may promote a lack of environmental responsibility. I would like to make a case for a re-ordered imagination of evangelical ethic and engagement with the earth that expands to a recognition of the intimate link between justice, environmentalism, and the ministry of reconciliation given by Christ. Environmental engagement is an integral aspect of the Christian pursuit of justice because individual choices deeply afect others and matter to God as an opportunity to practice reconciliation. On September 21, 2019, an estimated four million people destruction caused by evangelical attitudes is a danger to participated in a global climate strike demanding policy Christian witness and a shallow response to God’s call for change from legislators worldwide. Te environmentalism renewed relationships with each other and with the earth. tide is turning in many ways, with scores of individuals tak- I would like to make a case for a re-ordered imagination of ing action to live more sustainably and nation-states begin- evangelical ethic and engagement with the earth that ex- ning to change environmental policies. Te United Nations pands to a recognition of the intimate link between justice, Development Programme (UNDP) and UN Climate Change environmentalism, and the ministry of reconciliation given have been working since 2014 to assist in creating national by Christ. climate action plans. Te UN Development Programme Te state of the planet is reaching new lows. Current Global Outlook Report of 2019, states that “overall this environmental issues range from pollution, wildfres, report fnds many reasons for optimism, but much work droughts, fooding, hurricanes, rising sea-levels, melting remains.
    [Show full text]
  • Holy Ground: Protestant Ecotheology, Catholic Social Teaching and a New Vision of Creation As the Landed Sacred
    Holy Ground: Protestant Ecotheology, Catholic Social Teaching and a New Vision of Creation as the Landed Sacred Mark I. Wallace Introduction Christianity has long been a religion that endows the natural world with sacred meaning. Everyday, material existence—food and drink, life and death, humans and animals, earth and sky—is recalled in countless rituals and stories as the primary medium through which God relates to humankind and the wider earth community. Christiani- ty’s central ritual is a group meal that remembers the saving death of Jesus by celebrating the good gifts of creation—eating bread and drink- ing wine. Its central symbol is a cross made out of wood—two pieces of lumber lashed together as the means and site of Jesus’ crucifixion. Its central belief focuses on the body—namely, that God became flesh in Jesus and thereby becomes one of us, a mortal, breathing life-form who experiences the joy and suffering of life on earth. And Christianity’s primary sacred document, the Bible, is suffused with rich, ecological imagery that stretches from the Cosmic Potter in Genesis who fashions Adam from the dust of the ground to the tree of life in Revelation that yields its fruit to all of earth’s inhabitants. Christianity, then, is a “deep green” or “earthen” religion because it binds God to the created order and thereby values the natural world as a holy place. In this essay I take up the question of Christianity’s earthen identity by way of a nature-based retrieval of the Holy Spirit as the green face of God in the world.
    [Show full text]
  • Ecotheology and the Spirit
    Ecotheology and the Spirit People, Animals, and Earth Instructor: Jay McDaniel Meeting Time: 9:00 – 12:00 pm Office Hours: By appointment, glad to visit. This course introduces you to an intellectual, practical, and spiritual movement found throughout the world called Ecotheology. I like to think of Ecotheology as How Jane Goodall looks at the world. It emphasizes living with respect and care for the community of life, attentive to the needs of people, animals, and the earth; and finding spiritual resonance in the more than human world: hills and rivers, trees and stars. The overall nature of the movement is described in an essay I have written which you can find in PDF form at the bottom of this webpage: What is Ecotheology? It’s how Jane Goodall looks at the World. The various subjects listed below – Five Foundations for a New Civilization, Our Kin the Animals, Wisdom from Buddhism, The Vision of Pope Francis, The Vision of John Cobb, The Vision of Thomas Berry -- form the learning goals of this course. By the time you complete the course, you will be able to present and discuss these subjects with friends, family members, teachers, colleagues, and workers. You will also be able to integrate them into your life calling, whatever it happens to be. You do not need to be religious to enjoy this course. But it probably helps if you have a sense of beauty. Assignments prior to class Please have read my “Ecotheology and the World’s Religions” prior to class. Please have perused: Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home (Encyclical Letter, 2015) Assignments during our week in class Day One: Introduction to Ecotheology Primary Online Reading (required reading prior to class time): 1, 2, 3, 4 Laudato Si: Chapters One and Two 1.
    [Show full text]