Spiritual ecology
Spiritual ecology is an emerging field in religion, conservation, and academia that proposes that there is a
Introduction
Contributors in the field of spiritual ecology contend there are spiritual elements at the root of environmental issues.[1] Those working in the arena of spiritual ecology further suggest that there is a critical need to recognize and address the spiritual dynamics at the root of environmental degradation.[2]
The field is largely emerging through three individual streams of formal study and activity: science and academia, religion and spirituality, and ecological sustainability.[3]
Despite the disparate arenas of study and practice, the principles of spiritual ecology are simple: In order to resolve such environmental issues as depletion of species, global warming, and over-consumption, humanity must examine and reassess our underlying attitudes and beliefs about the earth, and our spiritual responsibilities toward the planet.[4] U.S. advisor on climate change, James Gustave Speth, said:
I used to think that top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and climate change. I thought that thirty years of good science could address these problems. I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy, and to deal with these we need a cultural and spiritual transformation.[5]
Thus, it is argued, ecological renewal and sustainability necessarily depends upon spiritual awareness and an attitude of responsibility. Spiritual ecologists concur that this includes both the recognition of creation as
Recent written and spoken contributions of Pope Francis, particularly his May 2015 Encyclical, Laudato si', as well as unprecedented involvement of faith leaders at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris[6] reflect a growing popularity of this emerging view. The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, stated on December 4, 2015, that
Faith communities are vital for global efforts to address the climate challenge. They remind us of the moral dimensions of climate change, and of our obligation to care for both the Earth's fragile environment and our neighbours in need.[6]
History
Spiritual ecologists have identified the
During the modern age,
Some in spiritual ecology argue that a pervasive patriarchal world-view, and a
Spiritual ecology is a response to the values and socio-political structures of recent centuries with their trajectory away from intimacy with the earth and its sacred essence. It has been forming and developing as an intellectual and practice-oriented discipline for nearly a century.[9]
Spiritual ecology includes a vast array of people and practices that intertwine spiritual and environmental experience and understanding. Additionally, within the tradition itself resides a deep, developing spiritual vision of a collective human/earth/divine evolution that is expanding consciousness beyond the dualities of human/earth, heaven/earth, mind/body. This belongs to the contemporary movement that recognizes the unity and interrelationship, or "interbeing", the interconnectedness of all of creation.
Spiritual visionaries carrying this thread include Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925) who founded the spiritual movement of anthroposophy, and described a "co-evolution of spirituality and nature"[10] and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955), a French Jesuit and paleontologist who spoke of a transition in collective awareness toward a consciousness of the divinity within every particle of life, even the most dense mineral. This shift includes the necessary dissolution of divisions between fields of study as mentioned above. "Science, philosophy and religion are bound to converge as they draw nearer to the whole", said Teilhard.[11]
Leaders in the
An important element in the work of these contemporary teachers is the call for humanity's full acceptance of responsibility for what we have done – physically and spiritually – to the earth. Only through accepting responsibility will healing and transformation occur.[15][16][17]
Including the need for a spiritual response to the environmental crisis,
... by continuing to deny ourselves this profound, ancient, intimate relationship with Nature, I fear we are compounding our subconscious sense of alienation and disintegration, which is mirrored in the fragmentation and disruption of harmony we are bringing about in the world around us. At the moment we are disrupting the teeming diversity of life and the 'ecosystems' that sustain it—the forests and prairies, the woodland, moorland and fens, the oceans, rivers and streams. And this all adds up to the degree of 'disease' we are causing to the intricate balance that regulates the planet's climate, on which we so intimately depend.[20]
In May 2015 Pope Francis's Encyclical, "
Scientist, environmentalist, and a leader in sustainable ecology David Suzuki also expresses the importance of including the sacred in addressing the ecological crisis:
The way we see the world shapes the way we treat it. If a mountain is a deity, not a pile of ore; if a river is one of the veins of the land, not potential irrigation water; if a forest is a sacred grove, not timber; if other species are biological kin, not resources; or if the planet is our mother, not an opportunity—then we will treat each other with greater respect. Thus is the challenge, to look at the world from a different perspective.[23]
A Catholic nun interviewed by Sarah MacFarland Taylor, author of the 2009 book, Green Sisters: Spiritual Ecology, articulates this perspective of unity: "There is no division between planting new fields and prayer."[24]
Indigenous wisdom
Many in the field of spiritual ecology agree that a distinct stream of experience threading throughout history that has at its heart a lived understanding of the principles, values and attitudes of spiritual ecology: indigenous wisdom. The term "indigenous" in this context refers to that which is native, original, and resident to a place, more specifically to societies who share and preserve ways of knowing the world in relationship to the land.[25] For many Native traditions, the earth is the central spiritual context.[26] This principle condition reflects an attitude and way of being in the world that is rooted in land and embedded in place.[27] Spiritual ecology directs us to look to revered holders of these traditions in order to understand the source of our current ecological and spiritual crisis and find guidance to move into a state of balance.
Features of many indigenous teachings include life as a continual act of prayer and thanksgiving, knowledge and symbiotic relationship with an animate nature, and being aware of one's actions on future generations. Such understanding necessarily implies a mutuality and reciprocity between people, earth and the cosmos.
The above historical trajectory is located predominantly in a Judeo-Christian European context, for it is within this context that humanity experienced the loss of the sacred nature of creation, with its devastating consequences. For example, with
Along with the basic principles and behaviors advocated by spiritual ecology, some indigenous traditions hold the same evolutionary view articulated by the Western spiritual teachers listed above. The understanding of humanity evolving toward a state of unity and harmony with the earth after a period of discord and suffering is described in a number of prophecies around the globe. These include the White Buffalo prophecy of the Plains Indians, the prophecy of the Eagle and Condor from the people of the Andes, and the Onondaga prophecies held and retold by Oren Lyons.[38][39][40]
Current trends
Spiritual ecology is developing largely in three arenas identified above: science and academia, religion and spirituality, and environmental conservation.
Science and academia
Among scholars contributing to spiritual ecology, five stand out: Steven Clark Rockefeller, Mary Evelyn Tucker, John Grim, Bron Taylor and Roger S. Gottlieb.[41]
Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim are the co-ordinators of the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology,[42] an international multi-religious project exploring religious world-views, texts ethics and practices in order to broaden understanding of the complex nature of current environmental concerns.
Steven C. Rockefeller is an author of numerous books about religion and the environment, and is professor emeritus of religion at Middlebury College. He played a leading role in the drafting of the Earth Charter.[43]
Roger S. Gottlieb[44] is a professor of Philosophy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute is author of over 100 articles and 16 books on environmentalism, religious life, contemporary spirituality, political philosophy, ethics, feminism, and the Holocaust.
Bron Taylor at the University of Florida coined the term "Dark Green Religion" to describe a set of beliefs and practices centered on the conviction that nature is sacred.[45]
Other leaders in the field include: Leslie E. Sponsel at the University of Hawaiʻi,[46] Sarah McFarland Taylor at Northwestern University,[47] Mitchell Thomashow at Antioch University New England and the Schumacher College Programs.[48]
Within the field of science, spiritual ecology is emerging in arenas including physics, biology (e.g.
Another example is scientist and author Diana Beresford-Kroeger, world recognized expert on how trees chemically affect the environment, who brings together the fields of ethnobotany, horticulture, ecology, and spirituality in relation to the current ecological crisis and stewardship of the natural world. She says, "... the world, the gift of this world is fantastic and phenomenal. The molecular working of the world is extraordinary, the mathematics of the world is extraordinary ... sacred and science go together."[49][50]
Religion and ecology
Within many faiths, environmentalism is becoming an area of study and advocacy.[51] Pope Francis's May 2015 encyclical, Laudato si', offered a strong confirmation of spiritual ecology and its principles from within the Catholic Church. Additionally, over 150 leaders from various faiths signed a letter to the UN Climate Summit in Paris 2015 recognizing the earth as "a gift" from God and calling for climate action.[52]
Christian environmentalists emphasize the ecological responsibilities of all Christians as stewards of God's earth, while contemporary Muslim religious ecology is inspired by Qur'anic themes, such as mankind being khalifa, or trustee of God on earth (2:30). There is also a Jewish ecological perspective based upon the Bible and Torah, for example the laws of bal tashchit (neither to destroy wantonly, nor waste resources unnecessarily). Engaged Buddhism applies Buddhist principles and teachings to social and environmental issues. A collection of Buddhist responses to global warming can be seen at Ecological Buddhism.[53]
In addition to
These religious approaches to ecology also have a growing interfaith expression, for example in the Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development where world religious leaders speak out on
Earth-based traditions and earth spirituality
Care for and respect to earth as sacred—as Mother Earth (Mother Nature)—who provides life and nourishment, is one form of Earth-based spirituality. PaGaian Cosmology is a tradition within such Earth-based spirituality. Glenys Livingstone describes it in her book as
an ecospirituality grounded in indigenous Western religious celebration of the Earth-Sun annual cycle. By linking to story of the unfolding universe this practice can be deepened. And a sense of the Triple Goddess—central to the cycle and known in ancient cultures—may be developed as a dynamic innate to all being. The ritual scripts and the process of ritual events presented here, may be a journey into self-knowledge through personal, communal and ecological story: the self to be known is one that is integral with place.[64][non-primary source needed]
Spirituality and ecology
While religiously-oriented environmentalism is grounded in scripture and theology, there is a movement that articulates the need for an ecological approach founded on spiritual
The Engaged Buddhist teacher
Cultural ecologist and geophilosopher David Abram, who coined the phrase "the more-than-human world" (in order to describe nature as a realm that thoroughly includes humankind with all our culture yet also necessarily exceeds human creativity and culture) aims the careful language of his writing and speaking toward a reenchantment of matter. He was the first philosopher to call for an attentive reappraisal of "animism" as a uniquely ecological way of perceiving, speaking, and thinking;[69] his writings are now associated with a broad movement, among both academics and environmental activists, often termed the "new animism" [70]
Environmental conservation
The environmental conservation field has been informed, shaped, and led by individuals who have reported profound experiences of nature's sacredness and have fought to protect it.
Robin Wall Kimmerer, Professor of Environmental and Forest Biology at the State University of New York, has founded the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment[71] which bridges scientific based study of ecology and the environment with traditional ecological knowledge, which includes spirituality. As she wrote in BioScience:
Traditional ecological knowledge is increasingly being sought by academics, agency scientists, and policymakers as a potential source of ideas for emerging models of ecosystem management, conservation biology, and ecological restoration. It has been recognized as complementary and equivalent to scientific knowledge... Traditional ecological knowledge is not unique to Native American culture but exists all over the world, independent of ethnicity. It is born of long intimacy and attentiveness to a homeland and can arise wherever people are materially and spiritually integrated with their landscape.[72]
The World Wide Fund for Nature has developed "Sacred Earth: Faiths for Conservation", a program to collaborate with spiritual leaders and faith communities from all different spiritual traditions around the world, to face environmental issues including deforestation, pollution, unsustainable extraction, melting glaciers and rising sea levels.[73] The Sacred Earth program works with faith-based leaders and communities, who "best articulate ethical and spiritual ideals around the sacred value of Earth and its diversity, and are committed to protecting it".[73]
One of the conservation projects developed from the WWF Sacred Earth program is Khoryug,[74] based in the Eastern Himalayas, which is an association of several Tibetan Buddhist monasteries that works on environmental protection of the Himalayan region through apply the values of compassion and interdependence towards the Earth and all living beings that dwell here. Organized under the auspices of the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, the Khoryug project resulted in the publication of environmental guidelines for Buddhists and "more than 55 monastery-led projects to address forest degradation, water loss, wildlife trade, waste, pollution and climate change".[75]
Women have shown a unique commitment and capacity to protect the earth's resources, as illustrated by the lives of
Other contemporary inter-disciplinary environmentalists include Wendell Berry, a farmer, poet, and academic living in Kentucky, who fights for small farms and criticizes agri-business; and Satish Kumar, a former Jain monk and founder of Schumacher College, a center for ecological studies.
Opposing views
Although the May 2015 Encyclical from Pope Francis brought the importance of the subject spiritual ecology to the fore of mainstream contemporary culture, it is a point of view that is not widely used in the work of mainstream environmentalists and ecologists. Academic research on the subject has also generated some criticism.[76][77][further explanation needed]
Ken Wilber has criticized spiritual ecology, suggesting that "spiritually oriented deep ecologists" fail to acknowledge the transcendent aspect of the divine, or hierarchical cosmologies, and thus exclude an important aspect of spirituality, as well as presenting what Wilber calls a one-dimensional "flat land" ontology in which the sacred in nature is wholly immanent. But Wilber's views are also criticized as not including an in-depth understanding of indigenous spirituality.[78]
See also
- Cultural ecology
- Deep ecology
- Ecopsychology
- Ecospirituality
- Religion and environmentalism
- Resacralization of nature
- Ecofeminism
- Animism
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- ^ a b Vidal, John. "Religious leaders step up pressure for action on climate change", The Guardian, December 4, 2015.
- ^ a b Mary Evelyn Tucker, "Complete Interview", Global Oneness Project video. See also: Worldviews & Ecology: Religion, Philosophy, and the Environment, Mary Evelyn Tucker and John A. Grim (eds.), and the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology.
- ^ See Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, The Return of the Feminine and the World Soul, ch. 3, "Patriarchal Deities and the Repression of the Feminine".
- ^ See Leslie E. Sponsel, Spiritual Ecology: A Quiet Revolution, chapter III, "Branches", pages 69–83 and specifically chapter 12, "Supernovas".
- ^ Leslie E. Sponsel, Spiritual Ecology: A Quiet Revolution, page 66.
- ^ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man, page 30.
- ^ Thomas Berry, The Great Work, page 105.
- ^ Confino, Jo. "Beyond environment: falling back in love with Mother Earth", The Guardian, Feb. 2010.
- ^ Joanna Macy (2009-10-07). "The Great Turning". Joannamacy.net. Retrieved 2015-08-28.
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- ^ Also see the video Taking Spiritual Responsibility for the Planet with Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, and Engaged Buddhism
- ^ Charles HRH The Prince of Wales. Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World, chapter 1, pages 10–11.
- ^ Gayathri, Amrutha. "Prince Charles Warns of 'Sixth Extinction Event', Asks People to Cut Down on Consumption", International Business Times, September 9, 2011.
- ^ Charles HRH The Prince of Wales. Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World, chapter 1, page 27.
- ^ 'Metropolitan John Zizioulas: Laudato Si' give Orthodox 'great joy'", Vatican Radio, June 16, 2015.
- ^ McKibben, Bill. "Pope Francis: The Cry of the Earth", New York Review of Books, NYDaily, June 18, 2015.
- ^ The David Suzuki Reader, page 11.
- ^ See Harvard University Press, Interview with Sarah McFarland Taylor on the HUP Podcast.
- ^ John Grim, "Recovering Religious Ecology with Indigenous Traditions", available online at: Indigenous Traditions and Ecology, Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology.
- ^ Mary Evelyn Tucker and John A. Grim (eds.), Worldviews & Ecology: Religion, Philosophy, and the Environment, page 11.
- ^ Tu Wei-Ming, "Beyond Enlightenment Mentality", published in Worldviews & Ecology: Religion, Philosophy, and the Environment, Mary Evelyn Tucker and John A. Grim (eds.), page 27.
- ^ Ritskes, Eric. "A Great Tree Has Fallen: Community, Spiritual Ecology, and African Education", AJOTE, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Toronto, Canada, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2012.
- ^ See "Environment and Imperialism: Why Colonialism Still Matters", Joseph Murphy, Sustainability Research Institute (SRI), School of Earth and Environment, The University of Leeds, U.K., Oct. 2009, page 6.
- ^ See also "Healing Ecological and Spiritual Connections through Learning to be Non-Subjects", Charlotte Šunde, Australian eJournal of Theology 8, Oct 2006.
- ^ Edwards, William Ellis. (1967). "The Late-Pleistocene Extinction and Diminution in Size of Many Mammalian Species". In Pleistocene Extinctions: The Search for a Cause. Paul S. Martin and H.E. Wright, Jr., eds. Pages 141–154. New Haven: Yale University Press.
- ^ "...all of these [data] indicate human involvement in megafauna extinctions as not only plausible, but likely." "Humans and the Extinction of Megafauna in the Americas", Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Science, Spring 2009.
- ^ Gibbons, Robin (2004). Examining the Extinction of the Pleistocene Megafauna. Stanford Undergraduate Research Journal, Spring 2004, pages 22–27.
- ^ Grayson, Donald K. (1984). "Archaeological Associations with Extinct Pleistocene Mammals in North America". Journal of Archaeological Science 11(3):213–221.
- ^ Martin, Paul S. (1967). "Prehistoric Overkill". In Pleistocene Extinctions: The Search for a Cause. Paul S. Martin and H.E. Wright, Jr., eds. pages 75–120. New Haven: Yale University Press.
- ^ Martin, Paul S. (1984). "Prehistoric Overkill: The Global Model". In Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution. Paul S. Martin and Richard G. Klein, eds. Pages 354–403. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
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- ^ Rohn, Roger. "For Buddhist Leader, Religion And the Environment Are One: Interview with H.H. The Karmapa", Yale Environment 360, April 16, 2015.
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- ^ Interspirituality moves a step beyond interfaith dialogue and is a concept and term developed by the Catholic Monk Wayne Teasdale in 1999 in his book The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World's Religions. Also see "New Monasticism: An Interspiritual Manifesto for Contemplative Life in the 21st Century", by Rory McEntee & Adam Bucko, page 22, and Wayne Teasdale, A Monk in the World, page 175. Furthermore, interspirituality has an ecological dimension. See "The Interspiritual Age: Practical Mysticism for a Third Millennium", Wayne Teasdale, (1999).
- ^ "Thay: Beyond Environment". Ecobuddhism. Retrieved 2015-08-28.
- ^ Abram, David; The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-Human World. Pantheon, New York, 1996.
- ^ Harvey, Graham; The Handbook of Contemporary Animism. Routledge, London, 2015.
- ^ See SUNY-ESF Center for Native Peoples and the Environment
- ^ Kimmerer, Robin Wall. "Weaving Traditional Ecological Knowledge into Biological Education: A Call to Action", BioScience, Volume 52, Issue 5, Pages 432–438.
- ^ a b "Sacred Earth: Faiths for Conservation at WWF". www.worldwildlife.org.
- ^ See Khoryug.
- ^ "Sacred Earth: Faiths for Conservation | Initiatives | WWF".
- ^ See Murray, Tim. Seeking an Ecological Rescue: Do We Need a Spiritual Awakening—or a Scientific Understanding?, Humanist Perspectives: a Canadian Journal of Humanism, Issue 86, Autumn 2013.
- ^ See also Sponsel, Leslie E. Religion, nature and environmentalism Archived 2014-05-30 at the Wayback Machine Encyclopedia of the Earth, published July 2, 2007 (updated March 2013).
- ^ Zimmerman, Michael E. (August 2003). "Ken Wilber's Critique of Ecological Spirituality". Integral World.
- As of 15 December 2015, this article is derived in whole or in part from spiritualecology.org. The copyright holder has licensed the content in a manner that permits reuse under CC BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL. All relevant terms must be followed. The original text was at "About Spiritual Ecology"
Further reading
- Abram, David, The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-Human World. Pantheon Books, New York, 1996 ISBN 067943819X
- Abram, David, Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology. Vintage Books, New York, 2011 ISBN 0375713697
- Beresford-Kroeger, Diana, The Global Forest: Forty Ways Trees Can Save Us. Penguin Books, 2011. ISBN 978-0143120162
- Berry, Thomas, The Dream of the Earth. Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, 1988. ISBN 1578051355
- Berry, Thomas, The Sacred Universe. Essays edited by Mary Evelyn Tucker. Columbia University Press, New York, 2009. ISBN 0231149522
- Hayden, Thomas, The Lost Gospel of the Earth. Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, 1996.
- Jung, C.G., The Earth Has A Soul, The Nature Writings of C.G. Jung. North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, 2002. ISBN 1556433794
- Koehrsen, Jens, "Religious agency in sustainability transitions: Between experimentation, upscaling, and regime support", in: Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions 27, pages 4–15.
- Laszlo, Ervin & Allan Coombs (eds.), Thomas Berry, Dreamer of the Earth: The Spiritual Ecology of the Father of Environmentalism. Inner Traditions, Rochester, 2011. ISBN 1594773955
- Livingstone, Glenys, Pagaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth Based Goddess Religion. iUniverse, Inc, 2008. ISBN 978-0-595-34990-6
- Macy, Joanna, World as Lover, World as Self. Parallax Press, Berkeley, 2007. ISBN 188837571X
- McFarland Taylor, Sarah, Green Sisters: A Spiritual Ecology. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. ISBN 9780674034952
- Nelson, Melissa (ed.), Original Instructions, Indigenous Teachings for a Sustainable Future. Bear & Co., Rochester, 2008. ISBN 1591430798
- Maathai, Wangari, Replenishing the Earth: Spiritual Values for Healing Ourselves and the World. Doubleday Religion, New York, 2010. ISBN 030759114X
- McCain, Marian Van Eyk (ed.), GreenSpirit: Path to a New Consciousness. O Books, Washington, 2010. ISBN 184694290X
- McDonald, Barry (ed.), Seeing God Everywhere, Essays on Nature and the Sacred. World Wisdom, Bloomington, 2003. ISBN 0941532429
- Newell, John Philip, A New Harmony, The Spirit, The Earth, and The Human Soul. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 2011. ISBN 0470554673
- Sponsel, Leslie E., 'Spiritual Ecology in Ecological Anthropology' in Environmental Anthropology Today. Ed. Helen Kopnina and Eleanor Shoreman-Ouimet. Routledge, 2011. ISBN 978-0415781565.
- Suzuki, David; McConnell, Amanda; and DeCambra, Maria The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature. Greystone Books, ISBN 978-1553651666
- Stanley, John, David Loy and Gyurme Dorje (eds.), A Buddhist Response to the Climate Emergency. Wisdom Publications, Boston, 2009. ISBN 0861716051
- Thich Nhat Hanh, The World We Have. Parallax Press, Berkeley, 2008. ISBN 1888375884
- Vaughan-Lee, Llewellyn Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth. The Golden Sufi Center, 2013. ISBN 978-1-890350-45-1; downloadable in PDF