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The call for papers for this Special Issue Iidentifies contemporary humanity as experiencing a global "biogeochemical ... political, economic, technological, ethical, and therefore, biocultural" crisis and asks scholars to consider how "religion may function as an adaptive or maladaptive presence" in response. Unasked is the adaptive capacity of scholarship as a crisis response. When buildings fall in earthquakes, or cities burn in wildfires, or second stories flood, few people just keep on doing what they were doing, "with a change of focus". This is "studying Rome while it burns". It's time to put out the fire if we can and survive it if we cannot. We scholar/teachers can't go on doing the same things and expecting different results. Unprecedented circumstances call for unprecedented actions in response. What would actual crisis responses on our part look like? What steps do we need to take as human beings in response to this crisis? How will that affect us as professionals? Seeking an ecology, rather than unanimity, of action and thought, and guided by Brian Walker's resilience theory and a number of Indigenous scholars, I suggest a process of reintegration, analogous to regenerative agriculture, which is at once both socio-cultural and ecological. This process, necessarily rooted in place, progressively situates us experientially in a dynamic, creative, and relational world characterized by connection, collaboration, and relation. As scholars, we will find forms of discovery, discussion, and dissemination that share these qualities. As teachers, we will model this world to our students and embody it in our classrooms and curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to explore the public dimension of religion in Korea. First, it examines the Western and East Asian contexts on the concept of 'public', noting that the gap in notions of public is large between East Asian and Western traditions. The following section discusses Habermas' 'institutional translation proviso' in relation to the notion 'public'. The institutional translation proviso serves as the basis for further discussion on rethinking the public role of religion in Korea in the era of climate crisis. We argue that 'secular' translations of religious convictions can help religious citizens and communities engage in public discourses on ecological challenges. We then consider major limitations of Habermas' understanding of religion. In the following section, we move on to discuss Albert Schweitzer and process theology in order to demonstrate how religious languages can be reinterpreted on the basis of modern experiences of ecological challenges. We then consider Buddhist alternatives for overcoming the climate crisis. The final section introduces José Casanova's account of public religions and discusses its implication for envisioning the public role of religious organizations in ecological efforts. Reviewing the contributions made by religious organizations to the Korean society, we suggest that 'ecological publicness' of religion can be obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A spiritual awakening is necessary to address the global ecological crisis and to bring about an environmental revolution. The aim of this paper is to bring together various passages from Thich Nhat Hanh's works that refer to a collective consciousness and environmental revolution, in order to gain some insight into what the view of contemporary Buddhism might have been on the idea of Buddhist environmentalism. This paper is divided into three main areas: the concept of interbeing, the view on the interdependent nature of individual and collective consciousness, and the various interdependent elements influencing the transformation of consciousness that could bring about an environmental revolution in ecology. In using the concept of interbeing coined by Thich Nhat Hanh, I argue that this understanding of the interconnected relationship of everything in the world will enhance the awareness of a global environmental movement for a better future, which is possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]