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Historically, religious groups have been absent from the American environmental movement, but since the late 1990s a host of new religious environmental movement organizations (REMOs) have emerged. Little is known about REMOs or how religion structures the nascent movement field. Drawing on interviews with leaders of 63 REMOs in the United States, we examined whether theological frames and religious affiliations, on the one hand, and environmental interests, on the other, shaped the formation of information exchange and joint action between REMOs. The results show that shared religious affiliations and theological frames are directly associated with joint action between REMOs. In contrast, shared environmental interests are associated directly with information exchange, but not joint action. The results suggest that cultural aspects of religion are linked to the structure of the religious environmental movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Friday sermons (khutbah)are generally deprived of academic concerns and this situation deserves due investigation since, as a mass medium, they have a sociological and political importance. In this article, sermons are handled through Althusser's notion of "ideology." It is asserted that Friday sermons may be considered as one of the state's ideological apparatuses. The subject of research is an issue of the presentation and use of environment in sermons. The aim for chosing this subject, rather than other major topics such as nationalism, Kemalism et cetera, is to look at a secondary area because ideology displays itself in such kinds of hidden domains. If the sermons published by the Istanbul Müftülüğü in between 2001 and 2011 are analyzed, it will be seen that the discourse used in sermons dramatically changed after a certain date. Whereas earlier sermons represented a swallow, anthropocentric view, later a gradual evolution toward a more eco-centric view is observed. There is a visible tension between religion, the state and ecology which is observed through this process of change. It can be seen that Diyanet (The Presidency of Religious Affairs) seeks to maintain its existence in an uncanny situation between radical Islam, the Turkish Republic's ideals and traditional Islamic understandings; all while at the same time opening and securing itself a living space through the discussion of ecological issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws on 40 in-depth semi-structured interviews of three groups of people who restrict their consumption in various ways: voluntary simplifiers, religious environmentalists, and green home owners. I identify common patterns in the emergence of green lifestyles across all groups. Green practices are not isolated decisions or actions, but components in an ongoing project. As a result, green lifestyles are often experienced as both a work in progress and a provisionally coherent life narrative. Furthermore, I explore bricolage, the cobbling together of resources at hand by nonexperts, as a mechanism for lifestyle change and expand the concept to include environmental practices and themes. I adopt a pragmatist perspective to understand lifestyle change as a deliberate process undertaken in response to a problem left underaddressed by current policies and practices. This article also weighs in on the debate in the sociology of culture over how culture influences action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reliance on a limited number of methodologies may be distorting scholarship in religious environmentalism. This article describes a religious environmental educational intervention, uses a qualitative ethnological approach to describe the response of local congregations to this intervention, and uses a quasi-experimental, quantitative psychological methodology to assess the impact of this intervention on the behavior of religious congregational leaders. This article reports the impact of the Living Ocean Initiative, a ten-month interfaith envi­ronmental outreach intervention that engaged forty-nine diverse religious congregations and their leaders in California 2006-2007. This study indicates the value of studying religious environmental interventions, and suggests that carefully designed interventions may be able to increase religious environmentalism. It found that religious leaders were more inclined to engage in personal pro-environmental behavior within their congregations than pro-environmental behavior in the political realm. This study reports expressions of religious environmentalism at the congregational scale. It suggests that the potential of religious environmentalism to transform environmental beliefs and politics proposed by scholars and religious leaders may be unrealistic, yet it does demonstrate impacts of an intervention on pro-environmental behavior, thus clarifying some of the ambiguity in past correlational studies, and suggesting that religious environmentalism can help foster a more sustainable society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reflects on the words of Pope Benedict XVI concerning the search for Christian environmentalism. It presents several information resources concerning the issue such as the book "Reading the Forested Landscape," by Tom Wessels and an essay "American Naturalist," by Paul Dayton. It also notes the understanding of Aristotle on the living thing which is considered as an integral whole accord with the moral impulse of contemporary environmentalism.

A speech from Martha L. Henderson, President of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers, given on October 1, 2011, at the annual meeting of the association, is presented. Focus is given to the way in which the early Christian Church informed the human relationship with the environment. More specifically, Henderson explains how the Church promoted a human identity wholly separate from that of nature. It is argued that secularism could lead to a pro-environmental human identity.

A priestly sensibility is here presented as a way to characterize humanity's place in creation. Sacrifice, asceticism, and gratitude are described as three distinct and practical modalities of a priestly life that contribute to the care and celebration of creation. While a priestly understanding is often associated with Orthodox environmental theology, it has the potential to inform environmental theology broadly construed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The symbolic ordination of trees as monks in Thailand is widely perceived in Western scholarship to be proof of the power of Buddhism to spur ecological thought. However, a closer analysis of tree ordination demonstrates that it is not primarily about Buddhist teaching, but rather is an invented tradition based on the sanctity of Thai Buddhist symbols as well as those of spirit worship and the monarchy. Tree ordinations performed by non-Buddhist minorities in Thailand do not demonstrate a religious commitment but rather a political one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the relationship between Christians and the so-called new food movement. The author notes that churches are being asked to support environmental initiatives, such as the new food movement. He adds that such initiatives, which raise questions about saving the planet, protecting animals, and feeding development nations, requires courage. Environmentalism as a new religion and aspects of its agenda that Christians should be aware of are discussed.

The article presents the author's views on environmental theology as a response to the ecological crisis in modern society and on Mormonism's earth-teachings. Mormons' moral duty to care for the earth and its creatures is discussed in both historical and contemporary contexts. The stewardship tradition found in 19th-century Mormon agrarianism is mentioned. The human-centered and life-centered ontologies in earth-teachings as they relate to environmentalism are discussed. The anthropocentric position of aesthetic and utilitarian concerns in the Christian stewardship concept are mentioned. Verses from the Bible and Book of Mormon related to the Mormon concept of obedience to God's law that does not include a moral imperative to care for the land are discussed.

The article presents the author's views on climate change and the human community from the religious perspective of the Latter Day Saints (LDS) movement. The concept of a land ethic that prevents environmental degradation, which was developed by conservationist Aldo Leopold, is discussed. Globalization of the quality-of-life idea to prevent irreparable damage to the planet and its inhabitants is also discussed. Social responsibility, political aspects of environmentalism, and modern material culture are part of the discussion on climate change and efforts to reduce the size of the human carbon footprint.

The article focuses on environmental stewardship from the perspective of the Latter Day Saints (LDS) movement. The implications of LDS' teaching that the earth is alive, has a spirit, and feels pain from pollution and spiritual defilement are discussed. The similarity of the Biblical prophet Enoch's vision of the earth as animistic and modern science's view that earth's biosphere is a living organism they call "Gaia" which sustains life is mentioned. Verses from the Bible and the Book of Mormon are discussed in the context of the Earth having preexistent spirits that assisted in the earth's creation.

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Many of the world religions make explicit connections to the natural world through rituals, beliefs, and institutional practices related to seasons, sacred architecture, and holy places. Yet, these connections have not prevented massive environmental degradation. So why should the world religions be thought to play any role in stemming such contemporary environmental problems as population growth, unbridled consumption patterns, and destructive environmental practices? This incapacity of the religions to address these issues seems especially evident as they adapt to globalisation that emphasises values for economic gain over reverence or responsibility for the community of life. Still, emerging forms of sustainability science provide new models, and emerging academic fields such as religion and ecology stress cultural contexts and ecological wholes as well as empirical reductive techniques. Just as science joins with the humanities to provide leadership in understanding the ecology of life, so also religions need to respond to their own insights into the sacredness of life. In these ways the diverse world religions can come to an embodied intelligence that motivates their own forms of religious environmentalism. The call to the planetary phase of the world religions will hopefully bring them to ethical perspectives on biocide and geocide as well as mutually enhancing human-Earth relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts of several articles including "The Roles of Religions in Activating an Ecological Consciousness" by John Grim, "The Sacred and the Body Politic at Ireland's Holy Wells" by Celeste Ray, and "Ruskin's Storm-cloud: Heavenly Messages and Pathetic Fallacies in a Denatured World" by Thomas H. Ford.

This article attempts to highlight the complex relationships between Buddhism and ecology. Buddhism, which is considered as an “ecofriendly” religion, has indeed only lately been concerned by ecological issues and reinterpreted in ecological terms. Among scholars, the nature of a “green Buddhism” is highly discussed as is the “greening of Buddhism”. “Eco-Buddhism” has in addition emerged in the somewhat dissimilar contexts of Western wealthy countries, and Asian poor regions. Ecological issues assume, under the same lexicon of “environmental engagement”, in these two specific social settings and cultural frameworks, different repertoires of meanings: as a global, yet framed in a Western-styled glossary, response to the ecological damages of modernisation processes; and as a local reaction, of both lay Buddhists and monks, to actual problems such as deforestation. In both cases, and on both sides of the planet, the engagement of Buddhists in ecological causes is political. Green Buddhism, as a conclusion, partakes on a political ecology of the sacred, and even, considering the variety of contexts, on political ecologies of the sacred. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In a time of ecological crises with huge consequences for humanity and the earth system which is a result of a mechanistic world view and human exploitation of the earth, there exists a serious need for a ecological, resacralised worldview of which an 'ecological' concept of religion and spirituality is part. Eco-spirituality is then the direct consciousness and experience of the Sacred in the ecology which may serve as a sustained source for communities' and individuals' practical search to live sustainably from the earth's resources. The story of Tim Wigley serves as an example of how this balance between eco-spirituality and ecological activism is possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented, discussing the religious aspects of environmentalism. Discussions in the Bible, especially the Old Testament, of Zion or the promised land are examined, and interpreted as an injunction for people to take care of the earth and its resources, which are seen as mortally threatened in the 21st century by climate change.

The article discusses American Muslim women's relationship with environmental activism in the United States. The author believes that while many Muslims do not engage in such activism, there is still justification for such work inherent in Muslim theology. Because American Muslim women participate in a number of outdoor activities, the author sees an untapped potential for environmental activism within this community. She believes mosques in the United States should foster a sense of environmental concern within the American Muslim community. She suggests purchasing organic meat from farmers as a means to actively engage with environmentalism.

The article discusses the evolution of the ecumenical Christian movement, focusing on its engagement with the scientific worldview. Details are given outlining the history of ecumenicism, noting its early missionary history and later opposition to apartheid. The question is addressed whether the concept of paradigm shifts, as described by philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn in his work "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions," can properly be applied to the historical shifts in ecumenical perspectives. The potential for ecumenical engagement with the scientific community in the context of environmental conservation is also addressed.

The author discusses the focus on environmentalism by American evangelicals. She mentions pastors Tri Robinson and Ken Wilson who are signatories to the Evangelical Climate Initiative (ECI). The author notes the history of what is called creation care, since the term expresses the theological basis of environmental concern. She mentions that the issue of climate change has not been taken up by the evangelical public as it has by evangelical leaders. The theology of the ECI concerns the themes of creation care, eschatology and neighbor care.

From a positive assessment of environmentalism, in its biosocial dimension, it is imperative to explore an ecological spirituality in connection with biblical wisdom and the old religious traditions. This spirituality is based on three points: (1) An empathy connection with reality that overcomes anthropocentrism and goes further from "materiality" of matter to open itself to its spiritual dimension. (2) A way to conceive God and the relation with him, passing from the Lord's ruling to the Gardener's care, from the dominating God to the Trinitarian God, Father and companion, mother, lover, and friend. (3) To see the world from a cosmoteandric perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current ecological crisis occurs as the result of an inappropriate relation between the human being and nature, which surpasses the scope of what is strictly natural and reaches the social sphere. This presents itself as a challenge that forces theology to proclaim a message of hope, supported by the Word and the Christian tradition. In this article, answering to this challenge and contributing to the solution for such a problem, the author proposes eight features which characterize an ecological spirituality and gather them together in four dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author focuses on the living connection of Christians to the earth. According to Yat, a member of a tribe in Papua New Guinea (PNG), Christians are connected to the earth but still opt to leave the rainforest to live in the city. He notes that Americans including evangelicals tend to consider the practice of calling the earth as their mother as the start of paganism and earth-worship. The campaign of Reverend Rich Cizik for creation care has been opposed by those from the far religious right including Tony Perkins.

The article focuses on various religious views on clean air and the U.S. Clean Air Act. The said environmental law and the fundamental values that support the compliance with its provisions are analyzed. Several views from religions, such as Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam, were surveyed to illustrate varying societal views regarding the role of clean air. The adoption of the Clean Air Act as a statutory model by other countries is proposed.

The article discusses women's environmental broadcasting through the Muslim Community Radio of London, England as a means to examine the broader theme of grassroots Muslim environmental collective action. The author is concerned with the sacralization of environmentalism by Muslim women broadcasters, thereby combining environmental ethics and religion. The campaign also sought to justify Islam in light of modern Western values and subtly called for women's empowerment. Broadly, the author is concerned with British Muslim social conditions and religion's influence on environmentalism.

The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report attests to the reality of a warming global climate and describes potential ecosystem changes that may be devastating to communities—both human and non-human—across the globe. I contend that the Christian practice of sharing the Eucharist meal provides an opportune moment for Christians to engage in ecological reflection. To defend this claim I draw upon Christian theologian Sallie McFague's metaphorical understanding of the world as God's body in order to connect environmental plight to the Eucharist meal and to show why that plight should be a concern for Christian communities. Next, I turn to the work of anthropologist Claude Fischler in order to make a connection between sharing the Eucharist and communal and individual identity formation. Finally, I draw upon the Slow Food movement in order to provide specific suggestions for adapting the Eucharist to make it more conducive to ecological reflection. I also briefly discuss the growing green sisters movement and suggest that this movement provides a model of ecological-awareness and practice for other religious communities, and for North American Christian churches in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the highlights of the conference "Renewing Hope: Pathways of Religious Environmentalism" held from February 28-March 2, 2008 at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The event which attracted a wide variety of participants was held for the release of the documentary film "Renewal: Inspiring Stories From America's Religious Environmental Movement," by Marty Ostrow. Theologian Sallie McFague opened the conference with a public lecture. Sessions were offered designed to facilitate discussion on religious traditions.

Climate change raises many questions with strong moral and ethical dimensions that are important to address in climate-policy formation and international negotiations. Particularly in the United States, the public discussion of these dimensions is strongly influenced by religious groups and leaders. Over the past few years, many religious groups have taken positions on climate change, highlighting its ethical dimensions. This paper aims to explore these ethical dimensions in the US public debate in relation to public support for climate policies. It analyzes in particular the Christian voices in the US public debate on climate change by typifying the various discourses. Three narratives emerge from this analysis: ‘conservational stewardship’ (conserving the ‘garden of God’ as it was created), ‘developmental stewardship’ (turning the wilderness into a garden as it should become) and ‘developmental preservation’ (God's creation is good and changing; progress and preservation should be combined). The different narratives address fundamental ethical questions, dealing with stewardship and social justice, and they provide proxies for public perception of climate change in the US. Policy strategies that pay careful attention to the effects of climate change and climate policy on the poor – in developing nations and the US itself – may find support among the US population. Religious framings of climate change resonate with the electorates of both progressive and conservative politicians and could serve as bridging devices for bipartisan climate-policy initiatives. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article presents an examination of the connections between the discipline of Biblical studies and contemporary 21st-century environmental debate by analyzing the theological aspects of land in the Old Testament book of Leviticus. It is suggested that a Christian theology of the environment ought to be rooted and developed from the covenantal theological framework of the Pentateuch.

The article presents an essay on the connections between the discipline of Biblical studies and contemporary 21st-century environmental debate. In it a survey is given of the various ideological frameworks which respond to popular criticism that Christian eschatology is not ecologically centered. The strengths and weaknesses of several of these systems are highlighted and an alternative harmonized theological hermeneutic is provided.

The power of eschatology to motivate ecological responsibility depends largely on a proper balance between continuity and discontinuity in our understanding of the future for God's people and for the created world, of the resurrection and the new heaven and earth. This balance, which is situated within the future aspect of the tension between realised and future eschatology, does in fact exist in the New Testament and has been recognised in much recent theological study. Therefore our faith in God's future redemptive purposes should motivate us to play our part in the Church's ecological mission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Russian philosopher, poet, and mystic Vladimir Solov'ev (1853-1900), the father of the sophiological movement in Russian thought, remains a little-known figure in the West. This article considers Solov'ev's credentials as an environmentalist before his time and develops a number of strands of his biblical theology from an ecological perspective. It goes on to explore his envisioning of the 'kingship' of humanity in God's creation, which he understood as the ideal relationship between humanity and the world, and to unravel the complexities of his thought on the 'coming' of the Kingdom of God. The article suggests that Solov'ev has much to offer theologians and religious people in the articulation, and application, of an ecological theology of creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on stewardship and its effects on the environment. Stewardship or the belief that God is an absentee land-owner who has entrusted man to manage the world began in industrialized western countries. The speech of Pope John Paul II on the World Day of Peace in 1990 stressed that discoveries in science and technology should be applied to promote human responsibility upon all creation. According to the article, ethical responsibility in stewardship should be applied in order to assure continued use of these resources by future generations.

Responding to the environmental crisis requires a fundamental transformation of world religions. In the concept of sustainability we find a change not only in religion's understanding of the value of the natural world and the need to alter its own ecological practices, but a possible awakening to the finite nature of human—including religious—existence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the concept of process theology as practiced by theologian John Cobb. Cobb searched for a world view that allowed him to be a Christian and accommodate modern science. He based it on the theory of experience propounded by Alfred North Whitehead, seeing the universe not as fixed objects but as a process of creation. In 1969 he read the book "The Population Bomb" by Paul Ehrlich and began to see theology from an environmental point of view and incorporated liberation theology as well. He took note of the charge by Lynn White Jr. that the anthropocentric bias of Christianity was causal to the environmental crisis and began working with Buddhists on mutual transformation. The author places Cobb's work in context of other theologians, religions and political movements.

Catholicism, with other religions, continues the critical grounding of ecological concern within its tradition. Contemporary theologians offer varying approaches to environmental ethics, from ecologically sensitive Christian humanism to a more radical repositioning of the human person within a creation charged with inherent value. A common emphasis is the connection between ecological damage and social justice. Although specific norms have been difficult to formulate, this partial gap has been filled by strong contributions using esthetic, spiritual, and narrative approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses Christian asceticism in relation to consumerism, environmentalism, and modernity. The author suggests that asceticism is a counterpoint to the materialism of the global economy and argues that only by meditating on the transcendent can people escape the consumerism of the world and become fully human. The effect of ascetical practices on the environment is explored, with the author offering sacramentalism and mysticism as the means to preserve nature.

Fly fishers around the world frequently use terms such as religious, spiritual, sacred, divine, ritual, meditation, and conversion to describe their personal angling experiences. Further, drawing upon religious terminology, anglers will refer to rivers as their church and to nature as sacred. Often these latter pronouncements drive a concern for the conservation of these sacred spaces as evidenced by participation in both local and national conservation organizations. Informed by theoretical perspectives offered by religious studies, particularly "lived religion" and "religion and nature," I shall trace a few of the historical, material, and everyday elements of fly fishers and their subcultures, demonstrating along the way the insights that come by understanding fly fishing as a religious practice, which can, at times, drive an ethic of environmental conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Loyal Rue suggests that religion is not about God as such but about the cultivation of personal and social well-being. Religion may employ cultural resources that include concepts of supernatural agencies, but religion's essential functionalities are not dependent on that particular resource. I largely endorse Rue's view of religion and employ Rue as a guide to thinking through its consequences for the future of Christianity. For Rue, two challenges face Christianity: the erosion of confidence in personal-god concepts and the ecological crisis engulfing the planet. In the face of these twin momentous changes, I suggest ways in which certain cultural tropes in the Christian matrix will rise to the fore and others will erode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My topic is the important and unprecedented phenomenon of religious environmentalism. In its most compressed form my message is simple: religious environmentalism is good for environmentalism, good for religion, and good for the earth community. I will also hazard a few thoughts on the role scholars can play in this movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earth is the major participant in the events depicted in Joel 1-2 [Eng. 1:1-2:27], calling for a geocentric interpretation of this material. A locust plague (and drought) is wreaking havoc on the Earth. God and Earth are mourning the affliction of the soil, animals, and plants brought on by human sin and a concomitant divine judgment. As members of the Earth Community, humans are expected to join with, comfort, and mourn with the rest of Creation. While the nonhuman members of Earth Community are quick to mourn the crisis, the human members are the last to respond. This is troublesome, since human sin and God's judgment have brought about the demise of creation, and human repentance is expected to effect a restoration. Once humans begin to respond to the calls to mourn with creation, however, God repents of the divine judgment and intervenes to restore Earth Community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1967 Lynn White, Jr. proclaimed that “Human ecology is deeply conditioned by beliefs about our nature and destiny…that is, by religion” (p. 1205). White attributed environmental problems to the Christians' adherence to the Genesis account of creation which provides an injunction for humans to use nature to their advantage and to have dominion over the Earth. His proclamation generated a debate among sociologists, theologians, philosophers, and historians about the role of Christianity in the environmental crisis. Much research has explored the current religion and environment relationship using data from statewide surveys, the General Social Survey, and the Gallup Poll but there has been no work that compares the relationship between ministers' knowledge of official church statements on the environment and environmental actions of congregants. This work seeks to address this void. The population for this study is the 307 churches in the state of Georgia that are a part of the Presbyterian Church, United States of America (PCUSA). Results from 158 completed surveys show that while the ministers overwhelmingly support the ideology of stewardship rather than domination, it is their environmentally friendly actions that have the most significant impact on the congregation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Argues that climate change and the international climate change policy under the Kyoto Protocol represent practices of human sacrifice unique to contemporary technological society. Discussion of climate change and the international climate change policy as an example of the characteristic artifice and idolatry of technological society based on the theory of Jacques Ellul. Contribution of environment to a Christian political ethic based upon the principles of stewardship, justice and freedom.

The article discusses environmental aspects of rituals and rites, particularly exploring the potential of ritual to make people more attuned to the environment. It comments on environmental rituals in mainline religions, attitudes of religious liberals, and the relationship between nature and culture. The author explores theoretical aspects of ritual, such as biogenetic structuralism, and analyzes ecological anthropology, including the work of anthropologist Roy Rappaport. Performance aspects of ritual are also considered.

The article discusses environmental aspects of rituals and rites, particularly exploring the potential of ritual to make people more attuned to the environment. It comments on environmental rituals in mainline religions, attitudes of religious liberals, and the relationship between nature and culture. The author explores theoretical aspects of ritual, such as biogenetic structuralism, and analyzes ecological anthropology, including the work of anthropologist Roy Rappaport. Performance aspects of ritual are also considered.

The natural environment has been a missing topic from education and public policy forums concerning an aging society. This study examines demographic trends and several socio-demographic influences on attitudes, concerns, and active support for environmental issues among older adults in a retirement “hot spot” in the New West. A sample of 394 older adults in southwestern Utah was obtained from questionnaires mailed to those randomly selected from a larger dataset, and through hand-distributed questionnaires at selected RV parks. We found a high degree of variability among respondents in regard to environmental attitudes and concerns. Despite a personal attitudinal desire to protect the environment, most older adults did not want to become involved in protective actions for the environment. We found that residency status and religious affiliation emerged as the strongest relationships with measures of attitudes and concerns, and willingness to support the environment. The most influential factors associated with willingness to take action in support of the environment were having higher levels of active/social concerns, and higher levels of awareness of environmental consequences. The New West is one of the fastest-growing areas for demographic aging, and the opinions and actions of older adults will play a significant role in the stewardship and sustainability of natural resources, particularly in retirement hot spots. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We examined the association of two distinct religious forces, sanctification of nature and theological conservatism, with environmental beliefs (humans take precedence over the environment and human actions hurt nature), willingness to sacrifice personal finds for the environment, and behaviors (participation in green activities) among three samples - members, elders, and clergy affiliated with the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. Across all three samples, greater theologically conservative views were associated with lower care for the environment; conversely, a stronger belief in the sanctification of nature was associated with greater pro-environmental beliefs and willingness to invest personal funds in the environment Sanctification of nature },,as a/so predictive of greater environmentall), supportive behaviors among elders and clergy. After controlling for demographic variables and theological conservatism, sanctification of nature accounted for unique, though modest, amounts of variance in environmental variables. Moderated regression analyses revealed only a few significant group differences. Specifically, greater belief in sanctification was associated with more pro-environment behavior among clerk, than members. Also, theological conservatism had a greater negative effect on pro-environment behaviors of clergy than eiders. These findings suggest that religious institutions have the potential to support or discourage care for the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]