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In texts, films, paintings and speeches, New Deal policymakers and allied intellectuals deployed biblical language and images to evoke contrition for environmental "sins." The sins of the fathers, namely the exploitative land use on the part of settlers and agro-capitalists, were now being visited on the Depression generation in the catastrophes not only of wind-born soil erosion (as in the Dust Bowl) but also the more extensive threat of gullying and water-born erosion. New Deal uses of the Bible, we argue, were not an instrumental conceit designed to manipulate hearts and minds. Rather, New Deal environmental thought, even at its seemingly most technocratic, was profoundly embedded within Christian imaginaries of sin and redemption. Scientific and religious modes of authority merged with the offices of state. As such, the soil Jeremiad is one illustration of both the need for and potential benefit of thickening "inter-field" religious and environmental methodologies—a potential we explore in this essay. In historicizing the soil Jeremiad, we also offer an example of how we might better understand the importance of religion for the history of the environmental movement beyond stories from activists' biographies and move toward a religious-environmental history of the public sphere itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pope Francis’s ecology encyclical, Laudato Si’, is an occasion to reconsider the Catholic Church’s myriad forms of engagement with modern science over the past four centuries. Four broad categories can chronologically and conceptually represent key phases in the Roman Catholic Church’s developing relationship to modern science. The first three are: how the Church coped with the rise of astronomy and physics in the 16th to 18th centuries; the era of geology and evolutionary theory in the 19th through early 20th centuries; and the era of global, life-altering technologies in the mid- to late 20th century. The scientific advances in each of these periods generated legacies for our current era of ecology and sustainability. It is this fourth phase that is represented by the new papal encyclical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using four national probability studies between the years 2010 and 2015, this study examines how religious beliefs help explain American support for or opposition to governmental efforts to protect the environment. We do so by investigating how race moderates this relationship. We find that religious beliefs associate with and likely inform the environmental policy attitudes of non-Hispanic Whites. We have less evidence that the same holds true for Hispanics and Blacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws on ancient and medieval Jewish texts to explore the role of the physical environment in Jewish thought. It situates Jewish teachings in the context of the debate between anthropocentrism and ecocentrism, discusses the Jewish view of nature, and reviews various interpretations of an important Biblical precept of environmental ethics. It argues that while Jewish thought contains many "green" elements, it also contains a number of beliefs that challenge some contemporary environmental values. The key to the Jewish contribution to environmental ethics lies in the concept of balance--balance between the values and needs of humans and the claims of nature, and between viewing nature as a source of life and moral values and as a threat to human life and social values. The teachings of Judaism challenge both those who would place too low a value on nature as well as those who would place too high a value on it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores aspects of the lexico-grammar of religiously oriented environmental discourse produced by a leading religious authority, Pope Francis. It examines the most frequent keywords and keyword clusters of the encyclical letter Laudato Si' against popularised updates on scientific and technological advances available on the NASA website. The findings show that Laudato Si' draws attention both to how people's behaviour affects the environment and to its relevance to the current political and economic situation. The Letter also calls for a much-needed caring attitude towards the environment, and thus appears to be characterized by the directive communicative function throughout, while presenting a more specific religious slant only in select chapters. The analysis carried out highlights both the topics and the rhetorical goals of the discourse of Pope Francis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study attempts to explore the relationship between religion and pro‐environmental consumption in terms of the consumers' willingness to pay premium prices and additional taxes and lower their living standards in South Korea. Data were obtained from the 2014 Korean General Social Survey. The survey participants were initially classified into religious and non‐religious groups; the religious group was further classified into the following two groups: community‐based (Protestants and Catholics) and individual‐based (Buddhists) religious groups. The differences between the religious groups in their intentions to make pro‐environmental choices were verified. First, religious consumers showed a more positive attitude towards paying premium prices and lowering their living standards than non‐religious consumers. Second, the community‐based religious group, a group characterized by low‐internal and high‐external religiosity, showed a greater intention to adopt pro‐environmental behaviours, whereas opposite results were obtained for the individual‐based religious group. The results showed that community‐based religious consumers exhibited higher intentions when actively interrelated with a religious community, even though they may have lower internal religiosity. This study provides meaningful implications for the relationship between religion and consumer behaviour, an important factor in shaping intrinsic consumer values and constructing a subculture and community extrinsically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a rising debate about the religious dimensions of environmentalism. A prominent approach to this phenomenon is Bron Taylor's Dark Green Religion. Taylor proposes that Dark Green Religion is a globally growing phenomenon which involves 'para-religious' perceptions and feelings towards nature. Followers of Dark Green Religion would experience feelings of connectedness to nature, consider it to be sacred and worthy of reverent care, and reject anthropocentrism. I discuss Taylor's argument in the light of a study on an urban energy transition process in Northern Germany. Interviewing actors strongly participating in this process, I find some evidence for features of Dark Green Religion while also revealing ongoing anthropocentric orientations. The findings suggest a need for more in-depth studies to improve our understanding of ecoreligious worldviews among environmentally engaged actors and their impact on sustainability transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a speech given by Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa Thabo Makgoba at the February 2017 event Just Water in London, England. Topics include the biblical significance of water, issues related to justice and water rights in southern Africa, and the importance of environmental action for Christians. A personal narrative from the organizer of the Just Water conference is presented.

In recent years, scientists and humanists have begun converging towards a new concept of humanity, one in which human culture, creativity, and power are seen as the product of nature, not its antithesis. Drawing on these insights, I suggest some ways in which scholars might embrace the concept of the ‘natural born human’ to better recognize the powerful role of the natural material world in creating the human past and future. If a vital materiality informs every aspect of who we are as humans, then the scientific insights into this material world are not distinct from or contrary to humanism. To the contrary, science might be better understood as a manner of humanism and perhaps even akin to a materially grounded religion. Thus the old divide between science and the humanities might now be closing as we better recognize the inescapable material nature of the human animal in all of its dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its popularity and appeal for many, ecofeminism has been criticized for essentializing and romanticizing women’s roles as close to nature, thereby reproducing colonialist and biologically determinist discourses that contribute to discrimination. In response there have been attempts to defend ecofeminism, arguing that such critiques are hyperbolic and that we need ecofeminism more than ever (Philips and Rumens 2016). In a climate of renewed interest in ecofeminism, I ask why is it that some faith traditions are represented to a far greater extent in ecofeminist literature than others? I pick up on this discrepancy within ecofeminism’s engagement between different religions through examining Buddhist responses to gender and ecology. In the article I adopt a theory of ultramodern Buddhism, developed by Halafoff and Rajkobal (2015), to understand Buddhism in the contemporary era. Three main research questions are addressed: (1) to what extent has ‘green Buddhism’ been gendered?; (2) why has there has been virtually no attempt to bring together feminist analysis with responses to Buddhism and environmentalism? Why have they been approached separately?; and (3) in what ways are Buddhist women (and men) combining gender analysis and environmentalism in practice in reference to or outside the framework of ecofeminism? To better understand why a Buddhist ecofeminism has not been named and claimed by Buddhists in either the West or Asia, there is a need for local-level empirical studies that examine subjective understandings of relationships between gender and environmentalism in the lives of ultramodern Buddhist practitioners rather than assuming a standard ecofeminist position as the primary reference point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visions of a high-tech ‘good’ Anthropocene as well as ambitious worldmaking projects like Biosphere 2 have roots in a quasi-religious form of cosmism and attendant notions of the noosphere: a planetary sphere of mind. Cosmic perspectives often celebrate and naturalize an image of humans as participants in and ultimately directors of planetary and cosmic processes. This brand of cosmism encourages fantasies of fleeing our ‘used’ planet in search of our presumed interstellar destiny, and it encourages a disregard of earthly, ecological, and even bodily limits. I argue that the turn to planetary and cosmic perspectives is the wrong move for those who care about the future of the Earth and more-than-human life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the biodiversity crisis worsens, hopes rise that a substantial contribution to environmental care may come from the world’s religions. Such hopes largely rest on the expectation that the pro-environmental pronouncements of religious leaders, and their doctrinal underpinnings, will reach and affect a majority of believers. In this article, we discuss this argument, based on findings from fine-grained ethnographical and biological work among rural Catholic communities in Italy. We suggest that straightforward views of the link between religious doctrines and environmental care are problematic for three main reasons: postulating a deterministic link between values and behaviors that is disproven in reality; underplaying the inner heterogeneity of religions; and overlooking difficulties in value transmission within religions. Accordingly, we suggest greater attention to concrete environmental outcomes, ritual, and the bodily dimension of religions, as a fundamental step toward a practice-oriented understanding of the nexus between religion and environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the role of storytelling in Christianity, particularly in its relationship with creation. It mentions how storytelling provides access to the word of God and its importance in the environmental movement and the limiting of consumption, which would lead Christians back to the moment of creation.

Based on the environmental thought of the Patriarch of Constantinople, we study the importance of considering the environmental issues and crisis in the light of a conceptualization that emphasizes the significance of the ontological argument, as a key category of meaning for environmental thought. The Patriarch Bartholomew has developed a rich environmental argument related with the theological, spiritual and religious foundations of Christianity. A rich environmental argumentation and deep meanings provided by Orthodox Theology in understanding the causes and solutions of moderm environmental issues stand out as the result of this research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to study the goals of responsibility-based education with regard to the Islamic educational courses. In this regard, at first it is referred to the Islamic educational courses and then, it is studied the stages of education and sense of responsibility in Islam in the areas of ultimate and intermediate goals of each period. This study was conducted with a qualitative approach and descriptive-analytical method with studying the Islamic texts in the library method. According to the findings of the scholar from the point of view of Islam, the child is Seyyed and Sarvar (prince) in the first seven years of life, and the of the great Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) interprets this educational stage as "the child lordship". The second seven years is the age of education and obedience, and the third seven years is the age of counseling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the environmental crisis in Ghana and what contributions religious resources from the intellectual traditions of African Traditional Religion can make towards addressing it. This study was based on an extensive review and interpretation of existing textual materials on the subject matter, supplemented by general field observations. It identified the following: the environmental problem in Ghana has national and international root causes; the modern environmental management model employed in Ghana lacks resources, in terms of finance, personnel, and other associated logistics, rendering it inefficient. This article warns that the cumulative effect of environmental degradation is a boomerang, and suggests that the modern and traditional methods of environmental conservation be merged to form a more efficient system. This research is important because its findings may contribute to the development of a more efficient model for conserving and protecting Ghana’s environment. It also contributes to local and global cultural theories on the conservation and protection of the environment.Environmental Practice 18: 137–147 (2016) [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Pope Francis has taken part in international agreements on Sustainable Development which have been signed in 2015 and as a precedent, he published the social encyclical letter Laudato si'. This article analyses the encyclical's contribution in the context of the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. Laudato si' contributes to the vision of the planet as the common house, an integral approach of the ecology orsustainability, an invitation to the interreligious dialog about sustainability and a call to an ecological conversion. When the Pope invites us to this transformation, he is inviting to a change of vision and of conduct. Definitively, to a change of paradigm. To go out of a myopic and reductionist view, unable to analyze the consequences of own actions and move to a global and planetary vision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laudato si' encourages the readers to reconsider, with a renewed interest, the most profound underlying causes of the carelessness and the deterioration of nature. There is a fundamental relation between the ecological crisis and the anthropological degradation. The man of today's developed countries has, in some ways, been transformed by the technology into a superficial and dispersed being: he has been impelled toward narcissism and loneliness, toward possession and rejection. Nature has ceased to be a meeting place for persons and has been converted into either something to care for «because it is close to me» or something to be economically exploited, frequently to the detriment of the poorercountriesand, in the long-term, to everybody's detriment. A change of attitude, which reestablishes the primacy of spirit over matter, is necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lynn White, Jr's 'The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis', which was published in Science in 1967, has played a critically important role in environmental studies. Although White advanced a multifaceted argument, most respondents focused on his claim that the 'Judeo-Christian' tradition, especially Christianity, has promoted anthropocentric attitudes and environmentally destructive behaviors. Here, in Part One of a two-part study, I demonstrate that White was not the first to make such an argument and analyze how White's article precipitated efforts by religionists and scholars alike to uncover or invent pro-environmental interpretations of many religious traditions. I then label subsequent claims that the world's religions are becoming more environmentally friendly as 'The Greening of Religion Hypothesis' and argue that this cultural history of the post-White ferment sets the stage for a much-needed comprehensive review of research illuminating this hypothesis, which is taken up in Part Two of this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human-induced environmental problems are cascading and increasingly affecting the ecosystem, human health and well-being. Human activities, awareness and habits are of paramount importance in remedying the current state of environment. The shaping of attitude, values, perception, commitment and practice of human beings necessary to preserve and protect the environment is closely associated with their belief, worldview, tradition and culture. Hence, religion plays an influential role in developing new patterns of behavior toward the environment. In the context of Malaysia, it is evident that the condition of the environment in Malaysia is worsening as the country continues to industrialize dramatically. As a country with over 60% Muslims, it is necessary to look at environmental preservation from an Islamic perspective. Therefore, this study aims to determine how knowledge and understanding of Islamic teachings of the environment is important. The subjects were 400 Muslim individuals across Malaysia who were randomly selected from different organizations, universities and companies. A web-based survey was conducted using an online collection method. The data analysis illustrated that Islamic environmental awareness has strong association or significant influence with environmental awareness and environmental protection. It specifies that the more Muslim communities in Malaysia are aware about Islamic environmentalism, the more they are aware of their own environment, and consequently, the more they are willing to protect it. Furthermore, the findings also indicate that environmental awareness is positively related to environmental protection. It stipulates that the greater the level of environmental awareness, they greater the level of environmental protection [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The blackened landscape of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (2006) suggests the possibility of a future restoration of the earth through the survival of the nameless boy, who is variously figured as a fire-carrier and more specifically, as the Word of God, a chalice holder, a tabernacle. McCarthy’s privileging of the bodies of the boy and father suggests how the body is the basis for our encounters with the dynamism of place. The sacrificial love of the father for the son exemplifies embodied, emplaced love and is finally Christ-like in its manner and tone. This relationship and the relationship of father and son to the earth, which can be thought of figuratively as God’s body, can be best understood through “deep incarnation,” a dramatic understanding of God’s sacramental presence and action in the world in which human beings build communities and reconsider their place in nature. Moreover, reading the novel through Gerard Manley Hopkins’s sonnet “God’s Grandeur” allows us to see how The Road might suggest both the earth’s capacity to regenerate itself and its potential supernatural restoration. The present ecotheological reading of The Road is the first to unite McCarthy’s intertwined environmental and Christian emphases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our ability to live well depends not only on what we do, but also on who we are. With respect to human-land relationships, we need to become more virtuous. And virtue is cultivated through practice. This paper transforms classical spiritual reading practices into a means of cultivating environmental virtue. Lectio divina is a longstanding practice for reading scripture religiously, motivated by a desire to come to a deeper understanding of and richer relationship with the sacred dimensions of experience. I describe an adaptation of lectio divina suitable for reading nature religiously and offer two illustrations. By reading nature religiously, we may develop environmental virtues, becoming more attentive, more thoughtful, more committed, more reverent, and more humble as we encounter the natural world. This model of a practice for cultivating environmental virtue enriches an essential aspect of environmental ethics, enhancing our prospects for attaining human and ecological flourishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Turkey's Gezi Park protests reminded us, Islamist parties the world over demonstrate utter disregard of the environment in their discourse and actions. However, Islam as a religion places strong emphasis on environmental protection. Thus, as the representatives of Islam that these parties claim themselves to be, it is puzzling that environmental policy is all but absent from most Islamist platforms. I ask, what explains the poverty of Islamists in regards to the environment? I argue that the reason for this poverty is found within and conforms to political Islam's problematic relationship with modernity, particularly in regards to their strong anti-western sentiment and self-purported victim status. My findings suggest that the inattention Islamists give to the environment is due to their association of environmentalism with the West and because of the uniquely unfavourable socio-economic environments in which they exist, which sends environmentalism to the purview of ‘low politics’. This analysis points to an inherent weakness in Islamist ideology – their lack of pragmatic policy. Hence, the peculiar case of Islamists and the environment is but a symptom of a larger issue within Islamism and can be a key element to understanding why and how Islamism is likely to fail. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article explores various Christian views in support and in opposition to environmental protection measures with regard to climate change. A survey of differing positions on the issue is given from 1970 to the present, outlining a diversity of views each grounded in Biblical interpretation. Further comments are then given discussing how to engage in such views constructively.

This article traces the emergence of climate change discourse and its related practices in one of the largest and globally most influential Taiwanese Buddhist organizations – Tzu-Chi (Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu-Chi Association). The authors analyse more than 500 volumes of Tzu-Chi’s periodicals and describe its recycling practice from the social organizational perspective. Our findings suggest that climate change discourse has emerged in recent years as a response to increasing natural disasters, particularly typhoons. Practices such as recycling are implemented in order to address this crisis through the cultivation of a disciplined inner self. The article compensates for the lack of current studies on what Buddhist organizations actually do for the environment and how they address climate change. It also offers a correction to the studies on environmental movements, in which religious environmentalism is often overlooked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the role of religious studies initiated by members of American Academy of Religion (AAR) in addressing the issue of global environmental change. Several observations are cited regarding the roundtable on climate destabilization and the study of religion including the impact of global climate change on religious studies, scholarship in religious studies and the role of religion in social and ecological issues.

The article presents an analysis of anthropogenic climate change within the framework of the study of Hinduism. It is argued that scholars and students of Hinduism should focus on this analysis because of their ability to address the social, cultural and ethical implications of climate change, the use of the Hinduism's mytho-geological conception of time in explaining this phenomenon, and nature of every religion to affirm the oneness of humankind.

This article presents new evidence with which to evaluate the validity of the popular picture of religious environmentalism in India. It examines accounts of a large number of incidents described in Indian language newspapers, the colonial archive, and hunting literature published between the 1870s and 1940s, in which British and other sportsmen clashed with villagers in India while out hunting. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the colonial sports-hunting obsession was in its heyday, but opposition to hunting across India was also mounting. Rural villagers, in particular, were often willing to become involved in physical combat with hunters, apparently in order to protect local wildlife. Sportsmen often assumed that it was religious fanaticism that made Hindus defend the lives of what they saw as game animals, trophies, and specimens. The article provides evidence that, in addition to religion, a mixture of other motivations explains Hindu interest in the conservation of certain species. Anti-colonial consciousness, assertions of local authority and territoriality, and an environmental ethic can all be identified as being at work. The end result was the increased conservation of certain species of wildlife. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although the environmental movement was established in the West, there is currently an Islamist variant that has received less attention. The Quran and the Hadiths provide guidance for the faithful on the relationship between Allah, humanity and nature. The article will examine and compare the environmental agendas of six Islamist groups: Hizb'allah, Hizb ut-Tahrir, Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, Jamaat-e-Islami, and al Qaeda. While they all share similar concerns, Islamists have developed globalized, glocalized, or localized ‘scales’ of engagement, depending on the targeted audience. Finally, the article will examine the security implications of Islamist environmentalism, including the possibility of an alliance between Islamists and militant environmentalists. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the relationship between environmentalism and West German Protestantism around 1980. The reworking of biblical literalism to reflect the growing public interest in environmentalism is described along with the influence of Native American animist religious ideology on the practices of West German Protestantism, the integration of environmentalism and native religious practices is characterized as forming a counterworld, and alleged struggles to position non-Christian and non-European within the church's European values structure are examined.

The article looks at secular and religious environmental trends in contemporary Turkey, based on fieldwork conducted in 2012. Topics tackled include the central environmental actors in the country, differences concerning ideology and ways of working between the secular and religious fields, and the environmental history of Turkey. The emergence of key state institutions related to environmentalism is discussed.

Scholars of Korean religions have commonly held the view that Christianity and Buddhism have deliberately tried to exclude one another as they struggled to win popular favor over the previous three decades of radical socio-economic change in Korea. The authors of this article argue that, contrary to the existing view, the two religions have been broadening a common ground of understanding and creating an allied action front. At the core of this positive engagement has been the environmental movement. Christian and Buddhist environmental activists have set a model agenda and viable action plans, and share a conception of the meaning of life and human happiness revolving around various environmental issues. To show how the environmental movement has brought the two parties closer, this article examines how ecological concerns emerged within the two religions in the first place, explores the ways they managed to cooperate on concrete environmental issues, and assesses the extent to which those common efforts have been successful. It concludes with the implications of such cooperation for the present and future relationship between Korean Buddhism and Christianity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we analyze the ways in which Evangelicals frame a rhetoric of environmental concern and environmental apathy, with a larger focus on the latter. Heeding calls to further explore within-Evangelical differences, we compare environmental narratives of 20 leaders and laity of a predominantly white Southern Baptist congregation and 20 leaders and laity from an African American Baptist church, both located in a Southwestern American city. We find, especially on the topic of climate change, that most Evangelicals in our study readily evince environmental apathy, which we explore in depth. In particular, we find a belief in a rigid hierarchy of God, humans, and then the environment; a belief in the sovereignty of God; and evangelical eschatological beliefs help generate narratives of environmental apathy. There are different environmental narratives, between the two congregations, that are framed in terms of political affiliation and socioeconomic status. But we find little evidence to suggest that religious beliefs foster different environmental attitudes across the two congregations. We conclude with future research directions and implications for those who wish to foster environmental concern among Evangelicals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Courses about religion and the environment should work toward a synthesis of critical thinking - teaching students to examine and question the interplay of environmental degradation, religious traditions, and new religious movements - and advocacy - helping students to embrace, articulate, and refine their own environmentalist commitments, in religious terms when appropriate. To meet these goals, teachers of religion and the environment can learn from literature on balancing faith and critical analysis in other religion courses. This literature will help us to clarify the goals of our courses, critically examine the environmental movement with our students, and remain trustworthy to those who do not share environmentalist commitments. See a companion essay in this issue of the journal ( Jennifer R. Ayres, 'Learning on the Ground') and a response to both of these essays ( Forrest Clingerman, 'Pedagogy as a Field Guide to the Ecology of the Classroom') also published in this issue of the journal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented about the argument that religion should take into consideration the problem of ecological crisis seriously. It offers information on thee five primary implications of group dynamics. Moreover, it presents ways on how faith community members renegotiate in the creation of doctrinal synthesis and the integration of nature in spirituality.

A growing religious-environmental movement is working to reconcile environmental thought and practice with the mission and ministry of religious organizations. We examine two leading interfaith social change organizations and identify key strategies they routinely employ to create shared meaning and alignment between environmentalism and faith. They reframe stewardship in religious organizations by (1) highlighting and interpreting environmental themes in sacred texts and scriptures, (2) celebrating and fostering mutual awareness of environmental action by faith-based organizations, and (3) providing resources and creating linkages between clergy and lay leaders across religious congregations. By emphasizing moral and spiritual rationales for the adoption of resource-saving products and behaviors at both the congregational and household level, these networked organizations help shift the perception of global climate change from an insurmountable problem to one that is being addressed in cooperation with similar others. Our investigation reveals organizational actors deeply engaged in growing moral calls for political action to address climate change and underscores the need for more socially realistic models of technology adoption and behavior change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses the religious environmental movement and discusses various traits of the concept of eco-theology. According to the article, eco-theology involves what the author identifies as a sacramental approach to environmental crises, and incorporates scientific knowledge with the cosmos as the primary text of revelation. The article also examines methods for transforming traditional theology including retrieval of neglected religious texts, reinterpretation of sacred texts, and the reconstruction of theology.

Environmentalists commonly offer three motives for why human populations need to be reduced or stabilized. One group maintains that human numbers threaten natural goods that should be preserved: biodiversity and ecosystems. A more extreme group maintains that we are taking up more than our fair share of the planet, eliminating species that havejust as much right to be here. A third group advocates controlling human populations in order to prevent the environment from being degraded to the point that it harms people. I intend to examine in light of Catholic social teaching whether these proposed motives for controlling population are always anti-life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I examine whether certain aspects of early Buddhist doctrine are compatible with ascribing value to nature by focusing in particular on the doctrine of the Three Marks of Existence. This portrays the world as characterised by suffering, impermanence, and by 'not-self'. From the perspective of environmental philosophy each of these is problematic, either because nature is viewed negatively, or else because only nibbãna is valued positively, and this is understood to entail a repudiation of the world. I argue against such interpretations and show that the doctrine of not-self militates against any attribution of value, whether positive or negative. This disposes of the prevalent charge that the doctrines imply a negative view of nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the highlights of the Christian Faith and the Earth Conference: Respice et Prospice held on August 6-10, 2012 at the Sustainability Institute in South Africa. The conference was attended by 50 participants from different countries. Presentations were made by Professor Celia Deane-Drummond, Professor Denis Edwards and Peter Manley Scott. The conference also included parallel sessions on topics including ecclesiology, pneumatology and environmental identity.

The environmental crisis is increasingly being seen as both a spiritual and a moral problem. When approaching environmental problems, British Muslim environmental groups depend on a combinations of premodern textual sources (the Islamic legal tradition) and rational elaborations that legitimate Western beliefs. But the combination of traditional and modern sources for each organization varies. The use of Issue Crawler mapping software reveals that among these groups, the ones that have the greatest inclination toward Islamic textual approaches are the most influential in the wider environmental movement. This finding highlights the importance of religion in solving the environmental crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented that discusses the motivations of U.S. religious congregations for participating in environmental activism, focusing on issues related to climate change. Topics include the importance of scientific literacy, the role of moral worldview expansion in promoting concern for social justice, and awareness of social, economic, and ecological interdependence.