Religion And Ecology

Issues of Religion and Ecology are taken up by individual schools and their programs as well as through the Religion and Science program of the Boston Theological Institute. In academic year 2009-2010, the following activities are in development:

1) A screening of the film, “The Green Patriarch,” in the BTI schools. This film illustrates the pioneering work of the Ecumenical Patriarch in matters of ecological stewardship.

Churches and other religious institutions are working to respond to society’s environmental concerns. How this is best done is a question that shapes theological thinking today. It is one that the theologians, staff and students throughout the BTI schools have wrestled over the past number of years. It is a question that draws us to the science and religion dialogue as well as to practical action with respect to the environment and other ecological concerns.

Click here for a more extensive argument on the importance of the engagement of religion with science respecting environmental and ecological concerns taken from the book, Earth at Risk. An Environmental Dialogue between Religion and Science.

In sketching an ecumenical approach to the environmental crisis that we face today, physicist and theologian Ian Barbour is critical both of the devaluation of theology and of its separation from general philosophical reflection. Instead, Barbour points to the importance of the science and religion dialogue. Both scientific and religious approaches make use of conceptual models as they endeavor to deal with mystery. Both are tested in community. Contrary to their supposed divisions, they are overlapping domains that need to be reformulated in light of each other.

Click here for further information on the science-religion dialogue in the Boston area taken from the paper, “A NEW CENTER FOR SCIENCE, RELIGION, AND ETHICS IN BOSTON.”

One of the salient problems of Western philosophy has been the non-communication between the “literary” culture and the “scientific” culture in society. The failure to understand each other’s language and orientation, their fracture, constitutes a grave social threat. Barbour proceeds to sketch five theological themes that support Christian environmentalism. He underscores the oneness of humanity and nature and draws us to issues of ecojustice set in the context of long-term sustainable practices which churches, more than other institutions in society, can foster.

Click here for an argument by the leading environmentalist and theologian, Scott Paradise, that the ecological crisis is, at bottom, religious.

What makes contemporary debate over the environment, as encapsulated in the Affirmation of such interest for churches and other ecclesial and faith communities is the way in which it takes the most mundane and turns it to the apparently abstract. Congregations of faith, asked to discuss the use of styrofoam cups in church functions, are led to inquire about their most fundamental life assumptions. Debate over the spotted owl leads to interfaith reflection among Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and other faith groups. Decisions which need to be made concerning pollution in local drinking water or toxic waste drive communities to reflect on issues of ecological justice and the premises from which they are derived. The environmental crisis is not just about ecology. It mirrors the understanding and attitudes that we have about ourselves. It reminds us that our “inner ecology” helps to define and give shape to the “outer ecology.”

Additional Resources

• Contact the BTI office for current school and consortium activities.
• Contact the BTI for a copy of the video, “Living in Nature,” produced by the BTI (1997) and based on a conference sponsored by the BTI together with FASE and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1995)
• Order a copy of Earth at Risk. An Environmental Dialogue between Religion and Science. Donald B. Conroy and Rodney L. Petersen, eds. (Amherst, NY: Humanity Books, 2000).
• Order a copy of Consumption, Population, and Sustainability. Perspectives from Science and Religion. Audrey R. Chapman, Rodney L. Petersen and Barbara Smith-Moran, eds. (Washington, D. C.: Island Press, 2000).
• On the importance of the consonance of our “inner ecology” with the “outer ecology,” order a copy of Thorns in the Garden Planet. Meditations on the Creator’s Care. By Vera Shaw (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Press, 1993)
• See the work of the Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School and University. See: http://www.hds.harvard.edu/cswr/