Richard C. Foltz (Ph.D. Harvard, 1996) is an assistant professor of religion at the University of Florida. He
is also an affiliate faculty member in the Department of History, the Department of Asian Studies, and the College
of Natural Resources and Environment. He has published books on a variety of subjects, including environmentalism,
history, and religion.
Summary
Perhaps unprecedented in scope, this anthology explores current environmental and ecological issues amidst the
various worldviews, cultures, and traditions that constitute the world's major religions. Presenting a global conceptual
landscape in part one with selections that focus on the spiritual and environmental crises associated with modernity,
this volume, with typical skillful editing in part two, distills all of the major world religions' perspectives--Eastern,
Western, and newly emerging--on contemporary ecological issues. Part three rounds out this extraordinary collection
of insights with an exploration of other cross-cutting motifs in today's enviro-cultural criticism, including radical
environmentalism, ecofeminism, ecojustice, and the rising voice of the Global South.
Benefits:
Each chapter includes an overview to foster students' engagements with the key ideas in the readings.
Discussion questions that follow each chapter encourage students to interrogate critically their own worldviews
and environmental outlooks with reference to the diverse perspectives encountered in the selections.
Suggestions for further readings that follow each chapter facilitate the quick identification of additional
research avenues for students.
Table of Contents
Preface.
Introduction .
Worldviews: Understanding Our Place in a Global Age. Part One: ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS, SPIRITUAL CRISIS.
Chapter 1. Seeds of a Green Theology.
W. C. Lowdermilk: The Eleventh Commandment.
Joseph Sittler: A Theology for Earth.
Seyyed Hossein Nasr: The Problem.
Lynn White, Jr.: The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis.
Chapter 2. Humans, Nature, and Modernity.
Carolyn Merchant: Dominion Over Nature.
Gregg Easterbrook: The New Nature.
Jerry Mander: In the Absence of the Sacred.
David R. Loy: The Religion of the Market.
Part Two: INTERPRETING TRADITION.
Chapter 3. First Peoples.
Vine Deloria: Sacred Places and Moral Responsibility.
Mary Graham: The Philosophical Underpinnings of Aboriginal Worldview.
C.K. Omari: Traditional African Land Ethics.
Gary Paul Nabhan: Cultural Parallax in Viewing North American Habitats.
Chapter 4. South Asian Traditions.
Christopher Chapple: Jaina and Hindu Responses to the Environmental Crisis.
O.P. Dwivedi: Dharmic Ecology.
Vasudha Narayanan: Every Tree is a Bodhi Tree.
Kelly Alley: Ganga's Purity and Pollution.
Chapter 5. Buddhism. Rita Gross: Toward a Buddhist Environmental Ethic.
Ian Harris: Ecological Buddhism?
Donald Swearer Buddhist Ecology in Contemporary Thailand.
Stephanie Kaza: To Save All Beings.
Chapter 6. Chinese Traditions.
Tu Weiming: The Continuity of Being: Chinese Visions of Nature.
Mary Evelyn Tucker: Ecological Themes in Taoism and Confucianism.
Chung-Ying Cheng: On the Environmental Ethics of the Tao and the Ch'i.
Ole Bruun: Fengshui and the Chinese Perception of Nature.
Chapter 7. Japanese Traditions.
Brian Bocking: Japanese Attitudes Toward Nature.
Yuriko Saito: The Japanese Appreciation of Nature.
Arne Kalland: Culture in Japanese Nature.
Joy Hendry: Nature Tamed.
Chapter 8. Judaism.
Aloys Hüttermann: The Most Misunderstood Part of the Bible.
Tikva Frymer-Kensky: Ecology in a Biblical Perspective.
Steven S. Schwarzchild: The Unnatural Jew.
Arthur Waskow: And the Earth is Filled With the Breath of Life.
Chapter 9. Christianity.
Anna Peterson: In and of the World.
Sallie McFague: An Ecological Christology: Does Christianity Have It?
John Chryssavgis: The World of the Icon and Creation.
Calvin DeWitt: The Three Big Questions.
Chapter 10. Islam.
Richard Foltz: Islamic Environmentalism in Theory and Practice.
K.L. Afrasiabi: Towards an Islamic Ecotheology.
Nawal H. Ammar: The Ecological Crisis and Islamic Social Justice.
Fazlun Khalid: The Disconnected People.
Chapter 11. Emerging Religions.
Robert A. White: A Baha'i Perspective on an Ecologically Sustainable Society.
Richard C. Foltz: Mormon Values and the Utah Environment.
Bruce M. Sullivan: Theology and Ecology at the Birthplace of Krishna.
Graham Harvey: Paganism and the Environment.
Part Three: CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES.
Chapter 12. Ecocentrism and Radical Environmentalism.
Aldo Leopold: The Land Ethic.
Bill Devall and George Sessions: Principles of Deep Ecology.
Joanna Macy: The Ecological Self.
Bron Taylor: Earth First!'s Religious Radicalism.
Chapter 13. Ecofeminism.
Ynestra King: The Ecology of Feminism and the Feminism of Ecology.
Rosemary Radford Ruether: Ecofeminism: The Challenge to Theology.
Shamara Shantu Riley: Ecology is a Sistah's Issue Too.
Mary Mellor: Ecofeminism and Ecosocialism.
Chapter 14. Voices From the Global South.
B.D. Sharma: On Sustainability.
Leonardo Boff: Science, Technology, Power, and Liberation Theology.
Marthinus L. Daneel: Earthkeeping Churches at the African Grass Roots.
Eliane Potiguara: The Earth is the Indian's Mother, Nhandecy.
Chapter 15. New Cosmologies and Visions.
Thomas Berry: The New Story.
James Lovelock: God and Gaia.
Riane Eisler: Toward a Partnership Future.
Roger S. Gottlieb: A Spirituality of Resistance.
Chapter 16. Globalization, Community and Ecojustice.
David C. Korten: The Failures of Bretton Woods.
Helena Norberg-Hodge: The Pressure to Modernize and Globalize.
Wendell Berry: Does Community Have a Value?
Larry Rasmussen: Global Eco-Justice.
