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Emerging Alliance of World Religions and Ecology 1
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Mary Evelyn Tucker and John A. Grim
Introduction: The Emerging Alliance of
World Religions and Ecology
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HIS ISSUE OF DÆDALUS brings together for the first time diverse perspectives from the world’s religious traditions regarding attitudes toward nature with reflections from the fields of science, public policy, and ethics. The scholars of religion in this volume identify symbolic, scriptural, and ethical dimensions within particular religions in their relations with the natural world. They examine these dimensions both historically and in response to contemporary environmental problems. Our Dædalus planning conference in October of 1999 fo- cused on climate change as a planetary environmental con- cern. 1 As Bill McKibben alerted us more than a decade ago, global warming may well be signaling “the end of nature” as we have come to know it. 2 It may prove to be one of our most challenging issues in the century ahead, certainly one that will need the involvement of the world’s religions in addressing its causes and alleviating its symptoms. The State of the World 2000 report cites climate change (along with population) as the critical challenge of the new century. It notes that in solving this problem, “all of society’s institutions—from organized re- ligion to corporations—have a role to play.” 3 That religions have a role to play along with other institutions and academic disciplines is also the premise of this issue of Dædalus. The call for the involvement of religion begins with the lead essays by a scientist, a policy expert, and an ethicist. Michael
Mary Evelyn Tucker is a professor of religion at Bucknell University. John A. Grim is a professor of religion and chair of the religion department at Bucknell University.
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McElroy, chairman of the Harvard University department of earth and planetary sciences, outlines the history of the earth’s evolution, thus providing a comprehensive context for under- standing the current impact of humans on global climate change. As McElroy observes, while the earth’s evolution has occurred over some 4.6 billion years, Homo sapiens sapiens appeared only some 150,000 years ago. Moreover, in the last few hun- dred years of the industrial revolution, humans have radically altered the nature of the planet—warming its climate, depleting its resources, polluting its soil, water, and air. He cites the cultural historian Thomas Berry and his perspective on the evolutionary story of the emergence of life as providing “our primary revelatory experience of the divine.” McElroy ob- serves that to change the global environment irreversibly with- out concern for the consequences to present or future genera- tions creates a fundamental challenge for the moral principles of the world’s religions. Public-policy expert Donald Brown elaborates further on the nature of contemporary climate change and the human impact on this process. He echoes McElroy’s call for the ethical involvement of the world’s religions in mitigating the human causes and planetary effects of climate change. Environmental ethicist J. Baird Callicott proposes a method to bring together the larger scientific story of evolution outlined in McElroy’s essay with the diversity of the world’s religions. He describes this as an “orchestral approach” em- bracing the varied ethical positions of the world’s religions in an emerging global environmental ethics. No definitive attempt is made in this issue to articulate a comprehensive environmental ethics. However, the essays that follow, written by scholars of religion, suggest manifold ways of creatively rethinking human-Earth relations and of activat- ing informed environmental concern from the varied perspec- tives of the world’s religions. The objective here is to present a prismatic view of the potential and actual resources embedded in the world’s religions for supporting sustainable practices toward the environment. An underlying assumption is that most religious traditions have developed attitudes of respect, rever-
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respond to our current environmental crises, their moral au- thority and their institutional power may help effect a change in attitudes, practices, and public policies. As key repositories of enduring civilizational values and as indispensable motivators in moral transformation, religions have an important role to play in projecting persuasive visions of a more sustainable future. This is especially true because our attitudes toward nature have been consciously and unconsciously conditioned by our religious worldviews. Over thirty years ago the historian Lynn White observed this when he noted: “What people do about their ecology depends on what they think about themselves in relation to things around them. Human ecology is deeply conditioned by beliefs about our nature and destiny—that is, by religion.” 5 White’s article signaled the be- ginning of contemporary reflection on how environmental atti- tudes are shaped by religious worldviews. It is only in recent years, however, that this topic has been more fully explored, especially in the ten conferences on world religions and ecology held at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School from 1996–1998. 6 Awareness of this reality has led to the identification, in the published conference volumes, of religious perspectives especially rich in resources for defining principles that may help us preserve nature and protect the earth community. 7 In soliciting essays for this issue of Dædalus, we asked schol- ars of various religions to address a few key questions: 1) What cosmological dimensions in this tradition help relate humans to nature? 2) How do this tradition and its sacred texts support or challenge the idea of nature as simply a utilitarian resource? 3) What are the core values from this tradition that can lead to the creation of an effective environmental ethics? 4) From within this religious tradition, can we identify responsible human prac- tices toward natural systems, sustainable communities, and future generations? It was considered important that the reli- gion scholars reflect on these broad questions in order to iden- tify those attitudes, values, and practices that might be most appropriate in addressing contemporary environmental prob- lems, especially climate change.
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THE CHALLENGE OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS
The environmental crisis has been well documented as a plural reality in its various interconnected aspects of resource deple- tion and species extinction, pollution growth and climate change, population explosion and overconsumption. Thus, while we are using the term “environmental crisis” in a singular form, we recognize the diverse nature of the interrelated problems. These problems have been subject to extensive analysis and scrutiny by the scientific and policy communities and, although compre- hensive solutions remain elusive, there is an emerging consen- sus that the environmental crisis is both global in scope and local in impact. The Worldwatch Institute has been monitoring the global deterioration of the environment over the last two decades in their annual State of the World report. In the 2001 report, the concluding article observes: “Despite abundant in- formation about our environmental impact, human activities continue to scalp whole forests, drain rivers dry, prune the Tree of Evolution, raise the level of the seven seas, and reshape climate patterns. And the toll on people and the natural envi- ronment and social systems feed on each other.” 8 There is also a dawning realization that the changes we are currently making to planetary systems are comparable to the changes of a major geological era. Indeed, some have said we are closing down life systems on the planet and causing species extinction at such a rate as to mark the end of the Cenozoic era. 9 Others compare the current rate of extinction to earlier geological periods such as the Jurassic (138 million years before the present) and the Permian (245 mybp). While this stark picture of the state of the environment has created pessimism among many and denial among others, it is also increasingly evident that human decisions will be crucial for the survival of many life forms on Earth. The long-term health of both people and the planet is in the balance. As ecosystems deteriorate, as global warming increases, as economic growth proceeds with- out restraint, technical solutions alone will be insufficient to stem the unraveling of the web of life. Some would say pessi- mistically, “If current trends continue, we will not.” 10 Peter
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role in light of the world’s religions to foster mutually enhanc- ing human-Earth relations.
SIXTH EXTINCTION AND TRANSFORMATIVE BOUNDARIES
We are entering the twenty-first century with a new sense of humility at what humans have wrought as well as with a renewed sense of hope at what we might still achieve. A plaque in the Hall of Biodiversity at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City suggests that we are in the midst of a sixth extinction period for which human activities are largely responsible. Yet it also notes that, depending on our choices, we are still capable of stemming this massive destruction of life forms. It is this critical juncture we are facing between pursuing unbridled “progress” and reconfiguring the relation of economy and ecology for a sustainable future. This constitutes the poten- tial for new transformative boundaries. A major question we confront is: What are the appropriate boundaries for the pro- tection and use of nature? The choices will not be easy as we begin to reassess our sense of rights and responsibilities to present and future generations, and to reevaluate appropriate needs and overextended greed regarding natural resources. This reevaluation of transformative boundaries has been set in motion by a number of key sectors ranging from grassroots and nongovernmental organizations to national governments and the United Nations. The convergence of efforts fostered by civil society, the nation-states, and international organizations is noteworthy. Business, too, is beginning to play an important role in developing principles and practices for environmentally sensitive cost accounting. 11 For the first time in human history remarkable new initiatives are emerging that struggle to re- strain our overextended presence on the planet. The results of these initiatives will be difficult to evaluate immediately, but their cumulative effect will be indispensable in redirecting our current destructive course. Indeed, some have suggested that we are in a new phase of cultural evolution now surpassing biological evolution where human decisions will shape the course of planetary history as was never before possible. 12 This move- ment toward sustainable human-Earth relations is being led by
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individuals and organizations who are developing and imple- menting alternative energy sources, environmentally compat- ible technologies and designs, green economic and business systems, sustainable agriculture and fishing initiatives, and en- vironmental education programs. 13 These creative movements are not simply technologically driven but are guided by an understanding of identifying principles and practices that pro- mote the flourishing of the earth community as a whole. Further evidence of this movement toward a sustainable fu- ture has emerged over the last decade with the wide range of international and national conferences that are being held, research that is being published, and policies that are being implemented. Indeed, in the decades since the United Nations Conference on the Environment was held in Stockholm in 1972 and the UN Conference on Environment and Development (also known as the Earth Summit) was convened in Rio in 1992, the United Nations has repeatedly identified the environmental crisis as a critical global challenge. This international political body has highlighted “sustainable development” as a central goal of the earth community. The 1987 Bruntland Commission report, Our Common Future , outlined key strategies toward that end. Since the Rio Earth Summit, the United Nations has held various other major international conferences to analyze our global situation and devise strategies for ensuring a sustain- able future. These include conferences on social development, habitat, women, population, and food. These UN conferences have been supplemented by the work of literally thousands of nongovernmental and environmental organizations around the world toward formulating more sustainable and just policies and programs for civil society. Sustainable development has been critiqued by some environ- mental, labor, and human-rights organizations as often leading toward rampant globalization of capital and the homogeniza- tion of cultures. The unintended consequences of globalization in the loss of habitat, species, and cultures make it clear that new forms of equitable distribution of wealth and resources need to be implemented. Indeed, the growing inequities of North and South that are exacerbated by environmental deterioration and climate change remain a leading challenge to the global
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religious teaching, example, and leadership are powerfully able to influence personal conduct and commitment. As scientists, many of us have had profound experiences of awe and rever- ence before the universe. We understand that what is regarded as sacred is more likely to be treated with care and respect. Our planetary home should be so regarded. Efforts to safeguard and cherish the environment need to be infused with a vision of the sacred.” 15 A second important document, “World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity,” was produced by the Union of Concerned Scien- tists in 1992 and was signed by more than two thousand scien- tists, including more than two hundred Nobel Laureates. This document also suggests that the planet is facing a severe envi- ronmental crisis: “Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course.... Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible damage on the environment and on critical re- sources. If not checked, many of our current practices put at risk the future that we wish for human society and the plant and animal kingdoms, and may so alter the living world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know. Funda- mental changes are urgent if we are to avoid the collision our present course will bring about.” These changes will require the special assistance and com- mitment of those in the religious community. Indeed, the docu- ment calls for the cooperation of natural and social scientists, business and industrial leaders—and also religious leaders. It concludes with a call for environmentally sensitive attitudes and behaviors, which religious communities can help to articu- late: “A new ethic is required—a new attitude towards dis- charging our responsibilities for caring for ourselves and for the earth. We must recognize the earth’s limited capacity to pro- vide for us. We must recognize its fragility. We must no longer allow it to be ravaged. This ethic must motivate a great move- ment, convincing reluctant leaders and reluctant governments and reluctant peoples themselves to effect the needed changes.” 16
RESPONSES FROM THE WORLD ’ S RELIGIONS
Although the responses of religions to the global environmental crisis were slow at first, they have been steadily growing over
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the last twenty-five years. Several years after the first UN Conference on Environment and Development in Stockholm in 1972, some Christian churches began to address growing envi- ronmental and social challenges. At the fifth Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Nairobi in 1975, there was a call to establish the conditions for a “just, participatory, and sustainable [global] society.” In 1979, a follow-up WCC conference was held at Massachusetts Institute of Technology on “Faith, Science, and the Future.” 17 The 1983 Vancouver Assembly of the WCC revised the theme of the Nairobi confer- ence to include “Justice, Peace, and the Integrity of Creation.” The 1991 WCC Canberra conference expanded on these ideas with the theme of the “Holy Spirit Renewing the Whole of Creation.” After Canberra, the WCC theme for mission in society became “Theology of Life.” This has brought theologi- cal reflection to bear on environmental destruction and social inequities resulting from economic globalization. In 1992, at the time of the UN Earth Summit in Rio, the WCC facilitated a gathering of Christian leaders that issued a “Letter to the Churches,” calling for attention to pressing eco-justice con- cerns: solidarity with other people and all creatures; ecological sustainability; sufficiency as a standard of distributive justice; and socially just participation in decisions for the common good. 18 In addition to major conferences held by the Christian churches, several interreligious meetings have been held, and various religious movements have emerged concerning the environ- ment. Some of these include the interreligious gatherings on the environment in Assisi in 1984 under the sponsorship of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and under the auspices of the Vatican in 1986. Moreover, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has established an Interfaith Partnership for the Environment (IPE) that has distributed thousands of packets of materials for use in local congregations and religious communities for more than fifteen years. 19 The two most recent Parliaments of World Religions—held in Chicago in 1993, and in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1999— both issued major statements on global ethics, stressing envi- ronmental issues as well as human rights. The Global Forum of
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Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders, the environment was a major topic of discussion. The UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, called for a new ethic of global stewardship, recognizing the urgent situation posed by current unsustainable trends. 23
RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD AND ECOLOGY PROJECT
It was in light of these various initiatives that a three-year intensive conference series, entitled “Religions of the World and Ecology,” was organized at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School to examine the varied ways in which human-Earth relations have been con- ceived in the world’s religious traditions. From 1996–1998 the series of ten conferences examined the traditions of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, Shinto, and indigenous religions. The confer- ences, organized by Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim in collaboration with a team of area specialists, brought together over seven hundred international scholars of the world’s reli- gions as well as environmental activists and grassroots leaders. Recognizing that religions are key shapers of people’s worldviews and formulators of their most cherished values, this broad research project informs many of the essays gathered in this issue of Dædalus. Since 1998, an ongoing Forum on Religion and Ecology has been organized to continue the research, education, and out- reach begun at these earlier conferences. A primary goal of the forum is to help to establish a field of study in religion and ecology that has implications for public policy. The forum is involved in holding scholarly conferences as well as initiating workshops for high-school teachers, distributing curricular re- sources for college courses, supporting a journal on religion and ecology, 24 and creating a comprehensive web site (http:// environment.harvard.edu/religion). Just as religions played an important role in creating sociopolitical changes in the twentieth century (e.g., human and civil rights), so now religions are poised in the twenty-first
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century to contribute to the emergence of a broader environ- mental ethics based on diverse sensibilities regarding the sacred dimensions of the natural world.
DEFINING TERMS : RELIGION AND ECOLOGY
Religion is more than simply a belief in a transcendent deity or a means to an afterlife. It is, rather, an orientation to the cosmos and our role in it. We understand religion in its broadest sense as a means whereby humans, recognizing the limitations of phenomenal reality, undertake specific practices to effect self-transformation and community cohesion within a cosmo- logical context. Religion thus refers to those cosmological sto- ries, symbol systems, ritual practices, ethical norms, historical processes, and institutional structures that transmit a view of the human as embedded in a world of meaning and responsibil- ity, transformation and celebration. Religion connects humans with a divine or numinous presence, with the human commu- nity, and with the broader earth community. It links humans to the larger matrix of mystery in which life arises, unfolds, and flourishes. In this light nature is a revelatory context for orienting hu- mans to abiding religious questions regarding the cosmological origins of the universe, the meaning of the emergence of life, and the responsible role of humans in relation to life processes. Religion thus situates humans in relation to both the natural and human worlds with regard to meaning and responsibility. At the same time, religion becomes a means of experiencing a sustaining creative force in the natural and human worlds and beyond. For some traditions this is a creator deity; for others it is a numinous presence in nature; for others it is the source of flourishing life. This experience of a creative force gives rise to a human desire to enter into processes of transformation and celebration that link self, society, and cosmos. The individual is connected to the larger human community and to the macrocosm of the universe itself. The transformative impulse seeks relationality, intimacy, and communion with this numinous power. Individual
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rivers and oceans. These encompass symbolic and ritual ex- changes that frequently embody agricultural processes, eco- logical knowledge of ecosystems, or hunting practices. 26 The study of religion and ecology explores the many ways in which religious communities ritually articulate relationships with their local landscapes and bioregions. Religious ecology gives insight into how people and cultures create both symbolic systems of human-Earth relations and practical means of sus- taining and implementing these relations.
METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF RELIGION AND ECOLOGY
There is an inevitable disjunction between the examination of historical religious traditions in all of their diversity and com- plexity and the application of teachings or scriptures to contem- porary situations. While religions have always been involved in meeting contemporary challenges over the centuries, it is clear that the global environmental crisis is larger and more complex than anything in recorded human history. Thus, a simple appli- cation of traditional ideas to contemporary problems is unlikely to be either possible or adequate. In order to address ecological problems properly, religious leaders and laypersons have to be in dialogue with environmentalists, scientists, economists, businesspeople, politicians, and educators. With these qualifications in mind we can then identify three methodological approaches that appear in the emerging study of religion and ecology: retrieval, reevaluation, and reconstruc- tion. Each of these methodological approaches is represented in the essays included in this volume. Interpretive retrieval involves the scholarly investigation of cosmological, scriptural, and legal sources in order to clarify traditional religious teachings regarding human-Earth relations. This requires that historical and textual studies uncover re- sources latent within the tradition. In addition, interpretive retrieval can identify ethical codes and ritual customs of the tradition in order to discover how these teachings were put into practice.
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In interpretive reevaluation, traditional teachings are evalu- ated with regard to their relevance to contemporary circum- stances. Can the ideas, teachings, or ethics present in these traditions be adopted by contemporary scholars or practitioners who wish to help shape more ecologically sensitive attitudes and sustainable practices? Reevaluation also questions ideas that may lead to inappropriate environmental practices. For example, are certain religious tendencies reflective of otherworldly or world-denying orientations that are not helpful in relation to pressing ecological issues? It asks as well whether the material world of nature has been devalued by a particular religion and whether a model of ethics focusing solely on human interaction is adequate to address environmental problems. Finally, interpretive reconstruction suggests ways that reli- gious traditions might adapt their teachings to current circum- stances in new and creative ways. This may result in a new synthesis or in a creative modification of traditional ideas and practices to suit modern modes of expression. This is the most challenging aspect of the emerging field of religion and ecology and requires sensitivity to who is speaking about a tradition in the process of reevaluation and reconstruction. Postcolonial critics have appropriately highlighted the complex issues sur- rounding the problem of who is representing or interpreting a tradition. Nonetheless, practitioners and leaders of particular traditions may find grounds for creative dialogue with scholars of religious traditions in these various phases of interpretation.
DIVERSITY AND DIALOGUE OF RELIGIONS
The diversity of the world’s religions may seem self-evident to some, but it is worth stressing the differences within and be- tween religious traditions. At the same time, it is possible to posit shared dimensions of religions in light of this diversity, without arguing that the world’s religions have some single emergent goal. The world’s religions are inherently distinctive in their expressions, and these differences are especially signifi- cant in regard to the study of religion and ecology.
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CONVERGING PERSPECTIVES : COMMON VALUES
FOR THE EARTH COMMUNITY
This project of exploring world religions and ecology may lead toward convergence on several overarching principles. As many of the essays illustrate, the common values that most of the world’s religions hold in relation to the natural world might be summarized as reverence, respect, restraint, redistribution, and responsibility. While there are clearly variations of interpreta- tion within and between religions regarding these five prin- ciples, it may be said that religions are moving toward an expanded understanding of their cosmological orientations and ethical obligations. Although these principles have been previ- ously understood primarily with regard to relations toward other humans, the challenge now is to extend them to the natural world. As this shift occurs—and there are signs it is already happening—religions can advocate reverence for the earth and its profound cosmological processes, respect for the earth’s myriad species, an extension of ethics to include all life forms, restraint in the use of natural resources combined with support for effective alternative technologies, equitable redis- tribution of wealth, and the acknowledgement of human re- sponsibility in regard to the continuity of life and the ecosys- tems that support life. Just as religious values needed to be identified, so, too, the values embedded in science, education, economics, and public policy also need to be more carefully understood. Scientific analysis will be critical to understanding nature’s economy; education will be indispensable to creating sustainable modes of life; economic incentives will be central to an equitable distribution of resources; public-policy recommendations will be invaluable in shaping national and international priorities. But the ethical values that inform modern science and public policy must not be uncritically applied. Instead, by carefully evaluating the intellectual resources both of the world’s reli- gions and of modern science and public policy, our long-term ecological prospects may emerge. We need to examine the tensions between efficiency and equity, between profit and preservation, and between the private and public good. We
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need to make distinctions between human need and greed, between the use and abuse of nature, and between the intrinsic value and instrumental value of nature. We need to move from destructive to constructive modes of production, and from the accumulation of goods to an appreciation for the common good of the earth community. As Thomas Berry has observed: “The ethical does not simply apply to human beings but to the total community of existence as well. The integral economic community includes not only its human components but also its natural components. To assist the human by deteriorating the natural cannot lead to a sustain- able community. The only sustainable community is one that fits the human economy into the ever-renewing ecosystems of the planet.” 28 This issue of Dædalus is dedicated, then, to exploring the ways in which the world’s religions can contribute to ensuring the continuity of the earth community, especially in light of the challenge of global climate change. It is intended as a mapping of the contours of possibility that invites further discussion, reflection, and—inevitably—action.
ENDNOTES
(^1) It is important to note that the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report noted that climate change is a serious global problem that requires the efforts of the international community to mitigate its grow- ing effects. This report has been endorsed by the National Academies of Sci- ences of Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, the Caribbean, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, New Zealand, Sweden, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States. See http://www.ipcc.ch. (^2) Bill McKibben, The End of Nature (New York: Random House, 1989; 2d ed. New York: Anchor Books, 1999). (^3) Lester R. Brown, “Challenges of the New Century,” in The Worldwatch Insti- tute, State of the World 2000 (New York: Norton, 2000), 20. (^4) The movement, which began in Britain, has had demonstrable influence on the decisions of the World Bank and other lending organizations to reduce or for- give debts in more than twenty countries. See http://www.jubilee2000uk.org. (^5) Lynn White, Jr., “The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis,” Science 155 ( March 1967): 1204.
