Climate Change Religion

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

We are in the Anthropocene and humans have irrevocably wrecked the natural planetary balance. How do the different religions of the world face today’s ecological crisis? Environmental activism today is truly global and involves countless people in organizing efforts that are aimed at improving the health of the planet and assuring a safe environment for future generations. Environmental protection has been for decades an issue of science, global politics and international economics, but some voices speaking to the issue remind us that motivation for such activism can spring from deep moral concerns and religious sensibilities. Religious involvement in climate change is not new and is merely the latest manifestation of the intertwining of faith and nature. Religious thought has long attended to the natural world and the environment, whether in the Western Abrahamic traditions affirming the earth as a glorious product of God’s creative activity or in Indigenous and Asian religions that emphasize the interconnectedness of human beings and nature. Even while religion may not seem to be as relevant to the modern world as it once was, we need to consider that religions have been profoundly influential in shaping worldviews (beliefs, perspectives, values, understandings of the world and our place in it). This course will begin with an overview of religious thought and its relationship to nature in Christianity, Indigenous traditions and Asian religions before we look at more recent historical events and political actions. Combining environmental premises and comparative philosophy of religion, this course attempts to provide an answer to the importance of religion in our current ecological emergency.