Religion and Environment
This seminar confronts the oppositions that helped launch modernity and the Anthropocene: Nature vs. Culture, and Religion vs. Science. Readings explore (re-)constructing, reconciling, and hybridizing religious environmentalisms in dialogue with modern science for our multispecies planetary flourishing. Issues and topics include: Anthropocene and Capitalocene; religious ontologies and environmental ethics; modern mechanistic science and an inert non-agential nature; human-animal-deity relationships; new animism; Gaia Theory; deep time; Asian religions as contrasted with Abrahamic religion. Theorists include Donna Haraway, Arne Naess, Bruno Latour, Philippe Descole, Viveiros de Castro.
Topics
- Anthropocene and Capitalocene
- religious ontologies and environmental ethics
- modern mechanistic science and an inert non-agential nature
- human-animal-deity relationships
- new animism
- Gaia Theory
- deep time
- Asian religions as contrasted with Abrahamic religion
Topics explicitly listed in official catalogue description
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026-2027