Ecology and Religion

By John Grim and Mary Evelyn Tucker

From the Psalms in the Bible to the sacred rivers in Hinduism, the natural world has been integral to the world’s religions. John Grim and Mary Evelyn Tucker contend that today’s growing environmental challenges make the relationship ever more vital.

This primer explores the history of religious traditions and the environment, illustrating how religious teachings and practices both promoted and at times subverted sustainability. Subsequchapters examine the emergence of religious ecology, as views of nature changed in religious traditions and the ecological sciences. Yet the authors argue that religion and ecology are not the province of institutions or disciplines alone. They describe four fundamental aspects of religious life: orienting, grounding, nurturing, and transforming. Readers then see how these phenomena are experienced in a Native American religion, Orthodox Christianity, Confucianism, and Hinduism.

Ultimately, Grim and Tucker argue that the engagemof religious communities is necessary if humanity is to sustain itself and the planet. Students of environmental ethics, theology and ecology, world religions, and environmental studies will receive a solid grounding in the burgeoning field of religious ecology.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Island Press
• Release date: Jan 2, 2014
• ISBN: 9781610912358

Reviews for Ecology and Religion

[nielsengw_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

How one views their religion has a relationship with how one views the environment in which they live. Since many religions have tenets on how to relate to members of society, they already teach basic values of respect and reciprocation, but authors John Grin and Mary Tucker take these teachings on step further. They postulate that each major religion contains parallel teaching that allow the adherent to form a relationship with nature. In Ecology and Religion, they expound on the theory that each major world religion gives the reader a piece of a larger way of connecting to nature. Grim and Tucker establish four major tenets for a religious ecology—orienting, grounding, nurturing, and transforming. Orienting fixes the self in relationship with celestial bodies; grounding fixes the self in a community with nature; nurturing is self-explanatory; and transforming changes the self into a deeper human being. These draw on the major biocultural elements of air, earth, water, and fire respectively. The authors propose that each major world religion (or group of religions) belongs to each of these tenets. Christianity offers a way for the reader to orient themselves to the cosmos. Confucianism grounds the believer in their community. The vast array of indigenous religions emphasize nurturing the environment. Lastly, Hinduism relies on the continuous transformation of the self into a greater being. Each of these offer a way to interact with nature and insure a safe and viable ecological future.The book is set up in many ways like a textbook, with distinct sections on each religion and questions for reflection or discussion at the end. But, the clear Jungian mythology informing the whole book was, in the end, just too much for me. While the authors are clearly very well-read and bring in a ton of different religious texts in one place, the whole thing seemed a bit too touchy-feely for me. While I do agree that each religion informs each other religion, the authors seem to want the reader to create a strange hybrid religious ecology that is both part of and separate from all the others. The entire thing is a bit of a stretch, but one can’t fault them for trying. It’s a rather odd book, but still interesting just the same.