World Religions, the Earth Charter, and Sustainability

2008 ◽  
Vol 12 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 115-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Evelyn Tucker
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
World Religions ◽  
Religion And Ecology ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Earth Charter

AbstractThis article argues the global environmental crisis shows the need for a broad, inclusive definition of sustainability. It shows how religious traditions can help contribute to broader definitions, and describes how work from the field of Religion and Ecology has developed resources. It argues that the next step for the study of Religion and Ecology is to address sustainability, and then proposes that the Earth Charter provides an orienting framework for that engagement of religion and sustainability.

The Philosophy of World Religions

1984 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Hick
Keyword(s):  
Human Race ◽  
World Religions ◽  
The Real ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Universal Language ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Transcendent Reality ◽  
Realistic View ◽  
Basic Distinction ◽  
The One

I Am grateful to Mr Peter Byrne (‘John Hick's Philosophy of World Religions’, S.J.T., Vol. 35, 289–301) for highlighting some of the central issues for a philosophy of religious pluralism. He starts from the now widespread realisation that it is not a morally or religiously acceptable view that salvation depends upon being a member of the Christian minority within the human race. A more realistic view must be pluralistic, seeing the great religious traditions as different ways of conceiving and experiencing the one ultimate divine Reality, and correspondingly different ways of responding to that Reality. These ways owe their differences to the modes of thinking, perceiving and feeling which have developed within the different patterns of human existence embodied in the various cultures of the earth. Thus, on the one hand the religions are responses to a single ultimate transcendent Reality, whilst on the other hand their several communal consciousnesses of that Reality, formed from different human perspectives, are widely different. To understand this mixture of commonality and difference I have suggested that we should make use of a basic distinction which occurs in some form within each of the great traditions. In Christian terms it is the distinction between God in himself, in his eternal self-existent being, independently of creation, and God-for-us or God as revealed to us. In more universal language it is the distinction between the Real (Sat, al-Haq) an sich and the Real as humanly experienced and thought.

THE LIMITATIONS OF RELIGIOUS ENVIRONMENTALISM FOR INDIA

2002 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Tomalin
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Intrinsic Value ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Use Value ◽  
Aesthetic Value ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Nature Religion ◽  
Religious Systems

AbstractMany environmentalists draw upon religious teachings to argue that humanity ought to transform its relationship with the natural world. They maintain that religious systems teach that the earth is sacred and has an intrinsic value beyond its use value to humanity. However, whilst many cultures have religious practices or teachings associated with the natural world, such traditions of nature religion ought to be distinguished from religious environmentalism. This paper suggests that religious environmentalism is limited because it is a product of Western ideas about nature, in particular a 'romantic' vision of nature as a realm of purity and aesthetic value. Although in India, for example, people worship certain trees, this is not evidence of an inherent environmental awareness, if only because such practices are very ancient and pre-date concerns about a global environmental crisis. Moreover, many people in developing countries, such as India, are directly dependent upon the natural world and cannot afford radically to alter their behaviour towards nature to accommodate religious environmentalist goals.

scholarly journals Modern change in the tools of the system-structural approach to the style of scientific thinking in the Earth sciences

2021 ◽  
Vol 937 (4) ◽  
pp. 042010
Author(s):  
S V Dubrova ◽  
P I Egorov ◽  
P S Zelenkovskiy ◽  
I I Podlipskiy ◽  
E M Nesterov
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Environmental Risks ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Entire Volume ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Spatial Approach ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
Real State

Abstract The characteristic features of our time are globalization and the intensification of human activities, which lead to large-scale changes in the environment. There are more crisis points, they are interconnected, and the problems that arise at the same time become more complicated. In this case, we should already talk about the possibility of a global environmental crisis, and therefore any more or less large project should take into account environmental risks. That is, each object of geo-ecological research is considered both as an independent self-organizing system and as part of a larger system. It is the initial approach to the study and construction of a conceptual model, the trajectory of data processing of the object of research that currently causes the greatest number of disputes and difficulties. Often, the entire volume of problems related to the interpretation of data, their lack, complexity of processing, inconsistency with the real state of affairs, is associated precisely with the initial spatial approach to research, that is, with the sphere of epistemological tools of the thinking style.

scholarly journals Ecotheology Islam: Teologi Konstruktif Atasi Krisis Lingkungan

ULUMUNA ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-346
Author(s):  
Abdul Quddus
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
The Other ◽  
Moral Leadership ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Ethical Management ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Guiding Principles ◽  
The One

The earth inhabited by human now is facing global environmental crisis. To respond to and tackle the crisis, a new awareness to explore the principles of religion has emerged today, which was then called ecotheology, an integral environmental insight based on ethical-theological as well as ethical-anthropological dimensions. This paper is aimed at, on the one hand, exposing principles of Islamic ecotheology that are able to be guiding principles in managing the nature, and on the other hand, comparing them with the principles of modern environmental ethics of the environmentalist/ eco-thinkers. The author argues that there are three principles of Islamic ecotheology that are relevant as the basis of ethical management of nature now days, namely the principle of tawḥid (unity of all creation), the principle of āmanah-khalīfah (trustworthiness-moral leadership), and ākhirah (responsibility).  

scholarly journals Walking through the Anthropocene. Encountering materialisations of the geological epoch in an exhibition space

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 103
Author(s):  
Bergsveinn Þórsson
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Dimensional Space ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Exhibition Space ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Spatial Exploration ◽  
Deutsches Museum ◽  
Three Dimensional Space

The Anthropocene has been mobilised as a conceptual framework for museums to engage with the global environmental crisis. This article examines the exhibition Welcome to the Anthropocene: The Earth in our Hands that was on display at the Deutsches Museum from 2014 to 2016. Proclaimed as the first largescale exhibition on the concept, the museum attempted to translate its underlying arguments into three-dimensional space. Viewing exhibitions as an assemblage of display technologies, objects and texts, the intention is to examine how the concept materialises in the exhibition space. The findings outline three different versions of the Anthropocene: understanding the Anthropocene as a history, experiencing the Anthropocene through spatial exploration and the concept as a tool to catch slippages. Locating three versions in a single exhibition reveals the complexity of the Anthropocene as a framework for museums and also highlights the possibility of addressing it in different ways simultaneously.

scholarly journals Can the Earth be Sacred Once Again? Christianity and Climate Change

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-123
Author(s):  
Sean McGrath
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Pope Francis ◽  
Technological Revolution ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
To Come ◽  
Climate Crisis

The following paper takes Pope Francis’ Encyclical on Climate Change as an opportunity to re-open the debate, begun in 1967 by Lynn White Jr., on the theological origins of the environmental crisis. I note that the Pope’s critique of consumerist modernity is strong, but his lack of a genealogical account of modernity remains a weakness of the text. I argue, with White, that the technological revolution which has caused climate change would not have been possible without Christian assumptions. The original disenchantment of the world was the Abrahamic revelation which disjoined divinity and nature, and contra to appearances, the disjunction was only exacerbated by the doctrine of the incarnation. With climate change, modernity is returning to this revelation in the form of the sobering experience of the precarity of the planet. Nature is now experienced as finite once again, and it includes us. Modernity, however, cannot be disavowed any more than disenchantment can easily be forgotten. A return to the Christian roots of disenchantment might help us to remember what we have forgotten: the virtue of contemplation, which could qualify modern attitudes of control and domination, and engender a Christian experience of reverence for nature. While this is a Christian response to the climate crisis, other religious traditions will need to come to analogous forms of earth-centered ethics if we are to achieved the integrated ecological pluralism needed for the future of civilization.

scholarly journals Coastal wetlands can be saved from sea level rise by recreating past tidal regimes

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahmood Sadat-Noori ◽  
Caleb Rankin ◽  
Duncan Rayner ◽  
Valentin Heimhuber ◽  
Troy Gaston ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Coastal Wetlands ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Ground Vegetation ◽  
Proof Of Concept ◽  
Tidal Regime ◽  
Vegetation Sampling ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Intertidal Ecosystems

AbstractClimate change driven Sea Level Rise (SLR) is creating a major global environmental crisis in coastal ecosystems, however, limited practical solutions are provided to prevent or mitigate the impacts. Here, we propose a novel eco-engineering solution to protect highly valued vegetated intertidal ecosystems. The new ‘Tidal Replicate Method’ involves the creation of a synthetic tidal regime that mimics the desired hydroperiod for intertidal wetlands. This synthetic tidal regime can then be applied via automated tidal control systems, “SmartGates”, at suitable locations. As a proof of concept study, this method was applied at an intertidal wetland with the aim of restabilising saltmarsh vegetation at a location representative of SLR. Results from aerial drone surveys and on-ground vegetation sampling indicated that the Tidal Replicate Method effectively established saltmarsh onsite over a 3-year period of post-restoration, showing the method is able to protect endangered intertidal ecosystems from submersion. If applied globally, this method can protect high value coastal wetlands with similar environmental settings, including over 1,184,000 ha of Ramsar coastal wetlands. This equates to a saving of US$230 billion in ecosystem services per year. This solution can play an important role in the global effort to conserve coastal wetlands under accelerating SLR.

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