Religion and Environmental Ethics

What is the relationship between religion and ecology? We will examine how religious traditions (Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism) have characterized the human-nature relationship by studying such themes as: dominion vs. stewardship, restraints on human impact, concepts of interdependence, and ideas of sacred space. Later in the course, we will study contemporary religiously-based environmental activism, examining the possibilities and problems that emerge when religion is mobilized on behalf of the environment. We will read works by Sallie McFague, Mary Evelyn Tucker, Thomas Berry, and Rabbis Arthur Waskow and David Haberman. We will also take a field trip to an "eco-Catholic" monastery in Vermont. (Not open to students who have taken RELI 0395).