Nature and the Environment in Contemporary Religious Contexts

Nature and the Environment in Contemporary Religious Contexts

Author: Thomas Donlin-Smith

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2018-06-11

Total Pages: 331

ISBN-13: 152751207X

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This collection of essays discusses the human relationship with, and responsibilities toward, the natural environment from the perspective of religions and the social sciences. The chapters examine a variety of conditions that have contributed to the contemporary environmental crisis, including abuse of power, economic greed, industrialization, deforestation, and unplanned waste management. They then discuss concepts from several different religious texts and traditions that promote environmental protection as a sacred moral duty for all humanity. Religious concepts such as dharma (duty toward Mother Earth), tikkun Olam (repair of the world), khalifa (people as deputies of God on earth), amanah (the universe as a trust in human hands), and paticca samuppada (dependent co-arising) are employed to argue that all the components of the biosphere are integral to the cosmos, each piece with its own value and role in the harmony of the whole. The book makes it clear that religions can become more “green” and play a helpful role in raising our ecological consciousness and supporting preservation of the environment into the future.


From Nature to Creation (The Church and Postmodern Culture)

From Nature to Creation (The Church and Postmodern Culture)

Author: Norman Wirzba

Publisher: Baker Academic

Published: 2015-09-23

Total Pages: 211

ISBN-13: 1493400088

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How does Christianity change the way we view the natural world? In this addition to a critically acclaimed series, renowned theologian Norman Wirzba engages philosophers, environmentalists, and cultural critics to show how the modern concept of nature has been deeply problematic. He explains that understanding the world as creation rather than as nature or the environment makes possible an imagination shaped by practices of responsibility and gratitude, which can help bring healing to our lands and communities. By learning to give thanks for creation as God's gift of life, Christians bear witness to the divine love that is reconciling all things to God. Named a "Best Theology Book of 2015," Englewood Review of Books "Best Example of Theology in Conversation with Urgent Contemporary Concerns" for 2015, Hearts & Minds Bookstore


Aesth/ethics in Environmental Change

Aesth/ethics in Environmental Change

Author: Sigurd Bergmann

Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 3643902921

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Can aesthetics and ethics be integrated for the good of habitats, places, and spaces? How can the arts widen our perception of nature and deepen environmental ethics? Should the political meaning of a landscape be defined solely in terms of its economic and ecological values? Questions like these are explored from the angles of arts, environmental ethics, ecology, religious studies, theology, art history, and philosophy. The book prompts discussion about the aesthetic and spiritual dimension in the environmental humanities, and it offers transdisciplinary insights into the challenge of sustainability and ongoing changes in society and the environment. (Series: Studies in Religion and the Environment / Studien zur Religion und Umwelt - Vol. 7)


Monastic Ecological Wisdom

Monastic Ecological Wisdom

Author: Samuel Torvend

Publisher: Liturgical Press

Published: 2023-11-15

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13:

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Can early medieval monasteries serve as a model of sustainable development and environmental conservation in today’s world? Inspired by Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Sí and Benedictine communities around the world whose shared monastic values inform ecological practice, Monastic Ecological Wisdom uncovers the hidden story of early Christian and monastic care for the earth. In Monastic Ecological Wisdom, Samuel Torvend shows how it is possible that medieval monastic values and practices could assist in the careful conservation of what we claim is God’s first gift, God’s first gesture of grace: the earth and all that dwells with it. By reflecting on an ecological reading of New Testament texts, the Rule of St. Benedict, and early monastic engagement with the natural world as seen in the life of St. Benedict, such practices can serve thoughtful Christians today who care deeply about living in harmony with the earth and all who call it home.


Spirit of the Environment

Spirit of the Environment

Author: David E Cooper

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2004-06-02

Total Pages: 213

ISBN-13: 1134767161

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Spirit of the Environment brings spiritual and religious concerns to environmental issues. Providing a much needed alternative to exploring human beings' relationship to the natural world through the restrictive lenses of 'science', 'ecology', or even 'morality', this book offers a fresh perspective to the field. Spirit of the Enironment addresses: * the environmental attitudes of the major religions; * the relationship between art and nature; * the Gaia hypothesis; * the non-instrumental values which have inspired environmental concern. Contributors range from a variety of disciplines including philosophy, comparative religion, education and social anthropology, providing students with an intriguing survey on the role that spirituality and religion play in nature. This is a vital collection for those eager to examine the relationship between the spiritual and the environment.


The Chinese Face of Jesus Christ:

The Chinese Face of Jesus Christ:

Author: Roman Malek

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-05

Total Pages: 803

ISBN-13: 1351545671

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This volume provides an annotated bibliography of the Western and Chinese literature on Jesus Christ in China. It is a sequel to the interdisciplinary collection on the manifold faces and images of Jesus throughout Chinese history, from the Tang dynasty (618?907) to the present time.The present bibliography broadens and deepens the above-mentioned subject matter, and also points out aspects which have been addressed in the contributions and anthologies of the previous volumes of The Chinese Face of Jesus Christ, but which have not been treated thoroughly. Another aim of this bibliography is to initiate and enable further research, particularly in China. It includes bibliographical data from the beginning of the introduction of Christianity to China until the year 2013, occasionally also until 2014. A list of ?Key References? enables the reader to identify important works on main topics related to Jesus Christ in China. Some examples of book covers and title pages are included in the section of ?Illustrations.?Other volumes of the collection The Chinese Face of Jesus Christ are in preparation: Vol. 3c will present longer quotations from the sources listed in the present bibliography, Vol. 4b will contain a general index with glossary, and Vol. 5 will deal with the iconography of Jesus Christ in China.


An Environmental History of Medieval Europe

An Environmental History of Medieval Europe

Author: Richard Hoffmann

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2014-04-10

Total Pages: 429

ISBN-13: 0521876966

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How did medieval Europeans use and change their environments, think about the natural world, and try to handle the natural forces affecting their lives? This groundbreaking environmental history examines medieval relationships with the natural world from the perspective of social ecology, viewing human society as a hybrid of the cultural and the natural. Richard Hoffmann's interdisciplinary approach sheds important light on such central topics in medieval history as the decline of Rome, religious doctrine, urbanization and technology, as well as key environmental themes, among them energy use, sustainability, disease and climate change. Revealing the role of natural forces in events previously seen as purely human, the book explores issues including the treatment of animals, the 'tragedy of the commons', agricultural clearances and agrarian economies. By introducing medieval history in the context of social ecology, it brings the natural world into historiography as an agent and object of history itself.