Student: Owen Ellerkamp
Graduation date: May 2018
Type: Concentration (single major)
Date approved: November 2015
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Summary
Historically, environmental issues were considered concerns of scientists, lawyers, activists, and politicians. The proliferation of environmental issues has caught the attention of the greater populace in recent decades not only as a scientific issue, but also an issue with ethical considerations. As our world is confronted with the great challenge of climate change religious institutions are a crucial and often overlooked aspect. Religious institutions are a powerful force that permeates and manifests in vastly different forms worldwide. It’s ability to motivate people throughout history is undeniable from colonial missionaries drive to spread Catholicism in the New World to Thai Buddhist monks demonstrations to protect forests (Udomittipong 2000) . Religious institutions have also motivated social justice and human rights movements. As religions developed ethics for marriage, homicide, and genocide, they are now beginning to develop ethics in response to ecocide, in other words creating religiously motivated environmental ethics. An emerging academic subfield of religious and environmental studies called religion and ecology seeks to “explore religious worldviews, texts, ethics, and practices in order to broaden understanding of the complex nature of current environmental concerns.” (Yale 1998).
While my main focus is to explore how religious institutions are reacting to climate change, or more generally environmental issues, a background on how religion, as an institution but also beyond the bounds of institutions and ecology have intertwined historically is important to understand. A fundamental piece of literature that established the discourse around religion and ecology is Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis, a controversial piece by Lynn White. White argues that humans ontological perspective is shaped heavily by religion, “What people do about their ecology depends on what they think about themselves in relation to things around them. Human ecology is deeply conditioned by beliefs about our nature and destiny — that is, by religion” (White 1967). Religion can make substantial contributions in reorienting our relation to earth’s ecological aspects to combat the current environmental crisis, in essence creating what has been called a “nonanthropocentric value theory” (Jenkins 2009) . White’s thesis went on to critique the Judeo-Christian worldview as the “most anthropocentric religion the world has seen” (White 1967). While White initiated this conversation, many have taken opposing views to his thesis particularly his declaration of Christianity as the most anthropocentric religion. Despite criticism from Christian eco theologians who believe the Judeo-Christian tradition promotes an ethic of responsibility over nature, they use White’s thesis to reinforce the view that environmentalism is, at its core a religious and ethical movement (Taylor 2004). More recently, pragmatists have responded in opposition to White’s theory stating that being based in metaethical values focused on nonanthropocentric value theory, environmental ethics overlooks the multidimensional complexities of environmental problems ignoring the cultural, ecological and social aspects (Jenkins 2009). From this background, I seek to study how groups associated with religious institutions partake in environmental activism.
From the broader field of religion and ecology, I would like to focus on the greening of religion. The greening of religion is a new phenomenon in the field of religion and ecology that “reconfigures traditions as needed so they can provide the needed conceptual, spiritual, and practical resources for environmentally- beneficent behavior,” and creates environmental ethics rooted in religious morality (Taylor 2004) . Religious institutions have enacted policies to create environmentally beneficent behavior in which has been followed by religious leaders as well as adherents. The implications of greening religion manifest from shifting human ontological perspectives of relationships to the natural world to influencing governmental environmental policy. The greening of religion is a particularly compelling framework to address the environmental crisis because it constitutes faith based moral considerations as well as environmental ethical implications.
Exploring how the greening of religion has created a space for religiously influenced environmental activism is important in understanding how religious institutions interact with environmental problems. Within contemporary environmental activism there exist many discourses as to what motivates participants to partake, however religiously motivated environmental activism is particularly compelling because it intertwines environmental ethics with faith based moral considerations. In religiously motivated environmental activism the role of religious leaders are important because often they spur action through the authority they hold over adherents. A few examples in today’s world of environmentalism are eminent.Thailand, a state with 90% of its population adherents of Buddhism has a large Buddhist influence in the state’s political agenda. The growing conflict of rapid industrialization, economic growth, deforestation, and environmental protection make the region particularly complex to study. In Thailand, Buddhist monastics are compelled to address environmental issues as part of their religious duty to relieve suffering (Udomittipong 2000). In the United States, the dichotomy of politicians that support measures to mitigate climate change usually adhere to party lines, with Democrats supporting climate change legislation and Republican opposing legislation to mitigate climate change. Climate change and environmental action has many political implications in the United States. Evangelicals in the United States South have developed scriptural and theological reasons to justify climate change as a religious concern to promote what evangelicals have called “creation care” (Wilkinson). Eighty-six prominent evangelical leaders signed the Evangelical Climate Initiative in 2006 to advocate focusing on combating global warming through legislation (Goodstein 2006), seemingly contradictory given their conservative agendas. These forms of activism manifest in vastly different contexts as they are shaped by the place in which they occur.
However, these people are shaped by more than just the religious institution they associate with, but also their place and it’s discursive nature- politics, cultural identities, and environmental problems. In creating this concentration I am striving to examine how and why institutional religioin’s environmental activism manifests and what role it takes. In the interdisciplinary world of environmental studies my concentration will focus on the relationship between environmental ethics, cultural politics, and institutional power. Throughout my future courses, study abroad experience and further research I plan to examine how environmentalism is shaped through varying religious worldviews in the political, economic, and cultural sphere.
Works Cited
Callicott, J. Baird. 1994. Earth’s Insights: A Survey of Ecological Ethics from the Mediterranean Basin to the Australian Outback. Berkeley: U of California.
Goodstein, Laurie. 2005. Evangelical leaders swing influence behind effort to combat global warming. New York Times, March 10
Jenkins, Willis. 2009. “After Lynn White: Religious Ethics And Environmental Problems.” Journal of Religious Ethics 37.2 : 283-309.
Pew Research: 2012 “Buddhists.” Pew Research Centers Religion Public Life Project RSS. Accessed October 27, 2015.
Sandell, Klas. 1987. Buddhist Perspectives on the Ecocrisis. Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society.
Swearer, Donald. 1998. “The Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale.” Buddhism. Yale.
Taylor, Bron. 2004. “A Green Future for Religion?” Futures 36.9 : 991-1008.
Taylor, Bron, and Jeffrey Kaplan. 2005. “Religious Studies and Environmental Concern.” Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature. 1373-79. New York: Thoemmese Continuum
Udomittipong, Pipob. 2000. “Thailand’s Ecology Monks.” Dharma Rain: Sources of Buddhist Environmentalism: 191-97.
White, L. 1967. “The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis.” Science 155.3767 : 1203-207.
Wilkinson, Katharine K. 2012. Between God and Green: How Evangelicals Are Cultivating a Middle Ground on Climate Change. New York: Oxford UP.
Wuthnow, Robert. 2007. Encyclopedia of Politics and Religion. Washington, D.C.: CQ.
Yale. 1998. “The Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale.” The Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology.
Questions
- Descriptive: How do religious institutions work through or with other institutions to press their agenda? How are religious institutions practicing the greening of religion? What role do religious institutions play in the climate change crisis?
- Explanatory: How are new practices making the religion more “green”? Why do religious institutions respond to environmental problems? How the motivations behind this-worldly goals differ from goals of salvation, or other-worldly?
- Evaluative: Are religious institutions more motivated to react to environmental issues due to their religious moral considerations? Is “greening” advantageous for some groups and problematic for others?
- Instrumental: Can religiously influenced environmental ethics create a new paradigm effective in environmentalism? How can religious institutions work with governmental institutions to work towards legislating environmental policy? Are religious institutions critical actors as the climate change crisis unfolds?
Concentration courses
- RELS 398 (Religion and the Politics of Identity in South Asia, 4 credits) Spring 2016. The course brings into focus the role of political idenity to religion, which will be a fundmental in studying the impact of religion in creating environmental progress. The course will be focused on Islam and Hinduism.
- RELS 243 (Buddhism: Theory, Culture, and Practice, 4 credits). Spring 2017 I plan to situate my concentration in Southeast Asia where Buddhism is the most prevalent religion practiced.
- ENVS 499 (Independent Study, 4 credits) Spring 2016 to Fall 2016. Two plus two concentration-relation research to anticipated Vietnam overseas program Fall 2016.
- SOAN 214 (Social Change, 4 credits) Spring 2017. Examine the roll of activism in social change, especially activism associated with religious institutions and figures.
- SOAN 310 (Religion, Society, and Modernity, 4 credits) Fall 2017. The course examines religion in the context of modern global transformations.
Arts and humanities courses
- PHIL 215 (Philosophy and the Environment, 4 credits). Pre-approved A&H course; no justification required.
- RELS 201 (Religious Theory, 4 credits) A survey of the major theories of religion over time which factors into the conceptions of religion in my concentration.