In the face of the environmental crisis, believers from all the world's faith traditions have come to recognize that religion's relation to ecology is of critical importance. Vital new theologies, profound criticisms of the past, and ecologically oriented visions of God, Enlightenment, and human beings have arisen. Religious morality has expanded to include human relations to other species and ecosystems, and religious practice has come to include rituals that express our grief and remorse as well as celebrate what is left. Religious leaders and institutions have committed themselves to a new green gospel, and in countless places across the globe people engage in environmental activism for religious reasons. This book serves as the definitive scholarly overview of these exciting new developments. Part I explores traditional religious concepts of and attitudes toward nature and how these have been changed by the environmental crisis. Part II analyzes conceptual issues that transcend individual traditions. Part III examines religious participation in environmental politics. With essays by the leading scholars in the field, many of whom have themselves been instrumental in the rise of religious environmentalism, this Handbook will be invaluable to anyone interested in religion, environmentalism, and the future of our planet.
About the AuthorRoger S. Gottlieb is professor of philosophy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He is the author or editor of fourteen books and more than one hundred articles on political philosophy, religious life, the Holocaust, environmentalism, and disability, including A Greener Faith: Religious Environmentalism and Our Planet's Future (OUP 2006), This Sacred Earth: Religion, Nature, Environment (2nd edition, 2003) and Joining Hands: Politics and Religion Together for Social Change (2002). He writes a column for the national magazine Tikkun and serves on the editorial boards of four scholarly journals.
ReviewsA main strength of this book is the broad perspective it offers on the main religious traditions in the world. It is well worth reading for the information on comparative aspects among the main religions and religious philosophies ... a most valuable document * Luc Hens, International Journal of Environment and Pollution *
Book InformationISBN 9780199747627
Author Roger S. GottliebFormat Paperback
Page Count 688
Imprint Oxford University Press IncPublisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 1075g
Dimensions(mm) 170mm * 244mm * 35mm