The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Ecology

by Roger S. Gottlieb

Overview

The last two decades have seen the emergence of a new field of academic study that examines the interaction between religion and ecology. Theologians from every religious tradition have confronted world religions past attitudes towards nature and acknowledged their own faiths complicity in the environmental crisis. Out of this confrontation have been born vital new theologies based in the recovery of marginalized elements of tradition, profound criticisms of the past, and ecologically oriented visions of God, the Sacred, the Earth, and human beings. The proposed handbook will serve as the definitive overview of these exciting new developments. Divided into three main sections, the books essays will reflect the three dominant dimensions of the field. Part one will explore traditional religious concepts of and attitudes towards nature and how these have been changed by the environmental crisis. Part II looks at larger conceptual issues that transcend individual traditions. Part III will examine religious participation in environmental politics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199747627
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	11/02/2010
Series:	Oxford Handbooks
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	688
Product dimensions:	6.60(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Roger S. Gottlieb is Professor of Philosophy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He is the author or editor of fourteen books and more than 50 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 (second 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.

Table of Contents

Introduction:Part I Transforming TraditionChapter 1 Judaism —i Hava Tirosh-Samuelson/i. Chapter 2 Catholicism —i John Hart/i. Chapter 3 The Earth as Sacrament: Insights from Orthodox Christian Theology and Spirituality — iJohn Chryssavgis/i. Chapter 4 The World of Nature According to the Protestant Tradition — H. Paul Santmire and John B. Cobb, Jr. Chapter 5 Jainism and Ecology: Transformation of Tradition — iChristopher Key Chapple/i. Chapter 6 Hindu Religion and Environmental Wellbeing — iO.P. Dwivedi/i. Chapter 7 Buddhism — iStephanie Kaza/i. Chapter 8 Islam —i Richard C. Foltz/i. Chapter 9 Taoism and Ecology — iJames Miller/i. Chapter 10 Motifs for a New Confucian Ecological Vision — iJohn Berthrong/i. Chapter 11 African Religions —i Jacob Olupuna/i. Chapter 12 Indigenous Traditions: Religion and Ecology — iJohn A. Grim/i. Part II Religion and Ecology: Conflicts and ConnectionsChapter 13 Population, Religion, and Ecology — Daniel C. Maguire. Chapter 14 Genetic Engineering and Nature: Human and Otherwise —i Thomas A. Shannon/i. Chapter 15 So Near and Yet So Far: Animal Theology and Ecological Theology —i Andrew Linzey/i. Chapter 16 Religious Ecofeminism: Healing the Ecological Crisis —i Rosemary Radford Ruether/i. Chapter 17 Science and Religion in the Face of the Environmental Crisis —i Holmes Rolston III/i. Chapter 18 Religion and Ecology: Survey of the Field —i Mary Evelyn Tucker/i. Chapter 19 The Spiritual Dimension of Nature Writing — iDavid Landis Barnhill/i. Chapter 20 Religion, Environmentalism, and the Meaning of Ecology —i Lisa H. Sideris/i. Part III Religious Environmental ActivismChapter 21 Religious Environmentalism in Action — iRoger S. Gottlieb/i. Chapter 22 Religion and Environmental Struggles in Latin America — iLois Ann Lorentzen and Salvador Leavitt-Alcantara/i. Chapter 23 African Initiated Churches (AICs) as Vehicles of Earth-Care in Africa — iM.L. Daneel/i. Chapter 24 The Scientist and the Shepherd: The Emergence of Evangelical Environmentalism —i Calvin B. DeWitt/i. Chapter 25 Religion and Environmentalism in America and Beyond —i Bron Taylor/i. Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

"Essential work." —Church Times

"Religion scholars will welcome the volume as a rich and accessible resource worthy of consultation on questions related to religious traditions and environmental issues." —Environmental Ethics

From the Publisher