Muslim Environmentalisms: Religious and Social Foundations

by Anna M. Gade

Overview

How might understandings of environmentalism and the environmental humanities shift by incorporating Islamic perspectives? In this book, Anna M. Gade explores the religious and cultural foundations of Islamic environmentalisms. She blends textual and ethnographic study to offer a comprehensive and interdisciplinary account of the legal, ethical, social, and empirical principles underlying Muslim commitments to the earth.

Muslim Environmentalisms shows how diverse Muslim communities and schools of thought have addressed ecological questions for the sake of this world and the world to come. Gade draws on a rich spectrum of materials―scripture, jurisprudence, science, art, and social and political engagement―as well as fieldwork in Indonesia and Southeast Asia. The book brings together case studies in disaster management, educational programs, international development, conservation projects, religious ritual and performance, and Islamic law to rethink key theories. Gade shows that the Islamic tradition leads us to see the environment as an ethical idea, moving beyond the established frameworks of both nature and crisis. Muslim Environmentalisms models novel approaches to the study of religion and environment from a humanistic perspective, reinterpreting issues at the intersection of numerous academic disciplines to propose a postcolonial and global understanding of environment in terms of consequential relations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231191050
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	08/20/2019
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Anna M. Gade is a Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor in the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is the author of Perfection Makes Practice: Learning, Emotion, and the Recited Qur’an in Indonesia (2004) and The Qur’an: An Introduction (2010).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
1. History of Religions, Islam, and Environmental Humanities
2. Islam and the Environment: Pluralism and Development
3. A Qur’anic Environment: Relating Creatures and Resources
4. Roots and Branches of Islamic Environmental Justice, Law, and Ethics
5. Islamic Humanities: Apprehending Symbol, Expression, and Natural Science
6. Muslim Environmentalism as Religious Practice: Accounts of the Unseen
7. From This World to the Next
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Anna Gade's Muslim Environmentalisms is an instant classic. It is inspired and inspiring, a work that deserves to be read and internalized in scholarly communities, activist movements, and policy circles. Many previous works on the subjects have offered profound philosophical speculations on the theme, but have remained oddly disconnected from the activities of Muslims on the ground. Gade's work brilliantly guides us among the rich discursive terrains of Qur'an and ethics, to the environmentalist movements in Cambodia and Indonesia, and Malaysia. I cannot remember another work that moves with such grace and brilliance, benefitting from the insights of the best of religious studies, anthropology, and more. Muslim Environmentalisms is more than simply a work that sums up or even challenges existing fields. It shines a light on the terrain that must be followed to save our only home.

Omid Safi

A serious, sustained, and precious evaluation. . . . By re-situating the Islamic Humanities on a footing more representative of their actual practice, Gade invites us to comprehend them more accurately and compare them more profitably with other traditions.

Religion and the Arts

Recommended.

Choice

This brilliant book...opens a path for scholars, students, and activists alike to focus on ethical commitments and the environmental justice.

Journal of Muslim Philanthropy and Civil Society

An excellent work. It contributes to the existing literature on religious studies, Islamic studies, religious environmentalism, the anthropology of Islam, Southeast Asian studies, and environmental humanities.

Journal of Asian Studies

An in-depth and all-encompassing critical survey of how some contemporary Muslims have sought to articulate environmental values in terms of Islamic ethics and norms.

AAR Book Review - Richard Foltz Concordia University

A serious, sustained, and precious evaluation. . . . By re-situating the Islamic Humanities on a footing more representative of their actual practice, Gade invites us to comprehend them more accurately and compare them more profitably with other traditions.-- "Religion and the Arts"

An excellent work. It contributes to the existing literature on religious studies, Islamic studies, religious environmentalism, the anthropology of Islam, Southeast Asian studies, and environmental humanities.-- "Journal of Asian Studies"

An in-depth and all-encompassing critical survey of how some contemporary Muslims have sought to articulate environmental values in terms of Islamic ethics and norms.--Richard Foltz Concordia University "AAR Book Review"

Recommended.-- "Choice"

This brilliant book...opens a path for scholars, students, and activists alike to focus on ethical commitments and the environmental justice.-- "Journal of Muslim Philanthropy and Civil Society"

Anna Gade's Muslim Environmentalisms is an instant classic. It is inspired and inspiring, a work that deserves to be read and internalized in scholarly communities, activist movements, and policy circles. Many previous works on the subjects have offered profound philosophical speculations on the theme, but have remained oddly disconnected from the activities of Muslims on the ground. Gade's work brilliantly guides us among the rich discursive terrains of Qur'an and ethics, to the environmentalist movements in Cambodia and Indonesia, and Malaysia. I cannot remember another work that moves with such grace and brilliance, benefitting from the insights of the best of religious studies, anthropology, and more. Muslim Environmentalisms is more than simply a work that sums up or even challenges existing fields. It shines a light on the terrain that must be followed to save our only home.--Omid Safi, author of Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender, and Pluralism

Muslim Environmentalisms is a must-read for anyone interested in religion and the environment, and the environmental humanities generally. In contrast to essentializing, monolithic approaches of 'Islam and ecology, ' Gade offers a nuanced and grounded portrait of Muslim environmentalisms that advances the project of the environmental humanities beyond romantic, colonial, and Eurocentric frames and inheritances, while staking an original claim for 'the environment' as an inherently ethical category.--Lisa Sideris, author of Consecrating Science: Wonder, Knowledge, and the Natural World

Anna Gade's original book pushes environmental humanities to open up to concepts and insights from Islamic thinking. Rather than an idealized and static theology, Islam, for Gade, is what Muslims say and do, in their relation to the Qur'an; this already moves us beyond stereotypes and exclusions. Muslim Environmentalisms is a much needed addition to environmental thinking.--Anna Tsing, author of Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection

Anna M. Gade places her arguments within a rich exploration of historical and modern theoretical approaches to the environment and environmentalism. This book is theoretically sophisticated, lively, and interesting.--Marion Katz, author of Women in the Mosque: A History of Legal Thought and Social Practice

From the Publisher

Anna Gade’s original book pushes environmental humanities to open up to concepts and insights from Islamic thinking. Rather than an idealized and static theology, Islam, for Gade, is what Muslims say and do, in their relation to the Qur’an; this already moves us beyond stereotypes and exclusions. Muslim Environmentalisms is a much needed addition to environmental thinking.

Anna Tsing

Anna M. Gade places her arguments within a rich exploration of historical and modern theoretical approaches to the environment and environmentalism. This book is theoretically sophisticated, lively, and interesting.

Marion Katz

Muslim Environmentalisms is a must-read for anyone interested in religion and the environment, and the environmental humanities generally. In contrast to essentializing, monolithic approaches of 'Islam and ecology,' Gade offers a nuanced and grounded portrait of Muslim environmentalisms that advances the project of the environmental humanities beyond romantic, colonial, and Eurocentric frames and inheritances, while staking an original claim for 'the environment' as an inherently ethical category.

Lisa Sideris