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RELIGION AND ECOLOGY 57
Just like Christianity, other world religious leaders also increasingly call for
a solution to the ecological crisis and stress its religious and ethical aspect. Leaders
and adherents of diverse churches feel an ever stronger motivation to join the
ecological discourse, propose solutions, and elaborate action plans. Resounding
manifestations are The Assisi Declarations, assisted by the WWF (World Wildlife
Fund) (1986, Assisi, Italy) in which five great religions (Buddhism, Hinduism,
Islam, Judaism and Christianity) expressed their message on the relationship
between humans and nature, to which later other faiths (Sikh, Baha’i, Jainism and
Taoism) also joined.?
In addition to joint declarations, signs of formulating common principles by
the great religions have also increased in recent decades. Such principles include,
for example:
— the natural world has intrinsic value; it does not exist for the good of
humankind; its worth does not depend on the extent to which it serves the
human being;
— the exploitation of nature is unacceptable; a religious person has a duty to
protect non-human beings as well;
— people are obliged to live in harmony with nature, for which they can find
examples in their traditions;
— God/the cosmic order/the supernatural enjoins that humans behave with
ethical values such as righteousness, compassion, reciprocity. That applies to
humans and non-humans alike (Grim — Tucker 2014: 12).
These basic religious principles are also being deliberated in environmental
ethics, that is, in an environmental discourse broader than religion.
Another widely-stressed point regarding the role of religions and churches in
the ecological discourse is that religious teachings and churches are already existing
and functioning, rallying millions of people, and their organization and
infrastructure may serve as a stable basis. Their task is to convey through their
endowments the responsibility for the environment, by showing its religious
foundations, and the interrelation between religion and ecology. As stated by
researchers of this area, it would be foolish to ignore the potential implied by some
ten thousand religions comprising about 85 % of the Earth’s population (see
Gardner 2002; Rasmussen 2013). The members of the organization Alliance of
Religions and Conservation are of the opinion that the political, economic and
cultural roles of the churches and religions must be utilized in the interest of solving
environmental problems. They claim that religions provide a cosmology which
shapes worldviews; they have moral authority; they can reach and mobilize huge
numbers of people; they have enormous wealth in property, financial investments,
and money; they practice long-term thinking essential for sustainability; they have
guidelines for handling wealth in modest, just, and responsible ways; they are
rooted in specific social and cultural contexts; they run many of the world’s schools
(cited in Hubbell — Ryan 2022: 139).
Religion has thus been discovered as a solution and method to combat the
ecological crisis. Those followers of religions who are involved in the ecological
discourse (both lay people and scholars) are intent on interpreting the tenets of
3 Assisi Declarations
http://www.arcworld.org/downloads/THE%20ASSISI%20DECLARATIONS. pdf