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58 — JUDIT FARKAS their respective faiths to underline that nature and all living beings are creations by God, or constitute part of the divine essence, or are endowed with some supernatural attribute. This would make any act of destroying or exploiting nature a sin committed against the supernatural and, therefore, environment-friendly behavior a religious duty.‘ An excellent example of the linking of religion and environmental awareness is the book series published by WWF, each volume covering the relationship between nature and a major world faith: Batchelor, Martine — Brown Kerry (eds.) Buddhism and Ecology, 1992. Breuilly, Elisabeth — Palmer, Martin (eds.) Christianity and Ecology, 1992. Khalid, Fazlun M. — O’Brien, Joanne (eds.) /slam and Ecology, 1992. Prime, Ranchor: Hinduism and Ecology, 1992. Rose, Aubrey (ed.) Judaism and Ecology, 1992. Connecting religion and ecology is also supported by researchers who claim that both are involved in an attempt to understand the non-human world and explore the interaction between humans and the non-human realm. Science is the primary, allegedly authentic source of knowledge about the working of the physical world. Religion can give answers to mystical experiences, to the desire for an all-embracing comprehension and to having a common ethical orientation which science — alone — fails to provide for many people (Rigby 2017: 275). “The science of ecology describes how organisms interact with other organisms, energy, and matter in complex systems that determine the abundance and distribution of organisms. Religion asks what the value of those organisms is, why they exist, what their purpose is, and what duties they may owe each other or to an other-worldly Creator” (Hubbell — Ryan 2022: 137). In addition to its ambition to understand the world, scientific research is also motivated by the aspect of utility. In its pursuit of an understanding of the world, religion seeks answers and guidance to the place and task of human beings, that is how religion is the strong law governing human behavior. “Worldviews determine how we see the world, a sort of permanent corrective lens that brings some things into focus and obscures others” (Hubbell — Ryan 2022: 135). People live by worldviews that reflect and approve of the social, economic, political and religious order (Eaton 2017: 125-126). That is why religion and the study of religion are important in environmental protection and also in EH. In this process, a fundamental role is ascribed to re-reading the Holy Writs from an ecological-environmentalist viewpoint. Jenkins contends that however strange some of the sacred texts might sound to modern ears, if we consider their specific historical and ecological contexts, we can interpret them as local practices of the running of a sustainable society (Jenkins 2011). In the most famous debate on the connection between damaging nature and religion, the leading role was played by the re-reading and interpretation of a holy scripture, the Bible. This ‘On this topic, see, among others, Bron Taylor’s Introducing Religion and Dark Green Religion, Taylor 2010. On the connection between Abrahamic religions and the ecological crisis, and the polemic on the issue, see Kay 1998; Livingstone 1994; Taylor 2010, 2016; White 1967.
