Oldal 63 [63]
RELIGION AND ECOLOGY 61
2. How can marginalized, apocryphal, and ignored texts and teachings that
support an environmental ethic be restored to the canon?
3. How can new beliefs, values, and practices be developed, consistent with the
religious tradition, that will support an environmental ethic?” (Hubbell — Ryan
2022: 138).
The same researchers also warn, with reference to other colleagues as well (see
Rigby 2017; Simkins 2018), that without political, economic, and social
transformation, the new ideas will not automatically change the world (Hubbell
— Ryan 2022: 139).
An abundance of literature is available on the theme of religion and
environmentalism. People with religious beliefs who are well-versed in
environmental issues and the re-interpretation of ecological works have important
roles in tackling the environmental crisis. This recognition has led to great activity
among scholars, theologians, and practitioners of diverse fields.
One discipline is confessional literature, which reinterprets the traditions and
doctrines of a given faith. This re-interpretive work sometimes results in new trends
such as engaged Buddhism, elaborated by Buddhist monk and activist Thich Nhat
Hahn, or Catholic Thomas Berry’s geo-religion which combined various religious
teachings and earth sciences to focus on the miracle of the Creation.
Constructive literature consists of scholarly works that assess how diverse religions
respond to the Anthropocene crises; how environmental changes shaped religions
in the past, and how climate change may influence them in the future (Jenkins et
al. 2017; Szerszynski 2017); how the eco-conscious utterances of central actors
and institutions influence their flocks (Vatican, Dalai Lama, Council of World
Religions); how eco-justice and care for Creation create new interfaith and
ecumenical alliances. There are, at the same time, religious groups which reject an
eco-conscious ethic or take a theoretical and practical position directly opposed
to the (protection of the) environment (on this, see Kearns 2011; Taylor 2016).
A broad area of religion and the environment concerns religious activism (see
Gottlieb 2006a; 2006b; 2017). Research is taking place into how the call to service
of any given religion implies manifestations of environmental themes, ecojustice,
or activities which promote solutions to environmental problems. Excellent
examples of this trend are the British Christian and Islamic climate activists who
see their ecological activism (participation in climate movements, praying and
fasting for the Earth) as a mode of exercising their religion (Nita 2014).
Eco-spirituality, nature religion, native faiths
Next to the so-called “greening” of the major world religions, it is far more difficult
to conceptualize that nature-centric spirituality not bound to any extant religion
or church, which has been shown to be gaining ground in environment-conscious
thought (Taylor 1995, 2010). This attitude is best expressed by the term eco¬
spirituality, which implies a profound experience of unity with nature and of the
equivalence and interdependence of each and every living being. Eco-spirituality
is often characterized by pantheism and a general holistic approach. Some of its
adherents profess an ecocentric environmental ethic, seeing the human being as
but one among the multitudes of beings in interaction, and not as the peak of