Religion & Ecology

This is a talk that spans 13.8 billion years - from our cosmic origins to our place in the Earth's ecosystem.

The relatively new alliance between religion and ecology is based on the belief that religions are a primary source of values in any culture and the environmental crisis that we face is fundamentally a crisis of values.

Mary Evelyn Tucker is a Senior Lecturer and Research Scholar at Yale University, where she teaches in a joint master's degree program between the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and the Divinity School and the Department of Religious Studies. She directs the Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale with her husband, John Grim.

While environmental issues are most frequently viewed through the lens of science, policy, law, and economics, in recent years the moral and spiritual dimensions of this crisis are becoming more visible.

"Our current ecological challenges are such that they require the insights of the world’s religions to awaken moral passion and concern," Tucker says. "And these voices are needed now."

Her concern for the growing environmental crisis, especially in Asia, led her to organize with John Grim a series of ten conferences on World Religions and Ecology at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard (1995-1998). Together they are series editors for the ten volumes from the conferences distributed by Harvard University Press. In this series she co-edited Buddhism and Ecology (Harvard, 1997), Confucianism and Ecology (Harvard, 1998), and Hinduism and Ecology (Harvard, 2000).

After the conference series she and Grim founded the Forum on Religion and Ecology at a culminating conference at the United Nations in 1998.

Books include: Ecology and Religion, John Grim and Mary Evelyn Tucker, Island Press, 2014 / The Emerging Alliance of Religion and Ecology, University of Utah Press, 2014 / Worldly Wonder, Open Court, 2013

Information for this post was taken from numerous sources, including the Emerging Earth Community website.

Image: Religion and Ecology, Island Press, 2014

Mary Evelyn Tucker, Religion and Ecology

by Mary Evelyn Tucker

LESSON PLANS

Journey of the Universe – The Journey of the Universe film, book, and Educational Series / Conversations are part of an expansive, multidisciplinary project that can be used by educators and others to develop a sense of embeddedness and identity within the unfolding universe. This deep sense of belonging and participation can, in turn, not only help students to come to a more meaningful understanding of their own place and role in the story of the universe, but it can also empower them to participate in the story in a way that is mutually enhancing for the human and for the larger Earth community in which we reside. To be used in conjunction with the book and film of the same name. (High School level)

Deepen the learning by with The 3-D Atlas of the Universe.

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0:14

01. Intro to Recording

Mary Evelyn Tucker
6:52

02. Religion and Ecology

Mary Evelyn Tucker
5:44

03. Our Place in the Cosmos

Mary Evelyn Tucker
4:07

04. The Fallacy of Survival of the

Mary Evelyn Tucker
5:50

05 Bringing Ethics and Spirituality

Mary Evelyn Tucker
5:40

06. Environmental Justice

Mary Evelyn Tucker
4:32

07. Pope Francis' Encyclical June

Mary Evelyn Tucker