Authors: Max Oelschlaeger
ISBN-13: 9780300066456, ISBN-10: 0300066457
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Yale University Press
Date Published: February 1996
Edition: 1st Edition
Many environmentalists believe that religion has been a major contributor to our ecological crisis, for Judeo-Christians have been taught that they have dominion over the earth and so do not consider themselves part of a biotic community. In this book a philosopher of environmental ethics acknowledges that religion may contribute to environmental problems but argues that religion can also play an important role in solving these problems - that religion can provide an ethical context that will help people to become sensitive to the environment and to elect leaders who are genuinely responsive to the ecological crisis. Examining a broad range of Western religious traditions - from conservative Christianity and orthodox Judaism to Goddess feminism and nature religion - Max Oelschlager provides a sociolinguistic analysis of their creation stories and finds environmentally positive aspects in each of them. He asserts that religious discourse in the public arena can offer a way for such environmental issues as biodiversity, pollution, and population to be addressed outside the realm of special-interest politics. And he urges local churches to make "caring for creation" a theme for worship in their services; the majority of Americans, says Oelschlager, will discover an environmental ethic only through their religious faith.
Acknowledgments | ||
Introduction | 1 | |
1 | Religion in the Context of Ecocrisis | 19 |
2 | Religion and the Politics of Environmentalism | 52 |
3 | The Sacred Canopy: Religion as Legitimating Narrative | 84 |
4 | Caring for Creation: The Spectrum of Belief | 118 |
5 | The Role of the Church | 184 |
6 | Redescribing Religious Narrative: The Significance of Sacred Story | 216 |
Notes | 239 | |
References | 255 | |
Index | 274 |