Laurel Kearns

Ecospirit: Religions and Philosophies for the Earth

Fordham University Press eBooks, 2007

The Context of Eco-theology

Blackwell Publishing Ltd eBooks, Nov 20, 2007

The phrase "I'm a tree-hugging Jesus freak," a self-description uttered recently by... more The phrase "I'm a tree-hugging Jesus freak," a self-description uttered recently by a Pentecostal environmentalist, demonstrates the complexity of contemporary eco-theology and religious ecological activism. For the past two decades or more, the combination of these two identities seemed unthinkable, for Christians were still struggling to articulate a response, much less a response that would appeal to Pentecostals, usually viewed as un-ecological. This chapter examines many of the historical and more contemporary contexts that shape what is now a rich eco-theological conversation. Although the chapter tries to give a broad international sense of the movement, it draws heavily upon the US context where a diverse and multi-faceted conversation about eco-theology has been going on for over three decades. Furthermore, while there are now ecological voices within all the major religious traditions, this chapter will primarily focus on Christianity as the context of eco-theology. While there are many historical precedents that one could acknowledge leading into the contemporary environmental movement, such as Aldo Leopold's Sand Country Almanac (1949), most scholars agree it began in the 1960s, marked by a variety of publications that brought attention to the issues at hand. In fact, many historians of the movement date the birth of the modern environmental movement to Rachel Carson's 1962 paradigm-changing book Silent Spring, which detailed the damage wrought by pesticides throughout the ecological web. Garrett Hardin's "Tragedy of the Commons" (1968), a doomsday scenario about population growth, was published toward the end of the decade. Taken together, these two works exemplify the dominant concerns of the early movement-pesticides, pollution, and population. Also in the late sixties, Lynn White's infamous article "The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis" appeared in Science (White 19 6 7), in which White concluded that "Christianity bears a huge burden of guilt for the ecologic crisis." Certainly there were plenty more forces in the sixties that shaped the environmental movement, and to this we will return, but ideas alone do not produce social movements. It was in the sixties, however, that widespread activist and scholarly concern coalesced, and the response from Christian thinkers started to

Gatherings in the Diaspora: Religious Communities and the New Immigrants

Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Jun 1, 1999

The Tent of Abraham: The Emerging Landscape of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Ecological Traditions

Bloomsbury History: Theory and Method Articles

Book ReviewsGatherings in Diaspora: Religious Communities and the New Immigration. Edited by R. Stephen Warner and Judith G. Wittner. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998. Pp. vi+409. $59.95 (cloth); $24.95 (paper)

by Elaine Nogueira-Godsey and Laurel Kearns

Bloomsbury Religion in North America, 2021

Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 1999

Religion’s most important role in Stephen Warner’s “New Paradigm for the Sociological Study of Re... more Religion’s most important role in Stephen Warner’s “New Paradigm for the Sociological Study of Religion” (American Journal of Sociology 98: 1044–93) is as a medium for expressing identity. Past waves of immigrants used religious communities to adapt and maintain their identities in the United States, and the situation is no different for those who have arrived since the 1965 Immigration Act. Yet “the religious presence of these groups, some 15 percent of the American population, has been ignored by scholars” (p. 6). This volume delivers 10 ethnographic studies of religious communities formed in America by new immigrant groups. These immigrant groups left behind societies that maintained identityproducing differences and entered one where the stereotypes they are tossed into may not be to their liking. Some groups studied here use religious practices to resist these new distinctions. Catholic Mayan immigrants, for example, fled oppression by Hispanic people in Guatemala but must worship by their sides in American Catholic churches (Wellmeier). In consequence, they have formed intense parachurch groups that sustain their old ethnic bonds. Haitians in New York mark their differences from American blacks by publicly celebrating their Vodou-Catholic devotions (McAlister), while many Jamaicans do it in Rastafarian mode (Hepner). Affluent Iranian Jews give primacy to a Jewish identity over an “Arab” one (Feher). On the other hand, to form a numerically significant identity group at all, South Asian Hindus (Kurien) downplay caste divisions by raising casteand location-neutral gods to greater prominence. Religiously mobilized identity negotiations occur not only between immigrant groups and the host society but also within the immigrant groups themselves. Generation and gender roles are the chief constructions in question here, as six of the 10 essays demonstrate. As the second generation becomes Americanized and raises its status expectations, generational strains threaten congregational unity among Korean (Chai), Chinese (Yang), and Chicano-Mexican (Leon) Evangelical churches. The U.S. gender system has forced change in Rastafarian doctrine (Hepner) and Muslim worship practices (Abusharaf). And generational and gender struggles are compounded for Orthodox Christians from India’s Kerala province (George). Men in these patriarchal immigrant families have lost economic status to wives recruited from India as nurses, but they find substitute status in church positions. Second-generation daughters—the essay’s author among them—upset this balance by struggling for equality in church roles. Fengang Yang brings into sharpest relief the multiple

Con-spiring Together: Breathing for Justice

The Elements, 2018

In the Bloomsbury Handbook on Religion and Nature: The Elements, edited by Laura Hobgood and Whit... more In the Bloomsbury Handbook on Religion and Nature: The Elements, edited by Laura Hobgood and Whitney Bauman. 2018. This chapter weaves together biblical scholarship on ruach as breath, tree respiration, the science of planetary respiratory cycles with environmental justice, Black Lives Matter, climate change, interfaith work and meditation.

Ecology and Religious Environmentalism in the United States

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion, 2018

Any discussion of ecology, environment, and religion in America rightly begins with the American ... more Any discussion of ecology, environment, and religion in America rightly begins with the American landscape itself. It also properly begins with a reflection on the terms and metaphors that have been used to describe it. Although the term ecology was not coined until the mid-19th century, it is a preferred starting term in the sense that it denotes integrated natural systems within which humans are just one species among many. The word environment, however, is a particularly fitting term for any 21st-century discussion of religion and nature in America, for it frequently implies the conceptual separation of humans from the biophysical world, a separation often driven by economic interests and technological hubris whose consequences are strongly reverberating in the environmental injustices and climate change impacts we are facing today.This inquiry into the relationship between religion, nature, ecology, and environment necessarily includes the use of all three of these terms, all of...

Saving the Creation: Christian Environmentalism in the United States

Sociology of Religion, 1996

In the mid 1980s, religious environmental activism in the United States increased dramatically. B... more

Religion and ecology in the context of globalization

Religion, Globalization, and Culture, 2007

RELIGION AND ECOLOGY IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBALIZATION Laurel Kearns While most scholars of globali... more

Cooking the Truth: Faith, Science, the Market, and Global Warming

Ecospirit, 2007

This appeared in EcoSpirt: Religions and Philosophies for the Earth, eds, Laurel Kearns and Cathe... more

The Role of Religions in Activism

Oxford Handbooks Online, 2011

Such are the responses of Palmer in a November 2009 interview to the frequently heard questions: ... more

Shared Beliefs, Different Lives: Women's Identities in Evangelical Context

Sociology of Religion, 2002

... Laurel Keams DrewUniversity Good Sex: Feminist Perspectives from the World's Religions, ... more

Noah's Ark Goes to Washington: A Profile of Evangelical Environmentalism

Social Compass, 1997

Social Compass 44(3), 1997,349-366 Laurel KEARNS Noah&#x27;s Ark Goes to Washington: A Profil... more

When Nature is Rats and Roaches: Religious Eco-Justice Activism in Newark, NJ

Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 2012

In this article, we set the religious landscape of Newark within the physical environment of Newa... more In this article, we set the religious landscape of Newark within the physical environment of Newark, an environment often more suitable for rats and roaches than evocative of the goodness and beauty of 'God's creation'. We specilcally examine a range of strategies and campaigns by religious actors, and their non-religious partners, to lght the overwhelming toxicity and neglect of one neighborhood in the city-the Ironbound. We also consider some of the reasons in this particular context for a lack of engagement by religious groups and the diflculties faced by immigrant populations in addressing environmental problems.

Ecospirit: Religions and Philosophies for the Earth

Oxford Handbooks Online, 2008

Ecology is the study of the interactions of organisms and their environments. The methods of ecol... more Ecology is the study of the interactions of organisms and their environments. The methods of ecology fall roughly into three categories: descriptive surveys of patterns of species and resource distribution and abundance, theoretical modeling, and experimental manipulations. Ecological systems are “open” systems, and patterns and processes are products of a huge number of interacting forces. Ecology and the environmental sciences have made enormous advances since the mid-twentieth century in the understanding of ecological systems, as well as in the human impact on the environment. Theory in ecology usually centers on the development of models. Environmental outcomes are uncertain and when making decisions under uncertainty, there are a variety of options available. One option is to carry out a cost benefit analysis based upon expected utilities and other is to adopt the precautionary principle. Uncertainty and under determination of theory by evidence is a fact of life in science.

Cooking the Truth

We hope-even as we doubt-that the environmental crisis can be controlled. Public awareness of our... more We hope-even as we doubt-that the environmental crisis can be controlled. Public awareness of our species' self-destructiveness as material beings in a material world is growing-but so is the destructiveness. The practical interventions needed for saving and restoring the earth will require a collective shift of such magnitude as to take on a spiritual and religious intensity.This transformation has in part already begun. Traditions of ecological theology and ecologically aware religious practice have been preparing the way for decades. Yet these traditions still remain marginal to society, academy, and church. With a fresh, transdisciplinary approach, Ecospirit probes the possibility of a green shift radical enough to permeate the ancient roots of our sensibility and the social sources of our practice. From new language for imagining the earth as a living ground to current constructions of nature in theology, science, and philosophy; from environmentalism's questioning of p...

Ecospirit: Religions and Philosophies for the Earth

Fordham University Press eBooks, 2007

The Context of Eco-theology

Blackwell Publishing Ltd eBooks, Nov 20, 2007

Gatherings in the Diaspora: Religious Communities and the New Immigrants

Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Jun 1, 1999

The Tent of Abraham: The Emerging Landscape of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Ecological Traditions

Bloomsbury History: Theory and Method Articles

by Elaine Nogueira-Godsey and Laurel Kearns

Bloomsbury Religion in North America, 2021

Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 1999

Con-spiring Together: Breathing for Justice

The Elements, 2018

Ecology and Religious Environmentalism in the United States

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion, 2018

Saving the Creation: Christian Environmentalism in the United States

Sociology of Religion, 1996

In the mid 1980s, religious environmental activism in the United States increased dramatically. B... more

Religion and ecology in the context of globalization

Religion, Globalization, and Culture, 2007

RELIGION AND ECOLOGY IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBALIZATION Laurel Kearns While most scholars of globali... more

Cooking the Truth: Faith, Science, the Market, and Global Warming

Ecospirit, 2007

This appeared in EcoSpirt: Religions and Philosophies for the Earth, eds, Laurel Kearns and Cathe... more

The Role of Religions in Activism

Oxford Handbooks Online, 2011

Such are the responses of Palmer in a November 2009 interview to the frequently heard questions: ... more

Shared Beliefs, Different Lives: Women's Identities in Evangelical Context

Sociology of Religion, 2002

... Laurel Keams DrewUniversity Good Sex: Feminist Perspectives from the World's Religions, ... more

Noah's Ark Goes to Washington: A Profile of Evangelical Environmentalism

Social Compass, 1997

Social Compass 44(3), 1997,349-366 Laurel KEARNS Noah&#x27;s Ark Goes to Washington: A Profil... more

When Nature is Rats and Roaches: Religious Eco-Justice Activism in Newark, NJ

Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 2012

Ecospirit: Religions and Philosophies for the Earth

Oxford Handbooks Online, 2008

Cooking the Truth

"Race, Religion, and Environmental Racism in North America"

by Elaine Nogueira-Godsey and Laurel Kearns

Religion and Nature in North America, 2024

This article examines the interconnection between race, racism, religion, and nature, particularl... more This article examines the interconnection between race, racism, religion, and nature, particularly through the lens of climate and environmental justice. Western definitions of race have been connected and shaped by religious beliefs and by understandings of “nature” and what is “natural.” This connection has not only been conceptual but also has shaped sociopolitical relations and human-Earth relations. Historically, this connection has influenced the notion of what being human means, and the understanding that humans and their cultures are separate from the rest of the natural world. In the context of North America, the human-nature dualism led to the view that “wild” nature and humans that are not male, and white, are in need of culture and control. This understanding has foregrounded the colonizing mentality that is still very real and sweeps across the Americas. The human-nature dualism has also led to the romantic notion that “wild” nature is the salve to the corruption of a dominating and consumerist culture. This notion has been challenged by scholars of color and others, and identified as one-sided and not helpful. These scholars demonstrate that racialized categories, often supported by both scientific and religious ideas, have also privileged whiteness and maleness over other embodiments. We review some of the ways that the issues generating climate change and its subsequent negative consequences are directly connected to racial domination and dynamics. We then argue that climate justice is an urgent matter of human and eco-sytemic survival, as the 2021 IPCC report demonstrates, and that the success of mitigation efforts must include developing anti-racist perspectives and behavior. Thus, we provide an overview of issues surrounding climate injustice, environmental racism and the positive work taking place among many faith (or non) organizations led by people of color.