Ecospirituality

Guest contribution for the blog 'Urban-rural migration and rural revitalization in Japan' funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and hosted by Professor Cornelia Reiher from the Institue of Japanese Studies at Freie Universität Berlin. ベルリン大学日本社会学科管理のブログに、鳥取で行っている山岳信仰に関わる現場調査から得た成果やフィールドワークの現況についてくゲスト投稿. https://userblogs.fu-berlin.de/urban-rural-migration-japan/2021/10/29/guest-contribution-revitalization-attempts-of-buddhist-temples-in-the-rural-regions-of-tottori/

Si bien la pandemia nos muestra la importancia de renovar nuestra conexión con la Tierra, esta reconexión requiere cuestionar el valor de la “acción” en nuestros imaginarios. Inspirados por el ecofeminismo, prácticas indígenas y otros linajes espirituales, en este breve ensayo reflexionamos en torno al descanso radical. Entendemos el descanso radical como el poder restaurativo, generativo y emancipatorio del reposo, y lo trabajamos en la perspectiva del cuidado, más específicamente de lo que llamamos ecología espiritual del cuidado. Proponemos colocar el amor y la conciencia profunda de la interconexión a la base de la sustentabilidad. Y nos preguntamos: ¿qué pasaría si sencillamente detenemos la exterioridad de la acción y el pensamiento para abrir la potencialidad ecológica y sanadora del descanso?

Contemporary ideas of nature were largely shaped by schools of thought from Western cultural history and philosophy until the present-day concerns with environmental change and biodiversity conservation. There are many different ways of conceptualising nature in epistemological terms, reflecting the tensions between the polarities of humans as masters or protectors of nature and as part of or outside of nature.

The book shows how nature is today the focus of numerous debates, calling for an approach which goes beyond the merely technical or scientific. It adopts a threefold – critical, historical and cross-disciplinary – approach in order to summarise the current state of knowledge. It includes contributions informed by the humanities (especially history, literature and philosophy) and social sciences, concerned with the production and circulation of knowledge about "nature" across disciplines and across national and cultural spaces. The volume also demonstrates the ongoing reconfiguration of subject disciplines, as seen in the recent emergence of new interdisciplinary approaches and the popularity of the prefix "eco-" (e.g. ecocriticism, ecospirituality, ecosophy and ecofeminism, as well as subdivisions of ecology, including urban ecology, industrial ecology and ecosystem services). Each chapter provides a concise overview of its topic which will serve as a helpful introduction to students and a source of easy reference.　

This text is also valuable reading for researchers interested in philosophy, sociology, anthropology, geography, ecology, politics and all their respective environmentalist strands.

Alice Walker, a proponent of eco-spirituality, endeavors to usher the flourishing spirit of solidarity and Justice through little acts of earthly functions which may transform our environment and adorn the surroundings with heavenly touch of natural beauty. Earthly delights always in abundance, revel and recognize wholeness and integrity, though unfortunately it is man himself who never bothers to explore and avail the worshipful treasures of bliss on this planet. Walker as an eco-spiritualist attempts to relocate the redemptive springs of earthly clinging that evidently protects and nourishes human family without any abuse or exploitation.

As Marina Warner observes in her introduction to its 2004 Vintage Classics edition, Coleridge’s life-long obsession with themes of enchantment comes to one of its fullest expressions in his 1798 poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. In this paper I consider how that theme of enchantment has been interpreted by two of The Rime’s later adaptations, both of them childrens’ books: C.S. Lewis’ 1952 The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and Ted Hughes 1993 The Iron Woman.  My discussion of these three stories, and of the mutating theme of enchantment that runs through them, relies heavily on Hughes’ 1993 essay The Snake in the Oak, in which he offers an empathic critical interpretation of the spiritual crisis that both cut off, and was eloquently mapped within, Coleridge’s 'three great poems'. For Hughes, The Rime’s hallucinatory enchantment is seen as a necessary and curative descent - a visionary encounter which briefly prises loose the dead grip of the protagonist’s – and the author’s – human centred worldview. The mode of enchantment that Hughes presents us with, here, is far from the solipsistic lapse into self-suggestion caricatured in C.S. Lewis’ sermon. Rather, it’s that universally recorded process of involuntary descent which characterises a shamanic calling.

This chapter analyzes the spiritual quest in Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina in the context of eco-spirituality and creative energy. Thus, it adds to the more traditional readings of the novel an ecocritical element by stressing the intimate connection between humanity and the environment, a connection that is, moreover, mediated through intuition and instinct rather than egotistical, androcentric reason.

issue is an exploration of a theme that was very close to the heart of the founder of our research centre-the relationship between ecology and religious experience. Indeed, Sir Alister Hardy (1896-1985) started his academic career as a marine ecologist, and in that field is most widely known for his contributions to the study of plankton and their many fundamental connections to other parts of marine ecosystems. Hardy is also credited with the invention of the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR), used for documenting plankton levels in the ocean, and his research is still the benchmark for current work in this area (Continuous Plankton Recorder Survey, 2021). Following his retirement in 1969, after a string of prestigious university posts, and in order to pursue another of his lifelong fascinations, Hardy established the Religious Experience Research Unit (RERU) at Manchester College, Oxford, and began the process of collecting, documenting and analysing contemporary reports of religious and spiritual experience. Today the archive is housed at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Lampeter campus (with the new name of 'Religious Experience Research Centre'), and contains over 6,000 first-hand accounts of religious experiences submitted by the general public (RERC, 2021). Hardy's fascination for religious experience co-evolved with his love for, and curiosity about, the natural world. In his autobiographical notes, Hardy recalls having powerful and transformative experiences in nature during his childhood years, which would have a significant impact on the later unfurling of his life and work. He explains how as a student he would occasionally slip into reveries while observing the behaviour of butterflies, or experience moments of ecstasy when walking along the banks of the river near his school in Oundle, Nottinghamshire. He writes: There is no doubt that as a boy I was becoming what might be described as a nature mystic. Somehow, I felt the presence of something which was beyond and

This research investigates the potential of the Japanese belief system Shinto as to responding to ecological issues. It situates itself within the research field of spirituality and ecology. Shinto is an indigenous belief which promotes the worship of its divinities, the so-called Kami, which are thought to be residing within natural elements. The Kami are at the same time perceived as distinct divinities which are worshiped at Shinto sanctuaries, the Jinja (of which exist more than 80'000 throughout the country), as well as a consciousness which permeates Nature. Alternatively, Nature itself is considered as Kami. In reality it is not an easy task to define what Shinto means, and its descriptions are oftentimes vague or divergent. Nevertheless, it can be claimed that during the modernisation of Japan a core meaning of Shinto has gone lost, namely the proximity to its divinities which had been inherent to the Japanese people, as well as resulting ethical and spiritual implications. As of today, most Japanese do not question the core spiritual meanings of their own belief system and there is a general disdain against topics which touch upon religion or belief. This notwithstanding, during a field research, it has been repeatedly claimed that Shinto needs to reaffirm its core meanings which, through its conveyed spirituality harbors strong ecological implications, at the same time as being aware of contemporary ecological challenges. Besides, it also needs to admit past and present controversies such as its nationalistic implications or its incapacity of preventing past environmental degradations.

Religion (dharma) plays a vital role in the Hindu (Sanatana) quest for understanding and practicing harmony between nature and humanity that result into the formation of a cosmological awakening, i.e. ‘transcending the universe.’ The importance and applicability of such new consciousness is a sign in promoting global humanism in the 21st century, where environmental ethics and sustainability are the wheels of making the future more humane and peaceful. Arne Naess, who coined the term ‘deep ecology’ conceiving humankind as an integral part of its environment, gives credit to Gandhi. Gandhi’s contributions help to re-awaken the human spirit to self-realisation, finally leading to revelation promoting human coexistence with nature sustainably, mostly through re-interpretation of Vedantic thought. Under the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) the ideas of Gandhi are recognised as a path that makes human coexistence stronger, feasible and co-sharedness, sustainable in peace and harmony with nature. This essay presents ecospiritual contextuality and its vitality concerning a sustainable perspective in line with Gandhi’s vision and way of life.
Keywords: Hindu tradition, Sanatana dharma, Gandhi, environmental ethics, ecospirituality, sustainable development, SDGs.

Today, humanity stands at a historic crossroads. Deepening poverty and accelerating ecological destruction challenge us to act with wisdom and maturity: How can we move toward a future where meaning, hope, and beauty can truly flourish?

The Tao of Liberation is a search for this path, the wisdom needed to effect profound transformations in our world. Hathaway and Boff describe this wisdom using the ancient Chinese word Tao, meaning a way or path leading to harmony, peace, and right relationship. The Tao can also be understood as the wisdom that lies at the very heart of the flowing structure of the universe, encapsulating the essence of its purpose.

The book begins by asking: How does transformation occur? Or, perhaps more precisely: Why is it so difficult to effect the changes so urgently needed to save the living Earth community? It then embarks on a journey of exploration through such diverse fields as economics, psychology, cosmology, and spirituality in search for the wisdom – or Tao – needed to move away from our current destructive path and instead toward authentic liberation: A way leading to ever-greater communion, diversity, and creativity. ""

Permaculture is a design process for creating sustainable and regenerative garden systems with maximum yields by following the principles of ecology, and embodies a cosmology of interconnectedness and interdependence. It was developed in the 1970s by Australian ecologist Bill Mollison (1928-2016) and his student David Holmgren (Mollison & Holmgren, 1990). From very early on Bill Mollison stressed that permaculture was not a ‘spiritual movement’: “permaculture is not biodynamics, nor does it deal in fairies, devas, elves, after-life, apparitions or phenomena not verifiable by every person from their own experience, or making their own experiments. We permaculture teachers seek to empower any person by practical model-making and applied work, or data based on verifiable investigations” (Mollison, 1996, p. 623). At its core, then, permaculture is a scientific (broadly positivist and materialist), practical and hands-on approach to regenerating our badly damaged ecology.

Nevertheless, Permaculture is for many others something much more than 'just' a regenerative ecological design tool – it represents an holistic worldview based on the principles of ecology and systems thinking, that highlights the fundamental interconnectedness of all life on Earth. Permaculture gardens often become physical embodiments of this cosmological perspective, establishing mutually beneficial relationships between the human and non-human worlds, and aligning human behaviour with broader patterns in nature. Permaculture gardens often even partake of a sacred or spiritual character, incorporating features such as ‘mandala gardens,’ further blurring Mollison’s separation of spirituality from permaculture. David Holmgren has been much less critical of the possible role of spirituality in permaculture, asking “Can we really imagine a sustainable world without spiritual life in some form?” (Holmgren, 2006, p. 3).

The kind of spirituality present within permaculture might be understood in Bron Taylor’s terms as a form of ‘Dark Green Religion,’ characterised by: “a felt kinship with the rest of life […] accompanied by feelings of humility and a corresponding critique of human moral superiority, often inspired or reinforced by a science-based cosmology […] reinforced by a metaphysics of interconnection and the idea of interdependence […] found in the sciences, especially in ecology and physics” (Taylor, 2010, p. 13). Drawing on fieldwork observations and interviews with permaculture teachers and students on the Welsh borderlands, this paper explores the complexities of the scientific-ecological-spiritual-cosmological ideas that permaculture practice gives rise to.

Quel est le monde des écologistes ? Cette thèse cherche à dépasser les explications réduisant leur engagement à de simples stratégies sociales en plongeant dans les représentations d’un réseau informel d’écologistes vivant en France et en Suisse qui ont la particularité d’être des producteurs de discours publics, à travers tous types de médias, ce qui en fait des intellectuels engagés de l’écologie (Chapitre II). L’analyse de leurs discours, mais aussi de leurs pratiques, met en évidence la thématique fondatrice de l’effondrement, celui de la « civilisation thermo-industrielle », dans un processus de « prise de conscience ». Par-delà les bases scientifiques avancées pour la légitimer, la perspective catastrophiste est révélatrice d’une quête d’alternative vis-à-vis du « paradigme » moderne ramené au dualisme mécaniste et à l’économie capitaliste (Chapitre III). Cette écologie relationnelle s’inspire par conséquent des courants de l’écologie profonde, de l’écopsychologie, ainsi que de l’hypothèse Gaïa. À une vision holiste en lien avec une approche systémique de l’effondrement, elle mêle une perspective moniste par la perception organiciste d’un monde vivant composé d’êtres unis par des relations d’interdépendance et de correspondance (Chapitre IV). Le Soi est alors en liaison intime avec le Tout, et cette écosophie s’actualise parfois par une relation écospirituelle à travers la méditation, des exercices ou des rituels tels que ceux proposés par les ateliers de « Travail qui relie » (Chapitre V). Cette médiation peut aussi se faire par des pratiques quotidiennes d’insertion dans la « toile de la vie » tel que le compostage (Chapitre VIII). Le « changement de paradigme », passage d’un monde à l’autre, est ainsi attendu et espéré et cette apocalyptique écologique fait souvent écho au millénarisme du New Age, ainsi qu’aux aspects contre-culturels de ce courant. La dénonciation de l’anthropocentrisme et le holisme affiché de l’écospiritualité peuvent aussi donner lieu à des accusations d’antihumanisme et de liens avec l’extrême-droite que cette thèse examine (Chapitre VI). Les variations de positions exprimées au sein du réseau d’écologie relationnelle permettent enfin de les comprendre comme s’articulant autour d’un pôle écocentrique, dans une relation d’attraction/répulsion avec les autres pôles théocentrique et anthropocentrique. En prenant les acteurs au sérieux, ce travail propose une compréhension approfondie des logiques des écologistes catastrophistes et spirituels, par-delà l’objectivité supposée des crises environnementales.

This study searches within Pauline Theology, Christology, Cosmology and Eschatology for resources and seeks to answer how a faith articulation that addresses the question of value of creation in the light of the impending massive ecological destruction is to be made. Based on this theological foundation, Missional insights shall be discussed. The study seeks to conclude with some practical ecological imperatives fromPauline thought

Le catastrophisme né des enjeux écologiques peut-il être pensé comme apocalyptique ? Tel semble être le cas pour un réseau franco-suisse de « collapsologues » qui anticipent non pas la fin du monde mais la fin d’un monde ouvrant sur une nouvelle civilisation. Ils insistent sur la nécessité de mener une transformation intérieure, au croisement de l’écologie et des spiritualités alternatives, en explorant des pratiques de reconnexion à soi, au vivant et à la Terre associées au New Age. Cette écologie spirituelle peut en effet être interprétée comme une résurgence apocalyptique de ce courant, dont la dimension millénariste était présente dès l’origine.

Berkeley, CA – The Center for the Arts & Religion at the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) celebrates the publication of "Gestures to the Divine: Reflections on Eco-Spirituality," a book that brings together the nature-focused artwork of Hagit Cohen and reflections on eco-spirituality by scholars. The publication is an accompaniment to the exhibition of Cohen’s work at the  Doug Adams Gallery in Berkeley through December 13, 2018. Hagit Cohen’s minimalist prints of plant seeds and pods inspire awe and contemplation. As she explains, “nothing is too small to be the object of wonder or to hold powerful significance in the cycle of life.” Cohen’s work links nature and spirituality, a connection that resonates with many. Seven of scholars with a research interest in ecology and spirituality present essays in this volume, reflecting on eco-spirituality from theological, spiritual, and historical perspectives.

At the turn of the twentieth century, a cohort of Irish advanced nationalist women coalesced into Inghinidhe na hÉireann, an organization founded in 1900 to realize Irish independence in the political, economic, social, and artistic spheres. Women such as Ella Young (1867-1956), Constance Markievicz (1868-1927), Helena Moloney (1884-1967), and Maud Gonne (1866-1953) were friends, artists, teachers, and social agitators whose Irish republican political contributions and roles in Inghinidhe na hÉireann are well documented. This study examines how these Inghinidhe leaders fused their nationalist political ambitions with their spiritual lives by experimenting with what twenty-first century scholars designate as ecospiritual beliefs and practices.

L’exemple d’un réseau d’« intellectuels de l’écologie » montre donc qu’il existe des formes de résistance alternatives, alternatives parce que ces acteurs refusent en général la confrontation directe avec le « système » en place, ce qui reviendrait à le légitimer, et préfèrent s’y opposer à différents niveaux. Celui-ci étant de toute façon discrédité parce que « allant droit dans le mur », il s’agit de « résister à la barbarie qui vient  » et d’inventer le « monde d’après ». Il est en premier lieu nécessaire de « décoloniser l’imaginaire », de s’opposer à la « vision du monde » dominante et de promouvoir d’autres valeurs. Il convient ensuite de faire preuve de créativité pour expérimenter d’autres modes de vie, et même pour certains d’opérer une « transformation intérieure ».

Ce texte se propose d’analyser les différents discours que tiennent les acteurs d’un réseau informel d’écologistes autour de l’idée de « démesure » ; dans un premier temps quand ils utilisent directement le mot « démesure » ou « hubris », qui a un sens très proche, mais aussi quand leurs propos se rapportent à ce que l’on entend par démesure.

Après une brève présentation de ce réseau écologiste, l’on verra qu’il mobilise peu ce concept de démesure. Deux autres perspectives seront donc présentées, lesquels sont peu évoquées au cœur de ce réseau, mais que reprennent certaines personnes se situant en périphérie de celui-ci : le « courant de l’écologie humaine » et l’approche « technocritique ». Ce détour permettra de mieux comprendre pourquoi les écologistes de notre terrain de recherche  s’intéressent peu à la démesure, et de voir comment, dans certains cas, ils peuvent même défendre certaines formes d’«illimitation ».

Ecocriticism is the study of the relationship between the literature and environment to understand the vital role of nature in the growth and evolution of everything and it paves ways many to the scholars to examine environmental concerns and the ways literature treats the subject of nature. Some ecocritics endeavor through literature to provide possible solutions for the sustenance of environment. Ecospiritualityconnects the science of ecology with spirituality. It has been defined as "a manifestation of the spiritual connection between human beings and the environment." The new millennium and the modern ecological crisis have created a need for environmentally based religion and spirituality. Ecospirituality is also understood by scholars as one result of people wanting to free themselves from the materialistic society.

When Thomas Berry commented on the contribution of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin to theology, he asserted that “Teilhard . . . (1881–1955) gave expression to the greatest transformation in Christian thought since the time of St. Paul.” Berry argued that Teilhard, using the newly discovered epic of evolution as cosmological context, “was the first person to describe the universe as having, from the beginning, a psychic-spiritual dimension as well as a physical-material dimension.” Closely associated with this claim are two more of Teilhard’s purported achievements: a positioning of the human within that epic story—that is, that humanity is derived from billions of years of cosmic evolution—and the recognition that the universe story is a sacred story—that is, that we live with a sacred milieu. Although Teilhard’s insights provided a context for Berry’s critical analysis of our understanding of ourselves and our relationship with everything else, many other sources also informed the latter’s reflection on the task of reinventing the human. This chapter will begin with a brief consideration of the notion that the universe has a psychic-spiritual dimension and is inherently sacred. Then it will review three authors from three major religious traditions who have informed Berry’s understanding that this sacred universe has always had a “psychic spiritual dimension as well as a physical-material dimension”—viz., the Neo-Confucian, Zhou Dunyi; the Hindu, Śri Aurobindo Ghose; and the Christian, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. While the sources of Berry’s prodigious grasp of world religions are certainly not limited to the works of theses authors, and while their influence on his thought extends beyond the topic of this chapter, a selective overview of their works will suggest links to Berry’s own perceptions. Finally, this chapter will describe Berry’s understanding of the notion that the universe has had from the beginning, a psychic-spiritual dimension as well as a physical-material dimension.

The principles that govern eco–spirituality were established between the 1960s and 1980s, coming from various currents and paradigms derived from the counterculture and the New Age movement, and its bases can be traced in philosophical currents of the 17th century such as pantheism and romanticism. On the one hand, eco–spirituality emerges as an academic, scientific and social discourse in pursuit of the construction of new alternatives in the face of the ecological crisis. On the other hand, it is constituted as a way to overcome the religious and spiritual
fragmentation of the post–industrial society of the 20th century: a path towards mystical and transcendental experience. This article examines the theoretical foundations of eco–spirituality and its implications.

Ecologists are often depicted as prophets of doom and ridiculed for their apocalyptic views. The study of a French and Swiss network of engaged intellectuals of 'relational ecology' gives a more complex picture. Expecting the end of a world, rather than the end of the world, and inspired by the Transition Town movement, they are advocating for a metamorphosis that requires radical political changes and personal transformation. Closely related to deep ecology and to ecopsychology, such ecospirituality links the fate of Gaia, viewed as a living entity, to an 'inner transition'. Organicism, the experience of transmutation and the idea of universal correspondences throughout the 'web of life' are elements of this ecospirituality that can be related to esotericism. This cosmovision echoes the 'ontology of analogy' of Philippe Descola. Promoting a 'continuity of interiorities' beyond the 'continuity of physicalities' of modern naturalism, relational ecology may disclose an analogism that challenges Descola’s ontological framework.

This issue is an exploration of a theme that was very close to the heart of the founder of our research centre-the relationship between ecology and religious experience.

Full issue available here:  https://rerc-journal.tsd.ac.uk/index.php/religiousexp/issue/view/11

In Indian thought the sense of intrinsic value is posed in the basic quest of knowing the place and role of man with respect to interrelatedness of ecological cosmology, i.e. ecospirituality, receiving more attention today under New Age Movement. The question of moral duty of human being to the community and nature is the subject of imposition of inherent deep thought, i.e., ethical values, since ancient past in Indian thought. Imposition of value appears as human response to the world, in association with nature, and in realization to the cosmic interrelatedness. This is an issue of human duty, a sense of realization, a wish to promote culture and civilisation for human development.  The idea of nature and human integrity in Hindu thought depends upon ways in which people see and experience themselves, their sense of attachment to nature, and their ways of maintaining this. It is through symbolism, the main expression of mythological understanding, that one can gain insight into the relationships of humanity to nature. Religion (dharma) plays a vital role in the Hindu quest for understanding and practicing harmony between nature and humanity that result to the formation of a cosmological awakening, i.e. ‘transcending the universe’. The importance and applicability of such new consciousness is a good sign in promoting global humanism in the 21st century. The central monistic philosophy of Hindu tradition, Vedanta, recog¬nizes that ‘fundamentally all life is one, that in essence everything is reality, and that this oneness finds its natural expression in a reverence for all things’. This essay attempts to present ecospiritual contextuality and its vitality concerning environmental sensitivity in India, illustrated with myths, traditions and symbols that evolved in the past and continued in the passage of time, and is on the way to critical appraisal.
Keywords: Ecospirituality, Hindu tradition, Gross elements, spirit of place, dharma, new vision.

This chapter focuses on the turn towards ecofeminist ideology and praxis among Contemporary Pagans in the West, centering on its emergence during the 1970s and 1980s, as well as providing a description of later developments since the 1990s. Focusing the analysis of Britain, the Pagan magazine scene of the period is examined, with Wood and Water – a feminist-inclined Pagan publication – and the milieu associated with it serving as a case study.

When traditional cultures practice rituals of regeneration, attention is typically paid to united concerns of the inner life and care for nature. In an age of increasing climate change crisis, members of urban societies must recompose rituals of renewal with a similarly holistic cosmology in mind. The ‘modern soul’ is more than ever in need of direct relation with the rest of nature as well as inner psychic harmony. But while exercising caution not to ‘co-opt’ Aboriginal songlines such as the kujika of Yanyuwa tribe of north eastern Arnhem Land, we can recognise great potential in adopting a similar ontopoetic structure in a new way. Executed with the appropriate balance of cultural sensitivity and openness to ‘the song of the land,’ new kinds of songlines (or more appropriately ‘country lines’) can combine uniquely modern concerns such as technology and excessive pollution with traditional conceptions of a holistic world wherein nature and psyche are known as a complex and diverse unity. When all creatures and landforms ‘sing’ in one chorus of interrelated life – wherein conflict is included and managed ‘in line’ with this higher synthesis of complexity – a resilient new cosmology may be composed.

Since John Paul II’s 1990 World Day of Peace Message on the ecological crisis, green themes have been a recurring feature of the Vatican’s public teachings. Working with a selection of Catholic Social Teaching documents, this article explores the Vatican’s reactions to and accommodations of ecospirituality.  A critical lens informed by ecotheological ethics is employed to analyse the Vatican’s specific brand of ecospirituality, particularly as it relates to its condemnation of biocentrism, while also acknowledging official efforts to green the Roman Catholic Church’s doctrine and faith-based practices. With the advantage of the critical distance that a North American perspective provides, this article suggests ways that the Vatican can foster a more integral and substantively peaceful greening of Catholic Social Teaching and Catholic spirituality by drawing on resources from within Catholic intellectual tradition, as well as other expressions of ecospirituality, ecotheology, and Cat...

CHAMEL Jean, 2016, « Visions du monde des écologistes catastrophistes: entre attente de la fin d’un monde et retrait hors du monde », Processus de légitimation entre politique et religion: Approches historico-culturelles et analyses de cas dans les mondes européen et extra-européen, S. Mancini et R. Rousseleau éd., Paris, Editions Beauchesne, p. 281-298.

Résumé
Certains écologistes développent une vision catastrophique de l’évolution du monde. À rebours d’un certain déterminisme sociologique, cette perspective n’est pas, ou pas uniquement, la conséquence d’une situation de déclassement social, mais peut au contraire être la raison d’une marginalisation relative de ces écologistes catastrophistes. Leur vision globale d’un monde qui court à sa perte s’apparente à l’attente de la fin d’un monde et à l’espérance d’un monde meilleur des mouvements millénaristes. Mais ce rapprochement n’est possible qu’avec certaines réserves : outre l’absence de figure messianique et le caractère scientifique de ce mouvement, sa dimension religieuse n’apparaît pas clairement. On la retrouve plutôt dans des pratiques individuelles de certains écologistes, pratiques liées à une quête de spiritualité avec un fort accent mis sur l’idée de connexion. Alors que l’attente de la catastrophe est fortement mobilisatrice et pousse à agir dans le monde, à vouloir le changer pour lui éviter d’aller dans le mur, l’option spirituelle est à l’inverse démobilisatrice et s’accompagne d’un retrait hors du monde.

Abstract
Some environmentalists see the evolution of the world as catastrophic. This view is not, or not only, the consequence of social demotion, as sociological determinism might suggest; it can also be the reason of the relative marginalization of these catastrophists. Their view of a world that goes to its loss looks similar to the wait for the end of a world and the hope of a better one, typical of the millennial movements. But this research also highlights that catastrophism is scientifically grounded, has no messianic figure, and no clear religious dimension. Such dimension appears more clearly within the individual practices of some environmentalists, and these spiritual practices are strongly linked with the idea of connection. While waiting for the end of this world is a strong motivation to act in the world, to change it before it collapses, the spiritual option is a contrario demotivating and goes along with a withdrawal from the world.

Drawing on insights from Damasio’s somatic marker hypothesis, Buddhism, ecopsychology, and the Beatitudes, this paper explores the role emotions play in influencing our response to the ecological crisis. While invoking fear may actually lead to denial, addictive behaviours, or despair which impede action, appealing to positive emotions – such as gratitude, awe, compassion, or love for life (or “biophilia”) – may lead to a meaningful response to what is arguably the greatest crisis of our time. In exploring these issues, the Buddhist analysis of the “three poisons” is particularly helpful in understanding the way persons may choose to manage unpleasant emotions like fear rather than actually dealing with the causes of a crisis. Joanna Macy’s “Work that Reconnects” provides a helpful model of transformative learning that both builds on positive emotions and works through difficult ones to empower meaningful action. Reflecting on the Aramaic version of the Beatitudes provides additional insights for working through emotions to establish a deep bond with the wider Earth community and act with energy and wisdom.

In Environmental Humanities: Voices from the Anthropocene, editors Serpil Oppermann and Serenella Iovino have assembled 19 essays and interventions by some of the most distinguished names in a now 'multisperspectival' (xi) research field, from Greta Gaard to Wendy Wheeler and Kate Rigby, all focused on finding 'more critical and imaginative tools to comprehend the Anthropocene' (13). The challenge faced by the collection's contributors is elegantly summarised by Richard Kerridge in his Foreword (xiii-xvii). 'Even as the Anthropocene challenges uscollective humanityto take greater and more exceptional responsibility,' he writes, 'it also admonishes us for past hubris, and relegates us to the category of stumbling, floundering creatures whose plans go awry because we understand too little: in other words, natural creatures, caught up in forces beyond our understanding' (xv). Not the least difficulty is, therefore, one of finding a narrative or narratives that might contain the multitudes denoted by Kerridge's reference to 'collective humanity'. In fact, and as Kerridge also points out, 'some of the contributors to the collection reject the term "Anthropocene"' precisely because it assumes a 'unitary Anthropos' (xvi). From a 'feminist, postcolonial or more broadly Environmental Justice perspective' (xvii), humans are not all equally responsible for 'environmental disasters' (xv), nor equally able to rise to the challenge those disasters present. Moreover, and as the material turn has underlined, humankind is entangled with the morethan-human in ways that emphasize the extent to which both 'are continuously engaged in the production and modification of the system and thus of each other' (xvi). If this inevitably suggests a 'rich array' of different perspectives, as Oppermann and Iovino point out in their own Introduction (1-22), those perspectives are nevertheless brought together by a strong and shared sense of the urgency of 'current ecological crises' (1) created by and 'within systems of massive exploitation of limited natural capital' (2). Arguably, the Environmental Humanities are united within a 'ethical-educational project of creating alliances between science, society, and cultural discourses' (3): '[t]he pivotal question here is: how will new modes of knowing and being, which the Environmental Humanities call for, enable environmentally just practices?' (2). Divided into four parts, the collection turns first to the challenge of 'Re-mapping the Humanities (23-112). In the opening chapter, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen asks if 'word' and 'world' are really as passive as the term Anthropocene implies (25). Instead, he shifts the emphasis towards a 'posthuman environs' (the chapter title) built around 'eco-sonorous terms' (27) that highlight the way that matter inscribes humans, 'regardless of the epochs we declare' (25). In 'Environmental History between Institutionalization and Revolution', Marco Armiero engages with a different aspect of anthropocentrism, the '"human-centric" discipline' of history (45), and the tension between its (potentially revolutionary) transformation and its absorption into the mainstream (45), wryly concluding 'I would prefer to ignore the academic Winter Palace and Occupy reality!' (57). Next, Hubert Zapf explores the challenge of interdisciplinarity through a chapter on 'Cultural Ecology, the Environmental Humanities, and the Transdisciplinary Knowledge of Literature', focusing on some of the ways in which literary knowledge might already offer forms of 'transdisciplinary GREEN LETTERS: STUDIES IN ECOCRITICISM

Abstract:
This article, titled Relationality and Reverence: Hindu Ecological Visions, for the Special Issue on “Hinduism, Jainism, Yoga and Ecology”, edited by Christopher K. Chapple, focuses on the relationship of early Hindu texts (Samhitas and Upanishads) to the natural world. In relation to
this effort, it is first necessary to recognize the value that ecotheologians confer on the recovery of epistemologies of respect for the earth’s ecosystems for recontextualizing theoethics and theopraxis
for a viable future. The fabric of Hindu thought, from its inception, has contained strands which have been informed by a deep reverence for, and profound intimacy with, the natural world. Much of this perception and practice has become attenuated in the modern era. This paper will seek to draw attention to some key principles and perspectives within early Hindu textual traditions that can and should be ecotheologically re-evisioned for ecosystemic and societal sustainability within
the “global” Hindu ethos.

This paper purports to identify the critical potential of Waldorf education within the context of environmental education and ecospirituality. It sees Steiner's thinking as a further development of early Romantic philosophy and takes both as rooted in Western esotericism. In line with this, the Romantic critique of the mechanistic view of Nature, characteristic of Enlightenment science and philosophy, has a parallel in Steiner's critique of the materialist world view, and how this is spread through mainstream education. Steiner's conception of the relations between humanity and the Earth/Nature is showed to have forerunners in the conceptions of Herder and Novalis. Hence, this is part of the ideational grounds of Waldorf education. The technocratic, neoliberal and capitalist regime, that rules globally today, stands in sharp contrast to the visions of Romanticism, as well as of Waldorf education. This contrast is illustrated by examples from the Indian environmentalist Vandana Shiva. Finally, the participatory epistemology and vision of child in Waldorf education illustrate how its critical potential in environmental education and ecospirituality can be realized.

What is the world of the ecologists? This thesis goes beyond explanations reducing their commitment to simple social strategies by plunging into the representations of an informal network of environmentalists living in France and Switzerland. They are producers of public discourse, through all types of media, and therefore engaged intellectuals of environmentalism (Chapter II). The analysis of their discourses, but also of their practices, highlights that the "awareness" of the collapse of the "thermo-industrial civilization", is fundamental. Beyond the scientific bases advanced to legitimize it, the catastrophist perspective is indicative of a search for an alternative to the modern "paradigm", reduced to mechanistic dualism and the capitalist economy (Chapter III). This relational ecology is therefore inspired by the currents of deep ecology, ecopsychology, and the Gaia hypothesis. A holistic vision linked to the systemic approach of collapse is combined to a monistic perspective with the organicist perception of a living world composed of beings united by relations of interdependence and correspondence (Chapter IV). The Self is then intimately connected with the Whole, and this ecosophy is sometimes actualized by an ecospiritual relationship through meditation, exercises or rituals such as those proposed by the workshops of "Work that connects" (Chapter V). This mediation can also be done through daily practices of insertion in the "web of life" such as composting (Chapter VIII). A "paradigm shift", a transition from one world to another, is thus expected and hoped for and this ecological apocalyptic often echoes the New Age millenarianism, as well as the counter-cultural aspects of this current. The denunciation of anthropocentrism and the holism of ecospirituality can also give rise to accusations of antihumanism and of connections with the extreme right, aspects that this thesis examines (Chapter VI). The variations of positions expressed within the network of relational ecology finally make it possible to understand them as being articulated around an ecocentric pole, in a relation of attraction / repulsion with the other theocentric and anthropocentric poles. By taking the actors seriously, this work offers a deep understanding of the logics of catastrophic and spiritual ecologists, beyond the supposed objectivity of environmental crises.

The Ecological Spirituality: The Quest for God Through Relating to Earth and Body. Ecology has been massively discussed in the last one hundred years and the debate has been impacting science and humanities, including theology. The world is finding a way back to itself while new spirituality is emerging. What is spiritual about ecology? The holistic approach to spirituality integrates the entire spectrum of life. Spirituality is now seen as working towards an integration of prayer and action. Ecospirituality unfolds this approach by rethinking the relation to the creation. Jay B. McDaniel develops the topic and opens with a provocative thesis: everyday profane activities are in fact deeply spiritual. Sallie McFague follows him and proposes the metaphor Body of God which offers a way to relate to God through relating to body and the physical. This article introduces main thoughts on ecological spirituality and offers a comparison of traditional spiritual and ecospiritual typology, along with the new outcome that it brings.

In Matthew's “Sign of Jonah” text, Jesus went down “into the heart of the Earth” at the time of his transformation. The current global ecosystemic crisis represents an urgent call to reclaim the centrality of this solidarity with the Earth. Several decades ago, Gregory Bateson ...

Moving Through Grief, Reconnecting with Nature is the fruit of the author’s two decades inquiry into the spontaneous expression of grief when connecting with various aspects of the natural world. Dufrechou’s reflective study illuminates how an unanticipated flood of emotions in response to nature, the experience of loss, when given the attention and space to be recognized and reflected upon, prompts a transformative shift, the significance of which is difficult to deny.

Echoing Eco-Spiritual Values for a New World: An Inter-reading of Herman Hesse's Siddhartha i Ah, how glorious! Green leaves, young leaves Glittering in the sunlight. [Basho on visiting the shrine on Mount Nikko] The moving finger writes and having written moves on… [Omar Khayyam, Rubaiyat] Above all, he learned …how to listen, to listen with a heart, with a waiting, open soul, without passion, without desire, without judgement, without opinions… [Hesse, Siddhartha, p.85]

Guest contribution for the blog 'Urban-rural migration and rural revitalization in Japan' funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and hosted by Professor Cornelia Reiher from the Institue of Japanese Studies at Freie Universität Berlin. ベルリン大学日本社会学科管理のブログに、鳥取で行っている山岳信仰に関わる現場調査から得た成果やフィールドワークの現況についてくゲスト投稿. https://userblogs.fu-berlin.de/urban-rural-migration-japan/2021/09/10/guest-contribution-researching-mountain-worship-in-rural-tottori/

Although a rare fictional exploration by the author, ness plugs seamlessly into what I would call ‘Macfarlanism.’ Though the author might not appreciate such a term, there is a spirituality that appends to this man’s work despite the hefty scholarly approach he brings to his non-fiction.

On the basis of ethnographic conversations and observations made among ecospiritual activists in French-speaking Switzerland, this text aims to locate the discourses and practices regarding gender references, following Linda Woodhead's framing (2013). The observed gendered spiritual ecology fosters essentialized gender roles and values over the Feminine and the Masculine. The case description, one gendering a representation of nature and the other attaching gendered values to human attitudes in order to explain social and environmental disorders, is followed by a discussion of the assumption that essentialization could be a performative strategy for claims over new gender roles, thus depending on the social location of these religious actors. In conclusion , a larger theoretical perspective is offered referring to queer ecology and it's attempt to overcome the nature/culture divide. The authors consider performance and materiality as two key-concepts to better understand the gender roles being promoted in ecospirituality and ecofeminist movements.