RELG240

Our current environmental crises rest on philosophical and religious assumptions that are now being challenged. Are humans meant to dominate nature? Does nature belong to human beings or do human beings belong to nature? Addressing such questions requires an increasingly broad scope, as our ecological fates are interwoven on a planetary scale. This class therefore examines a diversity of religious teachings, old and new, to theorize cultural conceptions of “nature” and seek possible platforms for religious rhetoric to inspire conservation. We read primary and secondary sources across a range of traditions, including Jain, Buddhist, Hindu, and Christian, as well as indigenous tribes from North America, and scholars who suggest a new religious attention to earth sciences is needed to face the present climate crisis. By deconstructing conventional definitions of terms like religion and nature, we build an understanding of human entanglements in planetary processes and possible pathways toward sustainable futures.