What is humankind in relation to 13 billion years of universe history? What is our place in the framework of 4.6 billion years of Earth history? How can we foster the stability and integrity of life processes? Just as humankind is beginning to comprehend the vastness and complexity of the evolutionary story of the universe, we are also becoming conscious of the growing environmental crisis and of the rapid destruction of species and habitat taking place around the globe. The challenge for the world's religions, argues Mary Evelyn Tucker, is both to re-envision our role as citizens of the...

The most important work on Confucian religion, ethics, and spirituality ever to appear.

This fourth volume in the series exploring religions and the environment investigates the role of the multifaceted Hindu tradition in the development of greater ecological awareness in India. The 22 contributors ask how traditional concepts of nature in the classical texts might inspire or impede an eco-friendly attitude among modern Hindus, and they describe some grass-roots approaches to environmental protection. They look to Gandhian principles of minimal consumption, self-reliance, simplicity and sustainability. And they explore forests and sacred groves in text and tradition and review...

This volume intends to contribute to the nascent discourse on Judaism and ecology by clarifying diverse conceptions of nature in Jewish thought and by using the insights of Judaism to formulate a constructive Jewish theology of nature.

Confucianism demonstrates a wealth of resources for rethinking human-earth relations. This second volume in the series on religions of the world and the environment includes 16 essays that address the ecological crisis and the question of Confucianism from three perspectives: the historical describes this East Asian tradition's views on nature, social ethics and cosmology, which may shed light on contemporary problems; a dialogical approach links Confucianism to other philosophical and religious traditions; and examination of engaged Confucianism looks at its involvement in concrete...