Religion 225 - Religion/Environment

We live today in an age of deepening ecological crises. Climate change, precipitous species extinction, and global water shortages, to name a few, all present unprecedented problems with which we are forced to grapple daily. Yet many argue we also face a profound spiritual crisis. Is traditional religion adequate to address the many ecological dilemmas of our day? If not, how must it change? And perhaps most pressing: Is religion at all to blame for our current ecological predicament(s)? This class explores each of these questions in relation to the Christian religious tradition in its many forms. Specifically, we will inquire into the ways Christian theology is being re-examined, re-imagined, and re-deployed to confront today’s environmental challenges. Our goal is to understand how certain theological and moral strategies make ecological crises relevant to Christian belief and practice in their diversity of forms. What secular forces shape Christian responses to environmental problems? What beliefs, doctrines, and/or traditions take precedence in Christians’ moral approaches to contemporary environmental crises? How does Christian theology interpret science (namely the fields of ecology and evolutionary biology), and furthermore, how do such interpretations impact Christian worldviews and moral vocabularies These questions and more constitute the course's chief inquiries. By the end of the semester we will also consider secular environmentalist positions in order to explore points of accord and disagreement with different strains of Christian theology and ethics, including what chances there are for meaningful political partnerships between Christian and secular movements for environmental sustainability.  

Spring semester. Visiting Lecturer Powell.