Religion and Ecology: A Review Essay on the Field

OVER THE LAST TEN YEARS, a swell of religious interest in environmental issues has developed into robust programs of research and teaching, and perhaps even a sub-field of its own. Usually called “religion and ecology,” but sometimes insisted upon as “religion and nature” or “ecotheology” to mark distinct stances, the most telling sign that a new field has emerged may be the methodological disagreements among its specialists. A series of recent publications make those differences evident. This review will consider four field-shaping anthologies that, respectively, represent four different ways of constructing and working within the field. Each constructs its own program for integrating religious and environmental studies, with the result that each establishes its own objectives for work in the field. At issue in the alternatives presented are various views of religion and of the role of religion in cultural change, divergent views of environmental crisis and the role for socially engaged scholarship, and—in a surprising way—the place of theology within the contemporary academy.