Religion and nature
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Recent papers in Religion and nature
The role of sacred springs and spring deities in Hittite religion is especially relevant to the consideration of the relationship between nature and cult in ancient Anatolia. This paper addresses the subject by first presenting an... more
A critical response to the trends in environmental history well summarized by Paul Sutter in "TheWorld with Us: The State of American Environmental History", Journal of American History 100 (2013): 94-199. The entire forum is available... more
Ecological theology (in short, ecotheology) is a rather new field in academic study of theology. While all Christian theologies can be analyzed for their views about the value of non-human nature, the concept ‘ecotheology’ is often used... more
Exploring the intra-actions of new animist and new materialist movements within the environmental (post)humanities, this paper argues for transductive methods in-between the disciplines of the sciences and humanities and Western, Eastern,... more
Issues of ecology and Christian relation to the created world are not the domain of the present day alone. The works of the patristic period also contain interpretations and hints concerning the relationship between human beings, God and... more
The award winning Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature critically explores the relationships among human beings, their environments, and the religious dimensions of life. Further information and sample entries can be found at the urls... more
A summary of the ways that "religion" in its many facets is involved in environmental governance.
This contribution deals with a group of five late literary testimonies which are connected by modern scholarship with the Celtic oak-cult. The texts under discussion are from Maximos of Tyre (λόγοι 2 (8),8), the Commenta Bernensia (ad... more
Wicca or Pagan Witchcraft is the most popular branch of contemporary Western Paganism. Its self-image is that of an ‘old religion’; a reawakening of the spiritual values, ideas, ideals and practices of Pagan ancestors. Amongst these... more
Pomegranate readers who are familiar with Ronald Hutton’s The Tri- umph of the Moon: A History of Modern Witchcraft—whose twentieth anniversary was just celebrated by the publication of a tribute volume, Magic and Witchery in the Modern... more
Harvest Thanksgiving rests at the junction of liturgy, nature and memory. From the late-nineteenth century it was a major event on Nonconformist church calendars, drawing crowds well beyond regular attendance. Yet it was the Nonconformist... more
In every religion animals, plants, and other nonhuman natural beings are divine messengers, bringers of spiritual or material gifts, gods, guardian spirits, or sacred ancestors. Sometimes natural entities are holy models for emulation,... more
Earth and nature-based spirituality is proliferating globally. In Part I of this study, I argued that although participants in these countercultural movements often eschew the label religion, these are religious movements, in which... more
It is easy for human beings to ascribe meaning to trees because they are satisfyingly homologous with people; they are alive in a way that stones, however impressive, cannot be. In the landscape trees are frequently dominant and... more
This essay discusses the role of comparison in the historical study of religions by means of three case studies of wilderness mythology from ancient religions – Mesopotamia, The Hebrew Bible, and early Christian-ity. Then, the concept of... more
Avatar and Nature Spirituality explores the cultural and religious significance of James Cameron’s film Avatar (2010), one of the most commercially successful motion pictures of all time. Its success was due in no small measure to the... more
La mediazione simbolica fra uomo e natura, fra individuo e cosmo, ha trovato nella letteratura, dopo il mito e prima dell’attuale egemonia della tecnica, uno degli spazi di elaborazione privilegiati. Un’altra funzione ‘antropologica’ che... more
This article traces how a motif from folklore, that of the marauding dragon, became reinterpreted by UK Pagans and Earth Mystics—for whom it symbolised a mysterious 'dragon energy' circulating harmoniously through the landscape—and by a... more
Eliot’s visionary poem The Waste Land gnaws at the bones of twentieth-century Anglo-American society to reveal the alienation of the modern west from the non-human world, alongside a... more
Performance, Religious Imagination, and the Play of the Land in the Study of Deep Ecology and Its Practices By Craig S. Strobel Abstract In this dissertation I demonstrate that a Performance Hermeneutic methodology can uncover the... more
Lynn White, Jr.'s 'The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis', which was published in Science in 1967, has played a critically important role in environmental studies. Although White advanced a multifaceted argument, most respondents... more
Most images of yetis in Western popular culture and scholarly literature portray them as secular, predatory monsters. These representations overlook important religious dimensions of yetis that are hidden in the current literature so I... more
The latest developments in climate change science and policy counter the traditional political and economic global structure. In this paper, approaching climate change as a collective action problem, I focused on adaptive co-management... more
Overview of the meanings and uses of "nature," as both concept and referent, in studies of religion and in contemporary religious belief and practice. Covers "nature in itself" (including debates over its "social construction"), "nature... more
Unlike traditional religious ideas, romantic period writers such as Blake and Wordsworth, examine the presence of God in nature and self. They see God as not a separate existence, but inside the creation of himself: man and nature. Blake... more
Earth and nature-based spirituality is proliferating globally. In Part I of this study, I argue that although participants in countercultural movements often eschew the label religion, these are religious movements, in which these persons... more
Special issue of journal Poligrafi, dedicated to religion and nature.
Monograph: Shaw, J. 2007. Buddhist Landscapes in Central India: Sanchi Hill and Archaeologies of Religion and Social Change, c. 3rd century BC to 5th century AD. London: British Academy (hardback) Available to purchase here:... more
Julia Shaw (2016) Religion, ‘nature’ and environmental ethics in ancient India: archaeologies of human:non-human suffering and well-being in early Buddhist and Hindu contexts, World Archaeology, 48:4, 517-543... more
Author: Sam Arts Publisher: CBE International When we say, “We are persuaded from Scripture that masculinity and femininity are rooted in who we are by nature,”1 what do we mean by “nature”? How do we relate our view of nature to our... more
Infernal rivers, like the Styx, flow in the world of the living. This paper examines this apparent inconsistency by investigating what could have prompted close contacts between the realm of the dead where infernal rivers were supposed to... more