Overview

This collection of essays discusses the human relationship with, and responsibilities toward, the natural environment from the perspective of religions and the social sciences. The chapters examine a variety of conditions that have contributed to the contemporary environmental crisis, including abuse of power, economic greed, industrialization, deforestation, and unplanned waste management. They then discuss concepts from several different religious texts and traditions that promote environmental protection as a sacred moral duty for all humanity. Religious concepts such as dharma (duty toward Mother Earth), tikkun Olam (repair of the world), khalifa (people as deputies of God on earth), amanah (the universe as a trust in human hands), and paticca samuppada (dependent co-arising) are employed to argue that all the components of the biosphere are integral to the cosmos, each piece with its own value and role in the harmony of the whole. The book makes it clear that religions can become more “green” and play a helpful role in raising our ecological consciousness and supporting preservation of the environment into the future.

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9781527505308

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Muhammad Shafiq is the Executive Director of the Brian and Jean Hickey Center for Interfaith Studies and Dialogue and Professor of Islamic and Religious Studies at Nazareth College, USA, where he also holds the IIIT Chair in Interfaith Studies. He received an MA and PhD from Temple University, USA, and has written more than 50 articles and several books. He is the co-author of Interfaith Dialogue: A Guide for Muslims (2012) and co-editor of the Poverty and Wealth in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. His work promoting interfaith dialogue was recognized at Doha International Interfaith Conference April 25-27, 2013. He has led intra-faith and interfaith leadership training workshops in Chad, Niger, Indonesia, Belgium, and other parts of the world.Thomas Donlin-Smith is Professor of Religious Studies at Nazareth College, USA. Having received his PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia, USA, he has developed teaching and research specializations in comparative religious ethics, biomedical ethics, Christian ethics, religion and science, religion and politics, and theory and method in the study of religion. He has served the Hickey Center for Interfaith Studies and Dialogue since its inception as an advisory board member and conference planning committee member.

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