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<p>Religious actors have great potential for influencing transformation processes toward environmentally sustainable societies. Influencing peoples’ worldviews, values, and group norms, they can promote (or block) pro-environmental attitudes, lifestyles, and political decision-making. Yet, current scholarship is ambivalent about religion’s contribution to environmental sustainability. This perspective article outlines various roles religious actors can assume in sustainability transitions. We suggest a systematization of four roles—(1) pioneering, (2) path-following, (3) passive observing, and (4) prohibiting change—and portray five conditions that influence and catalyze these roles—(a) theological commitment, (b) internal support, (c) resources, (d) social and political influence, and (e) wider societal conditions. Generating this conceptual clarity is crucial as it allows researchers and policy actors to recognize the diversity of religious expressions with respect to sustainability action, and grasp the conditions under which religious actors are best equipped to address sustainability challenges.</p>

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The multiple roles of religious actors in advancing a sustainable future

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2025年4月5日

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  • Jens Koehrsen,
  • Christopher D. Ives

摘要

Religious actors have great potential for influencing transformation processes toward environmentally sustainable societies. Influencing peoples’ worldviews, values, and group norms, they can promote (or block) pro-environmental attitudes, lifestyles, and political decision-making. Yet, current scholarship is ambivalent about religion’s contribution to environmental sustainability. This perspective article outlines various roles religious actors can assume in sustainability transitions. We suggest a systematization of four roles—(1) pioneering, (2) path-following, (3) passive observing, and (4) prohibiting change—and portray five conditions that influence and catalyze these roles—(a) theological commitment, (b) internal support, (c) resources, (d) social and political influence, and (e) wider societal conditions. Generating this conceptual clarity is crucial as it allows researchers and policy actors to recognize the diversity of religious expressions with respect to sustainability action, and grasp the conditions under which religious actors are best equipped to address sustainability challenges.