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This chapter focuses on the interrelationships between religion and nature, notably in the light of two factors: 1) post-secularization, which involves debates about pluralistic and hybrid forms of religion as well as the power of religion in the public sphere, and 2) contemporary environmental issues, such as accelerating climate change, ecosystem collapse, freshwater scarcity, environmental injustice, and species extinction. More specifically, this chapter takes a pluralistic view of the diverse forms of religion, reflecting on challenges and prospects related to issues connected to the ecological spirituality, which can be understood as a general category that includes environmental ideas, feelings, and practices that emerge from diverse religious traditions, theological reflection, and existential concerns. The diverse forms of ecological spirituality are variously engaged in public advocacy and activism related to environmental issues, and they are not always explicitly religious but may also be found in implicit or lived religious expressions, such as those that are labeled “spiritual-but-not-religious”. The various environmental issues addressed in the chapter are oriented around one particularly challenging problem: the loss of biodiversity. Scientists estimate that the diversity of life on Earth is currently undergoing a mass extinction event, the likes of which have not been seen since the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. The mass extinction of life on Earth is a point of convergence for all other environmental issues, and it calls for public engagement from the moral and cosmological visions of religions. It is necessary to include diverse perspectives from ecological spirituality to address the multifaceted challenges posed by mass extinction, and the varieties of ecological spirituality must work in concert globally with one another and with perspectives from policymaking, scientific evidence, and technological development to facilitate comprehensive, actionable solutions to the unprecedented precarity and vulnerability of life on Earth.

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Ecological Spirituality and Biodiversity: Religions in a Time of Mass Extinction

  • 章节

  • 发表日期：

    2025年

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  • Sam Mickey

摘要

This chapter focuses on the interrelationships between religion and nature, notably in the light of two factors: 1) post-secularization, which involves debates about pluralistic and hybrid forms of religion as well as the power of religion in the public sphere, and 2) contemporary environmental issues, such as accelerating climate change, ecosystem collapse, freshwater scarcity, environmental injustice, and species extinction. More specifically, this chapter takes a pluralistic view of the diverse forms of religion, reflecting on challenges and prospects related to issues connected to the ecological spirituality, which can be understood as a general category that includes environmental ideas, feelings, and practices that emerge from diverse religious traditions, theological reflection, and existential concerns. The diverse forms of ecological spirituality are variously engaged in public advocacy and activism related to environmental issues, and they are not always explicitly religious but may also be found in implicit or lived religious expressions, such as those that are labeled “spiritual-but-not-religious”. The various environmental issues addressed in the chapter are oriented around one particularly challenging problem: the loss of biodiversity. Scientists estimate that the diversity of life on Earth is currently undergoing a mass extinction event, the likes of which have not been seen since the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. The mass extinction of life on Earth is a point of convergence for all other environmental issues, and it calls for public engagement from the moral and cosmological visions of religions. It is necessary to include diverse perspectives from ecological spirituality to address the multifaceted challenges posed by mass extinction, and the varieties of ecological spirituality must work in concert globally with one another and with perspectives from policymaking, scientific evidence, and technological development to facilitate comprehensive, actionable solutions to the unprecedented precarity and vulnerability of life on Earth.