Nature and the environment in contemporary religious contexts

Preface --Introduction --Part I. Our human contexts within nature.1.Ecologies of diversity: beyond religious and human exceptionalism /Katherine Keller --2.Measured ecological humanism of the Qur'an and international development: a comparative look /M. Ashraf Adeel --3.Modernity, secularism, and the exclusion of nature: why religion matters /Hassam S. Timani --4.Animal talk: what ethical lessons do animals teach on Aggadic Midrash about the environment? /Daniel Maoz --5.A vast net of interconnected diamonds: Buddhist view of nature /Tatjana Myoko V. Prittwitz --6.Dietrich Bonhoeffer as an ecological theologian /jamison Stallman --7.Pope Francis' encyclical and Catholic magisterial statements on ecological ethics /Nancy M. Rourke --Part II. Imperatives from sacred texts and traditions.8.Who will inherit God's world? the righteous of Sura 21 and Psalm 37 /Barbara Pemberton --9.Interreligious encounter in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament: models for the anthropocene /Richard C. Salter --10.Green book: Qur'anic teachings on creation and nature /Fatih Harpci --11.The protection of nature and the environment: a case for restoring 'Dharma' in the Hindu world /Narwaraj Chaulagain --Part III. Practicing the imperatives.12.Pope Francis, care for creation, and popular movements /Marvin L. Mich --13.Three sages: conversations on ecology /Monica Weis --14.Prospects for dialogue between Russian Orthodox and Muslims on the environmental crisis /Andrii Krawchuk --15.The flowering of India: a Mughal manifesto for environmentalism /Michael D. Calabria --16.Deforestation in the Congo Basin and global climate change: an ethic of environmental responsibility based on African spirituality /Leocadie Lushombo --g17.'That we may sow beauty': reading Jewish, Christian, and Muslim classics for interreligious dialogue about the environmental crisis /Elizabeth Adams-Eilers.

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.