Spiritual ecology
Encyclopedia
Spiritual ecology is a recent term that refers to the intersection between religion
and spirituality
and environment
. Practitioners of spiritual ecology fall into three categories: the scientific and academic, spiritual or religious environmentalism, and religious or spiritual individuals who relate strongly to the environment.
, the Spiritual Ecology Concentration in the Ecological Anthropology
Program at the University of Hawaii
, the Center for the Study of Religion and Culture at Vanderbilt University
, the interdisciplinary Project on Climate Change
in the School for Forestry
, Environmental Studies
at Yale University
, and the Religion and Public Life [Environmental track] Doctoral Program at Northwestern University
. The Boston Theological Institute
, California Institute of Integral Studies
, and Schumacher College
in England
all offer programs related to spiritual ecology.
The International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture formed in 2006 and is dedicated to multidisciplinary research on spiritual ecology. It describes itself as "a community of scholars engaged in critical inquiry into the relationships among human beings and their diverse cultures, environments, religious beliefs and practices." The society hosts international meetings and publishes the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture. Other journals related to spiritual ecology include Worldviews: Environment, Culture, Religion, Whole Terrain
, a journal of "reflective environmental practice," Orion magazine, and Color Wheel, among others.
As the major terrestrial intervention in nature by humans, agriculture is often omitted from considerations of spirituality or relegated to a stewardship role. This embrionic area is addressed under such headings as agricultural spiritualism
, and notable in a book on Religion and Agriculture by Lindsay Falvey
.
and environmentalism. These scholars do not necessarily consider themselves to be religious or spiritual, but the nature of their work collaborates the concepts of nature and spirituality. Among the foremost scholars in the study and theorizing of spiritual ecology are Roger S. Gottlieb at Worcester Polytechnic Institute
, John Grim
at Yale University
, Leslie Sponsel at the University of Hawai'i, Sarah McFarland Taylor
at Northwestern University
, Bron Taylor
at University of Florida
, Mary Evelyn Tucker at Yale University
, and Mitchell Thomashow
at Antioch University New England
.
Pro-environmental teachings are present in four world religions – Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam and there is a willingness by clergy and religious teachers to encourage the required behavioural changes through their teachings, hence, pointing the potentials for a spiritual appeal to environmental behaviour.
Thomas Berry
, the Orthodox Christian leader the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I in Greece
, Martin Palmer of the Alliance of Religions and Conservation
in the United Kingdom
, and Sulak Sivaraksa
of the International Network of Engaged Buddhists
in Thailand
.
, John Muir
, Albert Schweitzer
, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
, Rachel Carson
, Aldo Leopold
, Sigurd F. Olson
, Edward Abbey
, Carl Sagan
, and Paul Shepard
. Contemporaries in this field include Wendell Berry
, Jane Goodall
, Matthew Fox
, Stephanie Kaza
, Robin Wall Kimmerer
, Satish Kumar
, Winona LaDuke
, Barry Lopez
, James Lovelock
, Joanna Macy
, Peter Matthiessen
, Ralph Metzner
, Arne Naess
, Theodore Roszak
, Gary Snyder
, Michael Soule
, Brian Swimme
, Edward O. Wilson, and Paul Winter
.
Although an individual may be involved in only one of these three realms of spiritual ecology, they are not mutually exclusive and have the ability to reinforce one another. Jane Goodall, for example is very well known for her scientific studies, but equally active in the ambassadorship of environmental understanding and compassion (notably, as a UN Messenger of Peace
).
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
and spirituality
Spirituality
Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...
and environment
Natural environment
The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species....
. Practitioners of spiritual ecology fall into three categories: the scientific and academic, spiritual or religious environmentalism, and religious or spiritual individuals who relate strongly to the environment.
Introduction
The scientific and academic study of spiritual ecology is being developed by various university professors in their teaching and research. A growing number of special programs include the Religion and Nature track in the Department of Religion at the University of FloridaUniversity of Florida
The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...
, the Spiritual Ecology Concentration in the Ecological Anthropology
Ecological anthropology
Ecological anthropology is a subfield of anthropology that deals with relationships between humans and their environment, or between nature and culture, over time and space. It investigates the ways that a population shapes its environment and may be shaped by it, and the subsequent manners in...
Program at the University of Hawaii
University of Hawaii
The University of Hawaii System, formally the University of Hawaii and popularly known as UH, is a public, co-educational college and university system that confers associate, bachelor, master, and doctoral degrees through three university campuses, seven community college campuses, an employment...
, the Center for the Study of Religion and Culture at Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University is a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, the university is named for shipping and rail magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided Vanderbilt its initial $1 million endowment despite having never been to the...
, the interdisciplinary Project on Climate Change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
in the School for Forestry
Forestry
Forestry is the interdisciplinary profession embracing the science, art, and craft of creating, managing, using, and conserving forests and associated resources in a sustainable manner to meet desired goals, needs, and values for human benefit. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands...
, Environmental Studies
Environmental studies
Environmental studies is the academic field which systematically studies human interaction with the environment. It is a broad interdisciplinary field of study that includes the natural environment, built environment, and the sets of relationships between them...
at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, and the Religion and Public Life [Environmental track] Doctoral Program at Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
. The Boston Theological Institute
Boston Theological Institute
Boston Theological Institute is the largest theological consortium in the world, bringing together the resources of universities and divinity schools throughout the greater Boston area and some of the most prestigious educational institutions...
, California Institute of Integral Studies
California Institute of Integral Studies
California Institute of Integral Studies is a private institution of higher education founded in 1968 and based in San Francisco, California. It currently operates in three locations just south of the Civic Center district...
, and Schumacher College
Schumacher College
Schumacher College was founded in 1991 in Dartington, Totnes, Devon, UK by Satish Kumar, John Lane and others. It was named after E.F. Schumacher. It is an international centre offering transformative learning for sustainable living, and runs holistic education courses...
in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
all offer programs related to spiritual ecology.
The International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture formed in 2006 and is dedicated to multidisciplinary research on spiritual ecology. It describes itself as "a community of scholars engaged in critical inquiry into the relationships among human beings and their diverse cultures, environments, religious beliefs and practices." The society hosts international meetings and publishes the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture. Other journals related to spiritual ecology include Worldviews: Environment, Culture, Religion, Whole Terrain
Whole Terrain
Whole Terrain: Journal of Reflective Environmental Practice is an environmentally-themed literary journal that's published approximately once a year by Antioch University New England . Each volume explores emerging ecological and social issues from the perspectives of practitioners working in the...
, a journal of "reflective environmental practice," Orion magazine, and Color Wheel, among others.
As the major terrestrial intervention in nature by humans, agriculture is often omitted from considerations of spirituality or relegated to a stewardship role. This embrionic area is addressed under such headings as agricultural spiritualism
Agricultural spiritualism
Agricultural spiritualism or the Spirit of Agriculture refers to the idea that the concepts of food production and consumption and the essential spiritual nature of humanity are linked. It assumes that spirituality is inherent to human consciousness, is perhaps a product of it and is accessible to...
, and notable in a book on Religion and Agriculture by Lindsay Falvey
Lindsay Falvey
John Lindsay Falvey known as Lindsay Falvey, is an author who writes on topics concerning agricultural science and philosophy, religion, international development and more lately spiritual development...
.
Scientific and academic
Scientists and academics study the relationship of religion and ecologyReligion and ecology
Religion and environmentalism is an emerging subfield in the academic discipline of religious studies.-Crisis of values:This subfield is founded on the understanding that, in the words of Iranian-American philosopher Seyyed Hossein Nasr, "the environmental crisis is fundamentally a crisis of...
and environmentalism. These scholars do not necessarily consider themselves to be religious or spiritual, but the nature of their work collaborates the concepts of nature and spirituality. Among the foremost scholars in the study and theorizing of spiritual ecology are Roger S. Gottlieb at Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Worcester Polytechnic Institute is a private university located in Worcester, Massachusetts, in the United States.Founded in 1865 in Worcester, WPI was one of the United States' first engineering and technology universities...
, John Grim
John Grim
John Helm Grim was a 19th century Major League Baseball player. Born in Lebanon, Kentucky, he played 11 seasons in the majors, mainly as a catcher.-Career:...
at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, Leslie Sponsel at the University of Hawai'i, Sarah McFarland Taylor
Sarah McFarland Taylor
Sarah McFarland Taylor is an American academic and author. She is currently Associate Professor of Religion in the Department of Religious Studies at Northwestern University, where she also teaches in the Environmental Policy and Culture Program...
at Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
, Bron Taylor
Bron Taylor
Bron Raymond Taylor is an American scholar and conservationist. He is Professor of Religion and Nature at the University of Florida and has also been an Affiliated Scholar with the Center for Environment and Development at the University of Oslo. Taylor works principally in the areas of religion...
at University of Florida
University of Florida
The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...
, Mary Evelyn Tucker at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, and Mitchell Thomashow
Mitchell Thomashow
Mitchell S. Thomashow is an author, educator, environmentalist, theoretician, and philosopher specializing in bridging the practices of ecology and spirituality. He is former President of Unity College in Unity, Maine, and was previously Chair of the Doctoral Program in Environmental Studies and...
at Antioch University New England
Antioch University New England
Antioch University New England is a private graduate school located in Keene, New Hampshire. It is part of the Antioch University system that includes campuses in Seattle, Washington; Los Angeles, California; Santa Barbara, California; and Yellow Springs, Ohio.- History :In 1964, Antioch College...
.
Pro-environmental teachings are present in four world religions – Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam and there is a willingness by clergy and religious teachers to encourage the required behavioural changes through their teachings, hence, pointing the potentials for a spiritual appeal to environmental behaviour.
Spiritually motivated environmentalism
In this context, religion and spirituality provide guidance and motivation to work on environmental causes. Among the most outstanding persons in this domain are the Passionist PriestPriest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
Thomas Berry
Thomas Berry
Thomas Berry, C.P. was a Catholic priest of the Passionist order, cultural historian and ecotheologian ....
, the Orthodox Christian leader the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I in Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, Martin Palmer of the Alliance of Religions and Conservation
Alliance of Religions and Conservation
The Alliance of Religions and Conservation is a United Kingdom-based international organisation founded by His Royal Highness, Prince Philip, in 1995....
in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, and Sulak Sivaraksa
Sulak Sivaraksa
Sulak Sivaraksa [] is founder and director of the Thai NGO “Sathirakoses-Nagapradeepa Foundation”, named after two authorities on Thai culture, Sathirakoses and Nagapradeepa...
of the International Network of Engaged Buddhists
International Network of Engaged Buddhists
The International Network of Engaged Buddhists is an organisation that connects engaged Buddhists from around the world. It was established at a meeting in Thailand in February 1989 organised by Sulak Sivaraksa and Maruyama Teruo. INEB maintains an office in Bangkok. It has members in about 20...
in Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
.
Environmentally motivated spirituality
People whose experiences in nature transcend the scientific, material environment fall into the third category of environmentally motivated spiritualists. This may include such historical figures as St. Francis of Assisi, Henry David ThoreauHenry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist...
, John Muir
John Muir
John Muir was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, have been read by millions...
, Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer OM was a German theologian, organist, philosopher, physician, and medical missionary. He was born in Kaysersberg in the province of Alsace-Lorraine, at that time part of the German Empire...
, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ was a French philosopher and Jesuit priest who trained as a paleontologist and geologist and took part in the discovery of both Piltdown Man and Peking Man. Teilhard conceived the idea of the Omega Point and developed Vladimir Vernadsky's concept of Noosphere...
, Rachel Carson
Rachel Carson
Rachel Louise Carson was an American marine biologist and conservationist whose writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement....
, Aldo Leopold
Aldo Leopold
Aldo Leopold was an American author, scientist, ecologist, forester, and environmentalist. He was a professor at the University of Wisconsin and is best known for his book A Sand County Almanac , which has sold over two million copies...
, Sigurd F. Olson
Sigurd F. Olson
Sigurd F. Olson was an American author, environmentalist, and advocate for the protection of wilderness. For more than thirty years, he served as a wilderness guide in the lakes and forests of the Quetico-Superior country of northern Minnesota and northwestern Ontario...
, Edward Abbey
Edward Abbey
Edward Paul Abbey was an American author and essayist noted for his advocacy of environmental issues, criticism of public land policies, and anarchist political views. His best-known works include the novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, which has been cited as an inspiration by radical environmental...
, Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan
Carl Edward Sagan was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, science popularizer and science communicator in astronomy and natural sciences. He published more than 600 scientific papers and articles and was author, co-author or editor of more than 20 books...
, and Paul Shepard
Paul Shepard
Paul Howe Shepard, Jr. was an American environmentalist and author best known for introducing the "Pleistocene paradigm" to deep ecology. His works have attempted to establish a normative framework in terms of evolutionary theory and developmental psychology...
. Contemporaries in this field include Wendell Berry
Wendell Berry
Wendell Berry is an American man of letters, academic, cultural and economic critic, and farmer. He is a prolific author of novels, short stories, poems, and essays...
, Jane Goodall
Jane Goodall
Dame Jane Morris Goodall, DBE , is a British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and UN Messenger of Peace. Considered to be the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her 45-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National...
, Matthew Fox
Matthew Fox (priest)
Matthew Fox is an American priest and theologian. Formerly a member of the Dominican order within the Roman Catholic Church, Fox is now a member of the Episcopal Church....
, Stephanie Kaza
Stephanie Kaza
Stephanie Kaza is Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Vermont. She is a writer, a practicing Soto Zen Buddhist, and an active proponent of religious dialogue. She teaches religion and ecology...
, Robin Wall Kimmerer
Robin Wall Kimmerer
Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer is Associate Professor of Environmental and Forest Biology at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry . She is the author of numerous scientific articles, and the book Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses...
, Satish Kumar
Satish Kumar
Satish Kumar is an Indian, currently living in England, who has been a Jain monk and a nuclear disarmament advocate, and is the current editor of Resurgence, founder and Director of Programmes of the Schumacher College international centre for ecological studies and of The Small School...
, Winona LaDuke
Winona LaDuke
Winona LaDuke is a Native American activist, environmentalist, economist, and writer. In 1996 and 2000, she ran for vice president as the nominee of the United States Green Party, on a ticket headed by Ralph Nader. In the 2004 election, however, she endorsed one of Nader's opponents, Democratic...
, Barry Lopez
Barry Lopez
Barry Holstun Lopez is an American author, essayist, and fiction writer whose work is known for its environmental and social concerns.-Biography:...
, James Lovelock
James Lovelock
James Lovelock, CH, CBE, FRS is an independent scientist, environmentalist and futurologist who lives in Devon, England. He is best known for proposing the Gaia hypothesis, which postulates that the biosphere is a self-regulating entity with the capacity to keep our planet healthy by controlling...
, Joanna Macy
Joanna Macy
Joanna Rogers Macy, Ph.D , is an environmental activist, author, scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology.-Biography:...
, Peter Matthiessen
Peter Matthiessen
Peter Matthiessen is a two-time National Book Award-winning American novelist and non-fiction writer, as well as an environmental activist...
, Ralph Metzner
Ralph Metzner
Ralph Metzner Ph.D. , is an American psychologist, writer and researcher, who participated in psychedelic research at Harvard University in the early 1960s with Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert . Dr...
, Arne Naess
Arne Naess
Arne Naess may refer to:*Arne Næss , philosopher, mountaineer, and founder of deep ecology*Arne Næss, Jr. , nephew of the above, businessman, mountaineer, former husband of Diana Ross...
, Theodore Roszak
Theodore Roszak
Theodore Roszak may refer to*Theodore Roszak , Polish-American sculptor and painter*Theodore Roszak , historian and author of The Making of a Counterculture...
, Gary Snyder
Gary Snyder
Gary Snyder is an American poet , as well as an essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist . Snyder is a winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry...
, Michael Soule
Michael Soule
Michael E. Soulé is a U.S. biologist, best known for his work in promoting the idea of conservation biology. He earned a Ph.D. in Population Biology at Stanford University under Paul R. Ehrlich...
, Brian Swimme
Brian Swimme
Brian Thomas Swimme is on the faculty of the California Institute of Integral Studies, in San Francisco, where he teaches evolutionary cosmology to graduate students in the humanities. He received his Ph.D. from the department of mathematics at the University of Oregon for work in singularity...
, Edward O. Wilson, and Paul Winter
Paul Winter
Paul Winter is an American saxophonist , and is a six-time Grammy Award nominee.- Biography :Paul Winter attended Altoona Area High School and graduated in 1957...
.
Although an individual may be involved in only one of these three realms of spiritual ecology, they are not mutually exclusive and have the ability to reinforce one another. Jane Goodall, for example is very well known for her scientific studies, but equally active in the ambassadorship of environmental understanding and compassion (notably, as a UN Messenger of Peace
Peace
Peace is a state of harmony characterized by the lack of violent conflict. Commonly understood as the absence of hostility, peace also suggests the existence of healthy or newly healed interpersonal or international relationships, prosperity in matters of social or economic welfare, the...
).
Further reading
- Anderson, E.N., 1996, Ecologies of the Heart: Emotion, Belief, and the Environment, New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
- Berry, ThomasThomas BerryThomas Berry, C.P. was a Catholic priest of the Passionist order, cultural historian and ecotheologian ....
, 2006, Evening Thoughts: Reflecting on Earth as Sacred Community, San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club BooksSierra Club BooksSierra Club Books is the publishing division of the Sierra Club, founded in 1960 by then Sierra Club President David Brower. Volumes intended for club members had been published prior to 1960. In addition, books under their name had been published before 1960, but done through already established...
. - Cooper, David E., and Joy A. Palmer, eds., 1998, Spirit of the Environment: Religion, Value and Environmental Concern, New York, NY: Routledge.
- Davis, Wade, 1998, Shadows in the Sun: Travels to Landscapes of Spirit and Desire, New York, NY: Broadway Books.
- Foltz, Richard C.Richard FoltzRichard Foltz is a Canadian scholar of American origin. He is a specialist in the history of Iran and the history of religions, particularly Islam and Zoroastrianism...
, ed., 2003, Worldviews, Religion, and the Environment: A Global Anthology, Bemont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth. - Gardner, GaryGary GardnerGary Gardner is an English footballer who plays as a central midfielder for Coventry City on loan from Aston Villa. An attacking centre midfielder, he is yet to make a first team league appearance for Aston Villa but has made numerous international appearances at different international levels for...
, 2002, Invoking the Spirit: Religion and Spirituality in the Quest for a Sustainable World, Washington, D.C.: Worldwatch Institute (Worldwatch Paper 164). - Gardner, Gary T., 2006, Inspiring Progress: Religions’ Contributions to Sustainable Development, New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company (Worldwatch Book).
- Gottlieb, Roger S., ed., 2004, This Sacred Earth: Religion, Nature, Environment, New York, NY: Routledge (Second Edition).
- Gottlieb, Roger S., 2006, A Greener Faith: Religious Environmentalism and Our Planet’s Future, New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
- Gottlieb, Roger S., ed., 2006, The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Ecology, New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
- Graf, Josef, Coordinator of The Earth Vision Project, 2007, Earth Vision, A Travelogue of Spiritual Ecology, evbooks.net; A Calendar of Nature and Soul, evbooks.net; Gaia Sojourn - Spiritual Ecology Across a Series of Incarnations, evbooks.net; The Earth Vision Gallery, evbooks.net.
- Grim, John, ed., 2001, Indigenous Traditions and Ecology: The Interbeing of Cosmology and Community, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
- Goodenough, Ursula, 1998, The Sacred Depths of Nature, New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
- Harvey, Graham, 2006, Animism: Respecting the Living World, New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
- Hayden, Tom, 1996, The Lost Gospel of the Earth: A Call for Renewing Nature, Spirit, and Politics, San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books.
- Hughes, J. Donald, 1983, American Indian Ecology, El Paso, TX: Texas Western Press.
- Kinsley, David, 1995, Ecology and Religion: Ecological Spirituality in Cross-Cultural Perspective, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
- Martin, Calvin Luther, 1992, In the Spirit of the Earth: Rethinking History and Time, Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
- Matthews, Clifford, Mary Evelyn Tucker, and Philip Hefner, eds., 2002, When Worlds Converge: What Science and Religion Tells Us about the Story of the Universe and Our Place in It, LaSalle, IL: Open Court.
- McGaa, Ed, 1990, Mother Earth Spirituality: Native American Paths to Healing Ourselves and Our World, San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco.
- McGrath, Alister, 2003, The Reenchantment of Nature: The Denial of Religion and the Ecological Crisis, New York, NY: Doubelday/Galilee.
- Messer, Ellen, and Michael Lambek, eds., 2001, Ecology and the Sacred: Engaging the Anthropology of Roy A. Rappaport, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
- Posey, Darrell, et al., eds., 1999, Cultural and Spiritual Values of Biodiversity, London, UK: Intermediate Technology Publications/UN Environmental Program.
- Rockefeller, Steven C., and John C. Elder, eds., 1992, Spirit and Nature: Why the Environment Is a Religious Issue, Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
- Skolimowski, Henryk, 1993, A Sacred Place to Dwell: Living With Reverence Upon the Earth, Rockport, MA: Element.
- Spring, Cindy, and Anthony Manousos, eds., 2007, EarthLight: Spiritual Wisdom for an Ecological Age, Oakland, CA: EarthLight Corporation.
- Suzuki, David, and Amanda McConnell, 1997, The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: Greystone Books.
- Taylor, Bron, Editor-in-Chief, 2005, The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature, New York, NY: Thoemmes Continnum, volumes 1-2. http://www.religionandnature.com/ern/index.htm
- Taylor, Sarah McFarland, 2007, Green Sisters: A Spiritual Ecology, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
- Tobias, Michael, and Georgianne Cowan, eds., 1996, The Soul of Nature: Celebrating the Spirit of the Earth, New York, NY: Penguin/Plume.
- Tucker, Mary Evelyn, with Judith A. Berling, 2003, Worldly Wonder: Religions Enter Their Ecological Phase, La Salle, IL: Open Court Publishing Company.
- Watling, Tony, 2009, Ecological Imaginations in the World Religions: An Ethnographic Analysis, London and New York: Continuum International Publishers.
- Wilson, Edward O., 2006, The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth, New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Co.