I examine and study the interface of cultural narratives and identities, with a specific focus on those in the domain we label religion, and how these both shape and are shaped by the natural, “more-than-human” world. My work is thoroughly interdisciplinary, while being comparative and historical in scope and method. The overarching research question that guides my scholarly path is how can the human animal, from individual to global scales, learn to actively generate just, regenerative, and sustainable behaviors and lifeways as we move into the Anthropocene/Capitalocene/Manthropocene, if at all? I teach about these and other issues in environmental humanities, environmental and sustainability studies, and religious studies courses by utilizing critical race, gender, decolonial, world system/political ecology, environmental humanities, animal humanities, new materialism, energy humanities, and religion and nature theories and methods. I taught at Yale National University Singapore from 2022-2024 while on a leave of absence from CofC. Beginning in August of 2024 I have been Associate Director of the Environmental and Sustainability Studies program at CofC while teaching courses in the same program.
This article invites readers to rethink the presence and role of soil by creating a soliumpoietic... more This article invites readers to rethink the presence and role of soil by creating a soliumpoietics, without which terrestrial plant life itself struggles to occur. It utilizes both materialism/material agency and hyperobject lenses to analyze soil. In so doing it argues that these lenses may provide a more holistic understanding to better theorize soil as an agential and interobjective other, without which civilization would most likely rapidly collapse. It undertakes this exploration within the context of rapid climate change and global heating, which threatens the survival of many soils (and thus plants), too. These alarming scenarios have severe implications for the academy, broadly, which the article argues scholars must attend to within their teaching and researching, including new research regimes on plant-based caloric lifeways, especially where such lifeways are regenerative to soil, plants, and thus, the human.
Universities have an unrivaled potential to educate students on climate change issues and to acti... more Universities have an unrivaled potential to educate students on climate change issues and to actively engage them in climate affairs, both as citizens and influencers of future professions. Despite this potential and the many advantages of university student engagement in climate change, less emphasis has been given to understanding their attitude and perceptions towards climate change, in a way that may guide changes in the curriculum and teaching practices. Based on the need to address the existing literature gap, this article assesses university studentś attitudes and perceptions toward climate change at the international level. This study comprises a survey of a sample of universities across the world and uses statistical analysis to identify the most important trends across geographical locations of the universities. The study revealed that university students are aware of climate change and associated risks. The university students believe that climate change education is a means to shape their attitude and equip them with relevant skills and knowledge so as to influent others. The awareness of university students is inextricably linked to their field of study and participation in various climate change events. Furthermore, the student’s knowledge of climate change risks varies across gender, age, and academic education. The study provides recommended universities to include climate change issues in their curricular and extracurricular programs so as to prepare future professionals to cope with the far reaching challenges of a climate change.
Sustainability reports are regarded as important tools in offering information about the environm... more Sustainability reports are regarded as important tools in offering information about the environmental, social, economic, and institutional performance of an institution, and in demonstrating a commitment to matters related to sustainable development. But even though sustainability reporting has been used by a variety of higher education institutions to date, it is not as widely practiced as it should be. To further investigate this topic, a twofold approach was used: a study focusing on sustainability reporting approaches deployed in a sample of 30 universities across a set of countries; and a survey with a sample of 72 universities from different global regions to assess the extent to which they are deploying sustainability reporting as part of their activities. The scientific value of the paper resides in the fact that it offers a comprehensive overview of the subject matter of sustainability reporting, and how higher education institutions handle it. It also outlines the efforts in developing these documents which may catalyse further progress in this key area.
Research connections between spirituality and sustainability and a general agreement about the us... more Research connections between spirituality and sustainability and a general agreement about the usefulness of including spiritual aspects in sustainability teaching and research practices. However, there are some elements which hinder progress in this area, such as a common understanding of spirituality definition and an apparent lack of training to handle matters related to spirituality as part of teaching and research. The study presents actions to promote a better integration of sustainability and spirituality, which include a greater emphasis on matters related to sustainability, human well-being, and ethics, a part of initiatives on spirituality, and involvement of key stakeholders.
Handbook of Sustainability Science in the Future, 2022
Most sustainability analyses of the future privilege the urban in future scenarios of climate cha... more Most sustainability analyses of the future privilege the urban in future scenarios of climate change at the expense of providing scenarios about the future of the rural, in part because rural regions provide the urban with most of its resources. It is also expected that urban regions will potentially account for up to 70% of the global population by 2050 so most future scenarios of sustainability focus on such regions. Given this over privileging of the urban in sustainability studies, this chapter instead presents a condensed overview of three possible future scenarios of rural areas beginning in 2050 and beyond. Each scenario correlates with a different level of possible human-caused global warming and the correlated implications of possible sustainability in rural areas depending on how hot the earth will become by the end of the century. A variety of social, environmental, and economic metrics are briefly analyzed, with their implications for sustainable futures in rural areas analyzed and discussed.
Background: This paper presents a review of the literature and trends related to social values an... more Background: This paper presents a review of the literature and trends related to social values and sustainable development and describes a set of case studies from a variety of community-based projects which illustrate the advantages that social values bring about as part of efforts to promote sustainability. Three approaches were used to develop this study: a bibliometric analysis of the topic "social values and sustainable development", an analysis of case studies that concretely present 1 community projects addressing social values and sustainability, and the development of a framework linking up bibliometric clusters and the cases studies. Results: While the bibliometric analysis revealed clusters where social values are strongly connected with sustainable development, the case studies indicated the lack of a common terminology and understanding of the relation between social values, sustainable development, and community-based projects. Conclusions: The study concludes by suggesting a set of measures that could be deployed to better take social values into account when planning policies or making decisions related to community projects.
International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology, 2020
Private universities also play a key role in the sustainability debate. But despite their importa... more Private universities also play a key role in the sustainability debate. But despite their importance, there a shortage of research on how sustainability is being implemented at private universities. Based on the need to address this gap, this paper investigates the nature and diversity of sustainability-based practices undertaken at private universities. It outlines the ways private universities see and perceive sustainability, and examines by means of a survey involving 10 universities from across all geographical regions which educate over 150.000 students, how these universities incorporate sustainability-related practices, as part of their operations. The results suggest that, unlike their public counterparts, about half of the respondents stated that they do not have projects undertaken to promote sustainability in local communities or in their respective regions. Also, some private universities perceive themselves as leaders in sustainability in higher education, while some are still developing a more robust sustainability profile. The conclusions of the paper are that the special features related to sustainable development teaching and research at private universities need to be better identified, in order to involve them more on sustainability efforts. Also, whereas many of them are highly engaged on improving energy efficiency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, promote sustainable water usage and promote sustainable landscaping, there is a need for them to also engage in other areas. Finally, private universities should engage on further efforts to increase their sustainability activities, which are beneficial to them in financial terms, as well as in respect of their image and their operations.
This article presents 29 theses, in the lineage of Bruce Lincoln’s theses on method, to help thos... more This article presents 29 theses, in the lineage of Bruce Lincoln’s theses on method, to help those teaching religion and nature navigate what it is to do such teaching in the context of the Anthropocene and global warming. With these in place it provides a dialogue between the educational theories of Paulo Freire and Jonathan “JZ” Smith. This dialogue helps to reflect upon the role of activism in the religion and nature classroom, given the 29 theses. A critique of higher education’s inability to quickly adapt to new planetary biogeochemical baselines is the container within which the dialogue and theses are articulated.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global crisis, one which also influences the ways sustainabili... more The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global crisis, one which also influences the ways sustainability is being taught at universities. This paper undertakes an analysis of the extent to which COVID-19 as a whole and the lockdown it triggered in particular, which has led to the suspension of presence-based teaching in universities worldwide and influenced teaching on matters related to sustainable development. By means of a worldwide survey involving higher education institutions across all continents, the study has identified a number of patterns, trends and problems. The results from the study show that the epidemic has significantly affected teaching practices. The lockdowns have led to a surge in the use of on-line communication tools as a partial replacement to normal lessons. In addition, many faculty teaching sustainability in higher education have strong competencies in digital literacy. The sampled higher education educations have-as a whole-adequate infrastructure to continue to teach during the lockdowns. Finally, the majority of the sample revealed that they miss the interactions via direct face-to-face student engagement, which is deemed as necessary for the effective teaching of sustainability content. The implications of this paper are twofold. Firstly, it describes how sustainability teaching on sustainable development has been affected by the lockdown. Secondly, it describes some of the solutions deployed to overcome the problem. Finally, the paper outlines the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic may serve the purpose of showing how university teaching on sustainability may be improved in the future, taking more advantage of modern information technologies.
ABSTRACT: This article argues that the religious thought and rituals of
Reverend Billy Talen are ... more ABSTRACT: This article argues that the religious thought and rituals of Reverend Billy Talen are a form of dark green animist religion and function as a response to perceived human destruction of the biosphere. An overview of environment-centered religions mobilized by concerns over planetary metrics is presented, followed by a case-study analysis of Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping. It is argued that the religion espoused by Reverend Billy is an example of how contemporary concerns for environmental and social health are influencing contemporary religious thought and production. The religious activism of Reverend Billy and his church, aimed at liberating life from “consumerism” and fundamentalism, presents an “ideal type” example of the development of Earth-centered protest religions that may be found at the margin of capitalist society. As evidenced by Reverend Billy, aspects of this religious development will be predicated upon anti-globalization discourses and concerns for ecosystem health and sustainability.
Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 2020
Through a novel survey instrument, we examined traits and characteristics that various scholars a... more Through a novel survey instrument, we examined traits and characteristics that various scholars and observers have averred promote or hinder proenvironmental behaviors. We found that those who hold anthropocentric and monotheistic religious views, and express low levels of environmental, religious, and cosmic humility, are less likely to engage in proenvironmental behaviors than those who maintain views, or express affinity with affective traits, values, and spiritual understandings, that are ecocentric, Organicist/Gaian, pantheistic, animistic, and that in general reflect humility about the human place in the world.
This article presents a case study of innovation in sustainability education in higher education.... more This article presents a case study of innovation in sustainability education in higher education. It does so by explaining the to-date progress of a multi-year reaccreditation process begun in 2016 for the College of Charleston (CofC), a public liberal arts and sciences university in Charleston, South Carolina of approximately 10,000 undergraduates and 1300 graduate students. The question addressed is how can a higher education institute strategically embed sustainability literacy that is focused on social/environmental engagement, in a way that contributes to measurable student learning gains? We argue that the leverage point of institutional reaccreditation provides a strategic entryway into embedding such sustainability across curricular and co-curricular settings in innovative capacities. We do so by discussing how sustainability education was implemented into a co-curricular civic engagement program, alternative break, to build students' sustainability literacy at the College of Charleston. The article concludes by reflecting on lessons learned at CofC on how to use institutional reaccreditation as a driver of sustainability education through civic engagement in an era of socio-ecological collapse.
Deep Green Resistance (or DGR) is a US-based radical environmental group that calls for 'decisive... more Deep Green Resistance (or DGR) is a US-based radical environmental group that calls for 'decisive ecological warfare' (DEW) that is motivated by naturalistic forms of nature spirituality and biocentric moral sentiments. Exceptionally militant, its advocates champion both aboveground and underground resistance to industrial capitalism, viewing sabotage and violence as a necessary tactic, grounding its views in both apocalyptic and millennial themes. To understand this movement, one must apprehend the ways its ecological, political, and spiritual understandings blend in ways that justify its advocacy of extreme means of ecological resistance.
The Transition Movement is based on the premise that the dual threats of Peak Oil and anthropogen... more The Transition Movement is based on the premise that the dual threats of Peak Oil and anthropogenic climate change require humans to rethink and redesign how they live, with the focus becoming the creation of resilient, sustainable communities. The first Transition Town was created in Totnes, UK, in 2005, and there are now Transition Towns worldwide. Using qualitative research methods, we explore the understudied affective, normative, and religio-ethical motivations of those engaged in the Transition Movement located in Totnes. Our research suggests that the Movement is guided by norms and ethics that are ecocentric, where nature is revered because it is made sacred in some way, and members can be classfied as being part of a larger, emergent terrapolitan citizenry. We also brifley explore how the values and ethics of those in the Transition Movement trigger lifestyle changes which are more ecologically responsible than those offered by contemporary industrial societies.
This paper approaches thinking animals via the animal humanities, focusing on the conflicting mea... more This paper approaches thinking animals via the animal humanities, focusing on the conflicting meanings ascribed to domesticated cattle: are they destroyers of the environment, or saviors of the planet? By investigating narrative tropes, especially those grounded within the at times competing and overlapping worldviews of religious environmentalism, biodynamic agriculture, and sustainable agriculture, this paper explores the iterative interaction between how cows are conceived, and thus managed, in relation to human-nature interactions. Management questions may include: Who can kill a cow, when, why, and for what purpose? How should cows be raised and treated? Do cows have their own form of intelligence, and even spiritual intelligence? Are cows a leading cause of climate destabilization and deforestation, or can they help avert runaway climate change? Should cows be the entry point into animal abolitionism? Investigating the competing answers to these and other such questions is important, for if humans are to have any form of functional habitat that enables the flourishing of human and non-human lifeforms in the coming decades, then how humans conceive of, manage, and interact with other lifeforms, especially in the context of religion and agriculture, matters. Emerging metrics suggests that the narrative, ethical, religious, and biological understandings of non-human evolutionary kin in the dawning Anthropocene will be fluid and contested. Therefore, scholars must be prepared to interpret and analyze emergent meanings that will be ascribed to other lifeforms on a climate changed planet. Investigating cows—their labor, their environmental impacts, their role in shaping human societies and providing calories, the art of interacting with them on agricultural fields— presents a chance to rethink the human in a world of limits. Resumen Este trabajo analiza los animales pensantes a través de las humanidades animales, centrándose en los significados conflictivos atribuidos al ganado domesticado: ¿son destructores del medio ambiente, o salvadores del planeta? Al investigar los tropos narrativos, especialmente aquellos basados en las visiones del mundo, a veces rivales y superpuestas, del ecologismo religioso, la agricultura biodinámica y la agricultura sostenible, se explora la interacción iterativa entre cómo las vacas son concebidas y gestionadas en relación con las interacciones entren el ser humano y la naturaleza. Las preguntas de gestión pueden incluir: ¿Quién puede matar a una vaca, cuándo, por qué, y con qué propósito? ¿Cómo deben ser criadas y tratadas las vacas? ¿Tienen las vacas su propia forma de inteligencia, e incluso de inteligencia espiritual? ¿Son las vacas la principal causa de la desestabilización del clima y la deforestación, o pueden ayudar a evitar el cambio climático? ¿Deberían ser las vacas ser el punto de entrada en el abolicionismo animal? La investigación de las respuestas conflictivas a estas y otras preguntas es importante, ya que si los seres humanos han de tener algún tipo de hábitat funcional que permita el florecimiento de las 1 The author wishes to express deep gratitude to the reviewers who offered insightful and helpful feedback on an original submission. Their comments led to a much stronger paper. Fault for remaining deficiencies of course resides with the author.
Journal of the American Academy of Religion 83.2 June 2015 Part of a round table on anthropoge... more Journal of the American Academy of Religion 83.2 June 2015 Part of a round table on anthropogenic climate change I organized.
This article invites readers to rethink the presence and role of soil by creating a soliumpoietic... more This article invites readers to rethink the presence and role of soil by creating a soliumpoietics, without which terrestrial plant life itself struggles to occur. It utilizes both materialism/material agency and hyperobject lenses to analyze soil. In so doing it argues that these lenses may provide a more holistic understanding to better theorize soil as an agential and interobjective other, without which civilization would most likely rapidly collapse. It undertakes this exploration within the context of rapid climate change and global heating, which threatens the survival of many soils (and thus plants), too. These alarming scenarios have severe implications for the academy, broadly, which the article argues scholars must attend to within their teaching and researching, including new research regimes on plant-based caloric lifeways, especially where such lifeways are regenerative to soil, plants, and thus, the human.
Universities have an unrivaled potential to educate students on climate change issues and to acti... more Universities have an unrivaled potential to educate students on climate change issues and to actively engage them in climate affairs, both as citizens and influencers of future professions. Despite this potential and the many advantages of university student engagement in climate change, less emphasis has been given to understanding their attitude and perceptions towards climate change, in a way that may guide changes in the curriculum and teaching practices. Based on the need to address the existing literature gap, this article assesses university studentś attitudes and perceptions toward climate change at the international level. This study comprises a survey of a sample of universities across the world and uses statistical analysis to identify the most important trends across geographical locations of the universities. The study revealed that university students are aware of climate change and associated risks. The university students believe that climate change education is a means to shape their attitude and equip them with relevant skills and knowledge so as to influent others. The awareness of university students is inextricably linked to their field of study and participation in various climate change events. Furthermore, the student’s knowledge of climate change risks varies across gender, age, and academic education. The study provides recommended universities to include climate change issues in their curricular and extracurricular programs so as to prepare future professionals to cope with the far reaching challenges of a climate change.
Sustainability reports are regarded as important tools in offering information about the environm... more Sustainability reports are regarded as important tools in offering information about the environmental, social, economic, and institutional performance of an institution, and in demonstrating a commitment to matters related to sustainable development. But even though sustainability reporting has been used by a variety of higher education institutions to date, it is not as widely practiced as it should be. To further investigate this topic, a twofold approach was used: a study focusing on sustainability reporting approaches deployed in a sample of 30 universities across a set of countries; and a survey with a sample of 72 universities from different global regions to assess the extent to which they are deploying sustainability reporting as part of their activities. The scientific value of the paper resides in the fact that it offers a comprehensive overview of the subject matter of sustainability reporting, and how higher education institutions handle it. It also outlines the efforts in developing these documents which may catalyse further progress in this key area.
Research connections between spirituality and sustainability and a general agreement about the us... more Research connections between spirituality and sustainability and a general agreement about the usefulness of including spiritual aspects in sustainability teaching and research practices. However, there are some elements which hinder progress in this area, such as a common understanding of spirituality definition and an apparent lack of training to handle matters related to spirituality as part of teaching and research. The study presents actions to promote a better integration of sustainability and spirituality, which include a greater emphasis on matters related to sustainability, human well-being, and ethics, a part of initiatives on spirituality, and involvement of key stakeholders.
Handbook of Sustainability Science in the Future, 2022
Most sustainability analyses of the future privilege the urban in future scenarios of climate cha... more Most sustainability analyses of the future privilege the urban in future scenarios of climate change at the expense of providing scenarios about the future of the rural, in part because rural regions provide the urban with most of its resources. It is also expected that urban regions will potentially account for up to 70% of the global population by 2050 so most future scenarios of sustainability focus on such regions. Given this over privileging of the urban in sustainability studies, this chapter instead presents a condensed overview of three possible future scenarios of rural areas beginning in 2050 and beyond. Each scenario correlates with a different level of possible human-caused global warming and the correlated implications of possible sustainability in rural areas depending on how hot the earth will become by the end of the century. A variety of social, environmental, and economic metrics are briefly analyzed, with their implications for sustainable futures in rural areas analyzed and discussed.
Background: This paper presents a review of the literature and trends related to social values an... more Background: This paper presents a review of the literature and trends related to social values and sustainable development and describes a set of case studies from a variety of community-based projects which illustrate the advantages that social values bring about as part of efforts to promote sustainability. Three approaches were used to develop this study: a bibliometric analysis of the topic "social values and sustainable development", an analysis of case studies that concretely present 1 community projects addressing social values and sustainability, and the development of a framework linking up bibliometric clusters and the cases studies. Results: While the bibliometric analysis revealed clusters where social values are strongly connected with sustainable development, the case studies indicated the lack of a common terminology and understanding of the relation between social values, sustainable development, and community-based projects. Conclusions: The study concludes by suggesting a set of measures that could be deployed to better take social values into account when planning policies or making decisions related to community projects.
International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology, 2020
Private universities also play a key role in the sustainability debate. But despite their importa... more Private universities also play a key role in the sustainability debate. But despite their importance, there a shortage of research on how sustainability is being implemented at private universities. Based on the need to address this gap, this paper investigates the nature and diversity of sustainability-based practices undertaken at private universities. It outlines the ways private universities see and perceive sustainability, and examines by means of a survey involving 10 universities from across all geographical regions which educate over 150.000 students, how these universities incorporate sustainability-related practices, as part of their operations. The results suggest that, unlike their public counterparts, about half of the respondents stated that they do not have projects undertaken to promote sustainability in local communities or in their respective regions. Also, some private universities perceive themselves as leaders in sustainability in higher education, while some are still developing a more robust sustainability profile. The conclusions of the paper are that the special features related to sustainable development teaching and research at private universities need to be better identified, in order to involve them more on sustainability efforts. Also, whereas many of them are highly engaged on improving energy efficiency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, promote sustainable water usage and promote sustainable landscaping, there is a need for them to also engage in other areas. Finally, private universities should engage on further efforts to increase their sustainability activities, which are beneficial to them in financial terms, as well as in respect of their image and their operations.
This article presents 29 theses, in the lineage of Bruce Lincoln’s theses on method, to help thos... more This article presents 29 theses, in the lineage of Bruce Lincoln’s theses on method, to help those teaching religion and nature navigate what it is to do such teaching in the context of the Anthropocene and global warming. With these in place it provides a dialogue between the educational theories of Paulo Freire and Jonathan “JZ” Smith. This dialogue helps to reflect upon the role of activism in the religion and nature classroom, given the 29 theses. A critique of higher education’s inability to quickly adapt to new planetary biogeochemical baselines is the container within which the dialogue and theses are articulated.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global crisis, one which also influences the ways sustainabili... more The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global crisis, one which also influences the ways sustainability is being taught at universities. This paper undertakes an analysis of the extent to which COVID-19 as a whole and the lockdown it triggered in particular, which has led to the suspension of presence-based teaching in universities worldwide and influenced teaching on matters related to sustainable development. By means of a worldwide survey involving higher education institutions across all continents, the study has identified a number of patterns, trends and problems. The results from the study show that the epidemic has significantly affected teaching practices. The lockdowns have led to a surge in the use of on-line communication tools as a partial replacement to normal lessons. In addition, many faculty teaching sustainability in higher education have strong competencies in digital literacy. The sampled higher education educations have-as a whole-adequate infrastructure to continue to teach during the lockdowns. Finally, the majority of the sample revealed that they miss the interactions via direct face-to-face student engagement, which is deemed as necessary for the effective teaching of sustainability content. The implications of this paper are twofold. Firstly, it describes how sustainability teaching on sustainable development has been affected by the lockdown. Secondly, it describes some of the solutions deployed to overcome the problem. Finally, the paper outlines the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic may serve the purpose of showing how university teaching on sustainability may be improved in the future, taking more advantage of modern information technologies.
ABSTRACT: This article argues that the religious thought and rituals of
Reverend Billy Talen are ... more ABSTRACT: This article argues that the religious thought and rituals of Reverend Billy Talen are a form of dark green animist religion and function as a response to perceived human destruction of the biosphere. An overview of environment-centered religions mobilized by concerns over planetary metrics is presented, followed by a case-study analysis of Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping. It is argued that the religion espoused by Reverend Billy is an example of how contemporary concerns for environmental and social health are influencing contemporary religious thought and production. The religious activism of Reverend Billy and his church, aimed at liberating life from “consumerism” and fundamentalism, presents an “ideal type” example of the development of Earth-centered protest religions that may be found at the margin of capitalist society. As evidenced by Reverend Billy, aspects of this religious development will be predicated upon anti-globalization discourses and concerns for ecosystem health and sustainability.
Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 2020
Through a novel survey instrument, we examined traits and characteristics that various scholars a... more Through a novel survey instrument, we examined traits and characteristics that various scholars and observers have averred promote or hinder proenvironmental behaviors. We found that those who hold anthropocentric and monotheistic religious views, and express low levels of environmental, religious, and cosmic humility, are less likely to engage in proenvironmental behaviors than those who maintain views, or express affinity with affective traits, values, and spiritual understandings, that are ecocentric, Organicist/Gaian, pantheistic, animistic, and that in general reflect humility about the human place in the world.
This article presents a case study of innovation in sustainability education in higher education.... more This article presents a case study of innovation in sustainability education in higher education. It does so by explaining the to-date progress of a multi-year reaccreditation process begun in 2016 for the College of Charleston (CofC), a public liberal arts and sciences university in Charleston, South Carolina of approximately 10,000 undergraduates and 1300 graduate students. The question addressed is how can a higher education institute strategically embed sustainability literacy that is focused on social/environmental engagement, in a way that contributes to measurable student learning gains? We argue that the leverage point of institutional reaccreditation provides a strategic entryway into embedding such sustainability across curricular and co-curricular settings in innovative capacities. We do so by discussing how sustainability education was implemented into a co-curricular civic engagement program, alternative break, to build students' sustainability literacy at the College of Charleston. The article concludes by reflecting on lessons learned at CofC on how to use institutional reaccreditation as a driver of sustainability education through civic engagement in an era of socio-ecological collapse.
Deep Green Resistance (or DGR) is a US-based radical environmental group that calls for 'decisive... more Deep Green Resistance (or DGR) is a US-based radical environmental group that calls for 'decisive ecological warfare' (DEW) that is motivated by naturalistic forms of nature spirituality and biocentric moral sentiments. Exceptionally militant, its advocates champion both aboveground and underground resistance to industrial capitalism, viewing sabotage and violence as a necessary tactic, grounding its views in both apocalyptic and millennial themes. To understand this movement, one must apprehend the ways its ecological, political, and spiritual understandings blend in ways that justify its advocacy of extreme means of ecological resistance.
The Transition Movement is based on the premise that the dual threats of Peak Oil and anthropogen... more The Transition Movement is based on the premise that the dual threats of Peak Oil and anthropogenic climate change require humans to rethink and redesign how they live, with the focus becoming the creation of resilient, sustainable communities. The first Transition Town was created in Totnes, UK, in 2005, and there are now Transition Towns worldwide. Using qualitative research methods, we explore the understudied affective, normative, and religio-ethical motivations of those engaged in the Transition Movement located in Totnes. Our research suggests that the Movement is guided by norms and ethics that are ecocentric, where nature is revered because it is made sacred in some way, and members can be classfied as being part of a larger, emergent terrapolitan citizenry. We also brifley explore how the values and ethics of those in the Transition Movement trigger lifestyle changes which are more ecologically responsible than those offered by contemporary industrial societies.
This paper approaches thinking animals via the animal humanities, focusing on the conflicting mea... more This paper approaches thinking animals via the animal humanities, focusing on the conflicting meanings ascribed to domesticated cattle: are they destroyers of the environment, or saviors of the planet? By investigating narrative tropes, especially those grounded within the at times competing and overlapping worldviews of religious environmentalism, biodynamic agriculture, and sustainable agriculture, this paper explores the iterative interaction between how cows are conceived, and thus managed, in relation to human-nature interactions. Management questions may include: Who can kill a cow, when, why, and for what purpose? How should cows be raised and treated? Do cows have their own form of intelligence, and even spiritual intelligence? Are cows a leading cause of climate destabilization and deforestation, or can they help avert runaway climate change? Should cows be the entry point into animal abolitionism? Investigating the competing answers to these and other such questions is important, for if humans are to have any form of functional habitat that enables the flourishing of human and non-human lifeforms in the coming decades, then how humans conceive of, manage, and interact with other lifeforms, especially in the context of religion and agriculture, matters. Emerging metrics suggests that the narrative, ethical, religious, and biological understandings of non-human evolutionary kin in the dawning Anthropocene will be fluid and contested. Therefore, scholars must be prepared to interpret and analyze emergent meanings that will be ascribed to other lifeforms on a climate changed planet. Investigating cows—their labor, their environmental impacts, their role in shaping human societies and providing calories, the art of interacting with them on agricultural fields— presents a chance to rethink the human in a world of limits. Resumen Este trabajo analiza los animales pensantes a través de las humanidades animales, centrándose en los significados conflictivos atribuidos al ganado domesticado: ¿son destructores del medio ambiente, o salvadores del planeta? Al investigar los tropos narrativos, especialmente aquellos basados en las visiones del mundo, a veces rivales y superpuestas, del ecologismo religioso, la agricultura biodinámica y la agricultura sostenible, se explora la interacción iterativa entre cómo las vacas son concebidas y gestionadas en relación con las interacciones entren el ser humano y la naturaleza. Las preguntas de gestión pueden incluir: ¿Quién puede matar a una vaca, cuándo, por qué, y con qué propósito? ¿Cómo deben ser criadas y tratadas las vacas? ¿Tienen las vacas su propia forma de inteligencia, e incluso de inteligencia espiritual? ¿Son las vacas la principal causa de la desestabilización del clima y la deforestación, o pueden ayudar a evitar el cambio climático? ¿Deberían ser las vacas ser el punto de entrada en el abolicionismo animal? La investigación de las respuestas conflictivas a estas y otras preguntas es importante, ya que si los seres humanos han de tener algún tipo de hábitat funcional que permita el florecimiento de las 1 The author wishes to express deep gratitude to the reviewers who offered insightful and helpful feedback on an original submission. Their comments led to a much stronger paper. Fault for remaining deficiencies of course resides with the author.
Journal of the American Academy of Religion 83.2 June 2015 Part of a round table on anthropoge... more Journal of the American Academy of Religion 83.2 June 2015 Part of a round table on anthropogenic climate change I organized.
People, Spaces and Places in Gendered Environments: Volume 34, 2024
This chapter approaches issues of ecospirituality through Gender and the Environment analytical l... more This chapter approaches issues of ecospirituality through Gender and the Environment analytical lenses. We propose the need to actively queer human/ Nature relations and understandings by exploring studies related to ecospirituality, Earth relations, and gender dynamics. The chapter considers ecospirituality as ritual practices, material cultures, codified ethics, and/or cosmological structures related to a category of "the sacred," which influence how various gendered and sexed bodies interact with the non-human world. Here, we propose that ecospiritual categories can shape the ways that humans conceive of their humanness and their sexed and gendered bodies. Within the context of religion/Nature interactions white evangelical masculinist subcultures in the United States are considered as an example that demonstrates the paradoxical characteristics of the gender binary and human/Nature dualisms. The chapter proceeds to offer queered ecologies as alternative narratives that can assist the larger Gender and Environment discourse in better understanding ecospiritual practices and worldviews, and how the latter can contribute to prosustainable lifeways as a viable alternative to masculinist hegemonies that are continuing to predominate the ways that many humans – especially those in the Global North – understand and relate to the natural world at great cost to life on the planet.
Communicating in the Anthropocene: Intimate Relations, 2021
This chapter explores the roles of various masculinities in both precipitating the Manthropocene,... more This chapter explores the roles of various masculinities in both precipitating the Manthropocene, and in trying to generate care-based and felt responses to it.
This chapter co-creates a story of climate change materialisms, and how these may impact religiou... more This chapter co-creates a story of climate change materialisms, and how these may impact religious stories and ways of being in ecologies of place. We move through ecological feminisms and masculinities in utilizing a queer ecologies lens to analyze masculinist traditions that have onto-epistemologically shaped worldviews and human behaviors, and which are rapidly changing our species survival on a living planet that must remain below 350 ppm CO2 for human flourishing as we know it (and that of many Earth Others) to continue. A key inherited binary, including within the Academy, is one of logos/eros. The chapter responds by prioritizing an eros-centered story of multispecies belonging grounded within a spirituality of connection to wider Nature. We argue that such groundings and stories are needed within human communities, particularly religious communities, if humans are to have resilient and regenerative lifeways on a materially different, heated, climate changed planet, which is the future that is now upon us all.
Handbook of Sustainability Science in the Future, 2022
Most sustainability analyses of the future privilege the urban in future scenarios of climate cha... more Most sustainability analyses of the future privilege the urban in future scenarios of climate change at the expense of providing scenarios about the future of the rural, in part because rural regions provide the urban with most of its resources. It is also expected that urban regions will potentially account for up to 70% of the global population by 2050 so most future scenarios of sustainability focus on such regions. Given this over privileging of the urban in sustainability studies, this chapter instead presents a condensed overview of three possible future scenarios of rural areas beginning in 2050 and beyond. Each scenario correlates with a different level of possible human-caused global warming and the correlated implications of possible sustainability in rural areas depending on how hot the earth will become by the end of the century. A variety of social, environmental, and economic metrics are briefly analyzed, with their implications for sustainable futures in rural areas analyzed and discussed.
T&T Clark Handbook on Christian Theology and Climate Change, edited by Ernst Conradie and Hilda Koster, 2020
This chapter explores and then theorizes about potential collaborations between North American Ch... more This chapter explores and then theorizes about potential collaborations between North American Christian groups and civil sector climate activists. It utilizes a comparative perspective to investigate the theology and climate change work of a Christian group working on climate change issues with a goal of implementing effective policies addressing and minimizing environmental and climate harm (Evangelical Environmental Network), and a Christian group explicitly opposed to climate change activism (Cornwall Alliance). We will analyze how these groups interpret scripture, institutional platforms, and religious teachings, as well as climate science, in order to locate commonalities and differences amongst the groups as a whole and then within the two subgroups. Overall, we will argue that broadly speaking Christians in North America are maladaptive in their theological teachings of and responses to climate change, despite examples of some Christian groups who are working on climate change with civil society. Rather, the data suggests that Christian theology as formulated and put into practice by a variety of Christian groups in North America (especially the US) has historically been and remains a key inhibitor for successful climate change activist work. The chapter situates this argument within various bodies of literature, including environmental sociology, political ecology, sustainability studies, ecological hermeneutics, and religion and nature theory.
Journal of Agricultural & Environmental Ethics, 2010
Food, Farming, and Faith is Gary Fick’s culminating monograph that weaves together a lifetime of ... more Food, Farming, and Faith is Gary Fick’s culminating monograph that weaves together a lifetime of personal narrative, religious sensibilities (he self-identifies as a Christian environmentalist on p. 32), and years of research and training in agronomy. Such a mixture creates a unique approach with which to look at contemporary agricultural issues. Overall, this book represents a novel attempt at digging into new, fertile ground.The book consists of twelve stand-alone chapters, ranging from setting the stage in “It is All about Food,” to “Ecology in the Bible,” to “The Culture of Agriculture.” It also rightly discusses “Abuse, Poverty, and Women,” and concludes with a paean to “Agricultural Sustainability.” The book includes three appendices with two giving a quick overview of how Fick utilized five Biblical sources for scripture quotations. The third appendix contains fifteen essentials for sustainable agriculture that are based on Fick’s exegesis of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament c ...
Journal of Agricultural & Environmental Ethics, 2010
I really like this book. I am not sure if it is politically correct to be so blatant when offerin... more I really like this book. I am not sure if it is politically correct to be so blatant when offering constructive criticism about a title published by a scholarly press, but I feel I must show my cards at the beginning of this review. Gary Holthaus has managed to craft a well-written, engaging, gentle yet firm story about the state of agriculture as it exists in our country during this era of government farm subsidies, immigrant labor pools, and international trade bills. His is a work of wisdom, with the wisdom coming from his own life working with farm issues; and from the voices of farmers Holthaus interviewed over a span of 3 years for the Experiment in Rural Cooperation, supported by the University of Minnesota. This added ethnography of interviews from forty rural farm families in Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin brings a needed voice to the emerging literature about food and agriculture issues and his ethnographic acumen helps contextualize the political and social critiques of Amer ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused severe disturbances in the work of hundreds of millions of peopl... more The COVID-19 pandemic has caused severe disturbances in the work of hundreds of millions of people around the world. One of the groups affected is the academic staff at higher education institutions, whose original business model, i.e., presence teaching, suddenly changed to online learning. This has, in turn, exacerbated pre-existing problems such as shortage of time, busy schedules, and challenges to a work-life balance. Since academic staff plays a key role in respect of teaching and research, often acting as leaders in their fields, it is important to reflect on the influences of the lockdowns on their work routines. In order to address this research need, this paper reports on a study that examined the impacts of the lockdowns on the work of academic staff at universities. Using a bibliometric analysis and investigation of a set of case studies, the study sheds light on the difficulties encountered and the means deployed to address them. Our study did not identify a one-size-fi...
The purpose of Communicating in the Anthropocene: Intimate Relations is to tell a different story... more The purpose of Communicating in the Anthropocene: Intimate Relations is to tell a different story about the world. Humans, especially those raised in Western traditions, have long told stories about themselves as individual protagonists who act with varying degrees of free will against a background of mute supporting characters and inert landscapes. Humans can be either saviors or destroyers, but our actions are explained and judged again and again as emanating from the individual. And yet, as the coronavirus pandemic has made clear, humans are unavoidably interconnected not only with other humans, but with nonhuman and more-than-human others with whom we share space and time. Why do so many of us humans avoid, deny, or resist a view of the world where our lives are made possible, maybe even made richer, through connection? In this volume, we suggest a view of communication as intimacy. We use this concept as a provocation for thinking about how we humans are in an always-already st...
Sustainability reports are regarded as important tools in offering information about the environm... more Sustainability reports are regarded as important tools in offering information about the environmental, social, economic, and institutional performance of an institution, and in demonstrating a commitment to matters related to sustainable development. But even though sustainability reporting has been used by a variety of higher education institutions to date, it is not as widely practiced as it should be. To further investigate this topic, a twofold approach was used: a study focusing on sustainability reporting approaches deployed in a sample of 30 universities across a set of countries; and a survey with a sample of 72 universities from different global regions to assess the extent to which they are deploying sustainability reporting as part of their activities. The scientific value of the paper resides in the fact that it offers a comprehensive overview of the subject matter of sustainability reporting, and how higher education institutions handle it. It also outlines the efforts...
Background This paper presents a review of the literature and trends related to social values and... more Background This paper presents a review of the literature and trends related to social values and sustainable development and describes a set of case studies from a variety of community-based projects which illustrate the advantages that social values bring about as part of efforts to promote sustainability. Three approaches were used to develop this study: a bibliometric analysis of the topic “social values and sustainable development”, an analysis of case studies that concretely present community projects addressing social values and sustainability, and the development of a framework linking up bibliometric clusters and the cases studies. Results While the bibliometric analysis revealed clusters where social values are strongly connected with sustainable development, the case studies indicated the lack of a common terminology and understanding of the relation between social values, sustainable development, and community-based projects. Conclusions The study concludes by suggesting...
Handbook of Sustainability Science in the Future, 2021
Most sustainability analyses of the future privilege the urban in future scenarios of climate cha... more Most sustainability analyses of the future privilege the urban in future scenarios of climate change at the expense of providing scenarios about the future of the rural, in part because rural regions provide the urban with most of its resources. It is also expected that urban regions will potentially account for up to 70% of the global population by 2050 so most future scenarios of sustainability focus on such regions. Given this over privileging of the urban in sustainability studies, this chapter instead presents a condensed overview of three possible future scenarios of rural areas beginning in 2050 and beyond. Each scenario correlates with a different level of possible human-caused global warming and the correlated implications of possible sustainability in rural areas depending on how hot the earth will become by the end of the century. A variety of social, environmental, and economic metrics are briefly analyzed, with their implications for sustainable futures in rural areas analyzed and discussed.
Religion and Sustainable Agriculture includes fifteen selections from leading scholars in the are... more Religion and Sustainable Agriculture includes fifteen selections from leading scholars in the areas of religion, anthropology, environmental science, and sustainability, among other fields. The ethical tenets of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and a number of indigenous spiritual traditions come into sharp focus, specifically in the ways belief systems inform husbandry and respective land ethics.
Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology, 2021
This article presents 29 theses, in the lineage of Bruce Lincoln’s theses on method, to help thos... more This article presents 29 theses, in the lineage of Bruce Lincoln’s theses on method, to help those teaching religion and nature navigate what it is to do such teaching in the context of the Anthropocene and global warming. With these in place it provides a dialogue between the educational theories of Paulo Freire and Jonathan “JZ” Smith. This dialogue helps to reflect upon the role of activism in the religion and nature classroom, given the 29 theses. A critique of higher education’s inability to quickly adapt to new planetary biogeochemical baselines is the container within which the dialogue and theses are articulated.
Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, 2020
This article argues that the religious thought and rituals of Reverend Billy Talen are a form of ... more This article argues that the religious thought and rituals of Reverend Billy Talen are a form of dark green animist religion and function as a response to perceived human destruction of the biosphere. An overview of environment-centered religions mobilized by concerns over planetary metrics is presented, followed by a case-study analysis of Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping. It is argued that the religion espoused by Reverend Billy is an example of how contemporary concerns for environmental and social health are influencing contemporary religious thought and production. The religious activism of Reverend Billy and his church, aimed at liberating life from “consumerism” and fundamentalism, presents an “ideal type” example of the development of Earth-centered protest religions that may be found at the margin of capitalist society. As evidenced by Reverend Billy, aspects of this religious development will be predicated upon anti-globalization discourses and concerns for e...
Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 2019
Through a novel survey instrument, we examined traits and characteristics that various scholars a... more Through a novel survey instrument, we examined traits and characteristics that various scholars and observers have averred promote or hinder proenvironmental behaviors. We found that those who hold anthropocentric and monotheistic religious views, and express low levels of environmental, religious, and cosmic humility, are less likely to engage in proenvironmental behaviors than those who maintain views, or express affinity with affective traits, values, and spiritual understandings, that are ecocentric, Organicist/Gaian, pantheistic, animistic, and that in general reflect humility about the human place in the world.
Journal of the American Academy of Religion 83.2 June 2015 Part of a round table on anthropogenic... more Journal of the American Academy of Religion 83.2 June 2015 Part of a round table on anthropogenic climate change I organized.
Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 2017
Deep Green Resistance (or DGR) is a US-based radical environmental group that calls for ‘decisive... more Deep Green Resistance (or DGR) is a US-based radical environmental group that calls for ‘decisive ecological warfare’ (DEW) that is motivated by naturalistic forms of nature spirituality and biocentric moral sentiments. Exceptionally militant, its advocates champion both aboveground and underground resistance to industrial capitalism, viewing sabotage and violence as a necessary tactic, grounding its views in both apocalyptic and millennial themes. To understand this movement, one must apprehend the ways its ecological, political, and spiritual understandings blend in ways that justify its advocacy of extreme means of ecological resistance.
Climate Change, Religion, and Our Bodily Future, 2021
This book explores the interface of bodies and religion by investigating the impacts human-induc... more This book explores the interface of bodies and religion by investigating the impacts human-induced global warming will have on the embodied and performed practices of religion in ecologies of place. By utilizing analytical insights from religion and nature theory, posthumanism, queer ecologies, ecological animisms, indigenous knowledges, material feminisms, and performance studies the book advocates for a need to update how religious studies theorizes bodies and religion. It does so by in the first half of the book advocating for religious studies as a field, and the academy as a whole, to take the ongoing and deleterious future impacts of climate change seriously--to re-member that those laboring as scholars in religious studies, and the communities they study, have always been bodies in material bio-ecological places--and to let this inform the questions religious studies scholars ask. The book argues that this will lead to very different forms of engaged, liberatory scholarship that demands a different type of scholarship and public advocacy for resilience in the face of climate change. The second half of the book offers case study examples of how scholars may better engage religious bodies within petrocultures, while attending to new, emerging materialist posthuman assemblages of religious bodies. This book will be of interest to those in religious studies, the environmental humanities, and those working at the interface of the body and the natural world.
Distinct practices of eating are at the heart of many of the world’s faith traditions—from the Ch... more Distinct practices of eating are at the heart of many of the world’s faith traditions—from the Christian Eucharist to Muslim customs of fasting during Ramadan to the vegetarianism and asceticism practiced by some followers of Hinduism and Buddhism. What we eat, how we eat, and whom we eat with can express our core values and religious devotion more clearly than verbal piety.
In this wide-ranging collection, eminent scholars, theologians, activists, and lay farmers illuminate how religious beliefs influence and are influenced by the values and practices of sustainable agriculture. Together, they analyze a multitude of agricultural practices for their contributions to healthy, ethical living and environmental justice. Throughout, the contributors address current critical issues, including global trade agreements, indigenous rights to land and seed, and the effects of postcolonialism on farming and industry. Covering indigenous, Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, Muslim, and Jewish perspectives, this groundbreaking volume makes a significant contribution to the study of ethics and agriculture.
Writing at the interface of religion and nature theory, US religious history, and environmental ethics, Todd LeVasseur presents the case for the emergence of a nascent “religious agrarianism” within certain subsets of Judaism and Christianity in the United States. Adherents of this movement, who share an environmental concern about the modern industrial food economy and a religiously grounded commitment to the values of locality, health, and justice, are creating new models for sustainable agrarian lifeways and practices. LeVasseur explores this greening of US religion through an extensive engagement with the scholarly literature on lived religion, network theory, and grounded theory, as well as through ethnographic case studies of two intentional communities at the vanguard of this movement: Koinonia Farm, an ecumenical Christian lay monastic community, and Hazon, a progressive Jewish environmental group.
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Articles and Ency Entries by Todd LeVasseur
Reverend Billy Talen are a form of dark green animist religion and
function as a response to perceived human destruction of the biosphere. An overview of environment-centered religions mobilized by
concerns over planetary metrics is presented, followed by a case-study
analysis of Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping. It is argued
that the religion espoused by Reverend Billy is an example of how
contemporary concerns for environmental and social health are influencing contemporary religious thought and production. The religious
activism of Reverend Billy and his church, aimed at liberating life from
“consumerism” and fundamentalism, presents an “ideal type” example
of the development of Earth-centered protest religions that may be
found at the margin of capitalist society. As evidenced by Reverend
Billy, aspects of this religious development will be predicated upon
anti-globalization discourses and concerns for ecosystem health and
sustainability.
Reverend Billy Talen are a form of dark green animist religion and
function as a response to perceived human destruction of the biosphere. An overview of environment-centered religions mobilized by
concerns over planetary metrics is presented, followed by a case-study
analysis of Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping. It is argued
that the religion espoused by Reverend Billy is an example of how
contemporary concerns for environmental and social health are influencing contemporary religious thought and production. The religious
activism of Reverend Billy and his church, aimed at liberating life from
“consumerism” and fundamentalism, presents an “ideal type” example
of the development of Earth-centered protest religions that may be
found at the margin of capitalist society. As evidenced by Reverend
Billy, aspects of this religious development will be predicated upon
anti-globalization discourses and concerns for ecosystem health and
sustainability.
In this wide-ranging collection, eminent scholars, theologians, activists, and lay farmers illuminate how religious beliefs influence and are influenced by the values and practices of sustainable agriculture. Together, they analyze a multitude of agricultural practices for their contributions to healthy, ethical living and environmental justice. Throughout, the contributors address current critical issues, including global trade agreements, indigenous rights to land and seed, and the effects of postcolonialism on farming and industry. Covering indigenous, Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, Muslim, and Jewish perspectives, this groundbreaking volume makes a significant contribution to the study of ethics and agriculture.
Examines religious communities as advocates of environmental stewardship and sustainable agriculture practices.
Writing at the interface of religion and nature theory, US religious history, and environmental ethics, Todd LeVasseur presents the case for the emergence of a nascent “religious agrarianism” within certain subsets of Judaism and Christianity in the United States. Adherents of this movement, who share an environmental concern about the modern industrial food economy and a religiously grounded commitment to the values of locality, health, and justice, are creating new models for sustainable agrarian lifeways and practices. LeVasseur explores this greening of US religion through an extensive engagement with the scholarly literature on lived religion, network theory, and grounded theory, as well as through ethnographic case studies of two intentional communities at the vanguard of this movement: Koinonia Farm, an ecumenical Christian lay monastic community, and Hazon, a progressive Jewish environmental group.