February 2016

 

The Forum on Religion and Ecology Newsletter
10.2 (February 2016)

 

Contents:

1. Overview, by Elizabeth McAnally

2. New Website for Thomas Berry

3. New Publications

4. Ecology and Justice Series on Integral Ecology (Orbis Books)

5. Calls for Papers

6. J. Baird Callicott is recipient of the first Lifetime Achievement Award

7. Doctor of Ministry in Jewish Spirituality at Graduate Theological Foundation

8. Events

9. “Contemplative Environmental Practice” (Retreat for Professors and Activists on July 24-30, 2016 at Lama Foundation, San Cristobal, NM, USA)

10. “Extending the Land Ethic”: A Four-Week Summer Institute for University Professors (June 20 - July 15, 2016 at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA)

11. Science for Seminaries Faculty Enrichment Retreats

12. Online course: “Climate Change” (March 1 - April 27, 2016)

13. “Eco-Spirituality & Action: A Cosmology and Practicum for the 21st Century” (March 30 - May 4, 2016 at One Spirit Learning Alliance, New York, NY, USA)

14. 2016-2017 Programs for the Universe Story and Living Cosmology

15. Green the Church

16. Graduate Programs

17. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology



1. Overview, by Elizabeth McAnally

Hello!

Welcome to the February 2016 issue of the newsletter for the Forum on Religion and Ecology. We have much to share with you this month with regards to developments in the field of Religion and Ecology, including videos, publications, calls for papers, events, and more.

On January 24, 2016, the Thomas Berry Foundation presented the 2016 Thomas Berry Award to Brian Edward Brown at a ceremony at Iona College in New Rochelle, NY, USA. This occasion also marked the launch of a new website for Thomas Berry that highlights his life and thought. On this site, you will find many of Thomas’ videos and audio recordings, along with several of his essays. For more information about this new website, see the description below and visit: http://thomasberry.org/

We are happy to let you know about a recent publication entitled Thomas Berry in Italy: Reflections on Spirituality & Sustainability (Pacem in Terris Press, 2016). Edited by Elisabeth M Ferrero, this book gathers a rich and diverse collection of tributes to the memory of Thomas Berry in Italy. For more, see below or visit: http://tinyurl.com/z73fn2h

Our friends at the Green Seminary Initiative would like your help in updating their syllabi collection. With dozens of syllabi contributed by the top educators in the field, this collection ranges in topics such as ecotheology, environmental ethics, Biblical studies, and more. We would like to encourage you and your colleagues to contribute to the Green Seminary Initiative syllabi collection so as to assist others in their planning, teaching, and learning. Syllabi can be submitted by email to greenseminary@drew.edu.

Also, we want to let you know that the call for papers for the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion on November 19-22 in San Antonio, TX, USA is now available: https://www.aarweb.org/ To see the Religion and Ecology Group call for papers, visit: https://papers.aarweb.org/content/religion-and-ecology-group

The Forum on Religion and Ecology has a Facebook page. Please show your support by “liking” us and sharing our page with your Facebook friends. Visit the page here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Forum-on-Religion-and-Ecology-at-Yale/807941202606307

Journey of the Universe also has a Facebook page that we invite you to visit: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Journey-of-the-Universe/179213572122084?fref=nf For a list of stores where the Journey project is available, visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/buy/

We hope this newsletter supports your own work and helps you further your own engagements with the field of Religion and Ecology.

Take care,
Elizabeth McAnally
California Institute of Integral Studies
Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale
Website Manager & Newsletter Editor
http://fore.yale.edu/
news@religionandecology.org



2. New Website for Thomas Berry

Thomas Berry was a remarkable teacher, writer, and cultural historian who commenced his academic career as a historian of world cultures and religions and developed into a historian of Earth and its evolutionary processes. His seminal ideas relating to the place of humans in the Earth community launched the intellectual and moral field of Religion and Ecology and inspired the Journey of the Universe.

We have recently launched a new website for Thomas Berry that highlights his life and thought. Please visit: http://thomasberry.org/

This website was launched on the occasion of the presentation of the Thomas Berry Award to Brian Edward Brown by the Thomas Berry Foundation. This took place on Sunday, January 24, 2016 at Iona College in New Rochelle, NY, USA in collaboration with the Thomas Berry Forum for Ecological Dialogue. Brian Edward Brown has been part of the faculty of the Religious Studies Department of Iona College since 1987, specializing in the History of Religions. He will be retiring at the end of this academic year. Since his time as a student of Thomas Berry at Fordham University, he has contributed significantly to the Great Work and the flourishing of the Earth community through his teaching and his many publications and articles. His work has addressed the ecological implications of Buddhist and Native American tribal traditions, as well as contemporary jurisprudence on the conflicting values of land as sacred reality or as mere property.

Acknowledgements for Website:

This website was created by Travis Kochel and Lizy Gershenzon at Scribble Tone who have also created our websites for Emerging Earth Community (emergingearthcommunity.org) and the American Teilhard Association (teilharddechardin.org/). Support for this website and the publication of Thomas Berry’s works over many years has been provided by the Germeshausen Foundation, the Kendeda Foundation, the Charles Engelhard Foundation, the Kalliopeia Foundation, Rev. Albert Nielson, Marianne and Jim Welch, and Paul Minus. We are grateful to our excellent team of co-workers who have contributed their skills to this site: Tara Trapani, Matthew Riley, and Elizabeth McAnally. Videos of Thomas Berry are now available due to Jane Blewett’s generous gift of Lou Niznik’s recordings and the careful work of Don Smith and Wes Pascoe in digitalizing them. The website is dedicated to Margaret Berry and all those who have assisted the Great Work.

Featured Videos:

The videos we are featuring this month are of Thomas Berry speaking at Holy Cross Centre in Port Burwell, Ontario, Canada. You can watch these videos here:
http://thomasberry.org/publications-and-media/thomas-berry-speaks-at-port-burwell-ontario-holy-cross-centre



3. New Publications

Thomas Berry in Italy: Reflections on Spirituality & Sustainability
Edited by Elisabeth M Ferrero
Pacem in Terris Press, 2016
http://tinyurl.com/z73fn2h

From 1991 to 2000 in Assisi, Italy, Elisabeth Ferrero organized and led a series of innovative conferences on “Spirituality and Sustainability,” as well creative “Study Abroad for Earth” (S.A.F.E.) programs. The featured speaker and resource person for these conferences and programs was the late Thomas Berry. A scholar in world religions, protégé of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, and a great contemporary ecological thinker, Thomas Berry became the leading intellectual figure, in cooperation with scientist Brian Swimme, for an important school of thought known as the “New Cosmology.” This book, edited by Elisabeth Ferrero, gathers a rich and diverse collection of tributes to the memory of Thomas Berry in Italy. After its opening reflections, this book is divided in five additional parts: the universe & the university; innovative study abroad programs with Thomas Berry’s cosmology; sacredness of the natural world; economics and sustainable development; and the Earth Charter as a new global ethic. The book ends with a related letter from Thomas Berry and photographs from events with Thomas Berry in Italy.

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Healing Earth
Edited by Nancy Tuchman and Michael Schuck
International Jesuit Ecology Project, 2016
http://healingearth.ijep.net/
Press Release:
http://us9.campaign-archive1.com/?u=649c06a0b36446a8cc7beddb2&id=46237379ef&e=8b78e9959d

Healing Earth is a free online environmental textbook written by over 90 contributors around the world and sponsored by leaders of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) worldwide. Healing Earth addresses the most pressing environmental issues of our time, including loss of biodiversity, natural resource exhaustion, transition to sustainable energy, the quality and availability of food and water, and global climate change. All of these issues threaten our common home, disproportionately affecting the marginalized people of the world by having enormous impacts on the global economy, social violence, climate refugees, and world poverty. Healing Earth raises students’ scientific awareness, probes the ethical implications of our environmental crises, challenges students to think deeply about the meaning of the natural world in our lives, and calls all of us to action that heals the Earth. Join the Healing Earth community of educators by adopting the textbook for your courses. The Spanish translation of all chapters will be available later this year.

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Fracture: Essays, Poems, and Stories on Fracking in America
By Taylor Brorby and Stefanie Trout
Ice Cube Press, 2016
http://tinyurl.com/hp2zbcw
Book Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_qux7gIdmE

This book bears witness to hydraulic fracturing in the United States, bringing together the voices of more than fifty writers exploring the complexities of fracking through first-hand experience, investigative journalism, story-telling, and verse. At a time when politics and profits inhibit our ability to have meaningful discussions about the hazards of fracking, these creative perspectives are needed to ignite the national conversation about how we can live with more compassion toward Earth. Fracture braids together poetry and prose that helps us envision a new course for energy development. Fracking diminishes the habitability of our world. This first-of-its-kind anthology exposes fracking’s effects on local communities as well as its global impacts—flares fueling climate change, oil spills into waterways, earthquakes deep below Earth’s surface. Fracking has changed the national political conversation, and so will this powerful book.

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“Introducing the Scientific Consensus on Maintaining Humanity’s Life Support Systems in the 21st Century: Information for Policy Makers
By Barnosky, Brown, Daily, Dirzo, A. Ehrlich, P. Ehrlich, Eronen, Fortelius, Hadly, Leopold, Mooney, Myers, Naylor, Palumbi, Stenseth, and Wake
The Anthropocene Review 2014, Vol. 1(1), 78–109
Read the full article:
http://anr.sagepub.com/content/1/1/78.full.pdf+html

Scientific Consensus on Maintaining Humanity’s Life Support Systems in the 21st Century was written to make accessible to policy makers and others the basic scientific underpinnings and widespread agreement about both the dangers of and the solutions to climate disruption, extinctions, ecosystem loss, pollution and population overgrowth. When it was released in May 2013, the document included endorsements by 522 global change scientists, including dozens of members of various nations’ most highly recognized scientific bodies, from 41 countries around the world. Since then, endorsements have grown to more than 1300 scientists plus more than 1700 others – business people, NGO representatives, students, and the general public – spanning more than 60 countries. Now also available in Spanish and Chinese, the document has proven useful in helping to stimulate national and international agreements. Further information about the genesis, uses, the signatories, and how to endorse it can be found at http://consensusforaction.stanford.edu/. Such communication between scientists, policy makers, and the public at large will be essential for effective guidance to address global change as the Anthropocene progresses. For more, visit: http://mahb.stanford.edu/consensus-statement-from-global-scientists/

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Caring for Our Common Home: A Readers’ Guide and Commentary on Pope Francis’ Encyclical on the Environment
By Fr. Thomas Reese, SJ
National Catholic Reporter, 2015
http://ncronline.org/ncr-ebook-caring-our-common-home

Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical on the environment has captured the attention of millions of people all over the world. One of the most important documents of this century, the encyclical puts the Catholic Church firmly behind the environmental movement, calling the world to a conversion that will have a huge impact on how we live, how our economy works, and how governments operate. National Catholic Reporter Senior Analyst Fr. Thomas Reese, SJ provides an introduction, thoughtful questions, in-depth analysis and prompts for discussion.

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Philosophy of Nature: Rethinking Naturalness
By Svein Anders Noer Lie
Routledge, 2016
https://www.routledge.com/products/9781138792883

The concept of naturalness has largely disappeared from the academic discourse in general but also the particular field of environmental studies. This book is about naturalness in general – about why the idea of naturalness has been abandoned in modern academic discourse, why it is important to explicitly re-establish some meaning for the concept and what that meaning ought to be. Arguing that naturalness can and should be understood in light of a dispositional ontology, the book offers a point of view where the gap between instrumental and ethical perspectives can be bridged. Reaching a new foundation for the concept of ‘naturalness’ and its viability will help raise and inform further discussions within environmental philosophy and issues occurring in the crossroads between science, technology and society.



4. Ecology and Justice Series on Integral Ecology (Orbis Books)

Published by Orbis Books, the Ecology and Justice Series on Integral Ecology seeks to integrate an understanding of Earth’s interconnected life systems with sustainable social, political, and economic systems that enhance the Earth community. To see the flyer for this Orbis series, visit: http://fore.yale.edu/files/Orbis_Ecology_and_Justice_flyer_9-30-15.pdf

This month we are featuring the following book from this series:

The Christian Future and the Fate of Earth
By Thomas Berry, edited by Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim
Orbis Books, 2009
http://www.orbisbooks.com/the-christian-future-and-the-fate-of-earth.html

Like no other religious thinker, Thomas Berry has been a prophetic voice regarding Earth’s destruction and the urgent need for human response from the Christian community. This book collects Berry’s signature views on the interrelatedness of both Earth’s future and the Christian future. He ponders why Christians have been late in coming to the issue of the environment. He reflects insightfully on how the environment must be seen as a religious issue, not simply a scientific or economic problem. In powerful and poetic language Berry presents a compelling vision of the sacredness of the universe and the interrelatedness of the Earth community. Drawing on Thomas Aquinas and Teilhard de Chardin, he brings the Christian tradition into a cosmology of care for the whole of creation.



5. Calls for Papers

“Animal Agency: Language, Politics, Culture”
University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
May 12-13, 2016
Submission deadline: February 8, 2016
https://animalagency.wordpress.com/

American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting
San Antonio, TX, USA
November 19-22, 2016
https://www.aarweb.org/
Submission deadline: March 1, 2016
Religion and Ecology Group call for papers:
https://papers.aarweb.org/content/religion-and-ecology-group



6. J. Baird Callicott is recipient of the first Lifetime Achievement Award

The International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture is pleased to announce that J. Baird Callicott is the recipient of our first Lifetime Achievement Award for outstanding contributions to the study of religion, nature and culture. The award goes to those whose work has a relevance and eloquence that speaks, not just to scholars, but more broadly to the public and to multiple disciplines as well. Since teaching the world’s first course in environmental ethics in 1971 at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Professor Callicott has become best known as the foremost exponent of Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethic in relation to issues of environmental stewardship, wilderness, and climate change. Among his many students, colleagues, and friends, he is known as a warm and generous person and a powerful mentor – qualities that make him especially deserving of an award that calls not only for a transdisciplinary intelligence but for an embracing generosity of mind. It is in this spirit that the ISSRNC honors this capacious, engaging, and highly original thinker with its first Lifetime Achievement Award. The society will recognize Dr. Callicott at its 10th anniversary conference, Religion, Science and the Future. For the ISSRNC’s full tribute to Dr. Callicott, please go to page 6 of the program for Religion Science and the Future:

http://www.religionandnature.com/society/pdf/program2016.pdf



7. Doctor of Ministry in Jewish Spirituality at Graduate Theological Foundation

The Graduate Theological Foundation in Mishawaka, IN, USA is now offering a new Doctor of Ministry in Jewish Spirituality. Rabbi Arthur Waskow, director of The Shalom Center, is one of the professors in this new program and is teaching classes and offering mentorship in Jewish Social and Ecological Justice. If you are specifically interested in this program, contact Rabbi Waskow at Awaskow@theshalomcenter.org.

For more information, visit:
www.gtfeducation.org/academics/jewish-spirituality.cfm



8. Events

“Integral Ecology: Pope Francis and Planetary Thinking”
Presentation by Dr. Christiana Peppard
Seattle University, Pigott Auditorium, Seattle, WA, USA
February 4, 2016 at 7pm
https://www.seattleu.edu/cejs/News/Events/

Spiritual Activism, Climate Change, and Liberation Theology for Our Time”
With Alastair McIntosh
University Congregational United Church of Christ, Seattle, WA, USA
February 5-7, 2016
http://earthministry.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Alastair-McIntosh-Flyer-Feb-2016.pdf

Creating an Economy of Inclusion: Faith Active in Politics”
2016 Doll Family Lecture on Religion and Money by Simone Campbell, SSS
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
February 10, 2016 at 4:30 - 6:00pm
http://csr.princeton.edu/events/creating-an-economy-of-inclusion/

Catholics, Capitalism and Climate”
Madison Theatre, Public Square, Rockville Centre, NY, USA
February 17, 2016 at 2:00 - 5:00pm
Keynote speaker: Cardinal Peter Turkson, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace
Moderator: Fr. James Martin, SJ
Panel with Meghan J. Clark, Ph.D., R.R. Reno and Erin Lothes, Ph.D.
Flyer: http://fore.yale.edu/files/2-17-16_Catholics_Climate_Change_with_Cardinal_Turkson.pdf
Please RSVP to this free event: event@molloy.edu or 516.323.4600
https://life.molloy.edu/organization/publicrelations/calendar/details/837900

Religion and Ecology Summit”
California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA, USA
March 11, 2016
Keynote addresses by Mary Evelyn Tucker and Brian Thomas Swimme
Hosted by the Ecology, Spirituality, and Religion graduate program at the California Institute of Integral Studies
http://www.ciis.edu/academics/graduate-programs/ecology-spirituality-and-religion/religion-and-ecology-summit-connecting-possibilities

Consuming the World: Eating and Drinking in Culture, History, and Environment”
Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Munich, Germany
March 11-12, 2016
http://www.carsoncenter.uni-muenchen.de/events_conf_seminars/calendar/ws_food/index.html

After Paris: Climate and Religion”
Presentation by Mary Evelyn Tucker
The David Brower Center, Berkeley, CA, USA
March 15, 2016 at 7-9pm
Hosted by the David Brower Center and California Interfaith Power & Light
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/after-paris-climate-and-religion-tickets-19825866701

The Emerging Alliance of Religion and Ecology”
Public Lecture by Mary Evelyn Tucker and screening of Journey of the Universe
This event is part of “Taking the Scholarship of Religion Public,” the Spring 2016 National Meeting of the Westar Institute.
The Flamingo Resort Hotel, Santa Rosa, CA, USA
March 16, 2016
http://www.westarinstitute.org/national-meetings/spring-2016/

The Spirit of Sustainable Agriculture”
Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, MA, USA
March 31 - April 1, 2016
http://fore.yale.edu/calendar/item/the-spirit-of-sustainable-agriculture/

The Greening of Religions: Hope in the Eye of the Storm”
University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA
April 1-3, 2016
https://cherryhillseminary.org/greeningofreligions/

Zest for Life: Partnering with Our Sacred Earth Community”
2016 Sisters of Earth Conference
Presentation Center, Los Gatos, CA, USA
July 7-10, 2016
http://fore.yale.edu/files/2016_SOE_Conference.pdf

Workshop on Journey of the Universe and High School Teaching
Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, NJ, USA
October 20-23, 2016
For more information, contact: journeyoftheuniverse@lawrenceville.org



9. “Contemplative Environmental Practice” (Retreat for Professors and Activists on July 24-30, 2016 at Lama Foundation, San Cristobal, NM, USA)

How can we best work and teach in the service of environmental well-being? How can we can deepen, grow, and flourish in our environmental commitments? This workshop brings together activists and professors to share ways of living on the front lines of environmental concern. Using daily meditation, nature walks, art, and other reflective exercises, we will probe the depths of the environmental crisis and develop inner resources to work and teach on behalf of global sustainability. Environmental issues are not simply political, technological, or economic dilemmas but also existential and spiritual challenges that require us to reflect upon the meaning of our individual and collective lives. The workshop will introduce contemplative practices tailored specifically for inducing such reflection and for supporting professors and activists in their pedagogical and advocacy efforts. Part seminar and part retreat, the workshop offers the chance to step back from our frenetic lives and, in the midst of stunning beauty and a supportive community, integrate our deepest spiritual yearnings with our commitment to protect the earth.

Faculty: Paul Wapner, Kritee (Kanko), Nicole Salimbene, Jeff Warren,

Sponsored by: Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education, & Global Environmental Politics Program, American University

http://www.american.edu/sis/gep/Contemplative-Environmental-Studies-Workshop.cfm



10. “Extending the Land Ethic”: A Four-Week Summer Institute for University Professors (June 20 - July 15, 2016 at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA)

From June 20 to July 15, 2016, Arizona State University will offer the four-week Summer Institute “Extending the Land Ethic,” to be held at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. The institute will accept up to 25 professors, graduate students, nonprofit administrators, public officials, and others who teach or research humanities disciplines that examine the relationship between humans and nature, such as environmental ethics, ecofeminism, environmental history, green religion, and ecocriticism. The connection between ecologist Aldo Leopold’s “Land Ethic” and contemporary notions of sustainability is the institute’s central organizing principle.

Successful applicants are asked to work on a project that incorporates the institute’s research, such as a publication, new college course, or website. Each participant will receive a $3,300 stipend to cover travel, lodging, meals, books, and related institute expenses.

Faculty: Gary Paul Nabhan, Curt Meine, Linda Hogan, and Dale Jamieson

Application deadline: March 1, 2016

https://humanities-sustainability.asu.edu/



11. Science for Seminaries Faculty Enrichment Retreats

To prepare future religious leaders for conversations at the intersection of faith and science, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), through its Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion (DoSER) program, in consultation with the Association of Theological Schools (ATS), invites your application to attend one of three Science for Seminaries 2016 Summer Faculty Enrichment Retreats. These retreats provide opportunities for faculty to engage the learning outcomes gleaned from the original participants in the AAAS Science for Seminaries project. Through your participation, you will be able to impart to your students an appreciation for science, which will enrich teaching and service as seminary graduates minister to their congregations.

Mainline Protestant:
June 20 – 23, 2016
Newagan Seaside Resort, Maine, USA

Evangelical/Conservative Protestant:
July 18-21, 2016
Timberline Lodge, Oregon, USA

Catholic/Orthodox:
August 2-5, 2016
Newagan Seaside Resort, Maine, USA

Application deadline: February 15, 2016

http://www.aaas.org/event/apply-science-seminaries-faculty-enrichment-retreats



12. Online course: “Climate Change” (March 1 - April 27, 2016)

The Wilmette Institute will offer an 8 week online course on Climate Change starting March 1. The course covers the basic science of climate change and provides an understanding of how climate disruption impacts us today and will continue to affect us in the future. We will explore ethical questions related to climate change and address them in the context of the spiritual teachings of the world’s religions, especially those of the Baha’i Faith. The readings will help us make enlightened decisions for our personal and community lives that are consistent with our spiritual and ethical values. For those interested in a more thorough study of climate change and its spiritual dimensions or who are interested in specific aspects of it, the course offers numerous optional resources. The course is interfaith in tone and people of all religious backgrounds are welcome to participate.

http://www.cvent.com/events/climate-change/event-summary-08ab43e86142415ca2a09dd73ec47d81.aspx



13. “Eco-Spirituality & Action: A Cosmology and Practicum for the 21st Century” (March 30 - May 4, 2016 at One Spirit Learning Alliance, New York, NY, USA)

Six Consecutive Wednesday Evenings in 2016
6:30pm – 9:30pm ET
March 30; April 6, 13, 20, 27; and May 4, 2016

One Spirit Learning Alliance
247 West 36th Street, 6th Floor
New York, NY, USA

Available by: Attending, Audiobook & Webinar

This workshop with Angela Manno explores a powerful emerging global spirituality — an eco-spirituality — that deepens our connection to the planet and helps clarify our place within the cosmos and the Earth Community. Through reading, guided meditation, DVD viewing, worship sharing (a Quaker practice) and other didactic and experiential methods, we will discover a profound new awareness and the opportunity to make our own inspired impact in the healing of the Earth.

http://onespiritinterfaith.org/eco-spirituality/



14. 2016-2017 Programs for the Universe Story and Living Cosmology

“Retreat into the Universe Story”
What is Earth Asking?
Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat, Wheatland, IA, USA
July 29 – August 4, 2016
Facilitators: Janet Mallak, SSND; Jeanne Wingenter, SSND; Paulette Zimmerman, SSND
http://fore.yale.edu/files/2016_Retreat_into_the_Universe_Story.pdf

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Cosmic Symphony of Love Unfolding”
A six-day retreat in the Living Cosmology
Guided by Maureen Wild, SC, with the musical support of Joyce Rouse
http://fore.yale.edu/files/Cosmic_Symphony_of_Love_Unfolding.pdf

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Encountering Earth: Reclaiming the Human in the Web of Life”
A series of presentations with Linda Neil, CSJ
http://encounteringearth.webs.com/



15. Green the Church

Green the Church, a project by the eco-justice organization Green for All, was launched in early 2015 after some of the nation’s most prominent clergy issued a call to action for African American churches to help combat climate change. Operating alongside the U.S. Green Building Council, the initiative aims to mobilize 1,000 African American churches to advance the message of “ecology theology”—namely, that Christians have a biblical mandate to protect God’s creation. The effects of climate change—such as devastating superstorms, unrelenting heat waves, and chronic urban pollution—disproportionately harm communities of color and low-income individuals. Through Green the Church, clergy, lay leaders, and congregants are changing their buildings and operations to become more sustainable and working to transform environmental outcomes for the nation’s neediest populations. Their efforts include pragmatic measures such as solar construction, healthy food programs, and energy audits. Co-founder Rev. Dr. Ambrose Carroll says that caring for the earth and its people is a “legacy and responsibility” that African American communities have long honored.

http://www.greenforall.org/green_the_church



16. Graduate Programs

Joint MA in Religion and Ecology

Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (FES) and Yale Divinity School (YDS), New Haven, CT, USA

This graduate program is aimed at students who wish to integrate the study of environmental issues and religious communities in their professional careers and for those who wish to study the cultural and ethical dimensions of environmental problems.

Faculty members: Mary Evelyn Tucker, John Grim, and Matthew Riley

http://fore.yale.edu/yale-ma/

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MA and PhD in Philosophy and Religion, concentration in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness

California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA, USA

This graduate program is dedicated to re-imagining the human species as a mutually enhancing member of the Earth community.

Faculty members: Brian Thomas Swimme, Elizabeth Allison, Sean Kelly, Richard Tarnas, and Robert McDermott

http://www.ciis.edu/Academics/Graduate_Programs/Philosophy_Cosmology_and_Consciousness.html

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For more educational programs related to religion and ecology, visit:
http://fore.yale.edu/education/resources/links/



17. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology

Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology has as its focus the relationships between religion, culture and ecology world-wide. Articles discuss major world religious traditions, such as Islam, Buddhism or Christianity; the traditions of indigenous peoples; new religious movements; and philosophical belief systems, such as pantheism, nature spiritualities, and other religious and cultural worldviews in relation to the cultural and ecological systems. Focusing on a range of disciplinary areas including Anthropology, Environmental Studies, Geography, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Sociology and Theology, the journal also presents special issues that center around one theme.

For more information, visit: brill.com/wo

For the online edition, visit: http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/15685357/19/3

Table of Contents for Volume 19, Issue 3 (2015):

• Islamic Attitudes towards Environmental Problems and Practices (Azman Ahmad)
• Homogenizing Violence, Isa 40:4 (and Luke 3:5) and MTR (Mountaintop Removal Mining) (Anne Elvey)
• The Post-Colonial Ecology of Siberian Shamanic Revivalism (Eleanor Peers and Lyubov’ Kolodeznikova)
• Theorizing Logger Religion within the Pacific Northwest Timber Conflict (Christopher Serenari; Nils Peterson and Brett Clark)
• “All My Means are Sane, My Motive and My Object Mad” (Daniel T. Spencer)
• Film Review: Pad Yatra: A Green Odyssey, by M. Yeoh (exec. prod.) and W.J.N. Lee (prod./dir.) (Review by Erin Weston)



For the archive of previous Forum newsletters, visit:
http://fore.yale.edu/publications/newsletters/

To download this newsletter as a PDF, visit:
http://fore.research.yale.edu/files/February_2016_Newsletter.pdf


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