The Forum on Religion and Ecology Newsletter
6.11 (November 2012)
Contents:
1. Editorial, by Elizabeth McAnally
2. Journey of the Universe Film Screenings
3. New Books
4. Events
5. Calls for Papers
6. A Universe Story Retreat (June 14-19, 2013 in Havertown, PA, USA)
7. Energy Stewards Initiative for Congregations and Camps
8. Vacancy for 2 Fully Funded PhD Candidates
9. Human-Animal Studies Fellowship
10. Job Openings
11. Green Hevra: New Network Strengthens Jewish Environmental Collaboration
12. Report on Anti-fracking Protest and Blessing of the Waters Ritual, by Rabbi Arthur Waskow
13. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
1. Editorial, by Elizabeth McAnally
Greetings,
Welcome to the November issue of the newsletter for the Forum on Religion and Ecology. I have much to share with you this month with regards to developments in the field of Religion and Ecology, including publications, conferences, events, calls for papers, job openings, and more.
On November 10, 2012, Steve Dunn will be presented the Thomas Berry Award by Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim in recognition of his pioneering and significant contribution to advancing the Great Work. Steve is founder of the Elliott Allen Institute for Theology & Ecology at The University of St. Michael’s College in Toronto. Following the award, Steve will give a lecture on theme of “Responding to the Ecological Crises.” For more information, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/calendar/item/thomas-berry-award-and-lecture-by-stephen-dunn/
The American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting will be held in Chicago on November 17–20, 2012. The Forum on Religion and Ecology Annual Luncheon will take place Friday, November 16 at 11:30am - 1:30pm in the Marquette Room at the Hilton Chicago (720 South Michigan Avenue). Please RSVP for the luncheon by November 9 to Tara Trapani at tcmk@aya.yale.edu. For a list of events related to Religion and Ecology, as well as Animals and Religion, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/files/AAR-2012.pdf For more about the annual meeting, visit: http://www.aarweb.org/Meetings/Annual_Meeting/Current_Meeting/default.asp
I am happy to let you know about the Green Hevra, a network of U.S.-based leaders of the Jewish environmental movement. “Hevra” is Hebrew for “community,” and the Green Hevra is a hub for the rapidly growing community of Jewish environmentalists. One initial project of the group is an interactive map to plot organizations in the Jewish environmental field and develop a plan for broader engagement, including the possibility of interfaith collaboration. To learn more about this important network and see a list of participating organizations, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/religion/judaism/projects/Green_Hevra.html
The Shalom Center is one of the many organizations involved with Green Hevra. I would like to direct your attention to a blog by Rabbi Arthur Waskow of the Shalom Center, reporting on a recent anti-fracking protest in Philadelphia, PA. Part of the protest involved a multireligious ceremony, “Blessing of the Waters,” to invoke the divine in protection of Earth’s precious resources from the dangers of fracking. The service leaders included Christian, Jewish, Sikh, and Wiccan teachers. For more about the “Blessing of the Waters” service, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/calendar/item/blessing-of-the-waters/ To read Rabbi Waskow’s blog, visit: https://theshalomcenter.org/praying-our-legs-part-2-facing-frackers-philadelphia
I hope this newsletter supports your own work and helps you further your own engagements with the field of Religion and Ecology.
Warm wishes,
Elizabeth McAnally
California Institute of Integral Studies
Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale
Website Manager & Newsletter Editor
http://www.yale.edu/religionandecology
news@religionandecology.org
2. Journey of the Universe Film Screenings
Moravian College
Bethlehem, PA, USA
Discussion with Mary Evelyn Tucker & John Grim
November 7, 2012
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Lehigh University
Bethlehem, PA, USA
Discussion with Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim.
November 8, 2012
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Chestnut Hill College
Philadelphia, PA, USA
Discussion with Mary Evelyn Tucker & John Grim
November 26, 2012
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Princeton Theological Seminary
Princeton, NJ, USA
Discussion with Mary Evelyn Tucker & John Grim
November 29, 2012
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For more information about film screenings, visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/upcoming-events/
3. New Books
Earth-honoring Faith: Religious Ethics in a New Key
By Larry L. Rasmussen
Oxford University Press, 2012
http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Philosophy/EthicsMoralPhilosophy/EnvironmentalEthics/?view=usa&ci=9780199917006
Thoughtful observers agree that the planetary crisis we now face-climate change; species extinction; the destruction of entire ecosystems; the urgent need for a more just economic-political order-is pushing human civilization to a radical turning point: change or perish. In Earth-honoring Faith, Larry Rasmussen insists that we must derive a spiritual and ecological ethic that accounts for the well-being of all creation, as well as the primal elements upon which it depends: earth, air, fire, water, and sunlight. Earth-honoring Faith advocates an alliance of spirituality and ecology, in which the material requirements for planetary life are reconciled with deep traditions of spirituality across religions, traditions that include mysticism, sacramentalism, prophetic practices, asceticism, and the cultivation of wisdom. It is these shared spiritual practices that can produce a chorus of world faiths to counter the consumerism, utilitarianism, alienation, oppression, and folly that have pushed us to the brink.
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Recovering a Sense of the Sacred: Conversations with Thomas Berry
By Carolyn W. Toben
Timberlake Earth Sanctuary Press, 2012
http://www.amazon.com/Recovering-Sense-Sacred-Conversations-Thomas/dp/0988392801
Recovering a Sense of the Sacred: Conversations with Thomas Berry is a thoughtful and poignant memoir by Carolyn W. Toben recounting her spiritual journey with renowned scholar, author and cultural historian, Thomas Berry. For ten years, Carolyn spent many hours in deep discussions with Thomas Berry about his transformational thinking for healing the human-earth relationship through recovery of a sense of the sacred. This book is based on her personal notes, practices and reflections from these con¬versations.
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Without Offending Humans: A Critique of Animal Rights
By Élisabeth de Fontenay
Translated by Will Bishop
University of Minnesota Press, 2012
http://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/without-offending-humans
A central thinker on the question of the animal in continental thought, Élisabeth de Fontenay moves in this volume from Jacques Derrida’s uneasily intimate writing on animals to a passionate frontal engagement with political and ethical theory as it has been applied to animals. Humans and animals are different from one another. To conflate them is to be intellectually sentimental. And yet, from our position of dominance, do we not owe them more than we often acknowledge? Fontenay is at her most compelling in describing philosophy’s ongoing indifference to animal life and how attempts to exclude the animal from ethical systems have in fact demeaned humanity. But Fontenay’s essays carry more than philosophical significance. Without Offending Humans reveals a careful and emotionally sensitive thinker who explores the unfolding of humans’ assessments of their relationship to animals—and the consequences of these assessments for how we define ourselves.
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The Localization Reader: Adapting to the Coming Downshift
By Raymond De Young and Thomas Princen
MIT Press, 2012
https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/localization-reader
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~rdeyoung
Energy supplies are tightening. Persistent pollutants are accumulating. Food security is declining. There is no going back to the days of reckless consumption. But there is a possibility of localizing, of living well as we learn to live well within immutable constraints. Society is shifting from the centrifugal forces of globalization (cheap and abundant raw materials and energy, intensive commercialization, concentrated economic and political power) to the centripetal forces of localization: distributed authority and leadership, sustainable use of nearby natural resources, community self-reliance and cohesion. This book shows how localization can enable psychologically meaningful and fulfilling lives while promoting ecological and social sustainability. Topics range from energy dynamics to philosophies of limits, from the governance of place-based communities to the discovery of positive personal engagement, pointing the way to a transition that can be peaceful, democratic, just and environmentally resilient.
4. Events
“Future Generations and the Ethics of Climate Change”
Lecture by Dr. Mary Evelyn Tucker
University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
November 9, 2012
http://fore.research.yale.edu/calendar/item/future-generations-and-the-ethics-of-climate-change/
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“Northeast Regional Symposium on Eco-justice”
St. John’s in the Village Episcopal Church
The Center for Spiritual Life at NYU
New York City, NY, USA
November 9-10, 2012
http://episcopalleadershipinstitute.wordpress.com/2012/10/12/world-student-christian-federation-ecojustice-symposium/
http://fore.research.yale.edu/calendar/item/northeast-regional-symposium-on-eco-justice/
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Thomas Berry Award and Lecture by Stephen Dunn
Lecture: “Responding to the Ecological Crises”
University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
November 10, 2012
http://fore.research.yale.edu/calendar/item/thomas-berry-award-and-lecture-by-stephen-dunn/
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American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting
Chicago, IL, USA
November 17–20, 2012
Forum on Religion and Ecology Annual Luncheon: Friday, 11/16 at 11:30am-1:30pm in the Marquette Room at the Hilton Chicago (720 South Michigan Avenue).
Please RSVP for luncheon by 11/9 to tcmk@aya.yale.edu.
For a list of events related to Religion and Ecology, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/files/AAR-2012.pdf
http://www.aarweb.org/Meetings/Annual_Meeting/Current_Meeting/default.asp
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The International Association for Environmental Philosophy (IAEP) Meeting
At the annual meeting of the American Philosophical Association-Eastern Division
Marriott Atlanta Marquis, Atlanta, GA, USA
December 27-30, 2012
http://environmentalphilosophy.wordpress.com/2012-iaep-apa-call-for-papers/
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For more events, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/calendar/
5. Calls for Papers
Ninth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability
International Conference Center Hiroshima, Hiroshima, Japan
January 23-25, 2013
Deadline for submissions: November 22, 2012
Contact: support@onsustainability.com
http://onsustainability.com/conference-2013/
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“Science in the Service of Animal Welfare: Priorities around the world”
UFAW International Animal Welfare Science Symposium
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
July 4-5, 2013
Deadline for abstracts: December 3, 2012
http://www.ufaw.org.uk/conf.html
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“Nature, Technology and Religion – Transdisciplinary Perspectives”
The European Forum for the Study of Religion and Environment (EFSRE) and the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature & Culture (ISSRNC)
Sigtuna Foundation, Sweden
May 23-26, 2013
Deadline for Submissions: January 4, 2013
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“Thinking and Acting Ecologically”
Tenth Annual Meeting on Environmental Philosophy
The International Society for Environmental Ethics (ISEE)
The University of East Anglia, UK
June 12-14, 2013
Deadline for abstracts: January 31, 2013
http://blog.uvm.edu/aivakhiv/2012/09/18/cfp-thinking-acting-ecologically/
6. A Universe Story Retreat (June 14-19, 2013 in Havertown, PA, USA)
A contemplative retreat featuring Mary Evelyn Tucker, Jean Newbold, SHCJ, and Terry Moran will take place June 14-19, 2013 at St. Raphaela’s Retreat Center in Havertown, PA, USA. Titled “A Universe Story Retreat,” the usual retreat schedule will also include a presentation by Mary Evelyn on Saturday, June 15, 2pm, that is open to the public. Applications will be accepted on a first come, first accepted basis.
For details and application form, visit:
http://fore.research.yale.edu/files/2013–A_Universe_Story_Retreat.pdf
7. Energy Stewards Initiative for Congregations and Camps
A Program of Lutherans Restoring Creation
New group begins Jan. 2013. Make known your interest by Dec. 1, 2012.
Interested? Questions? Join? Contact ESI Director Peter Bakken at pwbakken@gmail.com
Energy Stewards Initiative (ESI) is a two-year program for congregations/camps to
• reduce your energy use and costs
• lower your carbon footprint
• save money for other expressions of mission
• all for a low cost of $10.00 a month (and you will save much more). Subsidies are available.
An online program in partnership with Rapid-Improvements of Madison, WI. Participants
• track your energy and water use online
• follow an action plan through bi-monthly webinars
• benefit from the shared wisdom of leaders and participating congregations.
• automatic tracking on the EPA’s Portfolio Manager and ENERGY STAR rating
• Manual to guide step-by-step online participation and action.
Each congregation/camp appoints an Energy Steward to be the point person to participate in the program and work with their property team. The rest is guided by Energy Stewards Initiative.
For complete information about the pilot group and the program, visit:
http://www.lutheransrestoringcreation.org/Home/project-elca-cuts-carbon-emissions
8. Vacancy for 2 Fully Funded PhD Candidates
The Institute for Science, Innovation and Society (ISIS) of Radboud University Nijmehgen (Netherlands) offers two fully funded PhD positions within the larger VIDI project ‘Reading the Landscape. A Hermeneutic Approach to Environmental Ethics’, funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). This overall project aims to develop a new approach to environmental ethics in order to deal with moral conflicts arising from ongoing, large-scale landscape changes directed towards ‘rewilding’. It builds on the idea that landscapes are interpreted in various ways, and that environmental narratives based on these readings play a key role in our moral relationships with the environment.
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PhD Candidate 1: Ethics of Ecological Restoration in Cultural Landscapes
Application deadline: November 11, 2012
The sub-project ‘The Ethics of Ecological Restoration in Cultural Landscapes’ will examine normative motives at play in conflicts about ‘rewilding’ projects in cultural landscapes, and will compare different strategies to combine new nature projects with the care for cultural landscape heritage and acknowledge the importance of sense of place in nature conservation.
http://www.ru.nl/vacatures/details/details_vacature_0?recid=523234/
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PhD Candidate 2: Ethics of Living with Large Predators
Application deadline: November 11, 2012
The sub-project ‘The Ethics of Living with Large Predators’ will examine normative motives at play in conflicts involving the reintroduction of large predators such as wolves and other ‘inconvenient’ species, which challenges our perceived notions of identity and our sense of place.
http://www.ru.nl/vacatures/details/details_vacature_0?recid=523314/
9. Human-Animal Studies Fellowship
The Animals and Society Institute and Wesleyan Animal Studies invites applications for the seventh annual summer fellowship program for scholars pursuing research in Human-Animal Studies.
This interdisciplinary program enables 6-8 fellows to pursue research in residence at Wesleyan University at the College of the Environment. The fellowship is designed to support recipients’ individual research through mentorship, guest lectures, and scholarly exchange among fellows and opportunities to contribute to the intellectual life of the host institution. Fellows should expect a diversity of approaches, projects, and commitments to animal protection issues. All fellows must be in continuous residence for the duration of the program, May 28 – July 3, inclusive. The fellowships are open to scholars from any discipline investigating a topic related to human-animal relationships.
Scholars selected to participate in the fellowship program will be awarded a stipend of $3,000 to help cover travel costs, housing, living expenses, books and other research expenses. The fellowship does not pay for housing; fellows will be responsible for finding, and paying for, their own housing.
Application deadline: November 30, 2012
http://www.animalsandsociety.org/fellowship
10. Job Openings
Assistant Professor of Environmental Ethics
The University of Chicago Divinity School, Chicago, IL, USA
Review of applications began on October 1, 2012 and will continue until the position is filled.
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Assistant Professor of Environmental Humanities
Arizona State University, School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, Tempe, AZ, USA
Application deadline is November 9, 2012; if not filled, every two weeks thereafter until the search is closed.
http://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/2101
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Associate or Full Professor to serve as Philosophy and Religion Department Chair
California Institute of Integral Studies, Department of Philosophy and Religion, San Francisco, CA, USA
Application deadline: December 15, 2012
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Assistant Professor in Comparative Psychology (Animal Behavior and Cognition), Ethology, and/or Human-Animal Studies
Eastern Kentucky University, The Department of Psychology, Richmond, KY, USA
Application review remains open until the position is filled.
http://chronicle.com/jobs/0000746116-01/
11. Green Hevra: New Network Strengthens Jewish Environmental Collaboration
On October 24-25, 2012, a network of U.S.-based leaders of the Jewish environmental movement, known as the Green Hevra, gathered for its second in-person retreat. Inspired by the Jewish Social Justice Roundtable, a similar movement-building initiative founded in 2009, the Green Hevra (Hebrew for “green community”) is a network of national and regional Jewish environmental organizations fostering growth through sharing strategic knowledge with partner organizations and identifying opportunities for collaboration.
In recent years, the Jewish environmental movement has grown rapidly, applying ancient Jewish wisdom to modern environmental challenges and promoting specific environmental changes in Jewish institutions. To highlight the growing movement, one initial project of the group is an interactive map to plot organizations in the Jewish environmental field and develop a plan for broader engagement.
The Green Hevra is utilizing professionally facilitated meetings and strategic webinar-based dialogues to identify strategic opportunities for cooperation and impact. In September, Mary Evelyn Tucker of the Yale Sustainability Forum presented to the group and discussed opportunities for potential collaboration across the faith community. The group has also notably hosted webinars with Bill McKibben of 350.org in August and Professor David Elcott of NYU in September.
The Nathan Cummings Foundation and the Morningstar Foundation awarded seed funding to enable the group to lay the groundwork for strategic collaboration across the Jewish environmental movement in 2012. The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) is the administering organization for this project. Additional work is planned for 2013.
Contact: Evonne Marzouk, Acting Chair, Canfei Nesharim; Tel. (703) 868-5356; evonne@canfeinesharim.org
To learn more and see a list of participating organizations, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/religion/judaism/projects/Green_Hevra.html
12. Report on Anti-fracking Protest and Blessing of the Waters Ritual, by Rabbi Arthur Waskow
“Praying with our Legs, Part 2: Facing the Frackers in Philadelphia”
By Rabbi Arthur Waskow
The Shalom Center
September 25, 2012
https://theshalomcenter.org/praying-our-legs-part-2-facing-frackers-philadelphia
On Thursday and Friday, Rabbi Mordechai Liebling (a member of The Shalom Center’s Board) and I took part in two days of action in Philadelphia to oppose fracking – the hydrofracture of shale rock to force out of it burnable gas, a new form of dirty fossil fuel. Be sure to check out the video of these actions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdjgoqUPr-8&feature=em-share_video_user
The protest was aimed at a major convention of the corporate executives of the nationwide fracking industry and their political allies. […]
The Shalom Center was one of the major sponsors of a “Blessing of the Waters,” a multireligious ceremony to invoke the Holy One of Being, the Interbreathing of all life, in protection of Earth’s land, air, and especially waters from the fracking dangers.
The service was shaped around a pattern that began with celebration of the Earth, continued with lamentation for its wounding and its dangers, and concluded with commitment to action for its healing.
Rabbi Liebling emceed the ceremony, and spoke eloquently of the relationship between fracking, corporate power, and the need for economic justice and greater equality. I explained that Jewish tradition for 2500 years has mourned and lamented the destruction of two ancient Temples in Jerusalem, and that today the Temple of all human cultures and all life-forms share is the Earth itself — now in danger of destruction. Accordingly, I chanted from Tamara Cohen’s English version of Lamentations for the Earth, which draws on the words and the wailing chant from Eicha, the biblical Book of Lamentations; and I invoked the YHWH that can be understood as the Interbreathing of all life – as a metaphor for the planetary atmosphere that is being poisoned by fracking.
The service leaders included Christian, Jewish, Sikh, and Wiccan teachers.
For more about the “Blessing of the Waters” service, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/calendar/item/blessing-of-the-waters/
To read the full blog, visit: https://theshalomcenter.org/praying-our-legs-part-2-facing-frackers-philadelphia
13. 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: http://www.brill.com/worldviews-global-religions-culture-and-ecology
For more information on other journals related to religion and ecology and to environmental ethics/philosophy, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/journals/index.html. If you know of a publication that needs to be added to this list, email news@religionandecology.org
For the archive of previous Forum newsletters, visit:
http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/newsletters/index.html
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