Other R&E Scholars & Organizations

Heather Eaton speaks as a featured speaker of the Saint Louis Climate Summit on “Religious Perspectives and Moral Obligations.” This event took place on April 24, 2018. 

Water is a precious, vital element connecting all living beings on Earth.  Yet many of us often take water for granted, forgetting the tremendous importance this common element holds for our own survival and for the continuation of life on Earth.  The dominant modern mindset views water as a mere resource and commodity.  This view is part and parcel of the exploitation, pollution, and privatization of water.  In an attempt to counter this dominating mindset, I explore an “integral water ethic” as a crucial component in the urgent task of cultivating mutually enhancing relations between humans and our Earth community, what the cultural historian Thomas Berry calls “the Great Work.”  As opposed to the commoditized construct of water as lifeless matter that must be controlled and manipulated for maximum profit, an integral water ethic recovers the individual and community experience of water as an active agent, a teacher and guide, a vital, intrinsically valuable member of our Earth community.  This presentation explores various contemplative practices that can contribute to an integral water ethic by cultivating a deeper sense of intimacy and empathy with water and the Earth community, thus leading to more compassionate and engaged responses to water crises.  These practices share the theme of mindfulness and are inspired by taiji walking meditation, as well as Buddhist meditation and compassion practices.  Through the cultivation of love and compassion for water, humans are better able to see water as more than a mere resource and commodity, but as a loving and compassionate member of the Earth community who nourishes all beings. This talk took place on March 10, 2017.

Paul Waldau, Canisius College, discusses religion, ethics, and animals with Mary Evelyn Tucker of the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology. Waldau reflects on the 1996 Harvard conference on animals and religion and the book that arose from the conference, A Communion of Subjects: Animals in Religion, Science, and Ethics (edited by Waldau and Kimberley Patton). He also addresses the Great Apes Project and his Harvard course on animals. Waldau and Tucker consider animals in the contexts of culture and morality, empathy and sympathy, social skills, personality, multiple intelligences, wonder and awe.

(See part 1 for description)

(See part 1 for description)

In this presentation at the “Jewish Thought and Jewish Belief International Conference,” Hava Tirosh-Samuelson considers Jewish environmentalism and the intersection of scholarship, faith, and activism. She gives a brief overview of the Jewish environmental movement in America and offers a portrait of Jewish environmental organizations with some comparisons to the Jewish environmental movement in Israel. She then considers Jewish ecotheology and reflects on the claim that it reflects the reemergence of paganism. She ends by clarifying some challenges that confront Jewish environmentalism and suggests how to address them.

In Part 3 of “Thomas Berry The Great Work,” Christopher Key Chapple, Professor of Indic and Comparative Theology at Loyola Marymount University, presents Berry's religious philosophies and work around the religions of South Asia. He calls attention to two enduring hallmarks of Berry's though: authenticity and affectivity.