The September 2025 issue (no. 9) of The New Ecozoic Reader: Critical Reflections, Stories, Dream Experiences & Practices for an Ecological Age is a special intergenerational retrospective on the field of religion and ecology:
how far we've come, the field today, and what is on the horizon for the coming years, as we all navigate the global polycrisis.
Edited by Sam C. King and Sam Mickey, with a foreword by Iyad Abumoghli of UNEP Faith for Earth Coalition, and with an Introduction by Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim.
Contributors include: Heather Eaton, David Haberman, Elizabeth Allison, Whitney A. Bauman, Ibrahim Ozdemir, Jason Brown, Kim Carfore, Sarah Pike, Lisa E. Dahill, Nancy Wright, Jim Robinson, Melanie L. Harris, Christopher Key Chapple, Dan Smyer Yu, Charisma K. Lepcha, Philip P. Arnold, Sandra L. Bigtree, Graham Harvey, Russell C. Powell, Rachael Petersen, Terra Schwerin Rowe, and Larry Rasmussen.
During our time of proliferating ecological crises, the academic field and moral force of religion and ecology are matters of urgent importance for any effort to respond to the myriad challenges presented by these crises. It is a privilege and a pleasure for us to serve as guest editors for this special issue of The New Ecozoic Reader, focusing on exactly this urgent topic. We hope that this issue is a source of information and inspiration that can support anyone seeking integral community in our ecological age. Along with this brief introduction to the issue, as well as a preface from two esteemed leaders in the field, Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, we have gathered essays from twenty-one scholars representing the diversity and abundance of perspectives on the intersection of religion and ecology. The contents of this issue include perspectives from across multiple generations and across the religious traditions of the world. Our contributors look toward the past, present, and future of religion and ecology, so you will find a mixture of retrospective and prospective insights, exploring the taproots that nourished the emergence of this unique area of inquiry as well as new directions that are currently taking shape.
This issue of The New Ecozoic Reader covers a wide range of topics, including education, ritual, worldviews, democracy, nature immersion experiences, places, plants, wildness, future generations, and intersectional issues of gender, race, and socioeconomic class. Celebrating the variety of approaches to religion and ecology, we also decided to honor the variety of writing styles from our wonderful group of contributors. Writings are positioned between creative nonfiction and analytical prose. You will also note that the formatting for references varies somewhat from article to article. This is somewhat unconventional for academic writing, but we believe this highlights the importance of learning to welcome differences. Differences and diversity are crucial for bringing forth a more just and sustainable Earth community, transitioning away from the destructive presence of societies that view the Earth through lenses of homogenization, exploitation, and extractivism. In recent decades, scholars and practitioners of religions have become increasingly engaged with ecological issues, while scientists, policymakers, and activists concerned with ecology have become increasingly engaged with the values of religious worldviews. To be sure, religions are not sufficient to respond to the ecological crises of our age, but it is clear that their moral force—as well as their ecological and cosmological understandings—are a necessary component of the task of transitioning to a vibrant and flourishing Earth community. This issue of The New Ecozoic Reader celebrates this empowering and exciting intersection of religion and ecology. READ MORE…