Blog

Welcome to the new Yale Forum Blog!

We will be sharing a variety of original content including interviews, reviews, reports from the field, new and enhanced resources on the Forum website, content from our new video podcast series, FORE Spotlights, and much more. 

Check back every Tuesday and Thursday for new content. 

March 30, 2023

Today, we’re pleased to feature a new book by Kathleen Deignan CND and Libby Osgood CND: Teilhard De Chardin: A Book of Hours from Orbis Books. The publisher states: “This Book of Hours is divided into eight days, and further subdivided into Dawn, Day, Dusk, and Dark. The first seven days follow weekly evolutionary themes and conclude with an eighth day, “Tomorrow,” to honor Teilhard’s vision of the future.” You can read a sample of the book or view the table of contents. 
 

More...

March 23, 2023

As some of you may have already heard through our social media channels, Oxford recently published our complete overhaul of the Oxford Religion & Ecology Bibliography. This is more than just an update–it includes many brand new sections and hundreds of new titles. The Forum team created the original version, which was released back in 2012, and were pleased to bring you this greatly updated and enhanced version 11 years later.

Oxford Bibliographies is available by subscription only,...

March 20, 2023

This episode of Spotlights features Mallory McDuff. She is an author, educator, and mother, teaching environmental education at Warren Wilson College outside Asheville, North Carolina. Her writing stems from ordinary life–raising children and teaching students–amidst the enormity of our uncertain times, especially our changing climate. She talks about her new book, Love Your Mother: 50 States, 50 Stories, and 50 Women United for Climate Justice (Broadleaf Books, 2023). The book tells stories about women of diverse ages, backgrounds, and vocations–one...

March 16, 2023

The vernal equinox will take place at 5:24pm EST this coming Monday, March 20. And in honor of this important turning point of the year, we wanted to share a few celebratory offerings to hopefully enhance your joy of the season.

First, who can not feel the running of the sap, the bursting of the buds, and the return of lifeblood coursing through and all around us when listening to “La Primavera” from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. This spirited rendition comes from Voices of Music, a San...

March 9, 2023

Today we’d like to share some thoughts from the poet May Sarton on despair–what many see as the shadow side of Hope, our theme for this year.

In addition to her poems and novels, she penned and published a number of reflective journals throughout her lifetime. At the age of 60, she released Journal of a Solitude, in which she explores despair and aloneness–the challenges of them, yes, but even more so, the gifts to be found in them. And therein lies a great portion of the...

March 7, 2023

This episode of Spotlights features Matthew Segall, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Matt discusses a recent conference celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Center for Process Studies, which is a research center at the Claremont School of Theology at Claremont University, focusing particularly on the relevance of Alfred North Whitehead’s process-relational philosophy. Whitehead has been a profound influence on...

March 2, 2023

In honor of Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day on March 8th, the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology recognizes the vital role of women who have led and continue to shape many of today’s most important conversations about ecology, justice, and peace. 

This month, we highlight some of the many women’s voices featured in our free online courses, all hosted...

February 23, 2023

Starting today, February 23, Earth Charter International will be hosting a monthly masterclass program. Thought leaders from around the globe will share about leadership, sustainability, and education through an ethical and systems approach. Our own Mary Evelyn Tucker will be presenting in September on “The Integration of Ecojustice and Ecospirituality for Sustainability Education.”

Here is the full schedule of presenters: 

23 February – Ethical Leadership for Societal Development with ...
February 21, 2023

This episode of Spotlights features Larry Rasmussen, PhD, Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics, emeritus, at Union Theological Seminary.  He discusses his new book, The Planet You Inherit: Letters to My Grandchildren When Uncertainty’s a Sure Thing. The book is composed of a series of letters that he wrote for his grandchildren. The letters talk about the uncertain future that his grandchildren will live through, including the myriad challenges facing the Earth community during the Anthropocene, not least of which is the ongoing task of understanding the...

February 16, 2023

Often in discussions about Hope, a counter argument will be presented (such as this one in Orion Magazine by Derek Jensen), which states that Hope is a bad thing that brings us down, something that keeps us striving and desperate, but never reaching those goals and aspirations—always grasping. 

Though I can hear some of these arguments and see the danger they’re trying to highlight, it has never resonated—anything can be misused by humanity, including Hope, but that doesn’t mean we...