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.
Today, we're highlighting some of the environmental podcasts we think will be of interest to Forum readers. Some of these may already be familiar, as we've shared their content before, but they're still doing robust work and featuring interesting interviewees, so we wanted to keep them on your radar. And some we list here are new additions to our lists of resources.
Not all episodes concern the intersection of religion and spirituality with environmental issues, but there are plenty in each series...
This week, Spotlights features a clip from our interview with Jason Wirth, PhD, professor of philosophy at Seattle University, Soto Zen priest, and the founder and co-director of the Seattle University EcoSangha. He discusses his idea of “deep social ecology,” which integrates the insights of two ecological philosophies often considered to be in opposition to one another: deep ecology and social ecology. You can learn more about it be reading his article, “Deep Social Ecology.”
Details for the full...
The images shared this week from the James Webb telescope have captivated the world and deepened our engagement with the cosmos around us. Whether we believe in a universe that is designed or one that is randomly originating out of chaos, we can't fail to be moved by this dramatic experience of worlds and galaxies farther away than any resident of planet Earth has ever before seen. And this is just the beginning–we will be seeing many more images and the...
[image: “Buddha and Shoreline, by Nathan Wirth]
This episode of Spotlights features Jason Wirth, PhD, professor of philosophy at Seattle University, Soto Zen priest, and the founder and co-director of the Seattle University EcoSangha. We talk about his capacious engagements with Continental philosophy, Buddhism, ecological thought, indigenous lifeways, and more. We discuss some of his books, including Nietzsche and Other Buddhas: Philosophy after Comparative Philosophy (Indiana 2019), Mountains, Rivers, and the Great...
As events around the world continue to bring challenges to our inner peace and well-being, we wanted to share some resources for helping to cope with climate anxiety, grief, and despair. We hope they will help you and your community find glimmers of hope and some solid ground to stand on in the midst of uncertainty.
We've built a collection of Eco-anxiety Resources here on the Forum site. It includes books, articles, videos, podcasts, reports, programs, and more. The resources are updated...
In this week's episode of Spotlights, Sam Mickey talks about the life and thought of a deeply influential figure in the field and force of religion and ecology, Thomas Berry (1914-2009). Sam draws on the book about Berry's life and thought, Thomas Berry: A Biography, by Mary Evelyn Tucker, John Grim, and Andrew Angyal (Columbia University Press, 2019), and he concludes with a reading from one of Berry's books, The Great Work (Bell Tower, 1999), ending with the following quotation:
“We are not lacking in the dynamic forces needed...
We at the Forum are excited to unveil to you a new section of our website. Under “World Religions,” you will now find a subsection with a wealth of resources on Zoroastrianism and ecology.
In this new section you'll find:
An introductory Overview Essay on Zoroastrianism and Ecology by Benedikt Peschl
A Bibliography compiled by Homi Gandhi of FEZANA (...
This clip is an excerpt of the Spotlights episode featuring Rabbi Ellen Bernstein. In this clip, she discusses her work with Shomrei Adamah (Keepers of the Earth), the first national Jewish environmental organization, which she founded in 1988. While Shomrei Adamah, the organization, closed in 1996, it touched the hearts and minds of tens of thousands of people, and its message continues to reverberate through its books and educational materials, and through the work of a new generation of Jewish educators, naturalists,...
Joyous summer to one and all! Here in the Northern Hemisphere, the summer solstice occured on Tuesday, heralding the longest day and our crossing of the threshold into the time of great natural abundance and bountiful growth.
To celebrate, we'd like to share a couple of poems that honor the energy of summer, particulary that special liminal time when we ease from the busyness of the day into the dark sacred night.
June Sunset
By Sarojini Naidu
Here shall my heart find its haven of...
In this week's episode of Spotlights, our host Sam Mickey presents some brief reflections on Father's Day, which is celebrated in North America and many other places on the third Sunday of June. Along with giving some historical context about the meaning of Father's Day, Sam gives some personal reflections about the important role that his father (Robert Mickey) had and continues to have on his lifelong interests in religion and in the natural world.
You can watch the episode below or listen to it here...