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.
This is a clip from the episode of Spotlights featuring Huda Alkaff, the Founder and Director of Wisconsin Green Muslims, a grassroots group in Milwaukee, Wisconsin formed in 2005 to connect faith, environmental justice, and sustainability through education and service. In this clip, she talks about the cosmological and ecological orientation of Islam, particularly as expressed in the Quran and Hadith.
You can watch the clip below or listen to it here.
Details for the full episode are here.
An archive of...
Next week will be the third annual Laudato Si' Week from May 22-29, to celebrate and raise awareness for Pope Francis’ papal encyclical, “Laudato Si’: On Care For Our Common Home.” This year's theme is “Listening and Journeying Together.” There will be official events broadcast on Facebook live and other social media outlets, as well as grassroots community gatherings all over the world.
From the event site:
Laudato Si’ Week began as a way to celebrate...
This week's episode of Spotlights features Huda Alkaff, an ecologist and environmental educator. She discusses her work as the Founder and Director of Wisconsin Green Muslims, a grassroots group in Milwaukee, Wisconsin formed in 2005 to connect faith, environmental justice, and sustainability through education and service. She talks about ecological values expressed in the Quran and Hadith, the cosmological orientation of Islamic practice, the importance of interfaith collaboration,...
Today, we're happy to highlight a new publication by a recent Yale Divinity graduate. A Christian's Guide to Planet Earth by Betsy Painter ('22 MAR) was released from Zondervan last month. The book is a practical guide for environmentally-concerned people of faith, based on a firm scriptural foundation.
Read an adapted excerpt from the book titled “Reducing our carbon footprint is a way of loving others” on the Yale Divinity website. Read more and...
This week, Spotlights features a clip from our episode with Dan Smyer Yü, PhD, Kuige Professor of Ethnology in the School of Ethnology and Sociology at Yunnan University and a Global Faculty Member at the University of Cologne. He discusses his groundbreaking work in trans-Himalayan studies, exploring the ways religion and ecology intersect in the mountains, valleys, plains, and rivers of regions in and around the Himalayas.
You can watch the clip below or listen to it here.
Details for the full episode...
We're very pleased to share the recording of last week's amazing conversation between Alison Hawthorne Deming, Kathleen Dean Moore, and Mary Evelyn Tucker. As those who were able to catch it live know, these three wise and wonderful women took us on a journey into a variety of fascinating topics, most notably the jubilant music of the natural world around us and the power of that music to bring hope and help quell anguish in challenging times.
This...
This week's episode of Spotlights features Dan Smyer Yü, PhD, the Kuige Professor of Ethnology in the School of Ethnology and Sociology at Yunnan University and a Global Faculty Member at the University of Cologne. He discusses his multifaceted, interdisciplinary work with religion and ecology, including his work with trans-Himalayan studies, Buddhism and ecology, ecological indigeneity, commoning, and the role of affect in responding to climate change. Along the way, he talks about some of his books, like Mindscaping the...
Last week, Union Theological Seminary's Center for Earth Ethics wove a rich tapestry of creative offerings and thoughtful reflections into an Earth Day event titled “Earth Day 2022: Life Force.”
This inspiring event included talks by people such as Bill McKibben, Karenna Gore, and Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., but also musical performances, dance, recitation, and more. The entire three-hour event was recorded, and we're pleased to share that recording with you, here.
From the event site:
...
This week, Spotlights features a clip from our episode with Simone Kotva, PhD, a research fellow in the Faculty of Theology at the University of Oslo, and an affiliated lecturer in the Faculty of Divinity at the University of Cambridge. In this clip, she discusses the relationship between magic and ecology, particularly in light of the ways that the practice of magic is oriented toward skillful communication with the more-than-human world.
You can watch the clip below or listen to it here.
Details for the full episode can be found here.
An...
In honor of Earth Day tomorrow, we wanted to share some words (and sounds!) of hope and inspiration.
First, check out Orion's 2020 Earth Day feature. They asked 10 authors–including E.O. Wilson, Krista Tippett, and Amy Tan–what brought them hope on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. The resulting answers are philosophical, practical, poetic, and deeply personal.
Next, we wanted to share the video of Mary Evelyn Tucker's inspiring 2021 Earth Day sermon: “The Sacred...