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. 

December 16, 2021

We at the Forum are extremely pleased to announce that our new series of online religion & ecology courses, “Religions and Ecology: Restoring the Earth Community,” was released last week from Yale University and the Coursera online learning platform. Mary Evelyn Tucker, John Grim, and a team of dedicated graduate students have been building these courses for a number of years, and we are very happy that they are finally up online and available to all.

These courses are completely free to audit (see more about...

December 13, 2021

This week's episode of Spotlights features a new hub for EcoJustice research and advocacy at the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology:

Our guests are the four people comprising the team that put these resources together, including the following: Tara C. Trapani, the Chief Administrator of the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, Liz Burkemper & Eun Young Choi, both Master of Arts in Religion students at Yale Divinity School, and Leah Snavely, a recent graduate of Yale Divinity School.

You...

December 9, 2021

Today we offer a poem in celebration of the changing seasons. Wishing you peace and joy during this transition from autumn to winter.
 

“Falling Leaves and Early Snow”
By Kenneth Rexroth

In the years to come they will say,
“They fell like the leaves
In the autumn of nineteen thirty-nine.”
November has come to the forest,
To the meadows where we picked the cyclamen.
The year fades with the white frost
On the brown sedge in the hazy meadows,
Where the deer...

December 6, 2021

This is a clip from the episode of Spotlights featuring Mallory McDuff, PhD, a teacher and writer at Warren Wilson College. She discusses the importance of talking about death, reflecting on her latest book, Our Last Best Act: Planning for the End of Our Lives to Protect the People and Places We Love (Broadleaf Books, 2021).

The music at the introduction and conclusion of the clip comes from the song “You Carry My Love,” by Elizabeth Teague.

You can watch the clip below or listen to it here.

You can find...

December 2, 2021

Hope – that potent elixir of heretofore unknown strength can move the proverbial mountains. It is arguably our greatest resource. But in a world of increasing obstacles and intensity, hope can be a scarce commodity – the overwhelming nature of the problems before us can easily lead to paralysis and despair.

One of the antidotes to this paralysis is, of course, action. Yet it can be hard to know where or how to begin when we're stuck in this state of anxiety, grief, and fear. So, we wanted to...

November 29, 2021

This week's episode of Spotlights features Mallory McDuff, PhD. She writes and teaches environmental education just outside of Asheville, North Carolina, at Warren Wilson College, a liberal arts school that integrates academics with work and community engagement. She's written many books, articles, and essays that examine the intersection of people and places for a better world. Weaving together personal stories and academic research, she talks about her latest book, Our Last Best Act: Planning for the...

November 22, 2021

This week's episode of Spotlights is a clip from last week’s episode, featuring the artist and educator, Nicole Dixon. In this clip, she talks about lessons that can be learned through attention to nature, specifically the nonjudgmental growth and resilience that redwoods teach us.

Information about the full episode is available here. 

You can watch the clip below or listen to it here.

An archive of previous episodes can be found here, with audio versions available here and anywhere podcasts...

November 18, 2021


On November 14, the Laudato Si' Action Platform was offcially launched by the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, and their site is now open for enrollment. This much anticipated global project will help Catholic communities create environmental action plans and track their progress to help move our world in the direction of the Laudato Si' goals. 

From the Platform website: 
Caring for our brothers and sisters means caring for the home we share. This responsibility is “essential...

November 15, 2021

[Image credit: Nicole Dixon, “The Age Forgets But The Tree Re-members,” acrylic, charcoal, wood, fabric, chalk pastel, and gold leaf on canvas, 36” x 36”, 2021]

This week's episode of Spotlights features the artist and educator, Nicole Dixon. Nicole uses art as an interactive medium, and vehicle for self-transformation, community bridge-building, and positive social change. She talks about the ways her work engages with intersections between race, culture, politics, ecology, and spirituality. As...

November 11, 2021


 

There has been much religious activity surrounding COP26 since last Thursday's update. Here are a few of the top stories.

This Earthbeat article released yesterday by Brian Roewe gives a good update on what's been happening, particularly regarding Indigenous engagement with, and response to, the global conference. 

On Thursday, a group of more than 100 religious leaders worldwide, including Ireland's former Chief Rabbi David Rosen, urged the adoption of the Plant Based...