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.
In honor of the celebration of Indigenous Peoples' Day this week, we wanted to highlight some of the Indigenous resources available around the Forum site.
Our Indigenous section can be found here. We provide two overview essays: one by our co-founder and co-director, John Grim, and one by University of Michigan professor, Kyle White, who is Potawatomi and a member of the Citizen...
Enjoy this clip from the episode of Spotlights featuring Matthew David Segall, PhD, Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religion in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Reflecting on his new book, Physics of the World-Soul: Alfred North Whitehead’s Adventure in Cosmology (SacraSage Press, 2021), he describes the creative and alluring power of worldly divinity in Whitehead's cosmology. You can find details about the full episode here.
Watch...
This week, the Faith Plans for People and Planet site was launched, an exciting project organized by WWF and FaithInvest. The project involves faith groups around the world creating step by step plans on how they will take concrete action to help the planet.
From the Faith Plans site:
Faith groups are developing Plans looking at how they can use their assets, resources and influence to drive practical action on the environment over the next seven to 10 years. This initiative is inspired by the success...
This episode of Spotlights features Matthew David Segall, PhD, Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religion in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He discusses his new book, Physics of the World-Soul: Alfred North Whitehead’s Adventure in Cosmology (SacraSage Press, 2021), describing the context and key concepts of Whitehead's process philosophy. We reflect on Whiteheadian contributions to debates on a variety of topics, including panpsychism,...
On October 17-18, GreenFaith is organizing “Faiths 4 Climate Justice: A Global, Multi-Religious Action.” Individuals and organizations around the globe are participating in this effort to have their voices heard on issues of climate justice.
From the event site: Two weeks before global climate negotiations, people of diverse religions will rise to send a message: destroying the planet is against our religions.
SUNDAY, 17 OCTOBER
At temples, mosques, and churches around the globe, we’ll call for...
Welcome to a new season of Spotlights. This podcast began around a year ago, and since we’re starting our second year, this episode features our host, Sam Mickey, reflecting on the year and looking ahead toward the year to come. He talks about the aim, scope, and themes of the podcast, while also inviting suggestions for any new developments or potential interviewees. He also mentions the Religion and Ecology Early-Career Scholar reading group (REECS), which was launched on episode 17, featuring Russell Powell and Timothy...
This shmita year (5782), the Deep Water Initiative is launching Project Hakhel – an open invitation for people to creatively reflect upon how religion and ecological engagement can intersect. They are asking that individuals submit creative projects that demonstrate how they are being inspired to take ecological action during the shmita year.
From the project site:
We have [also] just entered a shmita year (5782), otherwise known as a Sabbatical Year, which occurs just once every seven years. Shmita quite literally means...
This week’s episode of Spotlights is a remix of two previous episodes, featuring guests who work at the intersection of Buddhism and ecology. First, we hear from Dekila Chungyalpa, Director of the Loka Initiative at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She discusses her personal journey into the world of Buddhist environmentalism. Then we hear from Chris Ives, PhD, Professor of Religious Studies at Stonehill College. He discusses his teaching and research in Buddhist environmental ethics, specifically with a view to...
Next Tuesday, September 21, Katherine Hayhoe's new book. Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World, will be released from Simon and Schuster. Advance reviews are calling it a must-read for our troubled times.
From the Publisher's site:
Called “one of the nation's most effective communicators on climate change” by The New York Times, Katharine Hayhoe knows how to navigate all sides of the conversation on our...
This week’s episode of Spotlights is another short clip from our full episode with Dr. Todd LeVasseur, visiting assistant professor in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the College of Charleston in South Carolina. We discuss the importance of integrating activism into academia in order to facilitate viable responses to the climate emergency. We reflect on this issue for academia in general and for the academic field and activist force of religion and ecology in particular.
You can...