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.
Everyone here at the Forum was deeply saddened to hear last week about the unexpected passing of Rabbi Ellen Bernstein. Ellen was part of the Forum Advisory Group, and has been a friend and partner in our work for decades. The creative energy and enthusiasm she brought to her work and collaborations energized all whom came in contact with her. See this lovely and moving tribute to Ellen from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, by her friend Shira Dicker.
Ellen began her work in the 1980s by creating a Tu B'Shavat seder for...
Last Wednesday, Orion Magazine, the Yale Forest Forum, and the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology held the next in a series of online tree-related events to celebrate Orion's volume Old Growth. Our own Mary Evelyn Tucker was in conversation with poet Ellen Bass about “The Poetics of Forests.”
Ellen kicked off the discussion with a reading of her poem River about salmon mating in the Mackenzie River in Oregon that was rich with the energy and passion of the rushing, living water. Later, Mary Evelyn read Ellen's piece, Fungus...
In this Black History Month feature, we'll be highlighting the work of Clifton Granby, Associate Professor of
Ethics, Philosophy, and Africana Studies at Yale Divinity School. His research interests include African-American religious and political thought, ethics, and... 
As we shared back in October, for our 25th anniversary year, the Forum is releasing a collection of rare audio recordings of Thomas Berry in conversation with Brian Thomas Swimme.
Thus far, we've brought you:
The project Introduction by Mary Evelyn Tucker
Part 1: Where are We and How did We Get Here?, with an introduction by John Grim
Part 2: The Millennial Vision, with an introduction by Sam King
Part 3: Where Do We Go From Here?, with an introduction by Sam King
This...
For Black History Month, we'll be highlighting a few outstanding black scholars in the field, starting with our own Yale family. Today, we'd like to shine a light on the work of Willie Jennings.
Willie Jennings is the Associate Professor of Systematic Theology and Africana Studies at Yale Divinity School. His main areas of interest and expertise include liberation theologies, cultural identities, and theological anthropology. Some of his recent work includes research into the interplay of religion, race, and the...
Next Tuesday, February 6, at 12pm EST, St. Paul University will be holding a special online conversation between our own Mary Evelyn Tucker and Forum advisor Heather Eaton. The topic will be “Being an Ecological Leader,” and the event is hosted by the St. Paul University School of Leadership, Ecology, and Equity as part of their “Being a Leader: Lunchtime Conversations” series.
From the event site:
Join our inspiring conversation with Dr. Mary Evelyn Tucker: Confucian scholar and global leader in religious responses to ecological...
The field of Syntropic agriculture was established by Swiss farmer and researcher Ernst Götsch. He began his research into alternative forms of agriculture in the 1970s in Switzerland and Germany, and it was catalyzed by one question:
“Wouldn’t we achieve greater results if we sought ways of cultivation that favor the development of plants, rather than creating genotypes that support the bad conditions we impose on them?”
In the 1980s he moved to Brazil and began extensive agricultural experiments using a new...
Before we dive into specific applications of the concept of Syntropy, I'd like to spend a bit more time diving into what the force of Syntropy actually is than we did in our introductory post for the year.
Frankly, there isn't a lot out there to guide us in our exploration of this topic. Even Wikipedia has very little to say,...
We wanted to highlight a number of upcoming online events. There is certainly an abundance of rich offerings to kick off the year that you can access no matter where you are in the world. From Thomas to Teilhard to trees, these webinars promise to engage and inform, including one on the increasingly important subject of ecological civilization.
...
Well we've laid 2023 to rest and are ready to move bravely and gently forward into a new phase. We won't leave Hope behind–it will sit with us as we move through the joys and challenges of the months to come. But for this new year, we're going to shift gears here on the Forum blog and bring you a new theme and focus for our exploration. The theme for 2024 is Syntropy (or Syntrophy*).
The term was coined by Buckminster Fuller, and his understanding of it was based on the thought and work...