A Field of Study and a Moral Force
By Wayne D’Orio
Yale School of the Environment
May 16, 2023
After 25 years leading the novel initiative they co-founded, the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology’s Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim will be retiring from teaching this spring, but the field of study they created continues to grow worldwide.
On the precipice of retirement, it would be easy for Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, who are married, to rest on their laurels. After all, their individual careers have spanned more than half a century and have been studded with achievements, accolades, and awards. What’s more, the study of religion and ecology, the discipline they co-created, continues to proliferate around the globe.
But Tucker and Grim, who are senior lecturers and research scholars with appointments in the Yale School of the Environment, Yale Divinity School, and the Department of Religious Studies, say they are not slowing down and plan to continue to look for new ways to advance dialogue on religion and environmental stewardship in the future.
“We don’t see the word retirement as operative,” Tucker says. “We like to use ‘refirement.’”