Christianity and Ecology
April 16-19, 1998
- Opening Sessions and Plenary Addresses
- Cosmology and Creation
- Relation between Nature and Ethics
- The Spirit in an Ecological Context
- Responses to Population and Consumption Growth
- Broadening the Scope of Ethics
- Ecology, Ecumenism, and Interreligious Dialogue
- Plenary Addresses
- Human Vocation
- Christian Influences in Nature Writing
- Human Intervention in Natural Processes
- Public Policies for Sustainability
- Environmental Justice
- Eschatology
- Responses to Climate Change
- Environmental Virtues
- Plenary Address
- The Engaged Community
- Panel on the Praxis of the Churches
Opening Sessions and Plenary Addresses
Lawrence Sullivan, Director, CSWR
Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, Conference Coordinators
Dieter Hessel, Rosemary Radford Ruether, and Richard Clugston, Conference Convenors
Welcoming Remarks
Steven Rockefeller, Middlebury College - Plenary Address - Ethical Principles Underlying the Earth Charter
Respondents - Larry Rasmussen, Union Theological Seminary, and Jonathan Tucker, Park School
Plenary Addresses: Cosmology and Creation
Chair - Mary Evelyn Tucker, Bucknell University
Thomas Berry, Fordham University - The Cosmological Dimensions of Christianity
Respondent - Tu Weiming, Harvard University
Elizabeth Johnson, Fordham University - Losing and Finding Creation in the Christian Tradition
Respondent - Gordon Kaufman, Harvard University
Relation between Nature and Ethics
Michael McElroy, Harvard University
Opening comments
Chair - Dieter Hessel, Theological Education to Meet the Environmental Challenge
James Nash, Churches Center for Theology & Public Policy - Seeking Moral Norms in Nature
Respondents - Cristina Traina, Northwestern University, and Douglas Sturm, Bucknell University
Concurrent Sessions:
The Spirit in an Ecological Context
Chair - Nancy Wright, co-author, Ecological Healing: A Christian Vision
Mark Wallace, Swarthmore College - Recovering the Spirit in an Age of Radical Ecology
Respondents -Eleanor Rae, The Center for Women, the Earth, and the Divine, and John Chryssavgis, Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology
Responses to Population and Consumption Growth
Chair - Harvey Cox, Harvard University
Daniel Maguire, Marquette University - Population-Consumption-Ecology: The Triple Problematic
Respondents - Susan Power Bratton, Whitworth College, and James Martin-Schramm, Luther College
Broadening the Scope of Ethics
Chair - Loyal Rue, Luther College
Daniel Cowdin, The Catholic University of America - The Moral Status of Otherkind and Christian Ethics
Respondent - Chai-sik Chung, Boston University
Calvin DeWitt, University of Wisconsin - Behemoth and Batrachians in the Eye of God: Responsibility Toward Otherkind in Biblical Perspective
Respondent - Paul Waldau, Oxford University
Ecology, Ecumenism, and Interreligions Dialogue
Chair - John Carman, Harvard University
Paul Knitter, Xavier University - Deep Ecumenicity vs. Incommensurability: Finding Common Ground on a Common Earth
Respondent - Leonard Swidler, Temple University
Peter Lee, Lutheran Theological Seminary, Hong Kong Vancouver School of Theology - A Christian-Chinese View of Goodness, Beauty, and Holiness
Respondent - Heup Young Kim, Kang Nam University, Korea
Plenary Addresses
Chair - Lisa Sowle Cahill, Boston College
Rosemary Radford Ruether, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary - Ecofeminism: The Challenge to Theology
Respondents - Heather Eaton, St. Paul University, and Carol Wayne White, Bucknell University
Chair - Wesley Wildman, Boston University
Sallie McFague, Vanderbilt University - Ecological Christology: Does Christianity Have It?
Respondent - Kwok Pui-Lan, Episcopal Divinity School
Concurrent Sessions:
Human Vocation
Chair - Vittorio Falsina, former Weaver Fellow, Rockefeller Foundation
Theodore Hiebert, McCormick Theological Seminary - The Human Vocation: Origins and Transformations in Christian Traditions
Respondents - Michael Northcott, University of Edinburgh, and Stephen Scharper, St. Paul University
Christian Influences in Nature Writing
Chair - John Grim, Bucknell University
Douglas Burton-Christie, Loyola Marymount University - The Word Incarnate: A Christian Theopoetics of the Natural World
Respondent - Lawrence Buell, Harvard University
Human Intervention in Natural Processes
Chair - Janet Nelson, Bucknell University
Roger Shinn, Union Theological Seminary, Emeritus - The Mystery of the Self and the Enigma of Nature
Respondents - Audrey Chapman, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Ian Barbour, Carleton College, Emeritus
Public Policies for Sustainability
Chair - Scott Paradise, Episcopal Divinity School
Timothy Weiskel, Harvard University - Doing Theology on a Small Planet
Respondent - Richard Clugston, Center for Respect of Life and Environment
William French, Loyola University of Chicago - A Christian Ethics of Restraint for Public Policy
Respondent - Preston Williams, Harvard University
Environmental Justice
Chair - Jamie Hoyte, Harvard University
Vernice Miller, Environmental Justice Initiative, National Resources Defense Council - The Environmental Justice Movement and the Church
Respondents - Joan Martin, The Episcopal Divinity School, and Jaycee Hanson, United Methodist Church
Eschatology
Chair - Kimberley Patton, Harvard University
Catherine Keller, Drew University - No More Sea: On the Lost Chaos of the Eschaton
Respondents - Mary Ann Hinsdale, Holy Cross College
Barbara Rossing, Lutheran School of Theology
Responses to Climate Change
Chair - William Moomaw, Tufts University
David Hallman, World Council of Churches - Climate Change: Ethics, Justice, and Sustainable Community
Respondent - William Somplatsky-Jarman, Presbyterian Environmental Justice Program
Environmental Virtues
Chair - Brennan Hill, Xavier University
Louke van Wensveen, Loyola Marymount University - Christian Ecological Virtue Ethics: Transforming a Tradition
Respondents - Steven Bouma-Prediger, Hope College, and Christine Firer Hinze, Marquette University
Plenary Address
Chair - John Berthrong, Boston University
John Cobb, Claremont School of Theology, Emeritus - Ecology and Economics: Reflections from Christian Theology
Respondents - Dean Freudenberger, Luther Seminary Northwest, Emeritus, and Neva Goodwin, Tufts University
The Engaged Community
Chair - Larry Shinn, Berea College
Marthinus Daneel, Zimbabwean Institute of Religious Research - Church and Eco-justice at the African Grass Roots
Respondent - Martin Robra, World Council of Churches
Panel on Praxis of the Churches
Chair - Mary Evelyn Tucker, Bucknell University
Walter Grazer, U. S. Catholic Bishops Conference
Stan LeQuire, Evangelical Environmental Network
Patricia Mische, Global Education Associates
William Somplatsky-Jarman, Presbyterian Environmental Justice Program