Religion and Ecological Crisis

This book considers the impact of White's arguments in his seminal article, The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis. It offers constructive criticism as well as reflections on the ongoing, ever-changing scholarly debate about the way religion and culture contribute to both environmental crises and to their possible solutions.

In 1967, Lynn White, Jr.'s seminal article The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis was published, essentially establishing the academic study of religion and nature. White argues that religions-particularly Western Christianity-are a major cause of worldwide ecological crises. He then asserts that if we are to halt, let alone revert, anthropogenic damages to the environment, we need to radically transform religious cosmologies. White's hugely influential thesis has been cited thousands of times in a variety of disciplines, including but not limited to religious studies, environmental ethics, history, ecological science, philosophy, psychology, and anthropology.

In practical terms, the ecological crisis to which White was responding has only worsened in the decades since the article was published. This collection of original essays by leading scholars in a variety of interdisciplinary settings, including religion and nature, environmental ethics, animal studies, ecofeminism, restoration ecology, and ecotheology, considers the impact of White's arguments, offering constructive criticism as well as reflections on the ongoing, ever-changing scholarly debate about the way religion and culture contribute to both environmental crises and to their possible solutions. Religion and Ecological Crisis addresses a wide range of topics related to White's thesis, including its significance for environmental ethics and philosophy, the response from conservative Christians and evangelicals, its importance for Asian religious traditions, ecofeminist interpretations of the article, and which perspectives might have, ultimately, been left out of his analysis. This book is a timely reflection on the legacy and continuing challenge of White's influential article.

1. Introduction

Todd LeVasseur and Anna Peterson

2. Lynn White Jr.'s 'The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis' after Fifty Years

Elspeth Whitney

3. The Historical Roots of Environmental Philosophy

J. Baird Callicott

4. Sinners in the Hands of an Ecological Crisis: Lynn White's Environmental Jeremiad

Mark R. Stoll

5. Lynn White Jr. Right and Wrong: The Anti-Ecological Character of Latin Christianity, and the Pro-Ecological Turn of Protestantism

Michael S. Northcott

6. Animism and Reincarnation: Lynn White in Indian Country

Shepard Krech III

7. Lynn White Jr. , One Catalyst in the Historical Development of Spiritual Ecology

Leslie Sponsel

8. Continuing the Conversation: Applying Lynn White Jr.'s Prescriptions for a Christian Environmental Ethic

Christopher Cone

9. Lynn White, Jr. and India: Romance? Reality?

Christopher Key Chapple

10. The Challenges of Worldview Transformation: 'To Rethink and Refeel our Origins and Destiny'

Heather Eaton

11. Gender and Genesis: Religion, Secular Science, and the Project of Power and Control

Chaone Mallory

12. A Lens, a Path, a Return Journey-Lynn White and the Question of Animal Protection

Paul Waldau

13. What's Left (Out) of the Lynn White Narrative?

Whitney A. Bauman

14. Therefore the Winds: Some Thoughts on the 'Roots'