Religion and Ecological Sustainability in China

Religion and Ecological Sustainability in China PDF

Author: James Miller

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-04-29

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 1135008655

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This book sheds light on the social imagination of nature and environment in contemporary China. It demonstrates how the urgent debate on how to create an ecologically sustainable future for the world’s most populous country is shaped by its complex engagement with religious traditions, competing visions of modernity and globalization, and by engagement with minority nationalities who live in areas of outstanding natural beauty on China’s physical and social margins. The book develops a comprehensive understanding of contemporary China that goes beyond the tradition/ modernity dichotomy, and illuminates the diversity of narratives and worldviews that inform contemporary Chinese understandings of and engagements with nature and environment.

China's Green Religion

China's Green Religion PDF

Author: James Miller

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2017-05-16

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 0231544537

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How can Daoism, China's indigenous religion, give us the aesthetic, ethical, political, and spiritual tools to address the root causes of our ecological crisis and construct a sustainable future? In China's Green Religion, James Miller shows how Daoism orients individuals toward a holistic understanding of religion and nature. Explicitly connecting human flourishing to the thriving of nature, Daoism fosters a "green" subjectivity and agency that transforms what it means to live a flourishing life on earth. Through a groundbreaking reconstruction of Daoist philosophy and religion, Miller argues for four key, green insights: a vision of nature as a subjective power that informs human life; an anthropological idea of the porous body based on a sense of qi flowing through landscapes and human beings; a tradition of knowing founded on the experience of transformative power in specific landscapes and topographies; and an aesthetic and moral sensibility based on an affective sensitivity to how the world pervades the body and the body pervades the world. Environmentalists struggle to raise consciousness for their cause, Miller argues, because their activism relies on a quasi-Christian concept of "saving the earth." Instead, environmentalists should integrate nature and culture more seamlessly, cultivating through a contemporary intellectual vocabulary a compelling vision of how the earth materially and spiritually supports human flourishing.

Daoism and Ecology

Daoism and Ecology PDF

Author: N. J. Girardot

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 560

ISBN-13:

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The authors in this volume consider the intersection of Daoism and ecology, looking at the theoretical and historical implications associated with a Daoist approach to the environment. They also analyze perspectives found in Daoist religious texts and within the larger Chinese cultural context in order to delineate key issues found in the classical texts.

Chinese Environmental Ethics

Chinese Environmental Ethics PDF

Author: Mayfair Yang

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2021-11-08

Total Pages: 279

ISBN-13: 1538156490

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An interdisciplinary collection in the new field of environmental humanities, this volume brings together Chinese environmental ethics, religious ontology, and religious practice to explore how traditional Chinese religio-environmental ethics are actually put into social practice both in China’s past and present. It also examines how Chinese religious teachings offer a wealth of resources to the environmental project of forging new ontologies for humans co-existing with other living beings. Different chapters examine how: Buddhist ontology avoids anthropocentrism, fengshui (Chinese geomancy) can help protect the landscape from economic development, popular religion organizes tree-planting, ancient dream interpretation practices avoided constructing the possessive individual subjectivity of modern consumerism, Buddhist rituals and ethics promoted compassion for animals and modern recycling, Confucian ancestor rituals and tombs have deterred industrial expansion, and also how Daoism’s potential role to deter desertification in northern China was stymied by state operations in contemporary China. A significant advance in the field of Chinese environmental anthropology, the outstanding scholars in this volume provide a unique and much needed contribution to the scholarship on China and the environment.

Chinese Ecocinema

Chinese Ecocinema PDF

Author: Sheldon H. Lu

Publisher: Hong Kong University Press

Published: 2009-12-01

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 9622090869

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This anthology is a book-length study of China's ecosystem through the lens of cinema. Proposing 'ecocinema' as a new critical framework, the volume collectively investigates a wide range of urgent topics in today's world.

Loving Waters Across Religions

Loving Waters Across Religions PDF

Author: McAnally, Elizabeth

Publisher: Orbis Books

Published: 2019-02-20

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 1608337707

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"McAnally presents an academically rigorous, spiritually rich approach to the myriad global issues related to water. The author draws from Christianity's sacramental consciousness of baptism, loving service of the Yamuna River in Hinduism, and the compassionate wisdom of the bodhisattva to develop 'an integral approach to water ethics.' Building on but distinct from the foundation laid by Christiana Zenner's Just Water, this book is a welcome addition to the growing field of concern surrounding global water crises"--

Ecology and Religion

Ecology and Religion PDF

Author: John Grim

Publisher: Island Press

Published: 2014-01-02

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781597267076

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From the Psalms in the Bible to the sacred rivers in Hinduism, the natural world has been integral to the world’s religions. John Grim and Mary Evelyn Tucker contend that today’s growing environmental challenges make the relationship ever more vital. This primer explores the history of religious traditions and the environment, illustrating how religious teachings and practices both promoted and at times subverted sustainability. Subsequent chapters examine the emergence of religious ecology, as views of nature changed in religious traditions and the ecological sciences. Yet the authors argue that religion and ecology are not the province of institutions or disciplines alone. They describe four fundamental aspects of religious life: orienting, grounding, nurturing, and transforming. Readers then see how these phenomena are experienced in a Native American religion, Orthodox Christianity, Confucianism, and Hinduism. Ultimately, Grim and Tucker argue that the engagement of religious communities is necessary if humanity is to sustain itself and the planet. Students of environmental ethics, theology and ecology, world religions, and environmental studies will receive a solid grounding in the burgeoning field of religious ecology.

Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature

Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature PDF

Author: Bron Taylor

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2008-06-10

Total Pages: 1927

ISBN-13: 1441122788

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The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature, originally published in 2005, is a landmark work in the burgeoning field of religion and nature. It covers a vast and interdisciplinary range of material, from thinkers to religious traditions and beyond, with clarity and style. Widely praised by reviewers and the recipient of two reference work awards since its publication (see www.religionandnature.com/ern), this new, more affordable version is a must-have book for anyone interested in the manifold and fascinating links between religion and nature, in all their many senses.

The River Runs Black

The River Runs Black PDF

Author: Elizabeth C. Economy

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2011-01-15

Total Pages: 354

ISBN-13: 0801459443

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China's spectacular economic growth over the past two decades has dramatically depleted the country's natural resources and produced skyrocketing rates of pollution. Environmental degradation in China has also contributed to significant public health problems, mass migration, economic loss, and social unrest. In The River Runs Black, Elizabeth C. Economy examines China's growing environmental crisis and its implications for the country's future development. Drawing on historical research, case studies, and interviews with officials, scholars, and activists in China, the author traces the economic and political roots of China's environmental challenge and the evolution of the leadership's response. She argues that China's current approach to environmental protection mirrors the one embraced for economic development: devolving authority to local officials, opening the door to private actors, and inviting participation from the international community, while retaining only weak central control. The result has been a patchwork of environmental protection in which a few wealthy regions with strong leaders and international ties improve their local environments, while most of the country continues to deteriorate, sometimes suffering irrevocable damage. Economy compares China's response with the experience of other societies and sketches out several possible futures for the country. This second edition is updated with information about events during the past five years, covering China's tumultuous transformation of its economy and its landscape as it deals with the political implications of this behavior as viewed by an international community ever more concerned about climate change and dwindling energy resources.

Religious Environmental Activism in Asia

Religious Environmental Activism in Asia PDF

Author: Leslie E. Sponsel

Publisher: MDPI

Published: 2020-04-09

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 3039286463

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Throughout the world religious organizations are exploring and implementing into action ideas about the relevance of religion and spirituality in dealing with a growing multitude of environmental issues and problems. Religion and spirituality have the potential to be extremely influential for the better at many levels and in many ways through their intellectual, emotional, and activist components. This collection focuses on providing a set of captivating essays on the specifics of concrete cases of environmental activism involving most of the main Asian religions from several countries. Particular case studies are drawn from the religions of Animism, Buddhism, Daoism, Hinduism, Islam, and Jainism. They are from the countries of Bhutan, China, India, Indonesia, and Thailand. Thereby this set of case studies offers a very substantial and rich sampling of religious environmental activism in Asia. They are grounded in years of original field research on the subjects covered. Collectively these case studies reveal a fascinating and significant movement of environmental initiatives in engaged practical spiritual ecology in Asia. Accordingly, this collection should be of special interest to a diversity of scientists, academics, instructors, and students as well as communities and leaders from a wide variety of religions, environmentalism, and conservation.