Ecology of Religion

ECOLOGY AND RELIGION
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Contents
 TOC \t "Heading 1 A,4,Heading 5 A,2,Heading 3 A,2,Heading 4 A,2,Heading 8 A,2,Heading 6 A,2,Heading 9 A,2,Heading 2 A,2,Heading 7 A,2,Heading 1,5,Title A,3,Title,7,Heading 5,1,Heading 9,1,Heading 4,1,Heading 8,1,Heading 3,1,Heading 2,1,Heading 7,1,Heading 6,1,Heading 1 A A,6" \n 1-1 Introduction  PAGEREF _TOC323 \h 3
Judaism  PAGEREF _TOC982 \h 3
Christianity  PAGEREF _TOC4033 \h 5
Islam  PAGEREF _TOC7372 \h 7
Ecocentrism, Deep Ecology and Ecofeminism  PAGEREF _TOC9052 \h 8
Voices from the Global South  PAGEREF _TOC12742 \h 11
Globalization, Community and Ecojustice  PAGEREF _TOC14507 \h 12
References  PAGEREF _TOC16674 \h 14
Introduction
Religion, from most points of view, provides a complete guideline for every aspect of our life. In this paper, we are going to discuss six western religious and ecological traditions including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Ecocentrism, Deep Ecology and Ecofeminism, Voices from the Global South and Globalization, Community and Ecojustice, based on two themes: reciprocity and ethical sensibility.
In doing so, we will try to find influences of eastern religious traditions, like Buddhism, Chinese traditions and Japanese traditions as well as their connections, comparisons and contrasts with the western traditions concerning those two themes.
Judaism
Judaist’s ethical sensibility
In western religion, such as Judaism and Christianity, deep ecological movement like interpretation has been a common occurrence in many ways (Fox, 1988). Comparing to that, it is a common perception among the theologians that the movement was provided in better ecological ethics and supreme ecological wisdom by Asian religious traditions, mostly in Taoism, Buddhism and Hinduism.
In Judaism, environmental ethics are very important, linking the tradition of ethical analysis with an important contemporary problem. In many occasions, it makes significant contributions in analyzing and understanding the complex relationship and environmental ethics between nature and man. For over eight centuries, the tradition has revealed several views on nature in both biblical and post-biblical exegesis. Instead of evaluating anthropocentric values, the principles and concepts have been evoked both implicitly and explicitly which are consistent with bio-centric or eco-centric understanding between man and nature (Avner and Talias, 1995; Sessions (ed.), 1995).
However, Judaism does not consider protection or preservation of nature as the prime social value and believes that as a part of nature, humans can use and enjoy nature but have distinctive moral claims to protect it, making it a complex idea by considering both green and non-green elements equally. So it is not appropriate to underline one over another (White, 1976). In addit...