Environment and Ecology in Religions

Do some or all of the religious traditions have anything unique to contribute to understanding, and to solving, our global environmental problems? Or are some or all of them obstacles to doing so? We will have trouble answering these questions about all religions, even all major religions, both because there are so many such religions and because environmental problems are so numerous and so various. To make this topic, which is the subject of a vast contemporary literature, more manageable, I introduce a two-part environmental goal that is part of any adequate environmental ethic – though I cannot defend that judgment here. I then explore ways in which religions may encourage or be consonant with, or for that matter inhibit, pursuit of this goal.