Nature, Science, and Religion: Intersections Shaping Society and the Environment (original) (raw)

This book is about the complicated and provocative ways nature, science, and religion intersect in real settings where people attempt to live in harmony with the physical environment. Scholars of philosophy, religious studies, and science and technology have been at the forefront of critiquing the roles of religion and science in human interactions with the natural world. Meanwhile, researchers in the environmental sciences have encountered disciplinary barriers to examining the possibility that religious beliefs influence social–ecological behaviors and processes simply because the issue resists quantitative assessment. The contributors to this book explore how scientific knowledge and spiritual beliefs are engaged to shape natural resource management, environmental activism, and political processes. Contents 1. Intersections of Nature, Science, and Religion: An Introduction Catherine M. Tucker and Adrian J. Ivakhiv 2. Suffering, Service, and Justice: Matters of Faith and How Faith Matters to the Environmental Movement in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest Colleen M. Scanlan Lyons 3. On Enchanting Science and Disenchanting Nature: Spiritual Warfare in North America and Papua New Guinea Joel Robbins 4. Technologies of the Real: Science, Religion, and State Making in Mexican Forests Andrew S. Mathews 5. Surviving Conservation: La Madre Tierra and Indigenous Moral Ecologies in Oaxaca, Mexico Kristin Norget 6. Syncretism and Conservation: Examining Indigenous Beliefs and Natural Resource Management in Honduras Catherine M. Tucker 7. Do You Understand? Discovering the Power of Religion for Conservation in Guatemalan Mayan Communities Anne Motley Hallum 8. Believing Is Seeing: A Religious Perspective on Mountaineering in the Japanese Alps Scott Schnell 9. The Productivity of Nonreligious Faith: Openness, Pessimism, and Water in Latin America Andrea Ballestero 10. Zimbabwe’s Earthkeepers: When Green Warriors Enter the Valley of Shadows Marthinus L. Daneel 11. Religious (Re-)Turns in the Wake of Global Nature: Toward a Cosmopolitics Adrian J. Ivakhiv