Religions, Ethics, & Global Environment

Willis Jenkins
RELG 2210
Mondays & Wednesdays 11-11.50
Office hours: Tuesdays 2.15-3.15 pm and by appointment
Teaching Assistants: Sara Aziz and Luke Kreider

Where do ideas of nature come from, and what cultural and political consequences do they carry? In an era of rapid human expansion and uncertain ecological change, cultures everywhere are reexamining their basic orientations to their environments. What stories and values shape the patterns of everyday ecological life? Are they still good ones, or must agents develop new moral resources to meet new moral problems?

This course interprets humanity’s changing ecological relationships through religious and philosophical traditions. It takes up ethical questions presented by environmental problems, introduces frameworks for making sense of them, and examines the symbols and narratives that shape imaginations of nature. In lecture and in online discussion sections, we take up relations of belief and behavior in practical problems like climate change and food choices, and we consider their implications for personal commitments and public goals.

There are no prerequisites. This course counts toward the ETP major (as fourth prerequisite), the Global Sustainability minor, and for the Second Writing Requirement.

Discussion sections for this class happen online. You must sign up for one of the sections, but there are no regular weekly meetings. You will be assigned a teaching assistant who will organize online discussions and be available to meet with you in person.

Objectives (i.e., good reasons to take this course)
This course cultivates three capabilities:

1. to interpret changing human-environment relations through cultural, ethical, and religious analyses;
2. to participate skillfully in public arguments over environmental problems;
3. to articulate for oneself the meaning and practice of a human life in ecological membership (or, in other words, to make the inquiry of a humanities education with reference to our habitat).

Secondarily, this course also offers ways to explore interests in ethics and science, and introduces some major questions and traditions in religious studies.
 

Requirements
These requirements are designed to make this course as meaningful and helpful to you as possible. Fulfilling the requirements will focus your reading, help you make connections between lectures and texts, facilitate dialogues with your instructors, and – most importantly – let you put your own questions at the center of what you learn in this class.

1. Reading responses
Read the assigned texts the day before class. Readings are not onerous - usually about 50 pages. By midnight the day before lecture, post a short response to the texts (no more than 300 words) on the Collab Forum site of your discussion section. Responses should always quote or make reference to a particular passage of text and then raise a question about it or make a critical comment.         

During the lecture you may be invited to raise your question or state your view on the text, so make sure that you post something that you actually want to consider – and remember the gist of it when you come to class. (If you will not be in lecture, you may not post a response. See “Grading” for more details.)

2. Online Discussion Section
Each week your TA will designate one or two participants from each section to post a question or case related to the week’s readings and lectures, which will serve as a prompt for the week’s discussion. (Your TA will help you develop a good prompt.) These will be posted by 10am Thursday. Everyone else in your section posts a response to the prompt no later than Friday at 8pm.

Responses should be 300-500 words, and they must:

• reply to the question or case posed, or to the discussion developing around it
• make connections to the week’s readings or lecture topics
• be thoughtful, civil, and creative

TAs will read through the discussion and may offer clarifications and/or raise questions for the whole section.

3. Short essays
Three short essays (1400 word minimum, 1600 max) are due at the end of the major sections of the course. (The deadline dates are noted below, within the course schedule).

Papers will be easy to start because in your forum responses you will have already identified the most significant passages from texts and raised questions about them. There will be a suggested question prompt for each essay, but – with the approval of your TA – you may set your own essay question or topic.

Submit these according to the instructions of your TA and, of course, in conformity with the rules of academic integrity and UVA Honor.

Grading
Reading responses are not graded; as long as you write something thoughtful on the day’s reading, your post is simply counted. You may miss two reading responses without penalty. (That effectively means that you can miss class twice without penalty, although you might also choose to come to lecture on two days for which you have been unable to complete the readings.) So at the end of the semester you should have 24 pre-lecture reading responses. Successful completion of the posts and being present in lecture (see “Expectations” below) counts for 30% of your grade.

Discussion section participation counts for 30% of your grade. Responses are not individually graded; however, because the expectation is that they are focused, connected to the readings, and make creative contributions, your TA may reduce your grade for careless, incoherent, or otherwise thoughtless writing.

Three short papers count for the remaining 40% of your grade. The first paper will count for 10% of your grade and the next two each for 15% each. Successful papers have a clear and interesting thesis with a coherently organized argument, conducted through accurate understanding of the texts and major ideas of the course. For further guidance on writing a good paper, talk with your TA.

Texts
All readings are available either by hyperlink from the syllabus or on the Collab Resources page, with one exception: you need to have access to a copy of Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac by Feb 5. I have not ordered this text from the UVA bookstore but there are many used and inexpensive copies easily available.

Expectations
Be present. That means more than just showing up at lectures. Being present entails arriving into each class prepared by prior reading, ready to engage your colleagues, and attentive throughout. Lectures will often begin with a mindfulness exercise to help us all become present to the day’s inquiry.

Digital etiquette: during lectures you may, on occasion, use the internet in ways that supplement and enhance your learning. For example, you can search for supplementary information on a figure or further resources on a topic. However, do beware the tendency to slip into unrelated shopping, browsing, chatting, etc. – it kills your concentration and distracts those around you. Don’t do it. Slipping into digital absences will be noticed by your TA and will undermine your success in the class.

Respectful communication: in a diverse classroom engaging with multiple traditions and cultures, it is important to interact with your colleagues and instructors with respect and without presumption. You are encouraged to raise critical, even provocative questions – and may sometimes be called upon to do so – just make sure to question with a view to improving everyone’s understanding.

If at any point in lecture or discussion you find that classroom dynamics become uncomfortable or otherwise discourage your participation, please come talk with me and/or your TA.

Academic honor: you know what that means. I remind you that it includes honesty in all your work, including online participation and in-class attendance.   

 

Schedule
Jan 12 Introduction: wicked problems, big questions, many traditions

Section 1: Imagining Nature

Jan 14 Environmental imaginations and their political consequences
John Muir  “A Windstorm in the Forests”
                  “Hetch Hetchy Valley”
Gifford Pinchot   “Principles of Conservation”  (Ch. IV only)
Welcome to the Anthropocene (3 min video)

[Jan 19 M.L. King Day – no classes]

Jan 21  Section Introductions & Survey  (Aziz & Kreider)
                bring an internet-connected device to class today (smartphone or tablet will work)
T. Berry “New Story”     [collab]
Power & Chapin “Planetary Stewardship”     [collab]
Cone “Whose Earth Is It, Anyway?” 
 

Jan 26 Wilderness, whiteness, & “the environmentalism of the poor”  
Stegner “Wilderness Letter”
Cronon “The Trouble with Wilderness”
Martinez-Alier The Environmentalism of the Poor, 1-15 [collab] 

Jan 28 Genesis and the “natures” of religion
Genesis 1-2
Merchant, “The Fall From Eden,” 11-38 [Collab]
Tu Wei-Ming “The Continuity of Being: Chinese Visions of Nature,” 584-8 [Collab]
Nelson “Indigenous North American lifeways” [Collab]

Feb 2 Mother Earth and “religions” of nature
Goodenough Sacred Depths of Nature, 3-31 [Collab]
Warren “Power and Promise of Ecological Feminism,” 19-36 [Collab]
Chief Lyons “Listening to Natural Law” [Collab]

Feb 4  Does religion cause ecological problems?
Nasr “The Problem” [Collab]
White “The Historical Roots of our Ecologic Crisis” [Collab]
Loy “The Religion of the Market” [Collab]

ESSAY #1 DUE BY 10PM SUNDAY FEB 8

Section 2: Ethical Frameworks
Feb 9  Ecological Problems and Moral Concepts
Midgley “Duties Concerning Islands,” 36-43
Leopold  Sand County Almanac “Wisconsin” “Arizona & New Mexico”
                                            (pages 101-24, 130-45 in Ballantine ed.)

Feb 11  Responsibility and biodiversity
Leopold Sand County Almanac “The Land Ethic” (237-63 in Ballantine ed.)
Midgley “Individualism and the Concept of Gaia” [Collab] -

Feb 16  Environmental Justice and Human Rights
Bullard “Environmental Justice in the 21st Century” (19-42) [Collab]
Jenkins Future of Ethics  (ebrary, pages 192-205 only)
Faber & McCarthy “Neo-liberalism, Globalization, and the Struggle for Ecological Democracy,” (ebrary, skim pages 45-59)
 
Feb 18  Animal Suffering and Animal Rights
Singer “Practical Ethics” [Collab]
Regan “Animal Rights: What’s in a name?” [Collab]
Linzey “So Near and So Far” [Collab]

 

Feb 23 Intrinsic Value and Nature’s Rights 
Rolston “Value in Nature and Nature of Value” [Collab]
Rolston “Caring for Nature: From Fact to Value, From Respect to Reverence” [read only pp 289-93 - Collab]

 

Feb 25 (Class cancelled)

 

Mar 2 Cost-Benefit Analysis and Market Exchanges

Hardin “Tragedy of the Commons

Ecosystem Valuation Toolkit (explore this website until you understand why and what it does)

Goodin “Selling Environmental Indulgences” [Collab]

Mar 4  Virtue and Agriculture 
W. Berry The Unsettling of America, 3-16 [Collab]
W. Berry “The Agrarian Standard” 23-33 [ebrary]
W. Berry “The Gift of Good Land,” 293-304 [ebrary]

ESSAY #2 DUE BY 6PM MAR 6TH

Mar 9-13 [spring break]

Section 3: Religious Traditions & Spiritual Ecologies

Mar 16 Hinduism and water pollution
Eck “Ganga: The Goddess Ganges in Hindu Sacred Geography” [Collab]
Narayanan “Water, Wood, & Wisdom” [Collab]
Alley “Idioms of Degeneracy” [Collab]

Mar 18  Buddhism and Himalayan Environmental Change

Dalai Lama Ethics for a New Millennium, ch. 1 [Collab]
Harris “Ecological Buddhism?”
Branch “Climate Change Projects in the Land of Gross National Happiness”[Collab]

Mar 23 North American Ecological Spiritualities
Kaza “To Save All Beings” [Collab]
Gonzales & Nelson “Contemporary Native American Responses” [Collab]
Snyder “The Rediscovery of Turtle Island” [Collab]
Macy “Council of All Beings”
            Optional: Berkes “Cree Worldview from the Inside” [Collab]

 

Mar 25 Christianity, Consumption and Desire

Sallie McFague, "The Contemporary Economic Model and Worldview." [Collab]
Wirba, Living the Sabbath. [collab]

Mar 30 Judaism and Environmental Ethics
Gordis “Ecology and the Judaic Tradition” [Collab]
Schofer “Drought” [Collab]
Lerner “Transforming Shabbat” [Collab]

 

Apr 1 Christianity and the ecological implications of salvation
Wirzba The Paradise of God, ch. 4  (UVa e-book)
Schaefer Theological Foundations for Environmental Ethics, ch. 3 (“Reverencing the
Sacramental Universe”) [ebrary]
Theokritoff  “Liturgy, Cosmic Worship, and Christian Cosmology” [Collab]
 
  
Apr 6 Christianity and Paganism Reconsidered
Taylor “Resacralizing Earth: Pagan Environmentalism” 97-100, 110-40
                          in American Sacred Space (UVa e-book)
Boff Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor, 104-14 [Collab]
Wallace Finding God in the Singing River, 6-25 [Collab]

 

Apr 8 Islam [S. Aziz]
Ozdemir “Toward Environmental Ethics from a Qur’anic Perspective” [Collab]
Haq “Islam and Ecology”

[essay #3 postponed to Apr 30]

Section 4: Problems of an Uncertain Future
Apr 13 Moral Pluralism and Future Generations
Solow “Sustainability: An Economist’s Perspective” [Collab]
Earth Charter
Barry “Sustainability and Intergenerational Justice” [Collab]

Apr 15 Climate Change: Imagining a Wicked Problem
Gardiner “Perfect Moral Storm” [Collab]
Shue “Deadly Delays” [Collab]

Apr 20 Climate Change & Christianity
Jenkins The Future of Ethics, ch. 1 ((ebrary)
Lima Catholic Bishops' Statement
Evangelical Climate Initiative

Apr 22 Should You Eat Animals? the moral economy of food
Plumwood “Animals and Ecology: Toward a Better Integration” [Collab]
Scruton "Eating Our Friends" [Collab]
Linzey “Animal Theology and Ecological Theology” [Collab - review this one, already assigned for 2/18]

Apr 27 Biotechnology and the Future of Food
Zoloth “When You Plow” [Collab]
Pasternak “Born from Bears & Corn” [Collab]

Apr 28 classes end

Paper #3 due on April 30.