Syllabus for Roster(s):
- 14Sp RELG 2210-100 (CGAS)
In the UVaCollab course site: Religion, Ethics, & Envt
Course Description (for SIS)
What are the roots of our ideas of nature and what cultural and political consequences do they have? In an era of rapid human expansion and uncertain ecological change, cultures everywhere are forced to reexamine their basic orientations to their environments. What stories and values shape the patterns of everyday ecological life? Are they still good ones, or must we 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. Discussion sections focus on relationships of belief and behavior in practical problems (e.g. climate change, food choices) and consider implications for personal commitments and public goals.
syllabus
Religion, Ethics, & Environment (RELG 2210)
Willis Jenkins
Mondays & Wednesdays 11-11.50
Office hours: Tuesdays 3.15-4.15 pm and by appointment (Gibson S065)
Teaching Assistants: Sara Aziz and Rebecca Levi
Inquiry
What are the roots of our ideas of nature and what cultural and political consequences do they have? In an era of rapid human expansion and uncertain ecological change, cultures everywhere are forced to reexamine 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. Discussion sections focus on relationships of belief and behavior in practical problems (e.g. climate change, food choices) and consider implications for personal commitments and public goals.
There are no prerequisites. It counts toward the ETP major and the Sustainability minor (confirm with your advisor), and for the Second Writing Requirement.
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 with skill and understanding 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, the course 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) and carefully selected to provoke thought. By midnight the day before lecture, post a short response to the reading (no more than 300 words) on the Collab Forum site of your discussion section. Responses should 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. If you will not be in lecture, do not post a response. (See “Grading” for more details.)
2. Post-lecture question
Immediately after each lecture (you can even do this during the lecture), post a question that you arose for you during class. It may be something you found confusing, something you found objectionable, or something that you would like to pursue further. Post these also to the Collab Forum site of your discussion section. Do this no later than midnight after each class (Monday night and Wednesday night), and preferably before your discussion section takes place.
3. Short essays
Four short essays (1300 word minimum, 1500 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 begin because in your forum responses you will have already identified the most significant passages from texts and raised the questions about them and about the lectures that you think are most critical. 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.
4. Outside lecture/event
In order to make up time lost in snow days, you must attend at least one 90-minute event of UVa's World Water Day on March 21. If you cannot make any events on March 21, please consult with your TA about other suitable lectures. Upon completion, write one paragraph of description of the lecture and one paragraph of critical evaluation, and email this to your TA.
Grading
Forum posts (reading responses and lecture questions) 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 and two lecture questions 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 will have 24 reading responses and 24 lecture questions. Successful completion of the posts and being present in lecture counts for 40% of your grade. (See “Expectations” below for what "being present" entails.)
Discussion section participation. According to criteria specified by your TA, discussion participation counts for 20% of your grade.
Four short papers count for the remaining 40% of your grade. The first paper will count for 5% of your grade, the next two each for 10%, and the final for 15%. Successful papers have a clear and interesting thesis with a coherently organized argument, conducted in competent prose conversation with 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 and discussions. 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.
That will make late arrivals embarrassing and disruptive.
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. I even suggest that you post your lecture-response question during the last ten minutes of class. 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 instructors and will undermine your ability to succeed.
Respectful communication: in a diverse classroom engaging with many religious traditions and cultural ideas, it is especially 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 and first of all your own.
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.
Semester Schedule
Jan 13 Introduction: wicked problems and big questions
Section 1: Imagining Nature
Jan 15 Environmental imaginations and their political consequences
John Muir “A Windstorm in the Forests”
Gifford Pinchot “Principles of Conservation”
Jan 20 M.L. King Day – no classes
Jan 23 Wilderness, whiteness, & “the environmentalism of the poor”
Stegner “Wilderness Letter”
United States Wilderness Act (section 2c only)
Martinez-Alier The Environmentalism of the Poor, 1-15 [collab]
Jan 27 Genesis and the natures of religion
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]
Jan 29 Mother Earth and “religions” of nature
Goodenough Sacred Depths of Nature, 3-15 [Collab]
Warren “Power and Promise of Ecological Feminism,” 19-36 [Collab]
Chief Lyons “Listening to Natural Law” [Collab]
Cochabamba “Rights of Mother Earth”
Feb 3 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 6pm Friday Feb 7th.]
Section 2: Ethical Frameworks
Feb 5 Ecological Problems and Moral Concepts
Midgley “Duties Concerning Islands,” 36-43 [Collab]
Leopold Sand County Almanac “Wisconsin” “Arizona & New Mexico”
(pages 101-24, 130-45 in Ballantine ed.)
Feb 10 Responsibility and biodiversity
Leopold Sand County Almanac “The Land Ethic” (237-63 in Ballantine ed.)
Midgley “Individualism and the Concept of Gaia” [Collab]
Feb 12 Environmental Justice and Human Rights
Bullard “Environmental Justice in the 21st Century” (19-42) [Collab]
Jenkins The Future of Ethics (ebrary, read pages 192-205 only)
Faber & McCarthy “Neo-liberalism, Globalization, and the Struggle for
Feb 17 Class cancelled
Feb 19 Animal Suffering and Animal Rights [Sahar Akhtar]
Singer “Practical Ethics” [Collab]
Regan “Animal Rights: What’s in a name?” [Collab]
Linzey “So Near and So Far” [Collab]
optional: Singer “Not for Humans Only” [Collab]
Feb 24 Intrinsic Value and Nature’s Rights [Matt Puffer]
Rolston “Value in Nature and Nature of Value” [Collab]
Rolston “Caring for Nature: From Fact to Value, From Respect to Reverence” [Collab]
Feb 26 Virtue and Agriculture [Travis Pickell]
W. Berry The Unsettling of America, 3-16 [requested]
W. Berry “The Agrarian Standard” 23-33 [ebrary]
W. Berry “The Gift of Good Land,” 293-304 [ebrary]
Mar 3 Cost-Benefit Analysis and Market Exchanges [Michael Livermore]
Costanza “Valuation of Ecosystem Services” [collab]
Goodin “Selling Environmental Indulgences” [collab]
Hardin "The Tragedy of the Commons"
Mar 5 Restoration, Rewilding, and “resurrection biology”
Jordan The Sunflower Forest, 10-27 [Collab]
Katz “The Big Lie” [Collab]
Marris “Designer Ecosystems,” 123-32 [Collab]
Van Wieren Restored to Earth, 170-81 [Collab]
[Essay #2 due by 6 pm Friday Mar 7]
Mar 10-14 [spring break]
Section 3: Religious Traditions & Spiritual Ecologies
Mar 17 [snow cancellation]
Mar 19 Buddhism and Himalayan Environmental Change [K. Schaefer]
Swearer “Principles and Poetry, Places, and Stories: Resources of Buddhist Ecology” [Collab]
Dalai Lama Ethics for a New Millennium, ch. 1 [Collab]
Branch "Climate Change Projects in the Land of Gross National Happiness" [Collab]
Mar 24 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 26 North American Ecological Spiritualities
Kaza "To Save All Beings" [Collab]
Snyder "The Rediscovery of Turtle Island" [Collab]
Gonzales & Nelson “Contemporary Native American Responses” [Collab]
optional: Berkes “Cree Worldview from the Inside” [Collab]
Mar 31Christianity and the Ecological Implications of Salvation
Schaefer Theological Foundations for Environmental Ethics, ch. 3 (Uva ebook)
Theokritoff "Liturgy, Cosmic Worship, and Christian Cosmology" [Collab]
Apr 2 Christianity and Paganism Reconsidered
Taylor “Resacralizing Earth: Pagan Environmentalism” 97-105, 110-4 in American Sacred Space (UVa e-book)
Wallace Finding God in the Singing River 6-25 [Collab]
Boff Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor, ch. 5 [Collab]
Apr 7 Judaism and Environmental Ethics
Gordis "Ecology and the Judaic Tradition" [Collab]
Schofer "Drought" [Collab]
Lerner "Transforming Shabbat" [Collab]
Apr 9 Islam and Environmental Ethics
Haq "Islam and Ecology" [Collab]
Ozdemir "Towards an Understanding of Enviromental Ethics from a Qur'anic Perspective" [Collab]
[Essay #3 due by 10pm Sunday April 13.]
Section 4: Problems of an Uncertain Future
Apr 14 Market Approaches to Environmental Risk [Livermore]
Solow "Sustainability: An Economist's Perspective" [Collab]
Review texts from March 3: Costanza, Goodin, Hardin
Apr 16 Moral Pluralism and Intergenerational Risk
Barry "Sustainability and Intergenerational Justice" [Collab]
Shue "Deadly Delays" [Collab]
Apr 21 Climate Change
Gardiner "Perfect Moral Storm" [Collab]
Jenkins Future of Ethics, ch. 1 ebrary
Apr 23 Food & Technology
Zoloth "When You Plow" [Collab]
Pasternak "Born from Bears and Corn" [Collab]
Pollan Omnivore's Dilemma excerpt [Collab]
Ronald and Adamchak Tomorrow's Table excerpt [Collab]
Nuffeld "GM Crops Guide" [skim this]
Apr 28 Animals and the Moral Ecology of Food
Plumwood "Animals and Ecology: Toward a Better Integration" [Collab]
Linzey "Animal Theology and Ecological Theology" [Collab]
[Essay #4 due by 11pm May 7th]
Apr 29 classes end