Indeed, nearly one quarter of the world's population has been influenced by Confucianism in some way, especially in family structures and values. The challenge, as Tu Weiming suggests, is to ensure the continuance of tradition in modernity, thereby achieving an effective counterpoint to the destruction of both human communities and the Earth community.

With the challenge of communicating climate science in the United States and making progress in international negotiations on climate change there is a need for other approaches. The moral issues of ecological degradation and climate justice need to be integrated into social consciousness, political legislation, and climate treaties. Both science and religion can contribute to this integration with differentiated language but shared purpose. Recognizing the limits of both science and religion is critical to finding a way forward for addressing the (...) critical challenges of climate change. How we value nature and human–Earth relations is crucial to this. We need a broader environmental ethics in dialogue with the science of climate change. (shrink)

The environmental crisis is most frequently viewed through the lens of science, policy, law, and economics. In recent years the moral and spiritual dimensions of this crisis are becoming more visible. Indeed, the world religions are bringing their texts and traditions, along with their ethics and practices, into dialogue with environmental problems. In a lecture delivered at the University of Utah, Tucker explores this growing movement and highlights why it holds great promise for long term changes for the flourishing of (...) the Earth community. Mary Evelyn Tucker delivered this lecture on April 11, 2013, at the 18th annual symposium sponsored by the Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources and the Environment at the S. J. Quinney College of Law, The University of Utah. (shrink)

Using the terms "cosmology" and "cultivation," the religious nature of Confucianism is explored, beginning with a discussion of the ambiguity surrounding Confucianism and its political uses, which often obscure its religious dimensions. It is also assumed that categories of Western theology such as immanence and transcendence are not adequate to describe Confucianism as religious. In this spirit, it is suggested that beyond political distortions or theoretical interpretations, Confucianism has religious dimensions that need to be explored further. The interaction of the (...) microcosm of the self with the macrocosm of the universe is a central dialectic for establishing inner and outer harmony. Thus, cultivating oneself, responding morally to the social and political order, and resonating with the patterns in nature are at the heart of Confucian religiosity. This is illustrated by two examplars of the Japanese Neo-Confucian tradition: Yamazaki Ansai (1618-1682) and Kaibara Ekken (1630-1714). (shrink)

The principles of the Earth Charter and the cosmological story of Journey of the Universe provide a unique synergy for rethinking a sustainable future. The Great Story inspires the Great Work of the transformation of the political, social, and economic orders. Such a synergy can contribute to the broadened understanding of sustainability as including economic, ecological, social, and spiritual well-being. This integrated understanding may be a basis for creating biodemocracies, which will involve long-term policies, programs, and practices for a planetary (...) future that is not only ethically sustainable, but also sustaining for human energies. (shrink)

For centuries, many have turned to Confucianism for its wisdom on ethics and politics, while its distinctive contribution to spirituality has often been overlooked. In this remarkable collection, leading scholars of Confucianism explore this spiritual and religious dimension more deeply. Now available for the first time in English are insights into the Confucian understanding of themes such as holism, divinity, piety, religious virtue, and spiritual progress. Volume One of this collection offers as overview of Confucianism, its formation and rituals. The (...) forthcoming Volume Two examines self-cultivation, the development of the tradition, and Confucianism's flowering in our world today. Book jacket. (shrink)

_The Record of Great Doubts_ emphasizes the role of _qi_ in achieving a life of engagement with other humans, with the larger society, and with nature as a whole. Rather than encourage transcendental escapism or quietism, Ekken articulates a philosophy of material force as a basis of living a life of commitment to the world. In this spirit, moral cultivation is not an isolated or a self-centered preoccupation, but an activity that occurs within the dynamic forces of nature and amid (...) the rigorous demands of society. In this context, a vitalism of _qi_ is an emergent force, not only providing the philosophical grounding for this vibrant interaction but also giving a basis for an investigation of the natural world that plumbs the principle within things. Ekken thus aimed to articulate a creative and dynamic milieu for moral education, political harmony, social coherence, and agricultural sustainability. _The Record of Great Doubts_ embodies Ekken's profound commitment to Confucian ideas and practices as a method for establishing an integrative ethical vision, one he hoped would guide Japan through a new period of peace and stability. A major philosophical treatise in the Japanese Neo-Confucian tradition, _The Record of Great Doubts_ illuminates a crucial chapter in East Asian intellectual history. (shrink)

This issue of Bucknell Review provides an overview of the various traditional and contemporary worldviews as resources for thinking about ecology. It is increasingly clear that the environmental crisis is one of vast scale and complexity. It is also evident that the urgency of the problem is being raised by many individuals in a variety of disciplines. It is the thesis of this volume (and of J. Baird Callicott's essay) that a new global environmental ethics will be needed to solve (...) some of the critical issues that face us in the late twentieth century: as many have noted, "we will not preserve what we do not respect." It is the editors' contention that various religious and cultural worldviews have helped shape traditional attitudes toward nature. Indeed, as Larry Rasmussen observes, from a worldview there emerges a method for action, from a cosmology there arises an ethic. These are inextricably linked. By presenting various worldviews, the editors hope that a broadened context for a new ecological ethics will be created. Without such a comprehensive context of restraint and respect, the exploitation of nature and its resources will continue unchecked. The first part of this volume begins to fulfill the charge of Tu Wei-ming that we must examine the resources of the world's great spiritual traditions in finding our way beyond the Enlightenment mentality. The religions of Native American, Asian, and Mediterranean peoples are explored for the textual, ritual, and experiential evidence they offer for an understanding of human-earth relationships. A range of positions is evident: from the biocentric position of Native Americans, to the anthropocentric positions of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Baha'i, to the more ecocentric positions of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Janism, as well as the anthropocosmic position of Taoism and Confucianism. In each case, the role of the human in relation to the cosmos is reexamined from the lens of traditional religions. In the second part of the volume, a range of contemporary ecological perspectives is discussed. The comparative survey by Ralph Metzner sets the tone for this section: Metzner describes the paradigm shift in perceptions and values that is taking place in many areas in the transition from the industrial to the ecozoic age. The essays by Charlene Spretnak on ecofeminism, David Ray Griffin on process philosophy, and George Sessions on deep ecology testify to this paradigm shift already occurring. The last two pieces by Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry point toward the need for a radical rethinking of the story of the universe - its emergence and evolution - and toward a new understanding of our role in this dynamic, unfolding process. Worldviews and Ecology, then, is but a beginning in charting the territory of traditional and contemporary worldviews that are being rediscovered or articulated for the first time in response to the current environmental crisis. It is an invitation for further creative commentaries and worldviews to emerge. (shrink)