Changing Climates: Religion, Ecology, and Economics (Oregon Travel Seminar // DIV 7083)
May 11-18, 2020 (Seminar postponed due to COVID-19 Closure of Vanderbilt)
Faculty: Graham Reside, Executive Director, Cal Turner Program in Moral Leadership for the Professions, and Joerg Rieger, Distinguished Professor of Theology, Director of the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice
Co-sponsors: Cal Turner Center for Moral Leadership in the Professions and Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice
Credit: 3 hours
Purposes of the Course
Since the publication of Lynn White’s classic 1967 article in Science, Western Christianity has come under intense scrutiny for contributing to the current ecological crisis, which finds its culmination in climate change. Less discussed but equally important is White’s sense that science in the West has also been influenced by these intellectual currents and is, therefore, not able to solve the problems on its own.
This class brings together theological, ethical, economic, and scientific perspectives in an examination of what has contributed to our current ecological crisis. While there is widespread agreement in these fields that we are living in the “Anthropocene,” an age that is determined by humanity after the end of the “Holocene,” how can we better understand humanity’s role in environmental degradation and climate change, and how is humanity changing under those conditions? The goal of this analysis is to identify how the problems might be addressed and what alternatives could be developed.
A basic economic perspective is essential to the project, as 71 percent of global CO2 emissions are produced by the world’s 100 largest corporations. Moreover, alternatives are emerging where people are engaging in alternative sustainable agriculture around the world (often led by women and minority communities), cooperative businesses, and other forms of sustainable living. What are the theological and ethical resources that might guide such projects, and how do theology and ethics shape up differently when they engage the developing alternatives?
Conducted on the Campus of the Oregon Extension (www.oregonextension.org), the class will have access to ecological resources with the ability to study how humans impact the environment even in remote parts of the country, what possibilities there are to live sustainably on the land, and how Christian and other religious traditions have been able to create more sound relationships with the earth, in conversation with alternative religious expressions and members of the Klamath Tribe of Native Americans who live in the region.