Add Business and Stir

Abstract

This essay makes a case for teaching an interdisciplinary undergraduate course at the intersection of religion, ecology, and business. At a basic level, this approach gets students with diverse intellectual orientations and career interests in the same room; letting business and environmental studies majors work together on these questions fosters a variation on interfaith engagement. More deeply, it creates space for them to develop critical self-awareness about their own ethical commitments. The fact that no single instructor can be an expert in all three fields should not prevent us from stepping boldly into uncharted territory. The degradation of the earth is an interdisciplinary problem that requires interdisciplinary solutions, and each of us has something to contribute right now even if we cannot do it all. As teachers and lifelong learners, we can and must model intellectual humility even as we look for ways to take decisive individual and collective action.