Spiritual Ecology: On the Way to Ecological Existentialism

Abstract

Spiritual ecology is closely related to inquiries into religion and ecology, religion and nature, and religious environmentalism. This article presents considerations of the unique possibilities afforded by the idea of spiritual ecology. On one hand, these possibilities include problematic tendencies in some strands of contemporary spirituality, including anti-intellectualism, a lack of sociopolitical engagement, and complicity in a sense of happiness that is captured by capitalist enclosures and consumerist desires. On the other hand, spiritual ecology promises to involve an existential commitment to solidarity with nonhumans, and it gestures toward ways of knowing and interacting that are more inclusive than what is typically conveyed by the term “religion.” Much work on spiritual ecology is broadly pluralistic, leaving open the question of how to discern the difference between better and worse forms of spiritual ecology. This article affirms that pluralism while also distinguishing between the anti-intellectual, individualistic, and capitalistic possibilities of spiritual ecology from varieties of spiritual ecology that are on the way to what can be described as ecological existentialism or coexistentialism.

Entangled with Mother Nature through Anthropogenic and Natural Disasters

“…What we observed among our informants in Constitución and describe here is their mental shift, partially triggered by compounding disasters, away from a narrow framing of the Christian religion as the only worldview towards a more earth-centered spiritual ecology. As Mickey (2020) notes, the literature offers many different explanations of spirituality. According to Webster (2012, p. 7), most of these are related to pragmatism or "forum shopping", in which different religious practices are mixed into a "faith-lite" version of spirituality.…”

Waiora: the importance of Indigenous worldviews and spirituality to inspire and inform Planetary Health Promotion in the Anthropocene

“…These activities are not sustainable, nor are they equitable. Exploitation and commodification of spiritualities (49) need to be considered in these analyses – but in contrast to the dysfunctional spiritualities of neoliberal economics, an eco-spiritual lens will highlight their impaired vision for sustainable living.…”