December
1998
Making
the Ground Holy
An Interview With Mary Evelyn Tucker
|
|
|
From
May 1996 to July 1998, a series of ten conferences was held at the Center
for the Study of World Religions at Harvard University. These conferences,
also sponsored by the Center for the Respect of Life and Environment (CRLE)
and Bucknell University, focused on the ecological traditions of each
of the major world religions: Judaism, Christianity, Shintoism, Islam,
Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Taoism, Confucianism, and Indigenous Traditions.
There were three culminating conferences. The first was at Harvard, followed
by a press conference and symposium at the United Nations on October 20th
and a final general conference at the American Museum of Natural History
in New York City on October 21st [see report]. One of the prime movers
of the conferences was Mary Evelyn Tucker who, with her husband
John Grim, teaches religion at Bucknell University.
Satya asked Professor Tucker to comment on the conferences and
assess their achievements.
Q: What was the purpose of the ten conferences and the three culminating
conferences?
A: Clearly, religions need to be involved with the development
of a more comprehensive worldview and ethics to assist in reversing industrial
pollution, resource depletion, the widespread destruction of species
and
the unrelenting loss of habitat. The conferences on Religions of the
World and Ecology held at Harvard had six aims. The first was to reconceptualize
attitudes toward nature by examining perceptions from religions of the
world with attention to the complexity of history and culture. The second
was to contribute to the articulation of environmental ethics grounded
in religious traditions and inspired by broad ecological perspectives.
The third was to identify the institutional grounds for systematic changes
within religious traditions to transform attitudes towards the environment.
The fourth was to stimulate the interest and concern of religious leaders
and students and professors in religion in the environment. The fifth
aim was to link the transformative efforts of the world’s religions
to the larger international movements involved, and the sixth was to
join
with ecologists, public policymakers, economists, business-people, health
professionals, educators and others wishing to reinvent industrial society.
Q: What was the most interesting and/or challenging information that
came out from the conferences?
A: The most positive dimension of the conferences was the overwhelming
sense of interest and concern that they generated. There was a remarkable
sense of solidarity among the scholars who participated along with healthy
discussion and disagreement. The finest aspect was the high level of commitment
that the conferences tapped into so that personal ego was overridden by
eco-concerns. In other words, the sense of the challenge of the crisis
caused the scholarly community to respond with a deep sense of concern,
commitment, and excellent scholarship that modeled cooperative learning
not competitive scholarship for personal self aggrandizement. This has
resulted in a call to keep alive this network of public intellectuals
who were involved in the series.
Q: How best should environmentalists and those with those religious
concerns proceed from the conferences?
A: We have announced an ongoing forum on religion and ecology which
will continue with conferences and lectures etc. We would invite the participation
of interested individuals and groups in this work as we begin to design
the forum. Our focus will be on research, education, and outreach.
Q: So many conferences are full of high rhetoric and few plans of action.
What programs do you feel can be implemented or supported by attendees
to the conferences?
A: There is a great deal of work to be done to activate religious
communities to the size and scale of the environmental crisis and to the
importance of responding with a new set of values: to live within limits,
to reduce consumption and overpopulation, to help renew, not exploit,
resources, and to bring pressure to bear on the business community so
that business practices can be reoriented toward sustainability with a
concern for future generations.
Proceedings from the Buddhism and Ecology and Confucianism and Ecology
conferences have been published and are available from Harvard University
Press. Christianity and Ecology will be available in Fall 1999. For more
information visit the website of the Center for the Study of World Religions
at: http://www.hds.harvard.edu/cswr/.
For information on the Center for Respect of Life and Environment, contact:
2100 L Street, NW, Washington, DC 20037. Tel.: 202-778-6133. Fax: 202-778-6138.
Email: crle@aol.com.
Website: www.center1.com/.
The Fall 1998 issue of CRLE’s newsletter, Earth Ethics, contains
articles on all ten religions featured in the conferences. —M.R.
