Balancing Critique and Commitment: A Synthetic Approach to Teaching Religion and the Environment

Abstract

Courses about religion and the environment should work toward a synthesis of critical thinking – teaching students to examine and question the interplay of environmental degradation, religious traditions, and new religious movements – and advocacy – helping students to embrace, articulate, and refine their own environmentalist commitments, in religious terms when appropriate. To meet these goals, teachers of religion and the environment can learn from literature on balancing faith and critical analysis in other religion courses. This literature will help us to clarify the goals of our courses, critically examine the environmental movement with our students, and remain trustworthy to those who do not share environmentalist commitments. See a companion essay in this issue of the journal (Jennifer R. Ayres, “Learning on the Ground”) and a response to both of these essays (Forrest Clingerman, “Pedagogy as a Field Guide to the Ecology of the Classroom”) also published in this issue of the journal.

Confronting racism and white privilege in courses on religion and the environment: An inclusive pedagogical approach

“…In order to synthesize these goals, O'Brien writes, “we should not bracket the hard descriptive questions – how do we define religion and what is included in the category? – nor the hard normative questions – what should religious people be doing in response to environmental degradation?” (O'Brien, , 195).…”

“…With that learning context in mind, my approach to teaching religion and ecology is informed by Kevin O′Brien's contention that courses on religion and the environment can and should combine both normative and descriptive goals (O'Brien, ). Based on his survey of course syllabi and extant teaching resources, he observes that courses on religion and the environment usually are organized around either a normative goal of advancing environmentalism, or a critical goal of engaging in rigorous scholarly analysis.…”

Learning on the Ground: Ecology, Engagement, and Embodiment

“…On the tensions between the critical approach to religion and ecology and the cultivation of ecological commitment among students, see Kevin O'Brien's essay, “Balancing Critique and Commitment” in this same issue (2014, 189–202).…”