The Forum on Religion and Ecology has as its primary goal the establishment of religion and ecology as an area of study and research in universities, colleges, seminaries, and other religiously affiliated institutions. As a central focus of this research the Forum is concerned with understanding how contemporary world religions are responding to current environmental threats. In all of its activities, the Forum encourages exploration of environmental ethics as a fundamental dimension of dialogue among the world’s religions.
The Founders and Co-Directors of the Forum on Religion and Ecology are Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, both of whom are Senior Lecturers and Research Scholars at Yale University, where they teach courses that draw students from the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale Divinity School, the Department of Religious Studies, the Institution for Social and Policy Studies, and Yale College.
Today’s environmental crisis, global in scope and local in impact, will require major changes in how we think about our world and how we interact with other people and the environment. The Forum recognizes that religions need to be in dialogue with other disciplines - the sciences, ethics, economics, public policy, and gender studies - in order to find comprehensive solutions to both global and local environmental problems.
The Forum is at the forefront of an emerging interdisciplinary dialogue working to bring the field of religious studies together with academic and activist discourse on the environment by highlighting the important roles that religious traditions play in constructing narratives and moral frameworks regarding human interactions with the environment. It is the hope of the Forum on Religion and Ecology that by understanding these historical and cultural connections we can find ways to revision future human-Earth relations.
For more information about the history, activities and publications of the Forum, see: www.environment.harvard.edu/religion