United Nations is Site of Meeting on Ecology and the Role of Religion

A series of 10 conferences on religion and ecology that began in 1996 and were hosted by the Center for the Study of World Religions at the Divinity School concluded last week in New York City with a symposium at the United Nations and a conference at the American Museum of Natural History.

"I believe we can call this the first geological survey of the world's religions," said Lawrence E. Sullivan, professor of the history of religions and director of the Center, at a news conference at the United Nations. "I refer to geology in its root sense here -- what religions say about the earth," he explained. "No understanding of the environment is adequate without a grasp of the religious life that constitutes the human societies that saturate the natural environment and that, for better or worse, alter all of the world's natural systems."

Over three years the conferences examined the role of religions and the moral force of religious texts, symbols, rituals, beliefs, practices, and teachings when they are brought to bear on the environmental crisis. The sessions were coordinated by Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, former visiting fellows at the Center who teach in the religion department at Bucknell University. Together they announced at the United Nations the creation of a new Forum on Religion and Ecology that will continue the work of the conferences and "foster a religious voice in public policy formulation, educational curricula, economic planning, and scientific and social research related to the environment."

Tu Wei-Ming, professor of Chinese history and philosophy, director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute, and a participant in the conferences, described the Forum as "a new collaboration by public intellectuals" and "a permanent network to exchange data quickly and not wait for government organizations in order to be aware of issues anywhere." He called on scholars and academics as well as leaders in business, government, the media, and social movements to become more "religiously musical" in their understanding of the human condition and "to go beyond the old dichotomies of East and West, religion and science, the material and the spiritual. Our primary concern is future generations," he said.

The Center will develop a Website for the Forum that will serve as a clearinghouse and global electronic network for participants to post news, data, research, and other information.

The events in New York drew scholars, scientists, public policy experts, and other leaders with an interest in the environment, including Maurice Strong, adviser to the U.N. secretary general and organizer of the U.N. conferences on the environment that were held in 1972 in Stockholm and 1992 in Rio de Janeiro; Timothy Wirth, an overseer of Harvard University and president of the United Nations Foundation; Niles Eldridge, a paleontologist and chief curator of the new Hall of Biodiversity at the American Museum of Natural History; and Michael McElroy, Gilbert Butler Professor of Environmental Studies and chair of the University Committee on Environment. The role of religions in the environmental crisis, said McElroy, is "to get us past a preoccupation with our rights and move us to a sense of our responsibilities. That is the only way short of a global catastrophe. We don't have 200 years to deal with this problem."

The one-day conference at the American Museum of Natural History, called "Religion and Ecology: Discovering the Common Ground," featured panel discussions led by broadcast journalist Bill Moyers with representatives of the 10 different religious traditions that were part of the conference series over three years: Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Shinto, Taoism, and indigenous religions. George Rupp, president of Columbia University; Steven Rockefeller, professor of religion at Middlebury College; and Ismail Serageldin, vice president of special programs at the World Bank, also addressed the conference.

The proceedings of the 10-conference series are being published by the Center for the Study of World Religions and distributed by Harvard University Press. Two volumes, Buddhism and Ecology and Confucianism and Ecology, are already available.

"This is one of the most promising initiatives I've seen," said Strong. "I am convinced that we need to reinvent our civilization and put selfish economic drives in the service of ethical principles. We won't make it through the next century unless we are driven by our highest moral and spiritual instincts and values."