SPIRITUAL FOUNDATIONS OF ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM
Quaker Sources
- Earth Charter: https://earthcharter.org
- “Earth Charter is a document with sixteen principles that turn conscience into action. It seeks to inspire in all people a new sense of global interdependence and shared responsibility for the well-being of the whole human family, the greater community of life, and future generations. It is a vision of hope and a call to action.”
- For details of Quaker participation in the Earth Charter, see the Quaker Earthcare Witness’ “Earthcare for Friends”, ’18: The Earth Charter and Friends Testimonies’, by Ruah Swennerfelt. (https://www.quakerearthcare.org/sites/default/files/attachments/earthcare_for_friends_unit_18.pdf)
- “We Seek an Earth Restored”, Part IV of The World We Seek: Statement on Legislative Policy, Friends Committee on National Legislation, 2019. (https://www.fcnl.org/updates/the-world-we-seek-25)
- “Sustainability” section of Friends World Committee for Consultation website. (http://fwcc.world/sustainability)
- Quaker Environmentalism by Marshall Massey, Friends Committee on Unity with Nature (1999).
- “God Immanent in All Living Things: Friends’ Own Beliefs on What ‘Unity with Nature’ Means”, Pacific Yearly Meeting: Unity with Nature, 2000. (Legacy website: https://quaker.org/legacy/quakernature/Immanent_God.html)
- Pacific Junior Yearly Meeting’s Statement on the Environment (1998), Pacific Yearly Meeting.
- Pamphlet: Judith Brown, God’s Spirit in Nature. Pendle Hill Pamphlet #336.
- Book: Cindy Spring and Anthony Manousos, eds., Earth Light: Spiritual Wisdom for an Ecological Age (Friends Bulletin, 2007). A collection of many short essays by Quakers and other prominent authors.
- The Quaker Institute for the Future (http://www.quakerinstitute.org/) has numerous publications on core Quaker values and the links between global injustice and climate distortion.
For additional Quaker publications on spiritual foundations of environmental action, see the Quaker Earthcare Witness website (https://www.quakerearthcare.org). For example, “A Shared Quaker Statement: Facing the Challenge of Climate Change”, Quaker Earthcare Witness, 2017.
Other Traditions
- Article: “Daring to Dream: Religion and the Future of the Earth” by Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim in Reflections, a magazine of ethical and theological inquiry from Yale Divinity School. Issue title: God’s Green Earth, 2007. (https://reflections.yale.edu) The article provides an eloquent summary by key figures in the international environmental justice movement.
- Book: Gretel Van Wieren, Restored to Earth: Christianity, Environmental Ethics, and Ecological Restoration (Georgetown University Press, 2013). Restoration as spiritual practice, rooted in Christian ethics.
- Book: Peter D. Burdon, Klaus Bosselmann, and Kirsten Engel, eds., The Crisis in Global Ethics and the Future of Global Governance; Fulfilling the Promise of the Earth Charter (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019). This update on the Earth Charter is a study of the importance of spiritual covenants in Earthcare ethics and law, with essays by major figures in the earth ethics movement.
- Book: Ved P. Nanda, ed., Climate Change and Environmental Ethics (Transaction Publishers, 2013). Essays on environmental ethics and their public applications, by influential ethicists in the United State and elsewhere.
- Book: David Kinsley, Ecology and Religion: Ecological Spirituality in Cross-Cultural Perspective (Prentice Hall, 1995). A survey of global faiths, including several indigenous traditions.
Please see the Earthcare Committee webpage for more information about the Meeting’s efforts for environment and climate justice.