The Bloomsbury Handbook of Religion and Nature: The Elements

Description

Divided into four parts-Earth, Air, Fire, and Water-this book takes an elemental approach to the study of religion and ecology. It reflects recent theoretical and methodological developments in this field which seek to understand the ways that ideas and matter, minds and bodies exist together within an immanent frame of reference. The Bloomsbury Handbook of Religion and Nature focuses on how these matters materialize in the world around us, thereby addressing key topics in this area of study. The editors provide an extensive introduction to the book, as well as useful introductions to each of its parts. The volume's international contributors are drawn from the USA, South Africa, Netherlands, Norway, Indonesia, and South Korea, and offer a variety of perspectives, voices, cultural settings, and geographical locales. This handbook shows that human concern and engagement with material existence is present in all sectors of the global community, regardless of religious tradition. It challenges the traditional methodological approach of comparative religion, and argues that globalization renders a comparative religious approach to the environment insufficient.

Laura Hobgood is Professor of Religion and the Paden Chair in Religion and Environmental Studies at Southwestern University, USA. Her books include A Dog's History of the World (2014), The Friends We Keep (2010) and Holy Dogs and Asses (2008). Whitney Bauman is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Florida International University, USA. He is author of Religion and Ecology (2014), and co-editor of Science and Religion (2014), and Grounding Religion (2010, 2017).

Hemispheric, religious, and philosophical diversity are desirable in any useful interdisciplinary anthology and these collected authors deliver a fresh, rigorous, and provocatively arranged treatment of the material. The result is a thoughtful and opportune contribution to this increasingly important area of scholarship. * Mark C.E. Peterson, Professor of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin Colleges, USA * The editors are excellent, gifted scholars, and this book offers a unique slant of theorizing the category of the "four elements". It gives expansive, provocative meanings to some fundamental categories that most humans take for granted as we go about our daily lives. * Carol Wayne White, Professor of the Philosophy of Religion, Bucknell University, USA * The editors' elemental approach allows for a fresh take on the intersection of religion and nature, breathing new air into the field with a collection of essays spanning disciplines and traditions; the result will advance the conversation for years to come with its thoughtful, insightful, and challenging contributions. * Richard Bohannon, Instructor in the Department of Geography and Planning at St. Cloud State University, USA * Some religion and nature scholars seek to understand the ways that religious beliefs and practices emerge from environmental systems, shape social systems, and then transform those environmental systems, and continue to do so, in the long, reciprocal process of bicultural evolution. Other urge new ways of thinking, feeling, acting within and toward these systems, hoping to deepen or evoke perceptions of the world as sacred and worthy of reverent care. Taking more the latter than the former approach, the contributors to this valuable volume provide new paths to consider when exploring the religion and nature field. * Bron Taylor, Professor of Religion, Nature and Environmental Ethics at The University of Florida, USA, and author of Dark Green Religion, Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future and editor of Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature (Bloomsbury) and Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture. * This fine contribution to the ongoing struggle to transform society towards environmental rationality and care is a serious collection of intelligent, thoughtful, and well written essays. * Roger S. Gottlieb, Professor of Philosophy, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA, and author Spirituality: What it Is and Why it Matters and Engaging Voices: Tales of Morality and Meaning in an Age of Global Warming *