New York, USA — What do surfing, fly fishing and theme parks have in common? Each can be a form of nature-inspired religion, and they represent just a few of the 1,000 entries in the Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature.
The encyclopedia, which looks at connections among religion, nature and culture, was edited by University of Florida religion professor Bron Taylor, and will be available in the United States in May. It was published in the United Kingdom in March. Sample entries can be viewed at www.religionandnature.com.
“For some time, scholars have been interested in the connections between religion and nature and culture,” said Taylor, who, in addition to editing the encyclopedia, contributed more than two dozen entries. “The encyclopedia was a way to explore these pathways and look at these relationships.”
Many publications have dealt with how to make religions more environmentally friendly, but few have covered the ways environments shaped cultures or religions, Taylor said.
The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature is the first of its kind and has 520 contributors, including graduate students, professors and luminaries in the field of religion and nature such as primatologist Jane Goodall, eco-theologian Thomas Berry and environmentalist James Lovelock.
“One of the neat aspects of the encyclopedia is that we have the traditional scholarly genre of entries, as well as two other types of entries,” said Taylor, who started the project seven years ago. “One we call the scholarly perspective entries, where scholars reflect on their contributions and relationships to this emerging field. The other type is the practitioner entries, which are written by religious people of all sorts.”
In the practitioner entries, people write about their nature-related spirituality or religion, and how that shapes their lives and relationships with nature, he said.
“In a sense, we think the genre of the encyclopedia is rather innovative because it’s not just put together by scholars, but it takes what you might call a grassroots approach,” Taylor said. “It isn’t just scholars analyzing the subject.”
While many of the entries are on familiar world religions such as Christianity, Islam and Hinduism, other entries delve into topics not normally associated with religion.
“One of our graduate students wrote an entry on fly fishing and some of the religious experiences and environmental sensibilities that can accompany that kind of recreational practice,” Taylor said. “There are also entries on surfing and mountaineering, which lead to experiences for at least some of the participants that one would describe as religious.”
Some of these activities lead to efforts to protect the natural environment in a type of religious dedication. Surfers have become more interested in protecting ocean ecosystems, while anglers and fly fishers start to focus on protection of watersheds and rivers.
“These are just a few of what religion scholars call ‘lived religions,’ which are those that might not fit under the tent of the so-called world religions but are definitely reflections of human religiosity and spirituality,” Taylor said.
Interest in the field of religion and nature was piqued in the 1960s by an article in the journal Science by historian Lynn White. White argued that the environmental crisis lay at the feet of the Abrahamic religions, Islam, Judaism and Christianity. The article caused a variety of reactions among religious people and scholars, Taylor said.
“White’s article was just the beginning of several decades of discussion regarding the complex relationships between humans, their environments and their religions,” he said. “This encyclopedia is the culmination of a massive, global undertaking that I hope encourages some really exciting dialogue about the field of religion and nature.”
Taylor’s enthusiasm regarding the benefit of an encyclopedia to the study of religion and nature is echoed by one of his colleagues in the field.
“This is a landmark book, and it couldn’t be timelier,” said Bill McKibben, an environmental writer and professor of environmental studies at Middlebury College in Vermont. “It comes just as religious environmentalism seems set to play a more important role in this most crucial of global debates.”