This Sacred Earth

by Roger S. Gottlieb

Updated with nearly forty new selections to reflect the tremendous growth and transformation of scholarly, theological, and activist religious environmentalism, the second edition of This Sacred Earth is an unparalleled resource for the study of religion's complex relationship to the environment.

Genres: Nature, Religion, Spirituality, Nonfiction, Environment, College, Theology

780 pages, Paperback

First published November 6, 1995

About the author

I am a professor of philosophy at WPI and have written or edited 17 books, on subjects ranging from political philosophy and ethics to the Holocaust and disability. My major focus for the last twenty years has been the moral, political, spiritual and religious meaning of the environmental crisis; and the role of religion and spirituality in modern life.
I've described the rise of religious environmentalism ('A Greener Faith'); and asked what spirituality can look like in an age of environmental crisis('A Spirituality of Resistance'). I've also shown how progressive religion and social justice movements can help and learn from each other ('Joining Hands').

Recently, I turned to fiction in a collection of short stories: 'Engaging Voices: Tales of Morality and Meaning in an Age of Global Warming'. This book uses fictional settings to explore the moral, political, spiritual, and emotional meanings of the environmental crisis; and also asks what it would take for us to learn to listen to and learn from those with whom we disagree.

In January 2013 my latest book came out: 'Spirituality: What it Is and Why it Matters'. This book examines the promises and perils of spiritual life as understood both within and outside of traditional faiths, explains the rise of the widespread spiritual detachment from institutional religion, and offers searching accounts of yoga, meditation, and prayer. There are also insightful studies of spirituality's relation to modern medicine, nature and the environmental crisis, and political activism.

Both 'Engaging Voices' and 'Spirituality' won Nautilus Book Awards in 2013; and 'Spirituality' was also called a 'Best Book of the Year' by the Spirituality and Practice

Reviews

[Vanessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not read this entire book. It was used as a textbook for my religion & ecology class so only about half the passages were read, come parts skimmed. I decided to rate it as a three stars for the following reasons:
1. There is entirely too much focus on the well known traditional religions, which is understandable but not overly interesting. There is no mention whatsoever of the Pagan or Wicca relationship with nature & that is a large one, not much on Buddhism, again another that much could have been said about & there is enough good literature on those to have found something worthwhile to include.
2. Not enough of what Gottlieb himself actually thinks, which is unfortunate because what he does have in there is quite interesting.
3. It's fairly large and includes many of the same ideas but don't that frighten you away from conflicting ideas because there is still quite a bit of that you just have to look for it and read into things.

Be prepared to think about what you read, there are several passage that make you stop and hmmmmm about, and that's probably what i enjoyed the best about this book.

[Andrea Wright · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this for a class and it was interesting enough to keep.

[Benjamin Vogt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This should be required reading for freshman in colleges that have world cultures programs or other such mandatory introductory classes across the incoming class (as I did). Reading through the philopsophy and beliefs of each of these major religions--and getting the pure, textual meaning--shows how equal and interrelated we all are... and that our ideas are incredibly similar about how to treat each other and all life on the planet. Eye-opening. Shattering. Real.

[Lisa McCarty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative. Well written.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting. The essays kept my interest while still being informative.