Talk:Ecospirituality

  This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Shelbystinnissen, Mccannallison, Bisson.chelsea, Laurenfroud.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 20:27, 17 January 2022 (UTC)Reply

On Nov. 28 an anonymous editor "IP address 70.50.100.85" made several edits with wonderfully detailed edit summaries - anyone know who this was? I'm wondering if someone from the Ecospirituality group forgot to sign in? MonstreDélicat (talk) 17:24, 5 December 2015 (UTC)Reply

I forgot to sign in more than once and noticed after however I never provided "wonderfully detailed edit summaries" so I don't think it was me - haha - Allie

Well maybe I'm either being effusive or you're being modest... :)MonstreDélicat (talk) 15:58, 9 December 2015 (UTC)Reply

This article would be improved if we could add in the push back from academia to label certain off shoots as 'ecospirituality' and some of the stigma that goes along with the word. Mccannallison Laurenfroud (talk) 20:04, 2 December 2015 (UTC)In addition, more information on additional world religions and ecospirituality could be included. For example, Judaism and ecospirituality.Reply

I would like to raise the motion that this article should be moved from a Stub to a C-class article. What is everyone's stance on this? Mccannallison Laurenfroud (talk) 20:05, 2 December 2015 (UTC) I second this motion! I third! Shelbystinnissen (talk) 19:53, 7 December 2015 (UTC)Reply

I agree that this article should be ranked as a C class article. It is well passed the stub stage and has more information and direction than a starter article. However, I also propose that it's importance rank be raised from low to mid-importance. The article is starting to go deeper into the subject matter. A restriction for this subject is that it is an off shoot of so many weighted, academic terms. I agree with Lauren above that there is a colloquial stigma associated with the phrase "ecospirituality." How can we over come this as to not cloud the discussion itself? Another limitation this article faces is illustration. Can anybody think of broad or specific imagery for this topic and its sub-topics? Shelbystinnissen (talk) 15:58, 5 December 2015 (UTC)Reply

- More research should be done into various other religious traditions we did not get around to including such as Judaism and Indigenous Spirituality. Laurenfroud (talk) 14:50, 7 December 2015 (UTC)Reply

Am just starting to expand this stub and noticing that both ecospirituality and eco-spirituality are used in publications - it is looking to me like eco-spirituality is more common - any other opinions? Depthdiver (talk) 21:11, 7 January 2014 (UTC)Reply

- Deep Ecology - Bron Taylor - Ecofeminism - Paganism - Christianity - Hinduism - Islam

Possible resources for editing:

Taylor, Bron Raymond. Dark green religion: Nature spirituality and the planetary future. Univ of California Press, 2010.

Hedlund-de Witt, Annick. "Pathways To Environmental Responsibility: A Qualitative Exploration Of The Spiritual Dimension Of Nature Experience." Journal For The Study Of Religion, Nature And Culture 7.2 (2013): 154-186. ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials. Web.

Wayne Teasdale, The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World’s Reli- gions (Novato: New World Library; 1999), 87.

Bauman, Whitney A. "The Oxford Handbook Of Religion And Ecology." Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture & Ecology 12.1 (2008): 91-94. Environment Complete. Web. 26 Oct. 2015.

Shelbystinnissen (talk) 14:20, 13 October 2015 (UTC)Reply

Hi Shelby, I found this book as well which could be a good resource:

http://www.ecozona.eu/index.php/journal/issue/view/16/showToc — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mccannallison (talk • contribs) 14:36, 15 October 2015 (UTC)Reply

Hi Shelby, I have some more sources we could use:

Carrol, John E., "Sustainability and Spirituality." Sunny Press, 2004.

Gottlieb, Roger S., The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Ecology. Oxford University Press: 2006. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Laurenfroud (talk • contribs) 12:28, 16 October 2015 (UTC)Reply

Hi Shelby, Your articles look really cool! It's interesting how ecospirituality is connected to themes of justice and activism. Is a person who identifies as ecospiritual more inclined to be an activist?

Michellerow (talk) 14:46, 18 October 2015 (UTC)Reply

Chelsea's Bibliography

The Queen's library seems to have some useful sources. I have not read them carefully yet though.

Kaufman, Alexander Harrow., "Cultivating Greater Well-being: The Benefits Thai Organic Farmers Experience from Adopting Buddhist Eco-spirituality". Springer Press, 2014. - about agriculture and eco-spirituality

(I found this source really useful as a starting point) Van Schalkwyk, Annalet. "Sacredness And Sustainability: Searching For A Practical Eco-Spirituality." Religion & Theology 18.1/2 (2011): 77-92. Academic Search Complete. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

There are many sources about eco-spirituality and education, I don't think this is relevant for our page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bisson.chelsea (talk • contribs) 17:30, 19 October 2015 (UTC)Reply

We should introduce ecospirituality with a definition of the word itself. How did this word develop? We should also mentions when/where/how ecospirituality exists; which religions affirm or are against spirituality in nature? I think a key point is to distinguish spirituality from enchantment and enlightenment; or are these terms all meaningful in ecospirituality?

Shelbystinnissen (talk) 21:46, 19 October 2015 (UTC)Reply

Suggestions for the Lead Section

• “Ecospirituality has been a known result of people wanting to free themselves from a consumeristic materialism based society.” – confusing. “A known result”? In an edit I have tried to massage this to be neutral and informative.

• “Ecospirituality has been critiqued for being an umbrella term for concepts such as deep ecology, ecofeminism, and nature religion.” So what’s the problem with this? It conflates these terms? It doesn’t refer to a movement and so lacks analytical and descriptive utility?

• I changed “Ecospirituality claims that…” because if you’re saying that it doesn’t describe one coherent movement, then it as an entity doesn’t claim something, but the word as a concept might describe something.

• “Similarly to ecopsychology, it refers to the connections between the science of ecology and the study of psychology.” – unclear referent. Does “it” mean “deep ecology” or “ecospirituality”? MonstreDélicat (talk) 22:42, 27 November 2015 (UTC)Reply

• “There are multiple origin stories about how the spiritual relationship with people and the environment began. One stems from Native American philosophy, that discusses a Great Spirit that lives within the universe and the earth represents its presence.” Directionality of relationships is unclear. Are we talking about for the loose set of movements comprising ecospirituality, or are we talking about the fact that the loose set of movements comprising ecospirituality is interested in the origin stories of a number of pre-existing religions and cultures? MonstreDélicat (talk) 22:40, 27 November 2015 (UTC)Reply

Thanks for the help with this today!

• “Ecospirituality has been studied by academics in order to understand a clearer definition of what it entails.” This is confusing. First of all, I think you mean “come up with a clearer definition,” not “understand” one that already exists. Second, isn’t it that the concept of “ecospirituality” was coined to describe the things scholars were studying and practitioners were doing? So do you mean that people are studying how and where the term is being used? Or that they’re studying things that they describe or that are self-described as ecospirituality? • “One study focused on holistic nurses…” this sentence is rather confused. I proposed an edit, but you will have to adapt it depending on if the study reports that the nurses self-identified as “fundamentally spiritual” or if the study argued that their professional practice is “fundamentally spiritual” MonstreDélicat (talk) 23:10, 27 November 2015 (UTC)Reply

Thanks for the edits Sharday! I'll make the edits now. Also for the second question, the study and the nurses were saying their profession was "fundamentally spiritual" and not them as individuals!

• “…of which Dark Green Religion is a sect” – does Taylor use this terminology of “sect”? If not, do not use. It is theologically loaded.

• “…and that the notions of Dark Green Religion are 'embedded in worldviews and narratives.'" What does this mean? “Notions” “worldviews” and “narratives” are vague (whose? Where? About what? Etc.)

• “Predictions about the ways its meaning might change include the positive and negative possibilities involved with the emergence of reverent care for the earth.” Whose predictions? What are they? What could negative ones entail? I can’t easily imagine. MonstreDélicat (talk) 23:26, 27 November 2015 (UTC)Reply

• “Due to its lack of structure, many Pagans believe that it should be used as a tool to combat the current ecological crisis” – this is a logical jump. How does structurelessness = combatting ecological crisis?

• Watch out for consistency in capitalization, hyphenation, etc.

• Review how to make plurals and possessives (Pagan (sing.), Pagans (plural), Pagan's (sing. poss.), Pagans' (plural poss.) — Preceding unsigned comment added by MonstreDélicat (talk • contribs) 23:45, 27 November 2015 (UTC)Reply

• “Most Christian theology has centered on the doctrine of creation. This has led in Christianity to growing ecological awareness.” When? Has Christianity always had this awareness? Or is the ecological awareness recent? Does it coincide with renewed attention to the doctrine of creation? There are 2000 years that are sort of collapsed here.

• “The doctrines of Christ that Christians follow have the potential for ecological spirituality” – what does this mean? Do you mean they’re going to get rewritten? Do you mean they support interpretations consistent with ecospirituality? What exactly does “potential” lead to here?

• “Based on the current ecological crisis, it is evident Christians have not listened to this teaching.” Neutrality issue. This is an argument. And it’s not provable either, unless you can poll all self-identified Christians.

• “Christians recognize a need for Earth Ethic.” All of them?? According to whom? MonstreDélicat (talk) 00:05, 28 November 2015 (UTC)Reply

• “Through ecospirituality, the notion of praising and viewing the Earth in this way draws connections to the ethics preached in Hinduism to separate nature religion.” Confused sentence. It's unclear what is acting on what. Are you saying there is a movement in Hinduism that explicitly draws on the concept of ecospirituality? MonstreDélicat (talk) 00:19, 28 November 2015 (UTC)Reply