Environmental Spirituality

Abstract

It is difficult to address the crises of ecology and relevance in religion where the culture is increasingly secular, disbelieving, and unable to ground itself in local experience. This paper proposes that church leaders have the opportunity to change perspective from one that is “other-worldly” to one which focuses on the environment as earth-based, sacred, and which ultimately requires our respect. Indigenous Australians led the way in this regard. Only by making the world sacred, by turning the earth into creation, can we approach the problem of the environmental crisis and work toward repair.