Seminaries linking environment, religion

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Academic studies of the links between religion and the environment are a fairly recent but growing development. This fall in Gainesville, Fla., the University of Florida initiates what it believes will be the first Ph.D. program with a religion and nature track. Next spring, the first students in a new doctor of ministry program in spirituality and sustainability, co-sponsored by the United Theological Seminary in Ohio and Hendrix College in Arkansas, are expected to start graduating.

The University of Florida’s religion faculty includes several experts on ecology and religion. Bron Raymond Taylor is editor in chief for the “Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature,” which Continuum is to publish in 2004. His Religion and Nature Web site, www.religionandnature.com/bron, focuses on the study of religions, cultures and environments, especially radical environmentalism.

Richard Foltz specializes in environmental values, including in the Muslim faith, and edited “Worldviews, Religion and the Environment: A Global Anthology” (Wadsworth Publishers, 2002).

Vasudha Narayanan has expertise on Hinduism and nature. Latin American specialist Anna L. Peterson teaches and writes about environmental ethics.