Environmental Spirituality

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. Many people today claim that religion is irrelevant. Secularism has made such an impact that it is hard for religion to reassert its authority in the old ways. In several books, I have tried to argue that the religious outlook remains important for our personal and social wellbeing and mental health (Tacey, 1995, 2000, 2003). However, another way for religion to insist on its relevance in a secular society is by showing leadership in the debate about the ecological crisis. The crisis occurs because human beings do not care enough about the environment, and mistreat it as a resource fo