Keynote: Catholic Vision and Ecology

Mary Evelyn Tucker is a leading Catholic academic, researcher and spokesperson on religion and ecology. She focuses on the need for world’s religions to move from their theological and anthropological phase into their ecological and cosmological phase and become significant partners in identifying an ethical vision for sustainable life on the planet. “As the world’s religions suggest, our response to the earth is one of continued gratitude for the gift of life,” says Tucker. Tucker is co-founder of The Forum on Religion and Ecology, the largest international multireligious project of its kind. With conferences, publications and a website, it is engaged in exploring religious worldviews, texts, and ethics in order to broaden understanding of the complex nature of current environmental concerns.Currently visiting professor at Yale University, and research associate at the Harvard Yenching Institute, Tucker is author and/or co-editor of several books including Worldly Wonder: Religions Enter Their Ecological Phase, and Religion and Ecology: Can the Climate Change? Tucker is also a member of the Interfaith Partnership for the Environment at the United Nations Environment Programme and vice President of the American Teilhard Association. She was a member of the Earth Charter Drafting Committee and is currently a member of the Earth Charter International Council