Islam, Christianity, and the Environmental Crisis

What can religion offer for resolving the environmental crisis? How can we recover a sacred view of the universe? What resources can the Islamic and Christian traditions offer in response to the environmental crisis? This lecture will examine the spiritual and intellectual origins of the environmental crisis, rooted in the desacralization of nature in the modern period. It will survey traditional Islamic and Christian views of nature and offer resources, from the Christian heritage and Islamic understandings of the relationship of God, humanity, and nature, that can address our contemporary environmental crisis and help recover a sacred view of the universe. University Professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University, Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr is regarded as one of the leading Islamic thinkers in the world today. A pioneer in addressing the roots of the environmental crisis from a theological perspective, he has also published widely in the fields of Islamic studies, Islamic philosophy, Islamic art and spirituality, and religion and modernity. This annual symposium is held in memory of Terence Nichols (1941-2014), who was a professor of systematic theology and founder of the Muslim-Christian Dialogue Center, which has now evolved into the Encountering Islam Initiative at the University of St. Thomas. This annual lecture is devoted to the broad-ranging intellectual pursuits of our beloved colleague