DARK GREEN RELIGION: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future
Dark Green Religion: Reviews
Book reviews have begun to appear and additional ones will be posted here as they are published. Please alert Bron Taylor to any you are aware of that do not appear here. There are also a growing number of reader reviews at Amazon, a few of which appear below. The reviews show that the book is found to be valuable by scholars and non-scholars alike.
REVIEWS OF DARK GREEN RELIGION
The Rising Tide of Evo-Eco Spirituality, by Michael Dowd & Connie Barlow, 29 March 2010. (See also their 1 April 2010 podcast, "Dark Green Religion, Neo-Humanism, and More," which about the book and developments pertinent to it).
"Dark Green Religion" is an essential manual for any and all whose sense of ultimacy is deeply rooted in the natural world. It is also for those on the outside who may be curious about the rising tide of reverence for nature. Taylor coined the term "dark green religion" (DGR) to distinguish the nature-centric from those doctrinally committed to revering a presumed creative force distinct from its creation. DGR thus fosters a kinship with all creatures and a deep sense of ecological belonging; we are moved to act in behalf of this living planet and its evolutionary legacy because we relate to our fellow creatures as family and feel Earth as our larger body. In contrast, "green" religion peaks with environmental stewardship: a sense of duty to preserve and protect God's Creation or to preserve the natural resources crucial for the species that matters most.
The author is astonishingly adept at exploring the breadth of people and philosophies in this still-disjunct movement. He introduces a simple set of categories to ensure that both the scientifically inclined and the magico-mystics are recognized as valid participants within this emergent cultural phenomenon. The writing is smooth and engaging, sometimes eloquent: yes, it is a popular book; yes it is scholarly. Thoreau and Abbey and Carson and Hill will, of course, be encountered in these pages. But so will Disney's Lion King and Pocahontas. The within-chapter section heads make it very easy to dip in and out of this book, to savor it in installments, and then to return for later reference.
In the final chapter Bron Taylor draws some well-supported conclusions.
Among them:
[L]ike an anthropologist from an entirely different planet, I have somehow stumbled across a new global earth tribe, one largely unnoticed by other scholarly observers. The tribe is unnamed and little noticed because the scholarly fashion is to stress national, regional, ethnic, and gender differences rather than the commonalities, connections, and bridges. But everywhere I find the same thing: people with widely different backgrounds sharing 'dark green' perceptions and values. They may be a minority. They sometimes feel isolated and alone. But as best they can, in their own ways, and against long odds, they stand up for life. (p. 220)
Spirituality and Practice, by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, 8 March 2010.
Bron Taylor is Professor of Religion and Nature at the University of Florida. He is editor-in-chief of the multi-volume Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature and editor of Ecological Resistance Movements: The Global Emergence of Radical and Popular Environmentalism. In this ambitious and intellectually exciting work, Taylor explores the origins, growth, and dynamics of "dark green religion" in which "nature is sacred, has intrinsic value, and is therefore due reverent care." He then identifies and discuses four types of dark green religion: 1) Spiritual Animism, 2) Naturalistic Animism, 3) Gaian Spirituality, and 4) Gaian Naturalism.
In a trenchant review of Dark Green Religion in North America, he spends quite a bit of time with Henry David Thoreau whose philosophy and relationship to the natural world entailed eight central themes, including an appreciation for the simple, natural, and undomesticated (free) life and the wisdom of nature. Taylor also comments on the perceptions and writings of naturalist John Burroughs and John Muir, the founder of the Sierra Club.
The variety of Dark Green Religion is revealed in the author's treatment of radical environmentalism — the writings of Edward Abbey, the animistic spirituality of David Abram, and the impact of Paul Watson's Greenpeace whose members are willing to break laws to defend nature; surfing spirituality which melds balance, water, wind, connection, communion, and healing; a survey of green documentaries and films including Pocahontas and Happy Feet (and we could add the mammoth box-office hit Avatar); a potpourri section about dark green religion in the arts, sciences, and letters; and a chapter showing how this phenomenon has escaped its countercultural origins and become a contender with a global outreach.
This is an important book in which Bron Taylor makes a convincing case for dark green religion as sensuous, sensible, and sustainable. Marching under a banner of environmental ethics, these pioneers have a rich and deep vision of a sacred world where kinship and interdependence are both honored and enacted. Taylor predicts the continued growth of dark green religion within a global context as more and more people realize the need for "a harbinger of hope."
REVIEW ESSAYS ENGAGING DARK GREEN RELIGION
Religious Expressions of Environmental Resistance in an Increasingly Globalized and Complex World: To What End are we Defining a New Religion?
By Simon Appolloni, The Religion Beat, The University of Toronto, Wednesday, 17 March 2007.
This essay begins by discussing a case in the United Kingdom, wherein a judge ruled that an individual's religious rights were violated for practicing what was, using the terminology of my book, dark green religion. The author draws heavily on my book while advancing a perspective about such spirituality.
Not to be missed is Bernard Zaleha's comment in response. In an earlier, analogous case in the USA, he successfully used a religious freedom-based clam to win a legal settlement from his law firm, after it fired him 1992 for refusing to resign from a Sierra Club position. Zaleha considered his work with the club a (dark green) religious obligation.
After Zaleha's comment, I reply as well, in an effort to prevent some misperceptions his essay might otherwise precipitate.