A Living Earth
- Rick Bonetti
- Feb 2
- 4 min read
"We dwell within an intricate and evolving community of planetary life. The world speaks—to itself and to us—in a multitude of voices, each representing a unique way of being and knowing. Many of these voices are organic, such as birds, mushrooms, and trees. Others are elemental bodies like rivers and mountains. Yet each is an integral member of the whole. Since our species emerged in evolutionary history, we have practiced diverse traditions—spiritual, philosophical, and scientific — to understand the intricate dimensions of Earth’s interdependence." ~ Garrison Institute
On February 10, 2026, at 11 a.m. PST, the Garrison Institute is having a live virtual forum on Zoom: A Conversation Exploring the Living Earth Community, with Jonathan F.P. Rose and Dr. Mary Evelyn Tucker, cofounder of the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, that helped create the Living Earth Community. This conversation will explore the varied spiritual responses to the intelligences of nature and the implications for our current ecological challenges. It will highlight the new Living Earth Community website as a source reference for this discussion.
As a website, the Living Earth Community is "a multimedia source for information and inspiration about the many ways that Earth and all its inhabitants exhibit different kinds of activity and agency, even sentience, intelligence, and consciousness.
This section of the Living Earth Community website "invites you to explore ancestral and contemporary orientations within place and culture. It presents a diversity of spiritual and philosophical traditions and lifeways that affirm the interdependencies of life. Join us in this dialogue of worldviews to foster and deepen an appreciation for both the biological and spiritual dimensions of our shared journey."
"Various cultural expressions of protecting the integrity of the more-than-human world are growing worldwide through an impressive range of legal theories and practices."
This "dramatic and expansive multimedia project that reimagines the universe story and reframes the human connection to the cosmos. The project includes an Emmy award-winning film, book, educational series, curriculum, and more. The film has been shown around the world and, along with the book, has been translated into many languages."
Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology
"The Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology is an international, multireligious project contributing to a new academic field and an engaged moral force of religious environmentalism. With its conferences, publications, monthly newsletter, and website, it explores religious worldviews, texts, and ethics in order to contribute to environmental solutions along with science, policy, law, economics, and appropriate technology. → Sign up for Yale's monthly Forum newsletter ←
Newest additions to the Yale Forum website:
Ecojustice:
The Yale Forum's "ecojustice hub includes thorough resource lists for each of the major world religions; extensive bibliographies; information on the history of the movement, and much more."
Ecoanxiety:
"Our eco-anxiety and eco-grief section provides both ample learning opportunities on this increasingly important topic, as well as a variety of hands-on tools and practices for coping."
Religion and Ecology Online Courses
"Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim have created a series of six Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS) at Yale through the Coursera platform. These courses explore the ecological dimensions of the world’s religions. They draw on a rich variety of lectures, videos, readings, and interviews with scholars, religious leaders, and environmental practitioners from around the world. Highlighted are religious ideas and practices inspiring ecojustice movements in response to the challenges of the climate emergency, biodiversity loss, and pollution."
Orbis Ecology & Justice Series
"Tucker and Grim serve as Advisory Board Members, along with Leonardo Boff and Sean McDonagh, for the Ecology and Justice Series published by Orbis Books. This series seeks to integrate an understanding of the Earth as an interconnected web of life with concerns for just and sustainable systems that benefit the entire Earth community. Viewing the present moment as a time for responsible creativity, this series asks authors to speak to ecojustice concerns from the Christian community, from the world’s other religious traditions, from secular and scientific circles, and from new paradigms of thought and action."
Thomas Berry
"Thomas Berry was one of the twentieth century’s most prescient and profound thinkers. As a cultural historian, he sought a broader perspective on humanity’s relationship to the Earth to respond to the ecological and social challenges of our times. Berry urged humans to recognize their place on a planet with complex ecosystems in a vast evolving universe. He sought to replace the modern alienation from nature with a sense of intimacy and responsibility. This website chronicles his life and work, providing ample written and multimedia resources to explore Thomas’ thoughts and ideas further. See also their Coursera course: The Worldview of Thomas Berry: The Flourishing of the Earth Community."
In 2022, on his 97th birthday, John B. Cobb Jr. launched the Living Earth Movement. "The Living Earth Movement strives to foster global collaboration to benefit all life on Earth, starting with the United States and China. Our mission is to advance a new human society that coexists harmoniously with the entire ecosphere."
#LivingEarthCommunity #YaleForumonReligionandEcology #ThomasBerry
Comments