Abstract
The concept of sustainable development (SD) refers to a development within the physical capacity of our planet to provide material resources, but already from its beginning it is clear that researchers and others concerned with SD also saw it as an existential issue and referred to its spiritual content and roots. In this paper I will investigate in which way this has been manifested in the conferences of the World Council of Churches and its agendas, especially Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation, as well as by the orthodox and catholic churches. In the environmental movement the spiritual character of SD has always been present and clearly expressed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, IUCN, and its ethics working group and the 1991 conservation strategy, Caring for the Earth—A Strategy for Sustainable Living. Similarly the spiritual character of SD has been in focus in several civil society initiatives, in particular the Earth Charter and more recently in the so-called Spiritual ecology movement.
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