Environmental Action Within Local Faith Communities

Abstract

Many scholars, environmental activists, and media outlets see faith communities and faith-based organizations as important actors in addressing environmental problems. However, based on empirical research within churches in the UK, this chapter will argue that churches, regardless of their theological background, struggle to bring environmental issues into church life. Churches do have environmental concerns but their engagement with such topics is often restricted to the promotion of individual behavioral actions. This limited engagement is partly caused by the decline of institutionalized Christianity, but participating churches also perceived environmental problems as being most effectively addressed by individual lifestyle changes and (inter)national action by organizations like the UN, the World Bank, or national governments. As such, participants had narrow views on the roles that local faith communities could take up and perceived faith communities as places where individuals could be taught on how to “green” their lifestyle but not as places for communal action. The consequences will be discussed.