Abstract
The gradual “ecological genocide” of our times demands not only a transnational critical investigation but an ecumenical and interreligious query as well. In this paper, I will juxtapose the views of Lynn White (Christian) and Seyyed Hossein Nasr (Muslim) with respect to nature and religion. What the two share, is the analysis that the rift between culture (Western ethos) and nature is the cause of the environmental crisis. By way of reference to Malay adat, and theexample of keramat, this paper argues that the key component for the establishment of a harmonious ethos cannot be maintained without re-envisioning the sacred in nature. Within the context of South East Asia, the example of the Minanagkabau can serve as a model in which culture is shaped by nature. It is based on relationships that are neither anthropocentric, nor androcentric, one that is not based on dominion but on fostering nature-human-divine relationships. Participation in "The Half the World Symposium" at the Hobart and William Smith Colleges was generously funded by the Henry Luce Foundation.
Highlights
In the past two decades there has been a surge in literary and critical environmental works in academia
Rob Nixon has pertinently observed that the rise of various environmentalisms in the humanities has been suffering from an “unselfconscious parochialism,”[1] in that it is heavily Euro-American
This paper argues that the two historians of science, one from a Muslim and the other from a Christian perspective, share the analysis that the rift between culture (Western ethos) and nature and the loss of the sense of the sacred are the cause of the environmental crisis
Summary
In the past two decades there has been a surge in literary and critical environmental works in academia.
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