Abstract
Spiritual ecology is closely related to inquiries into religion and ecology, religion and nature, and religious environmentalism. This article presents considerations of the unique possibilities afforded by the idea of spiritual ecology. On one hand, these possibilities include problematic tendencies in some strands of contemporary spirituality, including anti-intellectualism, a lack of sociopolitical engagement, and complicity in a sense of happiness that is captured by capitalist enclosures and consumerist desires. On the other hand, spiritual ecology promises to involve an existential commitment to solidarity with nonhumans, and it gestures toward ways of knowing and interacting that are more inclusive than what is typically conveyed by the term “religion.” Much work on spiritual ecology is broadly pluralistic, leaving open the question of how to discern the difference between better and worse forms of spiritual ecology. This article affirms that pluralism while also distinguishing between the anti-intellectual, individualistic, and capitalistic possibilities of spiritual ecology from varieties of spiritual ecology that are on the way to what can be described as ecological existentialism or coexistentialism.
Highlights
Spiritual ecology, broadly conceived, refers to ways that individuals and communities orient their thinking, feeling, and acting in response to the intersection of religions and spiritualities with ecology, nature, and environmentalism
Adherents of contemporary spirituality are buying spiritual fulfillment, purchasing the spiritual books, attending expensive meditation retreats and workshops, patronizing spiritual teachers and life-coaches, and following like-minded spiritual people on social media platforms. This capitalist tone of spirituality can be heard in the increasing prevalence of “spiritual consultants,” who bring spirituality into corporate contexts to help workers feel better about their jobs, and feeling better is basically a euphemism for psychologically placated, not feeling better in the sense of feeling respected and valued at an equitable, fair workplace (Crispin 2020)
Webster promotes existentialist commitment as a viable alternative to being spiritual-but-not-religious, his existentialism sounds too humanistic or anthropocentric to address the more-than-human concerns of spiritual ecology
Summary
Broadly conceived, refers to ways that individuals and communities orient their thinking, feeling, and acting in response to the intersection of religions and spiritualities with ecology, nature, and environmentalism. Adherents of contemporary spirituality are buying spiritual fulfillment, purchasing the spiritual books, attending expensive meditation retreats and workshops, patronizing spiritual teachers and life-coaches, and following like-minded spiritual people on social media platforms This capitalist tone of spirituality can be heard in the increasing prevalence of “spiritual consultants,” who bring spirituality into corporate contexts to help workers feel better about their jobs, and feeling better is basically a euphemism for psychologically placated, not feeling better in the sense of feeling respected and valued at an equitable, fair workplace (Crispin 2020). Webster promotes existentialist commitment as a viable alternative to being spiritual-but-not-religious, his existentialism sounds too humanistic or anthropocentric to address the more-than-human concerns of spiritual ecology To his credit, he distances his position from humanism in the concluding two paragraphs of the book, but the distance is not very far. By rethinking the human as intimately intertwined with the more-than-human world, an existential perspective on spirituality could widen into an ecological existentialism
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