Three-Legged Stool: A Peace Education Framework for Weaving Together Spirituality, Science, and Technology

Abstract

Technological advancements and political-economic shifts are necessary to meaningfully address climate change. However, there is a difference between addressing climate change and transforming underlying behaviors to allow mass support of these changes, sustain the efforts of those working for change, and remodel global society so that changes are lasting and impactful. While technology is central, spirituality should be its companion. The spiritual component allows people to reimagine their relationship to the planet, to one another, and to global inhabitants who may be more devastatingly impacted by climate change. Grounded in the core values of holistic Earth care, relational existence, and global consciousness, this article explores how peace education encourages technological responses to climate chaos to be cognizant of the root causes of systemic violence in all its forms via intersectional, interspiritual, and interreligious lenses. The “three-legged stool” framework includes science, which imparts knowledge and evidence; technology, which offers solutions and adaptations; and spirituality, which provides grounding and transformational thinking.