Abstract The idea of a cosmic covenant originated within Roman Catholicism in the mid-twentieth century. Jean Daniélou used it first as the order God gave in nature by which he is known to those outside of Israel. Though this supports interreligious dialogue, it confuses covenant with providence and may diminish the centrality of Christ to salvation. Mary Daly later took up the phrase and attached to it ideas of a sisterhood of universal harmony in which all distinctions are dissolved in being, intuited similarly to dialogical personalism. Robert Murray then grounded the idea in traces of a divinely willed order in nature and society unearthed from vestiges of ritual expression thought to remain in the Old Testament. In each of these usages, the idea of cosmic covenant falls short of what covenant entails, a relationship established between rational entities, ultimately by God with human beings, to establish loving obedience among those made in his image.

AbstractHow have schools partnered with nature—as an architectural influence and pedagogical framework—to improve the campus experience for their communities? Influenced by John Dewey’s web of life concepts as a position to consider the interrelations between schooling and life, this chapter explores the benefits to schools and their communities of partnering with nature to support academic, physical, and mental well-being. Dewey believed that public education had a fundamental responsibility to support young people to understand the world around them. Public-school examples in the United States are discussed, as shaped by green infrastructure initiatives; ecosystem services; biophilic design; and community hub constructs. In this context, the motivations of stakeholders to develop partnerships between schools and nature are identified and were found to relate to desires for environmentally sustainable infrastructure, developing community networks—socially and ecologically—and delivering health and wellbeing benefits for students, teachers, professional staff, and members of the broader community.

Managers of insect-pollinated orchards face many decisions that can significantly influence crop yields, including managing pollination through use of beehives or the layout of cultivars in the orchard. Understanding the relative importance and interactions between these multiple decisions through empirical field trials is rarely possible, so modeling approaches can provide valuable insights and generate new hypotheses. Based on kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis var. deliciosa (A. Chev.) A. Chev. ‘Hayward’), a dioecious fruiting vine, as an exemplar, we used a spatially-explicit system of differential equations on a lattice to explore the effects of overlap of male and female flowers, hive placements within the orchard, and orchard layout on the predicted pollination success. In our model, hive placement and orchard layout influenced the proportion of fruit set in an orchard more strongly than male and female flowering synchrony. Simulations with hives distributed evenly around the orchard had the most fruit set, while hives located at a single point resulted in relatively low fruit set. Our model showed that the effect of hive distribution was more important for fruit production than planting regime. We have demonstrated how such a model can be used to provide key information for orchardists to optimize their yields. Our model predicts that while orchard planting decisions are important, the consideration of hive placement during flowering is likely to have greater influence on final orchard productivity in functionally dioecious crops.

Abstract Since Plato’s Republic, philosophers have outlined their expectations for political leaders and have offered judgments on the actions and decisions made by political leaders in their given context. It turns out that the American philosopher, William James, participates in this philosophical tradition. Although it has been assumed by professional philosophers—and even scholars of William James’s work—that James has no political philosophy, we argue that James’s political philosophy becomes both practical and useful for making judgments about and against political leaders.

Abstract Religion is often criticized for failing to uphold animal concerns, yet Zoroastrianism, an ancient religion that underlies the Abrahamic traditions as well as Eastern religions, offers some strikingly contemporary concerns regarding the kinship of human and nonhuman animals. Human and nonhuman animals alike have souls, free will, and life after death. In the middle of the second millennium BCE, Zoroaster called attention to the treatment of animals as necessary to the divine order and righteousness that has been disturbed by evil and sin. How humans treat animals also affects their own well-being in this world and the next.

Abstract 2 Enoch 58–59 provides an esoteric and somewhat eccentric delineation of attitudes toward the mistreatment of animals within some sect of Egyptian Judaism, in all probability. Three attitudes, having to do with the mistreatment of animals in failing to feed them properly, the wrongful binding of animals for sacrifice, and possible secret sexual exploitation of animals, are delineated along with warnings regarding the effects of such treatment on the human soul at the great judgment. This linking of how humans treat animals with how humans will be judged in “the great age” is unique in the literature of this period and demonstrates a deep concern for animal welfare that has been largely dormant in many facets of religion until more recent times.