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John Grim
Environmental Ethicists in Residence
Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA
Update on the academic year 2006-2007
This past year I team-taught with Mary Evelyn Tucker the fall semester course titled “World Religions and Ecology: The Abrahamic Traditions and Indigenous Religions.” And the spring semester course “World Religions and Ecology: The Asian Religions.” The student response was enthusiastic as the subject matter explored how religions over their long histories have expanded bioethics to the biosphere in numerous and complex ways. Examples explored ranged, for example, from the traditional environmental knowledge of indigenous peoples to such literate collections as the Jewish Talmud, Christian Theology, and Islamic Shari'a, Over this past year, as Senior Scholar and Lecturer at the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Yale Divinity School, and the Department of Religious Studies at Yale College, made presentations in diverse academic, religious, and organizational settings on issues of religion and ecology. I participated in the executive committee of the Interdisciplinary Bioethics Center , continued my work with the Forum on Religion and Ecology, and guided, as president, the American Teilhard Association. This past year, participating in diverse activities of the Bioethics Center , has been enriching on so many intellectual, affective, communal, and personal levels. The staff and administrative leadership of the Center have been extraordinarily beneficial and resourceful in establishing the religion and ecology dialogue here at Yale.
Course offering for academic year 2007-2008
American Indian Religions and Ecology course, Fall 2007
This seminar course will introduce students to the plurality and diversity of American Indian peoples, languages, cultures, and relationships with ecosystems in North America . By focusing on a select number of native peoples the course will investigate the concept of “lifeways” as an understanding that religious beliefs and practices cannot be separated from other spheres of life such as governance, economics, politics, and social life. The larger agenda will be to study the connections between religious beliefs and practices of Native American societies with local bioregions. This place-based approach will examine the connections among such diverse expressions as origin myths, cosmologies, sacred sites, symbol systems, and rituals. By means of this concentration on sacred narrative, social structures, and ritual practices the course will explore the traditional environmental knowledge (TEK) with which American Indians have shaped their lifeways and their bioregions.
Reading Group in American Indian Religions and Ecology - fall semester
In the first of three meetings of this reading group we will briefly examine the plurality and diversity of American Indian peoples, languages, cultures, and relationships with ecosystems in North America . This first meeting will also focus on the Anishinabe/Ojibway peoples of the Great lakes region. Drawing on the narratives of Anishinabe elders we will investigate the concept of “lifeways,” namely, an understanding that religious beliefs and practices cannot be separated from other spheres of life such as governance, economics, politics, and social life. The second meeting will investigate the interactions of the Dineh/Navajo and Pueblo peoples of the Southwest with their home bioregions. We will examine the narratives and rituals of these native peoples in an effort to understand their place-based knowledge especially the linkage between religious identity and local bioregions. The final meeting will explore select origin myths, cosmologies, sacred sites, symbol systems, and rituals of Salish peoples and other language groups of the Northwest coast. Through this examination of sacred narratives, social structures, and ritual practices the reading group will explore the traditional environmental knowledge (TEK) with which these coastal peoples and American Indians have shaped their lifeways and their bioregions.
For further information, please contact carol.pollard@yale.edu .