Religion and Ecological Sustainability in China

摘要

The unique contribution of this volume to the study of Chinese religions and nature is obvious from the introduction, where the editors set forth the trans-disciplinary approach framing the book. While consciously building on characteristics of the field of religion and ecology, this volume seeks to "expand the study of religion and ecology further into other disciplines in the social sciences and humanities, especially anthropology, ethnology, and sociology" (4). The editors state that expanding the notion of religion is needed in the Chinese context because the strength of secular beliefs has produced "all sorts of religiosities" (5), most of which need a broadened definition of religion to be addressed accurately. This transdisciplinary approach is clearly evidenced in the collection of essays, which marks a departure from other volumes on Asian religions and ecology. Although some essays take specific Chinese religions as their theme, other more ethnographic essays focus on the ways in which beliefs about nature (mostly based in Chinese culture) intersect with, inform, and complicate a community's environmental action or activism. The editors have divided the book into two parts that broadly reflect these two approaches to religion and nature in China.