Year: 2004
Type: article
Abstract: Environmentalism is a type of modem religion.This observation is not as controversial as it might seem.Indeed, many leading environmentalists have characterized their own efforts in religious terms.'Joseph Sax once wrote that he and fellow preservationists were "secular prophets, preaching a message of secular salvation." 2 Theodore Roszak stated in The Voice of the Earth that environmental objectives have a "frankly religious character,, 3 and that the ultimate environmental goal should be "to heal the soul of its wounds and guide it to salvation.' 4 John Muir, the founder of the Sierra Club, wrote of a desire to go to the "'high temples of the great Sierra Crown beyond our holy Yosemite"' in order to "'worship with Nature."' 5 Critics of environmentalism often agree that it is a form of religion-although for them it is a misguided faith.In her historical survey of ecology, Anna Bramwell concludes that, in the end, "the ecological movement" is a "global religion" that still "carries the burden of its heritage, the legacy of the crucifixion, symbol of death, suffering and self-surrender.
Author: Robert H. Nelson
Institution: University of Maryland, College Park
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2242405039