climate change

Good evening, everyone! First of all, hearty congratulations to my fellow graduating students of class of 2017! Secondly, I would like to thank the teachers, staff, and trustees of GTU for all that you have done for us, and for being the guardians of intellectual freedom, integrity, and creativity at GTU. All my life I have dreamt and aspired to get a doctorate, and today I am getting one, and that itself is a dream come true. But to share a few thoughts on this occasion makes it even more special, and I am deeply humbled and profoundly thankful for this opportunity.

By Michael A. Smith

from Currents Fall 2014

In light of the disturbing statistics surrounding climate change, theologians, social justice activists, and people of faith must carefully consider the degree to which the environmental movement has historically marginalized the most vulnerable populations. While we are learning more and more about the tragic environmental consequences of lifestyles built on affluence, convenience, and disposability, what we often fail to see is the catastrophic impact of environmental...

By Carol Robb

from Currents Fall 2014

A 2011 survey by the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland and its affiliate, the Program on International Policy Attitudes, found a solid majority (65 percent) of those who said they “believe in God” see reducing global poverty and hunger as a spiritual obligation. However, only 15 percent of those same believers said they understand preventing climate change to be a spiritual obligation. It’s not that people do not see global climate change as a problem...

Book Review—Saving Beauty: A Theological Aesthetics of Nature by Kathryn B. Alexander

by Nathan Michon

from Currents Fall 2014

A 2013 graduate of the GTU (PhD in systematic theology) and associate rector at Christ Episcopal Church in Little Rock, Arkansas, Kathryn B. Alexander takes us on a beautiful journey in her recent book, Saving Beauty: A Theological Aesthetics of Nature...

By Chaitanya Motupalli

from Currents Fall 2014

Even before I came to the GTU to begin my doctoral studies in environmental ethics, two facts were glaringly evident to me. The first is that the earth and its communities—both human and nonhuman—are at a historic moment, sandwiched between the blunders of the past and the possibilities of the future. The second truth is that we humans, being the “touchstone species,” as Charles Mann puts it in his book 1491, have a unique role to play in the context of the ecological...

By Taigen Dan Leighton

from Currents Fall 2014

Buddhist spiritual teachings offer rich paradigms for seeing our deep interconnectedness and integration with the natural world. These can serve as encouraging bases for responding to climate change and indeed to all environmental concerns.

Numerous Buddhist scriptures express the sacred element found in all reality, understanding nature itself as a vital agent of liberation and healing. In this view, even supposedly nonsentient beings such as trees, flowers, and...

  by Laurie Zoloth

from Currents Fall 2014

The monsoon rains come every summer and only rarely, in the past, would the rains overwhelm the villages. “But now the terrible floods come every year,” says the Kashmiri farmer. Look at the picture of the dry lakebed, result of the worse drought ever. “It’s the hottest year on record,” says the California rancher. “We are fighting the fires like it is a war.” Three thousand miles away, a Brooklyn carpenter laments: “Here’s the line that marks the flooded zone.”...