HUM 1500 Faith and Sustainable Lifestyles

Join Nurya Love Parish and Ragan Sutterfield for an inspirational discussion about ecology from a faith lens. Plus practical ideas for your church or faith community.

Living the Change is a free feature-length documentary that explores solutions to the global crises we face today – solutions any one of us can be part of – through the inspiring stories of people pioneering change in their own lives and in their communities to live in a sustainable and regenerative way. Directors Jordan Osmond and Antoinette Wilson have brought together stories from their travels, along with interviews with experts able to explain how we came to be where we are today. From forest gardens to composting toilets, and community-supported agriculture to time banking, Living the Change offers ways we can rethink our approach to how we live. Subtitles available in: Bulgarian, Chinese, Czech, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Serbian, Spanish, and Vietnamese.

July 6, 2021 | A new book series, Religion Matters: On the Significance of Religion in Global Issues, published by Routledge, examines the role of religion in current challenges by using the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) as the overarching framework. This series of short books aims to assist academics, policymakers, and practitioners in better understanding the role of religion in matters of global and public relevance, including conflict, development, and climate change. It takes an interreligious, interdisciplinary, and international approach and is written by and for academics, practitioners, and policymakers by teams of two to four authors representing different religions, disciplines, and contexts. A panel of authors who are contributing to the series introduced Religion Matters and elaborated on the different volumes. Christine Schliesser analyzed religion both as a contributor of conflict and a constructive resource for conflict resolution and reconciliation. Philip McDonagh argued that the sustainable development goals are a global roadmap, our guide to a just transition in response to climate change, and that diplomacy has everything to gain from engaging more creatively with religions, worldviews, and human values. Ruby Quantson Davis explored the complex relationship between religion and deliberative democracy, and Elisabet le Roux explained how she and co-author Sandra Pertek unite the perspectives of two different faith traditions (Christianity and Islam) in an analytical and practical exploration of how religion matters in the safety and vulnerability of women and girls. S. Ayse Kadayifci-Orellana provided an introduction, and Senior Fellow Katherine Marshall moderated the conversation.

The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are an immense effort to plan, deliver, and measure global development, from the provision of basic needs to averting ecological catastrophe and achieving more equitable societies. With their emphasis on sustainability, the SDGs seek to map out a locally adaptable framework that was devised in the largest civil society consultation ever held. Arguably, religious actors are key to securing local adaptability and sustainability in development cooperation, given their propensity to organise political communities, to translate global ideals into vernacular idioms, and to formulate ethical positions that may or may not be in line with some of the goals and targets the UN seeks to deliver. Yet as current research indicates, religious development actors have hardly been involved in the SDG planning so far and are often sidelined in its implementation. Based on insights from a series of workshops and interviews with local and global faith-based organizations in Ethiopia and India, Dr. Jörg Haustein, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, will show why the UN has failed to mobilize religious communities and faith actors around the SDGs in both countries and what must change in to include them in a real grass-roots approach to sustainable development.

This interfaith conference addresses the issues and challenges of maintaining a sustainable planet. Focused on ways to engage, panelists examine the overlapping moral issues of climate change, sustainability, social justice, and mindfulness through the lenses of many of the world's religious traditions.

"A Simpler Way: Crisis as Opportunity" is a free-to-view, feature-length documentary that follows a community in Australia who have come together to explore and demonstrate a simpler way to live in response to global crises. Throughout the year the group build tiny houses, plant veggie gardens, practice simple living and permaculture principles, and discover the challenges of living in community. This documentary, our very first!, was shot while we were living on the property for the entire year as part of the community. The documentary includes interviews with David Holmgren, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Nicole Foss, Ted Trainer, Graham Turner, and more.

5th Capacity-building Hub Day 4: Private Finance Capacities Day Event: Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) Strategy for Quantifying ESG Factors

Rabbi David Rosen, AJC International Director of Interreligious Affairs spoke about the religious basis for environmental sustainability and addressing climate change. At the event, a new letter signed by 40 Israeli Orthodox rabbis, including Rabbi Rosen, was released, calling for action on climate change. If you are interested in learning more about religion and its link to sustainability, check out our video on faith-inspired eco-action!