An assessment of Buddhist eco-philosophy

Harvard Theological Review

Volumn 99, Issue 2, 2006, Pages 123-137

  Swearer, Donald K ^a  

^a HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 67649713899     PISSN: 00178160     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/s0017816006001179     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (50)

1. Lambert Schmithausen, Buddhism and Nature (Tokyo: International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 1991) 2
2. Lynn White, Jr. "The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis," Science 15 (10 March, 1967) 1203-7. White's essay created a storm of controversy
3. For example, see Elspeth Whitney, "Lynn White, Ecotheology, and History," Environmental Ethics 15 (1993) 151-69
4. James M. Gustafson, A Sense of the Divine: The Natural Environment from a Theocentric Perspective (Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 1994) 77-110
5. Gustafson characterizes these attitudes as "ideal types" in the Weberian sense - mental constructs for heuristic purposes and not necessarily a class into which anything fits perfectly. See also, Peter Harrison, "Subduing the Earth: Genesis 1, Early Modern Science, and the Exploitation of Nature," Journal of Religion 79:1 (January, 1999) 86-109
6. A major contribution to the field of religion and ecology has been made by the Forum on Religion and Ecology, which grew out of a series of eleven conferences that took place at the Center for the Study of World Religions. Nine conference volumes have been published including Christianity and Ecology: Seeking the Well-Being of Earth and Humans, eds. Dieter T. Hessel and RoseMary Radford Ruether (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Center for the Study of World Religions, 2000)
7. This collection of articles provides the most comprehensive overview of work by Christian theologians and ethicists in the field of Christianity and ecology. Among recent particularly noteworthy contributions to eco-theology are Sallie McFague, Super, Natural Christians: How We Should Love Nature (Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 1997)
8. and Mark I. Wallace, Finding God in the Singing River: Christianity, Spirit, Nature (Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 2005)
9. My taxonomy differs from the one proposed by Ian Harris in "Causation and Telos: The Problem of Buddhist Environmental Ethics," Journal of Buddhist Ethics 1 (1994) 46-59, which he develops as follows: 1) uncritical endorsement of Buddhist environmental ethics by traditional guardians of doxic truth such as the Dalai Lama; 2) positive interpretations by Japanese and North American activist scholars focusing on identifying dOctrinal bases from which an environmental ethic can be constructed (e.g. universal Buddha nature); 3) a critical, historical perspective represented by Lambert Schmithausen who attempts to devise an authentic response to the environmental crisis; 4) the rejection of the possibility of Buddhist environmental ethics on textual and historical grounds exemplified by Noriaki Hakamaya
10. For Lambert Schmithausen's analysis of Noriaka Hakamaya see Buddhism and Nature (1990) 53-62
11. In "Getting to Grips with Buddhist Environmentalism: A Provisional Typology," Journal of Buddhist Ethics (1995), Ian Harris finds four types of discourses among eco-Buddhists: eco-spirituality, eco-justice, eco-traditionalism, and eco-apologists
12. Allan Hunt Badiner, ed. Dharma Gaia: A Harvest of Essays in Buddhism and Ecology (Berkeley, Calif.: Parallax Press, 1990), xiv-xv
13. Badiner, ed. Dharma Gaia
14. Martine Batchelor and Kerry Brown, eds. Buddhism and Ecology (New York, N.Y.: Cassell, 1992)
15. Stephanie Kaza and Kenneth Kraft, eds. Dharma Rain: Sources of Buddhist Environmentalism (Boston, Mass.: Shambhala Publications, 2000)
16. Francis, H. Cook, "The Jewel Net of Indra," in Nature in Asian Traditions of Thought (Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1989), 215
17. Stewart McFarlane, "Nature and Buddha-nature: The Ecological Dimensions of East Asian Buddhism Critically Considered." (kr.buddhism.org/zenkoan/stewart-mcfarlane.htm)
18. Lily De Sliva, "Early Buddhist Attitudes toward Nature," in Dharma Rain: Sources of Buddhist Environmentalism (ed. Stephanie Kaza and Kenneth Kraft; Boston, Mass.: Shambala Publications, 2000), 96-97
19. Stephanie Kaza, "Planting Seeds of Joy," in Earth and Spirit (ed. Fritz Hull; New York, N.Y.: Continuum, 1993), 137
20. Bhikkhu Buddhadāsa, Phutasasanik Kap Kan Anurak Thamachat [Buddhists and the Care of Nature] (Bangkok: Komol Thimthong Foundation, 1990), 35
21. Joanna Macy, "The Greening of the Self," in Dharma Gaia (ed. Allan Hunt Badiner; Berkeley: Parallax Press, 1990) 53-63, at 56
22. Donald K. Swearer, "Principles and Poetry, Places and Stories: The Resources of Buddhist Ecology," Daedalus 130 (2001) 225-241, at 226
23. Kaza, "Planting Seeds of Joy," 139
24. Lambert Schmithausen, "The Early Buddhist Tradition and Ecological Ethics," Journal of Buddhist Ethics 4 (1997) 1-74, at 46
25. Schmithausen, "Early Buddhist Tradition," 42
26. Ian Harris, "Buddhism and Ecology," in Contemporary Buddhist Ethics (Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 2000) 113
27. Ian Harris, "How Environmentalist Is Buddhism?" Religion 21 (1991) 105
28. John McClellan satirizes ecological non-dualism in "Nodual Ecology," Tricycle (1993), 60, "In any discussion of deep Ecology - or rocks, clouds, rivers, and mountains - one should include kitchen tables, cars, computers, stuffed animals, and nuclear reactors."
29. Ian Harris, "Buddhist Environmental Ethics and Detraditionalization: The Case of EcoBuddhism," Religion 25 (1995), 205
30. Ian Harris, "Getting to Grips with Buddhist Environmentalism: A Provisional Typology," Journal of Buddhist Ethics (1995), 173
31. Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1990)
32. Harris, "Getting to Grips," 175
33. Harris, "Getting to Grips," 207
34. Schmithausen, Buddhism and Nature, 32
35. Schmithausen, "Early Buddhist Tradition," 11
36. Schmithausen, "Early Buddhist Tradition," 12-13
37. P. A. Payutto, Khon Thai Kap Pa [Thais and the Forest] (Bangkok: Association for Agriculture and Biology, 1994) 22-23
38. Payutto, Khon Tahi Kap Pa, 33
39. Sulak Sivaraksa, Conflict, Culture, Change: Engaged Buddhism in a Globalizing World (Boston, Mass.: Wisdom Publications, 2005) 36
40. Ernst Friedrich Schumacher, Small is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as if People Mattered (London: Blond and Briggs, 1973) 56
41. Damien Keown, The Nature of Buddhist Ethics (New York, N.Y.: St. Martins Press, 1993) 193
42. James Whitehill, "Buddhism and the Virtues," in Contemporary Buddhist Ethics (ed. Damien Keown; Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 2000) 24-26
43. David E. Cooper and Simon P. James, Buddhism, Virtue and Environment (Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2005)
44. For a forthcoming book on a virtues approach to environmental ethics, see Pragati Sahni, Environmental Ethics: A Virtues Approach (London: Routledge, 2006)
45. Donald K. Swearer, "Principles and Poetry," 231
46. Bangkok Post 30 (April 5, 1986) 5
47. I have discussed this case at greater length in Swearer, "Principles and Poetry," 225-41
48. Swearer, "Principles and Poetry," 240
49. Susan M. Darlington, "The Ordination of a Tree: The Buddhist Ecology Movement in Thailand," Ethnology 37 (1998) 1-15
50. Schmithausen, "Early Buddhist Tradition," 6