One Planet, One Spirit

Searching for an Ecologically Balanced Spirituality

Authors

  • Ursula King University of Bristol

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/ecot.10.1.66.63262

Keywords:

Teilhard, evolution, spirituality, one planet, biosphere

Abstract

This special issue of Ecotheology on Pierre Teilhard de Chardin provides a suitable setting for discussing the contemporary search for an ecologically balanced spirituality. From early on in his scientific career, Teilhard was conscious of the emergence of human evolution within the larger setting of cosmic and planetary evolution, and the closely interwoven relationships of the entire web of life were an integral part of his scientific, religious and mystical insights. The emerging spirituality of an unfolding noosphere is intimately connected with the co-evolution and convergence of our biological, mental and social environments. I will examine the important theme of a newly evolving ecological spirituality from four different perspectives: (1) our new consciousness of one planet; (2) the connections between ecology, spirituality, and the world as a whole; (3) the ecological re-visioning of spirituality through recognizing the mutual embeddedness of the biosphere and noosphere; (4) the resources of our global spiritual heritage for an ecologically balanced spirituality.

Author Biography

  • Ursula King, University of Bristol
    Professor Emerita and Senior Research Fellow, University of Bristol, 1 Salisbury Road, Bristol, BS6 7AL

References

Berry, Thomas 1999 The Great Work (New York: Bell Tower).

Club of Rome Report 1991 The First Global Revolution (New York: Simon & Schuster).

Cousins, Ewert (ed.) 1985– World Spirituality: An Encyclopaedic History of the Religious Quest (New York: Crossroad Publishing Company).

Fabel, Arthur and St John, Donald (eds.) 2003 Teilhard in the 21st Century: The Emerging Spirit of the Earth (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books).

Franklin, S., C. Lury and J. Stacy 2000 Global Nature, Global Culture (London: Sage).

Goodenough, Ursula 2000 The Sacred Depths of Nature (New York: Oxford University Press).

Hallman, David G. 1994 Ecotheology: Voices from South and North (Geneva: WCC Publications; Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books).

Haught, John F. 2002 In Search of a God for Evolution: Paul Tillich and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (Teilhard Studies, 45; New York: American Teilhard Association for the Future of Man).

Hobsbawm, Eric 2002 ‘War and Peace’, The Guardian (23 February).

Independent Commission Report 1996 Independent Commission on Population and Quality of Life: Caring for the Future, Making the Next Decades Provide a Life Worth Living (Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press).

King, Ursula 1989 The Spirit of One Earth: Reflections on Teilhard de Chardin and Global Spirituality (New York: Paragon House).

‘Love—A Higher form of Human Energy in the work of Teilhard de Chardin and Sorokin’, Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 39/1 (March): 77-102.

Küng, Hans 1991 Global Responsibility: In Search of a New World Ethic (London: SCM Press).

Küng, Hans, and Karl-Josef Kuschel 1993 A Global Ethic: The Declaration of the Parliament of the World’s Religions (London: SCM Press).

Le Roy, Edouard 1927 L’exigence idéaliste et le fait de l’évolution (Paris: Boivin).

Marie-Daly, Bernice 1991 Ecofeminism: Sacred Matter/Sacred Mother (Teilhard Studies, 25; New York: American Teilhard Association for the Future of Man).

McMenamin, Mark A.S. 2001 Evolution of the Noosphere (Teilhard Studies, 42; New York: American Teilhard Association for the Future of Man).

Merchant, Carolyn 1992 Radical Ecology (London/New York: Routledge).

Midgley, Mary 2002 Evolution as a Religion (London/New York: Routledge).

Mooney, Christopher 1987 ‘Teilhard de Chardin’, in M. Eliade (ed.), The Encyclopaedia of Religion (Chicago: Macmillan Publishing Company), XIV: 366-68.

Ridd, Kevin 2003 ‘Beyond Stewardship: The Search for a Truly Ecological Christian Spirituality’ (University of Bristol PhD thesis).

Robertson, Roland 1987 ‘Globalization Theory and Civilisational Analysis’, Comparative Civilisational Review 17: 20-30.

Samson, Paul R., and David Pitt (eds.) 1999 The Biosphere and Noosphere Reader: Global Environment, Society and Change (London/New York: Routledge).

Steger, Manfred B. 2003 Globalization: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: OUP).

Suess, Eduard 1875 Die Entstehung der Alpen (The Origin of the Alps) (Prague: F. Tempsky).

–24 The Face of the Earth (Oxford: Clarendon Press).

Swimme, Brian 1996 The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos (Maryknoll/New York: Orbis Books).

Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre 1921 La Face de la Terre Études: 585-602 (5-20 décembre 1921) (reprinted in Volume III of Oeuvres, La Vision du Passé [Paris: Édition du Seuil, 1957]: 41-69; English translation in The Vision of the Past [London: Collins, 1966]: 26-48).

a The Future of Man (London: Collins).

b ‘The Formation of the Noosphere. A Biological Interpretation of Human History’, in Teilhard de Chardin 1964a: 7-35; first published in Revue des Questions Scientifiques (Louvain, 1947): 7-35.

a The Vision of the Past (London: Collins).

b Man’s Place in Nature (London: Collins).

Hymn of the Universe (London: Collins Fount Paperbacks).

Tucker, Mary Evelyn 1985 The Ecological Spirituality of Teilhard (Teilhard Studies, 13; New York: American Teilhard Association for the Future of Man).

Education and Ecology: Earth Literacy and the Technological Trance (Teilhard Studies, 28; New York: American Teilhard Association for the Future of Man).

‘The Emerging Alliance of Religion and Ecology’, Worldviews: Environment, Culture, Religion 1: 3-24.

Tucker, Mary Evelyn, and John Grim 2003 ‘Introduction’, in Arthur Fabel and Donald St John (eds.), Teilhard in the 21st Century: The Emerging Spirit of Earth (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books): 1-12.

Wilson, Edward O. 2002 The Future of Life (London: Little, Brown).

Published

2005-02-24

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

King, U. (2005). One Planet, One Spirit: Searching for an Ecologically Balanced Spirituality. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 10(1), 66-87. https://doi.org/10.1558/ecot.10.1.66.63262