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Religions and Beliefs:

a way to enhance sustainability


Sunardi Sudianto

Master Programme on Environmental Studies, School of Graduate Studies

UNIVERSITAS PADJADJARAN
What is sustainability, and why does it matter?

Sustainability literally means the capacity to endure over time.


Symbolically, it refers to what is of true values, what is good, genuine and
resilient, which can stand the test of time. Sustainability associates with
balance and equity in a comprehensive approach, which acknowledges our
dependence on the health of natural systems for our survival and well- being,
the limit carrying capacity of the Earth and the detrimental impact of
unchecked human activities.
Thus, sustainability strives for balance among the interconnected ecological,
economic and social systems. As implied from the most popular definition of
sustainable development
So sustainability is concerned with our long term, interdependent relationship
with the resources we need to survive that are only found in or derived from our
natural environment and resources. The idea is that we create a perspective
that does not begin and end with us, but transcends to future generations

Master Programme on Environmental Studies, School of Graduate Studies

UNIVERSITAS PADJADJARAN
Challenges to Sustainability

Sustainabilty is not a matter of technology or science, it is


about human culture
Ecological crisis is also a crisis of culture and of the human spirit

Master Programme on Environmental Studies, School of Graduate Studies

UNIVERSITAS PADJADJARAN
Do we need religions for sustainable
development?
religion is an orientation to the cosmos and to our role in it
Many of these characteristics give religion substantial influence over the
environment. Worldviews shape attitudes toward the natural world;
rituals have been used to govern resource use, especially among
indigenous peoples; ethics influences resource use and distribution; and
institutional power can shape behaviors and policies in ways that affect
the environment, for better or worse
religion is now emerging alongside race, gender, and ethnicity as one of
the key identity markers of the twentieth century
two contested twenty-first century identity markers: religion and
sustainability

Master Programme on Environmental Studies, School of Graduate Studies

UNIVERSITAS PADJADJARAN
The potential power of religion
Adherent estimates in 2012

Master Programme on Environmental Studies, School of Graduate Studies

UNIVERSITAS PADJADJARAN
If the development crisis is in many ways intimately interwoven
with religion, to decouple environmental and social problems
from religion would be a retrogressive step for sustainable
development

if the cause of environmental problems lies in religious


ideologies, then the solutions must rise from the same source

Master Programme on Environmental Studies, School of Graduate Studies

UNIVERSITAS PADJADJARAN
What do we get from religion?

Master Programme on Environmental Studies, School of Graduate Studies

UNIVERSITAS PADJADJARAN
Is sustainable development enough?

Negative imaginations of religions:


Christianity has borne the guilt for the ecological destruction of the planet
(Lyn Whyte, 1967). Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and
subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the
sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth (Genesis 1)
Hinduism is often seen in India as complicit in legitimizing social repression
through the caste system
Hinduism has also been misappropriated for sanctioning untrammelled
consumption
Islam, it is oftentimes seen, particularly in the popular imagination, as
incompatible with development altogether because of the repression of
women in many Islamic cultures

Master Programme on Environmental Studies, School of Graduate Studies

UNIVERSITAS PADJADJARAN
Role of religions to sustainability

A. RELIGION OFFERS VALUES:


the Christian notion of caritas as one vital way for religion to fill
developments blind spot and calls for the restoration of the notion as a
non-utopian source of inspiration for the alleviation of human suffering

Hindu dharma or notion of duty or ethics or the right means as the


potential for the most profitable connections between Hindu religion and
sustainable development to be made

Master Programme on Environmental Studies, School of Graduate Studies

UNIVERSITAS PADJADJARAN
In Islam:
Doctrine of tawheed or Oneness of God, bear the notion of one
universe and one system, no demarcation between man (society) and
nature (ecology), natural-supranatural
Principle of adalah or justice
We sent our messengers supported by clear proofs, and we sent
down to them the Book and the balance, that the people may uphold
justice. (Al-Hadid (57): 16
The concept of rahmat lil aalamin or mercy onto universe
We have sent you out of mercy from us towards the whole
world. (Al-Anbiya (21): 107)

Master Programme on Environmental Studies, School of Graduate Studies

UNIVERSITAS PADJADJARAN
B. RELIGION DRIVES ECOLOGICAL & SOCIAL ACTIVISMS

Eco-pesantren
Indonesia

Sarvodaya Shramadana
Movement
in Sri Lanka

Chipko movement of the 1980s


in India

Master Programme on Environmental Studies, School of Graduate Studies

UNIVERSITAS PADJADJARAN
C. CAPACITY OF ENABLING SELF DEVELOPMENT

The religions have capacity to shape cosmologies (worldviews); moral


authority

The capacity to influence cosmology, therefore, translates into influence


over ethics, and in turn, influence over behavior

Master Programme on Environmental Studies, School of Graduate Studies

UNIVERSITAS PADJADJARAN
Religion: in the nexus of science - society-
sustainability

SOCIETY
SCIENCE Negotiation of
salience, Goals, Values
Scientific credibility,
knowledge legitmicay
Religion & Belief

Sustainable
Behavior

Master Programme on Environmental Studies, School of Graduate Studies

UNIVERSITAS PADJADJARAN

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