ABSTRACT
Scholars have noted that environmental activism often has a spiritual dimension (Kearns and Keller 2007; Oelschlaeger 1996) and, furthermore, that environmental spirituality may be regarded as a religion in its own right (Taylor 2010). Bron Taylor (2010) identified these seemingly diffuse forms of nature spiritualities as “dark green religion,” a fast-growing form of religiosity with a coherent ideology and praxis despite its informal organization. As he further explores, many practitioners of dark green religion hope to create a new biocentric myth that will replace the anthropocentric Judeo-Christian worldview (2010: 99–100). A powerful motivator of environmentally salutary behaviors, dark green religion “seeks to end the world now unfolding, in order to prevent the end of the world as we have known it” (2010: 195).
