ABSTRACT

Much has been made of the radical nature of green1 political, economic and social proposals, less of the analysis of what lies behind, or has motivated humanity’s forward march into its contemporary environmental predicament. Our concern in this chapter is with the beliefs concerning the fundamental nature of the crisis, in particular its primary cause in human attitudes to nature and religion’s role in this respect. As we shall see, this role has been ambiguous or implicit, but recently has been changing. But first of all, some background.