ABSTRACT
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can ill-afford to overlook religion, for its prevalence worldwide (for better or worse) and for its multifaceted nature (as a source of ideas, values, and identity; as influential organizations and networks; and as provider of services). This importance is increasingly recognized in the development field, overcoming previous assumptions regarding secularization. Nevertheless, the presumed neutrality and universality of secular development is still often used to justify a merely instrumental relationship to religious actors. Reactions to the SDGs from various religions are surveyed, together with the emergence of “sustainable development” as a new site of religious rivalry. The most influential religious contribution to the debate, the encyclical Laudato Si’, is examined, above all its challenging of the SDGs’ inability to tackle systemic issues and their connections to larger economic, technological, ethical, and spiritual questions. The conclusion suggests: i) some forms of religion can question, not the science but the presuppositions and political forces behind the elaboration of the SDGs; ii) religion may need to play a key role as reconciler of democracy with limited economic possibilities and need for long-term thinking; iii) failure to handle the environmental crisis may lead to catastrophic upheavals in which apocalyptic forms of religiosity will flourish.
