Religion and Nature in a Globalizing World

Despite the recent series of electoral victories by populists seeking to capitalize on antipathy about globalization, our world remains radically interconnected. The planet’s ecosystems are just as dependent on global climatic processes as before; the world’s societies continue to experience intensifying levels of cultural exchange; and economies still operate with increasing disregard of limits, be those political borders or environmental tipping points. This historical moment seems fragile—it is, of course—but persons and communities remain as dynamic as ever in finding new ways to understand and respond to mounting environmental crises. Many scholars have, for the past several decades, attended to the role played by religion as a source for this dynamism.1 This Special Issue of Religions seeks to advance this expanding body of knowledge by paying particular attention to questions and issues related to globalization.2 The term globalization is put to work by people for whom it serves a range of purposes. For some, it is a descriptive term that captures the various processes of current historical period of intensified cultural and economic exchange among societies.3 For others, it designates a homogenization through which cultural differences and local livelihoods are eroded by the deracinating forces of international capitalism.4 Ironically, where this normative critique was once the province of leftist theoreticians, it now also circulates as a key talking point in resurgent rightwing nationalisms where traditionally powerful groups decry the arrival of immigrants and new cultural forms. Conceived nearly two years ago, at a time of apparent cosmopolitanism, this Special Issue aspires to capture the rich variety of relationships between religion and nature in a world characterized by vibrant cultural intermingling, by the exchange of knowledge and ideas across borders, and by concern about the threat of climate change shared by leaders in every country around the globe. That threat looms more largely than ever, and people—with their ideas, traditions, and gods—continue to circulate amongst one another with an intensity unprecedented in human history. However, conversations about religion and nature might seem more appropriately focused on local circumstances, parochial environmental knowledge, and community engagement. This is indeed the scholarly enterprise taken up in the several articles conjoined here, and yet, each of these essays points beyond the particular concerns of local religious communities toward broader conditions of globalization that are inherently woven into the fabric of contemporary religious life. For example, David Krantz’ article on shmita examines the historical and theological developments underpinning the emergence of ecologically-attenuated rituals among the global Jewish community. Shmita is a highly particular form of religious praxis, which we see here as renewed and re-interpreted in the face of new ethical questions. Sarah Robertson-Bertoni’s examination of Muslim American