Of Christianity and Shinto. Religions as Environmental Players (eBook)

Essay from the year 2023 in the subject Philosophy - Philosophy of the present, grade: 1,0, University of Aarhus, course: Climate Crisis - Philosophy, History, Politics, language: English, abstract: I want to examine the environmental shortcomings that lay within Christianity from a philosophical standpoint based upon White’s claims and finally present a religious alternative to appreciate nature, which we find in Japanese Shintō. At the end of this essay, we will receive an understanding of the idealistic foundations of religions, their negative consequences and potentials but also the insufficiencies of making use of religion for important concerns due to their nature.

We shall not underestimate the impact ideas and believes have on how we treat the environment around us. What people think affects their behavior towards nature and vice versa affects the environment, in which one lives, how he thinks. We are in an interplay with the environment and thus shall not underestimate the impact, how different cultures view the world.

One significant shaping force is religion and – considering the industrial impact of the Western powers – we must talk about a supposed correlation between Christianity and environmental ethics. The dominant religion of the Western industrial powers internalized and spread fallible tendencies, as historian Lynn White Jr. claims in his 1967 essay “The historical roots of our ecological crisis”.

It is not merely enlightenment that deprived nature of its sacred character, but also Christian cosmology itself.