In modern history, sacred and sacramental understandings of nature have often been marginalised and criticized as primitive and superstitious. Today, these beliefs and practices increasingly present themselves as sources of overlooked ecological knowledge, and resources in our search for a sustainable human-nature relationship. This course focuses upon efforts to recover, reclaim and relegitimise alternative understandings of nature and traditional ecologies in the context of the contemporary environmental crisis. Students will deploy course readings as resources for considering a particular contemporary environmental challenge through field work culminating in a creative environmental project.
In modern history, sacred and sacramental understandings of nature have often been marginalised and criticized as primitive and superstitious. Today, these beliefs and practices increasingly present themselves as sources of overlooked ecological knowledge, and resources in our search for a sustainable human-nature relationship. This course focuses upon efforts to recover, reclaim and relegitimise alternative understandings of nature and traditional ecologies in the context of the contemporary environmental crisis. Students will deploy course readings as resources for considering a particular contemporary environmental challenge through field work culminating in a creative environmental project.
