Living Earth Community: Multiple Ways of Being and Knowing is a celebration of the diversity of ways in which humans can relate to the world around them, and an invitation to its readers to partake in planetary coexistence. Innovative, informative, and highly accessible, this interdisciplinary anthology of essays brings together scholars, writers and educators across the sciences and humanities, in a collaborative effort to illuminate the different ways of being in the world and the different kinds of knowledge they entail – from the ecological knowledge of Indigenous communities, to the scientific knowledge of a biologist and the embodied knowledge communicated through storytelling. This anthology examines the interplay between Nature and Culture in the setting of our current age of ecological crisis, stressing the importance of addressing these ecological crises occurring around the planet through multiple perspectives. These perspectives are exemplified through diverse case studies – from the political and ethical implications of thinking with forests, to the capacity of storytelling to motivate action, to the worldview of the Indigenous Okanagan community in British Columbia. Living Earth Community: Multiple Ways of Being and Knowing synthesizes insights from across a range of academic fields, and highlights the potential for synergy between disciplinary approaches and inquiries. This anthology is essential reading not only for researchers and students, but for anyone interested in the ways in which humans interact with the community of life on Earth, especially during this current period of environmental emergency.

"Academic (finite) co-travellers who will dare to accept are invited in the ecotheological 'Anthropocene period' to journey together (without a roadmap), exploring the probing and unnerving question, 'What is God up to?' This question is exploringly posed and rigorously pursued in the book. The reader will find themselves enraptured by the breadth, depth, and height of a methodological approach to the uncharted landscape of the mystery of an (infinite) God, as well as sense-making narratives of our world--contextually and receptively and constructively, as well as sensitively." --Prof. Danie Veldsman, Department Systematic and Historical Theology, Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa "Since we live on a 'planet in peril', this proposed ecotheology summa is both timely and significant. This book and the series as a whole engage the perennial themes of systematic Christian theology from the perspective of the multiple strands of ecological reflection. I look forward to reading all the volumes of the 'An Earthed Faith: Telling the Story amid the "Anthropocene book series." --Prof. Susan Rakoczy, St. Joseph's Theological Institute, Cedara, South Africa

This book lays out the principles and practices of transformative sustainability education using a relational way of thinking and being. Elizabeth A. Lange advocates for a new approach to environmental and sustainability education, that of rethinking the Western way of knowing and being and engendering a frank discussion about the societal elements that are generating climate, environmental, economic, and social issues. Highlighting the importance of Indigenous and life-giving cultures, the book covers educational theory, transformation stories of adult learners, social and economic critique, and visions of changemakers. Each chapter also has a strong pedagogical element, with entry points for learners and embodied practices and examples of taking action at micro/meso/macro levels woven throughout. Overall, this book enacts a relational approach to transformative sustainability education that draws from post humanist theory, process thought, relational ontology, decolonization theory, Indigenous philosophy, and a spirituality that builds a sense of sacred towards the living world. Written in an imaginative, storytelling manner, this book will be a great resource for formal and nonformal environmental and sustainability educators.

In Decolonial Ecologies: The Reinvention of Natural History in Latin American Art, Joanna Page illuminates the ways in which contemporary artists in Latin America are reinventing historical methods of collecting, organizing, and displaying nature in order to develop new aesthetic and political perspectives on the past and the present. Page brings together an entirely new corpus of artistic projects from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, and Peru that engage critically and creatively with forms as diverse as the medieval bestiary, baroque cabinets of curiosities, atlases created by European travellers to the New World, the floras and herbaria composed by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century naturalists, and the dioramas designed for natural history museums. She explores how artists develop decolonial and post-anthropocentric perspectives on the collections and expeditions that were central to the evolution of European natural history. Their works forge a critique of the rationalizing approach to nature taken by modern Western science, reconnecting it with forms of popular, indigenous and spiritual knowledge and experience that it has systematically excluded since the Enlightenment. Drawing on photography, video, illustration, sculpture, and installation, this vividly illustrated and lucidly written book (also available in premium quality in hardback edition) explores how these artworks might also deconstruct the apocalyptic visions of environmental change that often dominate Western thought, developing a renewed understanding of alternative ways in which humans might co-inhabit the natural world.

This book draws on the life stories told by shepherds, farmers, and their families in the Andalusian region in Spain to sketch out the landscapes, actions, and challenges of people who work in pastoralism. Their narratives highlight how local practices interact with regional and European communities and policies, and they help us see a broader role for extensive grazing practices and sustainability. A Country of Shepherds is timely, reflecting the growing interest in ecological farming methods as well as the Spanish government’s recent work with UNESCO to recognise the seasonal movement of herd animals in the Iberian Peninsula as an Intangible Cultural Heritage. Demonstrating the critical role of tradition, cultural geographies, and sustainability in the Mediterranean, this book will appeal to academicians but also to general readers who seek to understand, in very human terms, the impact of the world-wide environmental crisis we are now experiencing.

A critical and timely collection, Land as Relation introduces readers to an intersectional approach to Indigenous space and land-based education. Indigenous and ally-partnered contributors, from elders to emerging and established scholars, share teachings and scholarship grounded in Indigenous knowledge and philosophy. These diverse perspectives on Indigenous pedagogies are intersected with content surrounding Indigenous languages, sciences, mathematics, arts, health, and governance. Divided into three parts, this text defines the interrelatedness of global Indigenous land protectors and educators, and the significant impact of Indigenous knowledges, language, and ceremonies on the collective social, spiritual, and physical wellness of all living beings. Land as Relation demonstrates that Indigenous resistance and renaissance is essential for learners everywhere to understand how a collective notion of land education contributes to walking in harmony and balance, not only for themselves, but for their families, the larger communities that they are a part of, and the world. This collection is an accessible and engaging core resource for undergraduate and graduate students of education, Indigenous studies, geography, and environmental studies. FEATURES - Grounded in Indigenous knowledge systems and provides practical examples of how land-based pedagogies can be applied in different communities and contexts - Features contributions from noted and upcoming Indigenous and ally-partnered scholars who have been gifted access to elders and deep cultural and linguistic knowledges of Indigenous nations - Includes learning aids such as end-of-chapter discussion questions, maps, photographs, and other visual tools

This first volume in the proposed series will address some preliminary issues that are typical of a 'prolegomena' in any systematic theology. It will focus on the following question: 'How does the story of who the Triune God is and what this God does relate to the story of life on Earth?' Or: 'Is the Christian story part of the earth’s story or is the earth’s story part of God’s story, from creation to consummation?' This raises many issues on the relatedness of religion and theology, the place of theology in multi-disciplinary collaboration, the notion of revelation, the possibility of knowledge of God, the interplay between convictions and narrative accounts, hermeneutics, the difference between natural theology and a theology of nature, and the role of science vis-à-vis indigenous worldviews.

Currently there is an enduring and changing meaning of social work in a world where new crises are being confronted and new opportunities are arriving in the evolving context of social work and the related disciplines. There is a question on how to manage the transformation of social work both productively and creatively during this global shift. Practitioners and educators can experience a tragic disorientation when confronted by the diversity and depth of these crises endured and can face doubts about their role in social work throughout all these changes and difficult situations. Alternatives to this disorientation, a comfort with uncertainty, and a capability to take risks need to urgently be developed on a professional and personal level for success in the evolving field. Through historical lens and a review of policies and value-based approaches, the recontextualization of social work can be explored. Practical and Political Approaches to Recontextualizing Social Work explores practical and political ways in which social work practice has been reconstructed. Chapters identify this recontextualization of social work and how it is changing, adapting, and transforming the profession along with providing the potential implications for the profession. This book grants insight on the reconstruction of social work on the personal and interpersonal level (“case” work) and also on those intending to impact social work on the local/global environment level in all dimensions: politically, economically, socially, and ecologically. In addition, the book includes a shift from the present short-term and micro/personal view to a future and much broader and encompassing perspective and practice vision. This book is essential for social workers, practitioners, policymakers, government officials, researchers, academicians, and students who want to learn more about the recontextualizing of modern social work in a shifting global environment.

Environmental Humanities in the New Himalayas: Symbiotic Indigeneity, Commoning, Sustainability showcases how the eco-geological creativity of the earth is integrally woven into the landforms, cultures, and cosmovisions of modern Himalayan communities. Unique in scope, this book features case studies from Bhutan, Assam, Sikkim, Tibet, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sino-Indian borderlands, many of which are documented by authors from indigenous Himalayan communities. It explores three environmental characteristics of modern Himalayas: the anthropogenic, the indigenous, and the animist. Focusing on the sentient relations of human-, animal-, and spirit-worlds with the earth in different parts of the Himalayas, the authors present the complex meanings of indigeneity, commoning and sustainability in the Anthropocene. In doing so, they show the vital role that indigenous stories and perspectives play in building new regional and planetary environmental ethics for a sustainable future. Drawing on a wide range of expert contributions from the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanist disciplines, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental humanities, religion and ecology, indigenous knowledge and sustainable development more broadly.

"When people talk about religion, most soon mention the major religious traditions of our times, but then, thinking further, most mention as well the religions of Indigenous peoples and of such vanished civilizations as ancient Greece and Egypt and Persia. That is, we have come to understand that there are-and have been-many different religions; anthropologists estimate the total in the thousands. They also estimate that there have been thousands of human cultures, which is to say that the making of a culture and the making of its religion go together: each religion is embedded in its cultural history. True, certain religions have attempted, and variously succeeded, in crossing cultural boundaries to "convert the heathens," but the invaded cultures usually put their unmistakable stamp on what they import, as evinced by the pulsating percussive Catholic masses sung in Africa. In the end, each of these religions addresses two fundamental human concerns: How Things Are and Which Things Matter. How Things Are is articulated as a Cosmology or Cosmos: How the natural world came to be, how humans came to be, what happens after we die, the origins of evil and tragedy and natural disaster and love. Which Things Matter becomes codified as a Morality or Ethos: the Judaic Ten Commandments, the Christian Sermon on the Mount, the Five Pillars of Islam, the Buddhist Vinaya, the Confucian Five Relations, and the understandings inherent in numerous Indigenous traditions. The role of a religion is to integrate the Cosmology and the Morality, to render the cosmological narrative so rich and compelling that it elicits our allegiance and our commitment to its attendant moral understandings. As a culture evolves, a distinctive Cosmos and Ethos appears in its co-evolving religion. For billions of us, back to the early humans, the stories, ceremonies and art associated with our religions-of-origin have been central to our lives. I stand in awe of these religions. I have no need to take on their contradictions or immiscibility, any more than I would quarrel with the fact that Scottish bagpipe ceremonies coexist with Japanese tea ceremonies. And indeed, the failure of Soviet Marxism to obliterate Russian Orthodoxy, and of Maoism to obliterate Buddhism, Confucianism, or Daoism, and of Christianity to obliterate Indigenous understandings, reminds us that projects designed to overthrow religious traditions face strong headwinds"--