Transcendence as the Foundation of Environmental Justice in World Religions

Transcendent experience is an area of religion beyond name and form, part of a new post-materialist science in which material science, conscioussness, and religious archetypes are connected by human interiority. Mystics in many of world's religions live with an experiential awareness of transcendence as it appears in the ecological web of life, and exhibit it through their teachings and work. They connect a strong sense of environmental justice with metaphysical and spirtual wholeness, shattering the barrier between humans and nature. Their concept of environmental justice, rooted in indigenous land stewardship and sovereignty, is inextricably tied to social justice. This lecture and subsequent discussion will pinpoint this spiritual-ecological approach to environmental justice and transcedence.