CSEM 23101 Section 15 (Religion and Environment) Syllabus

CSEM 23101 / 15

Religion &Environment

University of Notre Dame

Fall, 2006

Instructor: Professor J. Matthew Ashley

Course Meetings: 9:30-10:45, Tuesday & Thursday, Hammes Mowbray Hall 313

Office Hours: immediately following class or by appointment (631-7077 / jashley@nd.edu )

Graduate Assistant: Mr. Steven Battin

To go directly to the course schedule, click here.

I. Course Theme

In a seminal article written in the late nineteen‑sixties, historian Lynn White asserted that the roots of our current environmental woes lie in the way that the Judeo‑Christian tradition has stripped nature of any inherent value or sacredness, turning it into nothing but a world to be "subdued" and "filled" with human beings (cf. Gen 1:28). White=s essay set off a lively debate over the role of the biblical traditions in forming modern Western attitudes and practices toward nature, as well as their potential contributions toward a future, more environmentally sound world view. This debate will form our avenue into a multi-disciplinary examination of human attitudes and practices toward the environment. We begin by reading and discussing texts from the social sciences and humanities that will allow us to identify and analyze different dimensions of our current environmental crisis, as well as what is required to address them creatively and effectively. We will focus on the content, but just as much on the rhetorical (or artistic) strategies that are used to persuade the reader/viewer/listener to adopt a new way of looking at, thinking about, and acting toward the natural environment. Then we will look at possible religious resources for a solution. While our focus will be the Christian tradition, groups will look at other religions in order to discern what resources they might have and then present their findings to the class as a whole. As with all college seminars, heavy emphasis will be placed on informed, productive discussion.

II. Course Objectives

By the time we have completed the course each of us will have

1. developed and/or improved our skills in examining a multifaceted issue by means of critical interpretation of texts and other media (such as film and painting), as well as through discussion that is focused on the issue, generates new insights, and evokes further questions;

2. developed and/or improved skills in oral presentation, using audio-visual media where appropriate, in order to convey information and/or argue for a particular position on complex issues;

3. created together a community of knowledge that questions, investigates, discovers and shares what it learns;

4. developed a set of criteria by which to judge in what ways a specific religious tradition (either as a whole, or across a spectrum of internal varieties within that tradition) has an impact on human attitudes and practices toward nature;

4a. has developed a variety of interpretive resources for analyzing how religious beliefs and practices are mediated by other social and cultural structures (for instance, economic and political structures);

5. shown her- or himself capable of applying those criteria and resources with respect to one specific constellation of religious beliefs and practices.

III. Course Texts

The following texts are available at the campus bookstore.

$ Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There

$ Bill McKibben, The Comforting Whirlwind: God, Job, and the Scale of Creation

$ Jared Diamond, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

Other texts will be available on e-reserves. I also assume that you have an academic quality translation of the Bible, including the so-called Adeuterocanonical@ books. Any of the Bibles used for the first theology course will be adequate.

IV. Course Assessment

A. Short Paper 15% of final grade

A four to five page paper will be due on October 14 which will consist in an analysis and reaction to either the Lynn White debate, or the approaches taken by Rachel Carson or Aldo Leopold. For further instructions please consult the "Short Paper Instructions."

B. responses to readings 15% of final grade

1. daily written work

Students will write short responses to questions on the readings for the day. The purpose of this is to Aprime the pump@ for discussions. Questions will be sent by e-mail at least two days before the day on which they are due (that is, by Saturday evening, for a Tuesday class; by Monday evening for a Thursday class). Questions will be generated by the group leading the discussions on the given day, selected and edited by the instructor. Your answers are due in class on the assigned date. In general the point of the written assignments is to prepare people for the daily discussions. Thus, if you are not present in class I won't accept the written assignment for that day. What you should do in that case is use one of the "extra credit" assignments to make up for the missed work. If there is some problem (say with a printer), you may e-mail the assignment to me before you come to class (I can generally open and read both "Word" and "WordPerfect" documents). Remember to that hand-written work is perfectly okay for these assignments.

2. Extra Credit written work

You may do up to three extra-credit assignments. Extra credit assignments should be cleared with me in advance. They consist in attending an event on campus that has something to do with the course them (The Notre Dame Forum on Global Health is a good example) and writing an analysis of that event. Extra credit assignments may be used in two ways:

a) in place of an assignment that you have to miss for some reason;

b) assuming that all assignments are turned in, it can “promote” a check to a check-plus.

3. For further information on written assignments follow this link

C. Group Work

1. Panel work 20% of final grade

Students will work in teams of two or three to present material and lead three class discussions. As a part of this, you will need to look ahead and read ahead, because you will be responsible for providing reading questions for the day on which you lead discussions, which means that you will have to send them to me at least four days before the day on which you will be leading the discussion (that is, by Thursday night, for the following Tuesday and by Sunday night for the following Thursday B this gives me time to read them over, edit, add, and select). You should come up with five questions that you believe will help spark discussion. I will pick three of them for everyone to write on. Your group will have approximately fifteen to twenty minutes to present material. Discussion will then follow for the next forty-five minutes. The last ten minutes will be for wrapping up.

In meeting beforehand as a group, the panel should discuss the issues and decide which ones it will focus on, with the understanding that not all aspects of the readings for a particular day can be covered during a single class. You should also agree on questions to help lead others into the text. The panel presentations can take various forms. A typical presentation will consist of the panel identifying the key issues but then concentrating on two or three from different perspectives as a way to bring out their complexity and relationship to each other. As the semester progresses, a panel may wish to discuss how the readings for that day relate to previous readings or issues raised in earlier discussions. A panel may decide that key issues in the readings are more effectively presented through the use of images, music, or a performance of some kind.

Your job subsequent to doing the presentation is to get discussion going. I will weigh in, but as another participant.

2. Presentation 20% of final grade

Each group will work together on a presentation on some topic that falls broadly under the umbrella of religion & environment. A list of possible topics will be distributed in the next two weeks. Among them would be a consideration of the relationship of other religions to environmental concern or of a specific spirituality within Christianity (for instance, the spirituality of Sts. Francis and Claire). Further details on the presentation are available here.

D. Individual Participation

1. Overall class participation 10% of final grade

This grade evaluates a students participation apart from what she or he does as a part of her or his group. Please note that excessive absences (more than 2 unexcused absences) will drastically impact this part of your grade. More than FIVE unexcused absences will result in a failing grade for the course. An excused absence is an absence for which the dean of your college gives you an official excuse (she or he will contact me). I will do my best to contact you when you reach four absences, but students are nonetheless responsible for keeping track of their own attendance.

2. Oral Final Exam 20% of final grade

Students will schedule a half hour appointment with me during finals week. Procedures for this exam may be found here (http://www.nd.edu/~jashley/CSEM/final_exam_procedures.html.

E. Honor Code:

All relevant sections of the Honor Code ( cf. http://www.nd.edu/~hnrcode/docs/index.htm ) will be strictly applied in this course. If you have any question about whether a given part applies to what you are doing (in using and citing material from the internet, for instance), please consult me.

Schedule

To Part II: Classic Approaches
a) Rachel Carson
b) Aldo Leopold
c) Jared Diamond

To Part III: Theological Responses
a) biblical reassessment (McKibben)
b) statements of Catholic teachings on the environment

I. Introduction: The Lynn White Debate

8/22: course introduction: images of nature; images of religion

required readings: Bill McKibben, AA Deeper Shade of Green@

8/24: The debate begins: Lynn White=s thesis

Readings: Lynn White, AThe Historical Roots of our Ecologic Crisis@ [ereserves]

Discussion leader: Ashley

8/29: Two Responses / Critiques

Readings: Joseph Blenkinsopp, AGlobal Stewardship: Toward an Ethic of Limitation@ [ereserves]

Elspeth Whitney, ALynn White, Ecotheology, and History@ [ereserves]

Discussion leader: Ashley

8/31: Class cancelled. Please view AAn Inconvenient Truth@ at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, tonight or tomorrow night

9/5: Discussion of AAn Inconvenient Truth@

Readings: AMediarology@: The Roles of Citizens, Journalists, and Scientists in Debunking Climate Change Myths,@ on Stephen Schneider=s website: http://stephenschneider.stanford.edu/ (navigate using the link on the left side of his homepage)

Discussion leader: Ashley

9/7 White responds to his critics & wrap-up

Readings: Lynn White, AContinuing the Conversation,@ [ereserves]

Discussion leader: Ashley

II. Classic Approaches to generating consensus and action on the environment:

a) Rachel Carson

9/12 The Dawn of Environmental Concern in the U.S. B Rachel Carson=s Silent Spring

Readings: Silent Spring, 1-23, 263-75 (ereserves)