Religion is a powerful expression of culture that is most obviously expressed in our relationships with nature. As our major meeting point with nature is food, this provides a fertile field for cultivating the wisdom that Professor Falvey concludes is the essence of all sustainability. By bringing sustainability, agriculture, global issues, Buddhism, Christianity and a host of other factors into play, we see that our motivations belie our rhetoric – in environmental actions through to trade and aid. This open-spirited book contains a wealth of analysis and alternative logics that make it essential to serious readers about nature, the environment, spirituality and religion, Asia and ourselves. Beginning with science and spirituality, the discussion moves from immortality to theology to literal misinterpretations and unifies these themes around unacknowledged Western core values. Shifting to philosophy, ethics, and rights, an ecological argument about our selective ‘liberation’ of nature is proffered as an introduction to global issues, including traditional values of poor countries and lost traditions in the West. An engrossing h...

Contents Page Introduction 1 Chapter 1 10 Seeking Agricultural Sustainability: Science and Spirituality Chapter 2 20 Immortality: Sustaining Ourselves? Chapter 3 31 Agricultural Theology: Why we are Fascinated with Sustainability Chapter 4 47 Literal and Historical Christianity and Agriculture: Our Manipulations and Our Undoing Chapter 5 57 Some Influencers of the Church: Prophets and Sustainable Agriculture Chapter 6 71 From Luther to Jung: Broadening the Insights Chapter 7 82 West Meets East: The Salvation of Agriculture Falvey - Religion and Agriculture: Sustainability in Christianity and Buddhism vi Chapter 8 90 Pantheistic Agriculture: Investing the Gods in Agriculture Chapter 9 98 Agricultural Philosophy and Rights: From Natural Rights to Rights for Nature Chapter 10 105 Sustainable Agriculture and Secular Environmentalism: Emerging Ecological Understanding Chapter 11 112 The Religion of Sustainable Agriculture: Philosophy and Ethics Chapter 12 125 Liberating Nature: Our Rising Awareness Chapter 13 134 Sustainable Development: Having it All? Chapter 14 138 Sustaining Our Role: Global Sustainable ...