XII Interreligious Training Course on the relationship of the main religious traditions with nature

Interreligious Course on Nature and Religions, organized by the Monastic Interreligious Dialogue (DIM) and the Superior Institute of Religious Sciences of Barcelona (ISCREB), from 4 to 8 July in the Monastery of Montserrat, Catalonia, Spain.
Teacher: Josep-Maria Mallarach, PhD in Biology, member of the IUCN Steering Committee of the Specialist Group on Cultural and Spiritual Values of Protected Areas.

The course will address the relationship of the main religious traditions of the world with nature, in the context of the ecological challenges that we all have. Challenges that challenge all religious and spiritual traditions to provide adequate and proportionate responses, while encouraging environmental organizations and conservationists to seek and promote alliances with religious organizations.

From each religion will be shown the essential cosmological, ethical and moral aspects that shape the relationship with nature, as well as some of the main contemporary responses.

Indigenous Traditions (boreal and tropical), Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam will be discussed. The course will conclude with a synthesis of the shared heritage: a spiritual vision of Nature, possessor of intrinsic values, and some precepts to live in harmony with it –the ecological virtues. In the context of rich and technologically developed countries such as Spain, these precepts should lead to an ecological conversion, to go towards simplicity and frugality, recovering the contemplative vision of Nature, as the encyclical ”Laudato si” of Pope Francis proposes (2015).

More information (in Catalan): Institut Superior de Ciències Religioses de Barcelona