Ecology and Religion
Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim (Island Press, 2014)
This is a widely used introduction to the rapidly growing subfield of religion and ecology. As professors at both Yale Divinity School and the Yale School of the Environment, Tucker and Grim have been remarkably generous in their support of newer scholars in the field. Their text emphasizes the ways all religious traditions have been transformed by the global environmental crisis.

Religions of the World and Ecology
Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, eds. (Center for the Study of World Religions)
Between 1996 and 1998, Grim and Tucker hosted a remarkable series of conferences at Harvard, each focusing on a different religious tradition and featuring more than a dozen scholarly voices. The resulting thick volumes contain textual, historical, ethnographic, ethical, and theological contributions.

Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, ed. (2nd ed.; Golden Sufi Center, 2016)
This collection of essays features many of the most significant environmental activists who have highlighted the spiritual dimension of caring for the earth—among them Vandana Shiva, Satish Kumar, Thich Nhat Hanh, Winona LaDuke, Miriam MacGillis, and Thomas Berry.

Ecospirit: Religions and Philosophies for the Earth
Laurel Kearns and Catherine Keller, eds. (Fordham University Press, 2007)
This collection of essays grew out of a conference held at Drew University, where both editors teach. Many of the essays draw deeply on new materialism, postcolonialism, and other recent currents in philosophy. A few can unsettle traditional environmentalist verities, such as the preference for living organisms over machines.

World as Lover, World as Self
Joanna Macy (30th anniversary ed.; Parallax, 2021)
Macy’s “Work that Reconnects” provides practical, ritual tools for helping environmental and peace activists continue to work in the face of all that they cannot save. In this, her first book, she develops a constructive ecological philosophy grounded in the Buddhist concept of paticca samuppada, or dependent co-arising.

Ecology and the Jewish Spirit: Where Nature and the Sacred Meet
Ellen Bernstein, ed. (Jewish Lights, 1998)
This collection of essays is especially good at linking Jewish ecotheology and Jewish liturgical practice, helping readers understand the deep ecological wisdom contained in the festivals of the Jewish year. It also highlights the ways environmentalism has spurred many non-observant Jews to rediscover their spiritual roots.

The Sacred Depths of Nature
Ursula Goodenough (Oxford University Press, 1998)
Microbiologist Ursula Goodenough is one of the most influential contemporary exponents of “religious naturalism,” or the attempt to find religious grounding in the findings of science. This volume is a brief introduction to evolutionary biology structured as a daily devotional.

The Earth Path: Grounding Your Spirit in the Rhythms of Nature
Starhawk (Harper, 2004)
Starhawk is a pagan leader, peace activist, permaculture teacher, and one of the most prolific thealogians writing today. In this volume, her constructive religious vision is intertwined with an abundance of rituals and exercises designed to connect us with the deep patterns of the natural world.

Green Deen: What Islam Teaches about Protecting the Planet
Ibrahim Abdul-Matin (Berrett-Koehler, 2010)
Abdul-Matin is not a professional scholar, but an environmental activist and policy advisor with deep roots in New York’s community of African American Muslims. His book is a great illustration of how everyone can deepen their environmental commitment by integrating it with insights drawn from faith traditions.

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
Robin Wall Kimmerer (Milkweed, 2013)
Botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer probably doesn’t think of herself as a theologian, but her book is a great illustration of what theology can become. The bridge she builds between scientific research and her own Potawatomi spirituality is as compelling as the ancient integration between the Christian gospel and Greek philosophy.

Decolonizing Ecotheology: Indigenous and Subaltern Challenges
S. Lily Mendoza and George Zachariah, eds. (Pickwick, 2022)
Most Christians today live in Africa, Asia, or Latin America. Ecological concerns have motivated many of these Christians to reconnect with their own Indigenous roots, resulting in a flowering of theological creativity. This volume features examples drawn from India, Zimbabwe, the Philippines, Samoa, Brazil, Cambodia, Palestine, New Zealand, and the United States.

Ecodharma: Buddhist Teachings for the Ecological Crisis
David R. Loy (Wisdom Publications, 2018)
The field of Buddhist ecology has grown dramatically since Joanna Macy’s book was first published more than 30 years ago. In this volume, Loy synthesizes its many currents, without shying away from some of the tensions between Buddhist and ecological worldviews.

Kabbalah and Ecology: God’s Image in the More-Than-Human World
David Mevorach Seidenberg (Cambridge University Press, 2015)
Kabbalistic spirituality is one of the richest sources for Jewish ecology, and in this exhaustively researched volume, Seidenberg builds a conclusive case that the image of God need not, and should not, be understood in narrowly human terms.

When God Was a Bird: Christianity, Animism, and the Re-Enchantment of the World
Mark I. Wallace (Fordham University Press, 2019)
Many environmentalists today identify as animists, which means they affirm the personhood of all living beings. In this volume, Wallace explores what it might mean for Christian theology to embrace the animist worldview.