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Fitting Ethics to the Land: H. Richard Niebuhr’s Ethic of Responsibility and Ecotheology
Author(s) -
Scoville Judith N.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of religious ethics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.306
H-Index - 20
eISSN - 1467-9795
pISSN - 0384-9694
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9795.00104
Subject(s) - natural (archaeology) , environmental ethics , action (physics) , character (mathematics) , epistemology , sociology , social responsibility , philosophy , law , political science , geography , mathematics , physics , geometry , archaeology , quantum mechanics
Much of ecotheology and environmental philosophy has moved deductively from theological and ethical constructs to questions of how we should relate to the natural world. Such approaches are limited in their ability to guide us toward appropriate environmental action for they do not necessarily fit the way the natural world actually functions. Niebuhr’s ethic of response, on the other hand, begins with the concrete situation and is inherently ecological for it focuses on interrelationships in an on‐going community. It is inductive in character and open to being informed by new findings in the natural and social sciences; thus it is exceptionally well suited to environmental problems, which involve complex scientific, social, and economic questions.