Our Only Heaven’

Nature Veneration, Quest Religion, and Pro-Environment Behavior

Bibliographic Data

ID12901603
AuthorsBernard Daley Zaleha (University of California, Santa Cruz, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume7
Issue2
Pages131-153
Publication date2013-08-08
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal for the Study of Religion Nature and Culture (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1749-4907 • E-ISSN: 1749-4915
PublisherEquinox Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1558/jsrnc.v7i2.131
OpenAlexW2045149711
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited25

Utilizing the Pure Pantheism/Dualistic Theism/Nihilistic Atheism sacrality scale as a heuristic, I survey sociological/social psychological studies assessing whether people’s values and religious worldviews affect the likelihood of pro-environment behavior. One set of studies divides environmental values into three types: (1) self-interest (or egoistic) values; (2) humanistic altruism, and (3) biospheric altruism. Another study analyzes three types of self-construal as pro-environment indicators: (1) independent, (2) interdependent, and (3) metapersonal. Analyzing these models in light of the tripartite social psychological model of (1) religion as means; (2) religion as an end unto itself; and (3) religion as quest, I demonstrate that both the biospheric and metapersonal orientations, and perceptions that tend toward the pantheistic end of the sacrality scale, are the strongest predictors of pro-environment behavior. Put simply, nature veneration is predictive of pro-environmental behavior. I further argue that available data make the testing of this hypothesis worth pursuing whether naturevenerating religions are growing in the United States and beyond

Altruism (biology · Atheism · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Happiness · Heaven · Humanism · Prosocial behavior · Scale (ratio · Sociology · Theism · Theology · Veneration · Environmental Education and Sustainability · Environmental Philosophy and Ethics · Philosophy · Psychology · Religion, Ecology, and Ethics · Social Psychology

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