Climate change and other environmental challenges require societies to reconsider current lifestyles and potentially transition towards more environmentally sustainable forms of production and consumption. Scholarship has suggested that religion may be crucial for sustainability transitions. 

With the majority of the world’s population affiliated with a religious tradition, religion has the possibility to impact the values, beliefs and everyday practices of broad segments of the population. Moreover, religious organisations can draw on their public visibility, political influence, and material resources to facilitate change. However, existing research is ambivalent about the (various) roles of religious beliefs, practices and organisations in sustainability transitions. For example, how do different religious organisations influence sustainability transitions in different regions and at different scales? What challenges do they face? What role does religious activism and faith-based movements play in sustainability transitions? And what influence does religious conservatism have on environmental engagement or lack thereof? Moreover, what is the role of indigenous spiritualities and/or contemporary (eco)spirituality? And is religion even relevant for sustainability transition, or is this rather wishful thinking?

The conference “The Greening of Religion and Spirituality – Exploring Beliefs, Practices and Organisations in Times of Environmental Change” aims at addressing these and other questions. Invited scholars present their research and discuss regional differences and contradictory findings regarding religious environmentalism. The conference program will also create space for future collaborations and informal networks. Furthermore, a public lecture and interactive talk with a keynote speaker will engage the wider public.

The conference is organised by the SNSF research project “What are the greening dynamics of religion.” This project studies under what conditions religious organisations become more “green”. The conference is a collaboration between the Theological Faculty at the University of Oslo and the Centre for Religion, Economy, and Politics (ZRWP) at the University of Lucerne and will be hosted at the University of Lucerne, Switzerland. 

• Contact University of Oslo: Maja Kofod Jensen, m.k.jensen@teologi.uio.no
• Contact University of Lucerne: Anastas Odermatt, anastas.odermatt@unilu.ch