The current socio-ecological challenges faced by society call for transitions to more sustainable lifestyles and institutions. Scholarship has pointed to religion as a potentially important contributor to this goal. With the majority of the world’s population affiliated with or influenced by 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 resources to facilitate change, such as public visibility, political influence, and material resources.

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 “Religion in Times of Environmental Change - Rethinking Beliefs, Practices and Organisations” aims at addressing these and other questions. Invited scholars will present and discuss their research and exchange about regional specificities and contradictory findings. 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 “What are the greening dynamics of religion”-research project which 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