宗教与西方环境伦理学

Religion and Western Environmental Ethics

林恩怀特争论始于怀特关于对基督教进行重新思考或者由非西方宗教取而代之的呼吁。林恩怀特争论已经被证明成为处理环境危机的一个障碍。由此而起的对基督教的辩护制约了亚洲和其他比较环境伦理学在西方的发展,没有产生对环境有益的结果。无论何时,当人们谈及宗教和环境的关系的时候,讨论都会迅速转向有关基督教对环境危机责任的讨论。这一争论的关键在于,怀特的论文在很多方面是对的:基督教的确在相当大的程度上造成了自然的世俗化,并且在中世纪,基督教在政治上对现在看来有害的人口增长的政策提供了支持,促进了科学和技术的发展,很多诸如此类的政策已经被证明对环境是有害的。但是,基督教还存在另一种对环境友好的传统,Assisi城的"圣芳济"运动就是其中一例,这种传统也许对于从环境角度重新认识基督教是有益的。但是,对于非西方国家环境伦理的发展,基督教将很难能够有所作为,非西方宗教也不大可能成功地在西方产生出某种环境伦理。因此,对于研究宗教的学者们而言,重要的是要走出谁应该为环境危机受到指责的争论,找到世界各主要宗教如何在其各自的文化范围内对发展环境伦理提供最佳帮助的方法。

The Lynn White debate, which begun when White by a non-Western that followed inhi relig bited called for a rethinking of Christianity or its replacement ion, has proved an obstacle to dealing with the environmental crisis. The defense of Christianity Asian and comparative environmental ethics in the West and did not produce environmentally useful results. Whenever the relationship of religion and the environment was raised, the discussion quickly shifted to the issue of Christian responsibility for the environmental crisis. The problem with the debate is that important ways, the White thesis is correct： Christianity is indeed responsible to a significant degree in many in that Christianity desacralized nature and it supported policies politically in the Middle Ages that encouraged now harmful human population growth and promoted science and technology, much of which has proved to be environmentally problematic. There was nevertheless a second tradition of which Saint Francis of Assisi was a part that was environmentally friendly and that could be useful in rethinking Christianity environmentally. It is however unlikely that Christianity will prove useful in the development of an environmental ethic in non-Western countries or that non- Western religions will succeed in producing an environmental ethic in the West. It is therefore important that religious scholars move beyond assigning blame for the environmental crisis and find ways for the major world religions to help develop environmental ethics as best they can within their own cultural spheres.