Faith Traditions and Sustainability

Major religious traditions have begun to reflect on sustainability concerns in their theology and practice. Little research, however, has explored the implications of this development for organizational behavior as well as secular thinkers and practitioners of sustainable development. This book elucidates the varied ways in which faith traditions provide new forms of coping mechanisms to deal with environmental challenges confronting humanity through an integrative review and critical analysis of recent research. Bringing together a compendium of religious and faith traditions, rooted in both Eastern and Western approaches, the work provides a new perspective and presents alternative paradigms to deal with the contemporary ecological crises. 

The UN Interfaith Statement on Climate Change (2021) highlights the importance of faith traditions to foster “shared moral responsibility for the environment” and set an example for the “life-style of billions of people and political leaders around the world to act more boldly in protecting people and planet.” This interdisciplinary work examines the interaction between management/organizational settings and spirituality focusing on a range of contexts and spiritual traditions including Buddhism, Sikhism, Christianity, Confucianism, mindfulness practices and indigenous spiritual traditions.

 Featuring theoretical papers and case studies from different contexts and geographical regions, this book provides researchers, faculty, students, and practitioners with a broad overview of the field from a research perspective, while keeping an eye on building a bridge between scholarship and practice.