CEMT 361     Climate Ethics  (3)

This seminar examines the unprecedented ethical challenges raised by climate change. Readings incorporate religious and non-religious ethical approaches and a variety of disciplinary lenses, including natural sciences, social sciences, and economic and policy perspectives. Students engage these arguments through readings, discussions in class and on-line, and a final synthetic essay, in order to address questions of why and in what ways.

CEMT 362     God and Nature  (3)

This course examines ways in which Christians have experienced and understood God in relation to the created order. The course focuses specifically on the last five hundred years of Western culture, how the conception of nature has shifted and, with it, ways of conceiving of God. This is juxtaposed with current experiences of nature and the cultural narratives of the American legacy. Particular attention is given to Darwin and theories of evolution, as well as the notion of wilderness in American culture. Some class time will be spent of out of the classroom, on various parts of the Domain.

CEMT 363     Sustainability as an Ethical Problem  (3)

The concept of sustainability necessarily entails the question, “What ought to be sustained?” This course examines the proper relationship of humankind to the nonhuman world. It surveys the various and sometimes conflicting ways the term is used in political, ethical, environmental, and institutional contexts. Criticisms of and alternatives to dominant views of sustainability are considered from agrarian, environmental justice, and political-ecological perspectives.