Healing the Earth: Spirituality and Planetary Health

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue will focus on a necessary ‘worldview-shift’ regarding the way in which we inhabit the Earth, which is urgent in light of the moral imperative to safeguard the health and survival of living species. With this imperative in mind, the development of planetary health, a ‘new scientific field that focuses on the consequences of global environmental change for the health and survival of all species living on Earth’ (KNAW, 2023, p.4), offers promise. We are especially interested in expertise from scholars of religion in a broad, multidisciplinary sense (including philosophers, social scientists, and anthropologists) to address how existential questions relate to planetary health. Responding to ecological crises requires an existential and spiritual worldview shift regarding the fundamental precarity of life, personal and shared values, sources of inspiration, and experiences of connectedness and engagement (e.g., Christie, 2012; Grim & Tucker, 2014; Ivakhiv, 2018; Keller, 2022; Martens, 2023; Plumwood, 1993; Rose, 2013).

We are pleased to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue from the perspective of your own research. First of all, we want to develop the field of planetary health beyond an anthropocentric focus on human health, as this is part of a problematic worldview of human dominance that obstructs the transformation that is needed. Therefore, we will study ecocentric worldviews as can be found in, for example, indigenous wisdom, mystical traditions, deep ecology, and certain philosophical or spiritual movements. How do they move beyond the anthropocentrism that is dominant in Western culture, and how might they contribute to a change in paradigm? In connection with this question, we aim to develop an environmental humanities’ view on planetary health, with a focus on transformation at an existential level with regard to our value and belief systems. Planetary health cannot be achieved without taking into account cultural modes of imagining and evaluating the relations between humans and the more-than-human that impact our ways of interacting with Earth. We welcome contributions that address the question of how new concepts and images (or the re-interpretation of existing ones) can stimulate the imagination and create possibilities with regard to a change in our value and belief systems. What perspectives do concepts and imaginaries open up, and what do they obscure? Arguably, we need an ecological imagination (Fesmire, 2010) that makes use of key metaphors, images, and symbols used not only in ecology but also in philosophical and religious traditions, as they allow us to reflect on fundamental existential questions. Finally, we aim to develop ways of fostering spiritual health and transformation that do justice to the existential dimension of planetary health. The distress that people may feel with regard to the ecological crisis is not a sign of psychological vulnerability but a healthy response to an unhealthy situation. Existential experiences of loss and grief should be taken seriously and addressed at the spiritual level, along with people’s deepest values, concerns, and commitments. Understanding spiritual health as being related to feelings of connectedness, a sense of meaning, and the motivation to act (Smit, 2015), we want to explore how spiritual care—understood as a value-driven, research-based profession that supports people facing existential challenges (Alma, 2021; Hvidt et al., 2020; VGVZ, 2016)—can help foster spiritual health and transformation. We strive to understand this while avoiding terms such as coping or agency that suggest that we can be in control and that easily conform to anthropocentric worldviews. We welcome contributions that explore spirituality and spiritual care from ecocentric perspectives.

For this Special Issue, we welcome original research articles and reviews related to the three themes mentioned (ecocentric worldviews, ecological imagination, and spiritual health and transformation). We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200-300 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send these to the Guest Editors, Professor Hans Alma at h.a.alma@vu.nl and Professor Pim Martens at p.martens@maastrichtuniversity.nl, or to the Assistant Editor of Religions, Ms. Clare Chai, at clare.chai@mdpi.com. Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purpose of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

References

Alma, Hans. 2021. Waar mogelijk en onmogelijk elkaar raken: Reflecties op geestelijke zorg en religieus humanisme. Inaugural Professorial Speech, Vrije Universiteit.

Christie, Douglas E. 2012. The blue sapphire of the mind: Notes for a contemplative ecology. New York: Oxford University Press.

Fesmire, Steven. 2010. Ecological imagination. Environmental Ethics, 32: 183–203.

Grim, John., and Mary Evelyn Tucker. 2014. Ecology and religion. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.

Hvidt, N. C., Kristina Tomra Nielsen, Alex K. Kørup, Christina Prinds, Dorte Gilså Hansen, Dorte Toudal Viftrup, Elisabeth Assing Hvidt, Elisabeth Rokkjær Hammer, Erik Falkø, Flemming Locher, et al. 2020. What is spiritual care? Professional perspectives on the concept of spiritual care identified through group concept mapping. BMJ Open, 10:e042142. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-042142.

Ivakhiv, Adrian. 2018. Shadowing the anthropocene: Eco-realism for turbulent times. Santa Barbara: Punctum Books.

Keller, Catherine. 2022. Facing apocalypse: Climate, democracy and other last chances.Canopy Forum, April 29. https://canopyforum.org/2022/04/29/facing-apocalypse-climate-democracy-and-other-last-chances/.

KNAW. 2023. Planetary health: An emerging field to be developed. Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Martens, Pim. 2023. Planetary Health: the recipe for a sustainable future. Inaugural professorial speech, Maastricht University.

Plumwood, Val. 1993. Feminism and the mastery of nature. London: Routledge.

Rose, Deborah Bird. 2013. Val Plumwood's philosophical animism: Attentive interactions in the sentient world. Environmental Humanities, 3: 93–109. https://doi.org/10.1215/22011919-3611248.

Smit, J.D. 2015. Antwoord geven op het leven zelf: Een onderzoek naar de basismethodiek van de geestelijke verzorging. Utrecht: Uitgeverij Eburon.

VGVZ 2016. Beroepsstandaard geestelijk verzorger 2015. VGVZ.

Prof. Dr. Hans Alma
Prof. Dr. Pim Martens
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• planetary health
• existential concern
• ecocentric worldview
• ecological imagination
• ecological distress
• spiritual health
• spiritual transformation