Religion & Sustainability : The Contribution of Religious Belief in Moving Society Towards Sustainability

Sammanfattning: Behaviour change initiatives have largely failed in communicating the urgency of the sustainability challenge to the public and thus generate achange of behaviour. Religious communities have achieved remarkable behaviour change in situations where non-faith-based communication failed (Palmer and Finlay 2003). This paper explores what Christian belief contributes to moving society towards sustainability through the lens of the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD). We focus on three themes: (1) the definition of sustainability, (2) the religious motivation for and (3) actions towards sustainability. A number of religious leaders are interviewed and the religious community surveyed. Findings show that religious concepts such as stewardship and the Golden Rule are key motivations for can give guidance on sustainability. However, these concepts are not consciously exploited. Further more, both religious leaders and people lack a full understanding of sustainability and are not strategic about moving towards sustainability. We conclude that religious communities could greatly benefit from adopting a strategic sustainable development (SSD) approach.