Green Faith: Mary Evelyn Tucker & John Grim Discuss Religions' Obligation to the Environment

As one of the School’s Five Values, Spirituality plays an important role in life on our hilltop. Students’ faith journeys inform not only their religious practice, but also their studies and approach to service. Recently, the D’Amour Center for Faith, Service, and Justice hosted Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim of the Yale Center for Environmental Justice for a discussion on the intersection of faith and environmentalism.

The couple directs the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology at the Yale School of the Environment. Ms. Tucker specializes in East Asian religions, while Mr. Grim specializes in indigenous traditions, especially Native American religions. Their work explores ecojustice within religious practices around the world, and how faith-based action can be part of a framework to find solutions in climate emergencies, ecological conservation, and the social problems that contribute to ecological crises in the first place. 

Their message to Canterbury was clear: “It is an obligation of faith to care for the environment. We have the science, policy, law, economics, and technology to make the transition to a viable future."

Speaking to students, including the School's Sustainability Club, and faculty, Ms. Tucker and Mr. Grim focused primarily on this crucial work through a Catholic lens. The pair highlighted the teachings of clergy who have used their role in the Church and deep faith to work toward a more verdant, equitable world, including the late Pope Francis, who used the highest level of papal teaching to draw attention to the importance of the natural world in his encyclical, Laudato si.

“We are so grateful to Mary Evelyn and John for coming to speak to our community," says Josh Leeuw, Director of the D’Amour Center. "The work they do aligns closely with that of the D’Amour Center and our School’s sustainability club. Their approach to faith and ecology showed our students that religion and science are not oppositional, but can and must work together.”

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