Jainism and Ecology: Nonviolence in the Web of Life

by Christopher Key Chapple

Overview

The twenty-five-hundred-year-old tradition of Jainism, which emphasizes nonviolence as the only true path leading to liberation, offers a worldview seemingly compatible with the goals of environmental activism.

But can Jainism adopt a sociocentric environmentalism without compromising its own ascetic principles and spiritual tradition? How does traditional Jain cosmology view the natural world? How might a Jain ethical system respond to decisions regarding the development of dams, the proliferation of automobiles, overcrowding due to overpopulation, or the protection of individual animal species? Can there be a Jain environmental activism that addresses both the traditional concern for individual self-purification and the contemporary dilemma of ecosystem degradation? The voices in this volume reflect the dynamic nature of the Jain faith and its willingness to engage in discussion on a modern social issue.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780945454342
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	09/01/2002
Series:	Religions of the World and Ecology , #7
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	(w) x (h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Christopher Key Chapple is Navin and Pratima Doshi Professor of Indic and Comparative Theology, Loyola Marymount University.