What Is Spiritual Ecology? Exploring the Connection Between Nature and Spirituality

Spiritual ecology is a path of reframing human relations with the natural world around us, shifting from dominance over apparently insentient matter to reciprocal relationships of care and connection with other living beings.

A central commitment of this ecological spirituality is the understanding that “the universe is a communion of subjects rather than a collection of objects…. Existence itself is derived from and sustained by this intimacy of each being with every other being of the universe” [1]. This view emphasizes the relationality of all subjects with each other and suggests that any being is lessened by the loss of any of its relationships with others. This ancient path has been recognized by Indigenous peoples around the world. Urban and industrial late-modern humanity may believe we have severed our connections with the natural world. However, we are embedded in the natural world, which affects human health and well-being at every turn.

From our very origins, humans are innately and inescapably grounded in nature. We arose in the context of wild nature, evolving alongside millions of other species, and natural selection has favored cooperation in organisms ranging from bacteria to primates. Without diverse and flourishing abundance in other forms of life, humans would have nothing to eat or wear, no clean water, no medicine, and no shelter or building materials. Our survival and flourishing is inherently relational.

The natural world also deeply affects our individual well-being. Contemporary science is revealing the biochemical markers indicating that spending time in nature – especially forests – not only feels good but is good for us. As indicators of stress responses are reduced, and people feel more relaxed, they can more easily access creativity, intuition, and spiritual insight. Occasions of profound connection and presence with the larger natural world are important correctives to the alienation, dislocation, dissociation, anxiety and depression that the constant stream of bad news can provoke.

Nature offers infinite opportunities to go beyond correction as well, as it ignites creativity and aesthetic appreciation. Cognition and imagination take flight in symbolism and metaphors grounded in the natural world. Countless metaphors reflect connections to other forms of life: quick as a fox, social butterfly, turning beet red.

Nature also offers access to spiritual profundity. Throughout history, spiritual leaders and mystics have received inspiration in nature. Jesus’s forty days in the desert, Moses’s ascent of Mt. Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments, and the Buddha’s realization of enlightenment under the Bodhi tree all suggest a connection between spiritual realization and time in nature.

Deep, whole-hearted participation with other living beings is still possible. We must now re-learn how to access such interconnections. Humanity is on the precipice of a new human-induced and human-dominated age, unlike anything we have ever experienced. Humans have altered the atmosphere, acidified the ocean, and reshaped landscapes to the exclusion of other species. Humanity has become a planetary force, reshaping ecosystems and the atmosphere for centuries to come.

Activist movements like Extinction Rebellion and the Sunrise Movement call on moral authority and spiritual values to address climate instability and mass extinction, reconnecting people to one another and to the importance of life on Earth. Earth-based activism, grounded in spiritual values, shows the power of spiritual ecology to contribute to the changes in values and behavior that humans need to make to sustain life on this planet. As humanity faces the challenges of climate change, mass extinction, and ocean acidification, spiritual ecology is increasingly important for both appreciating the inviolable roots of human connection to living systems, and for identifying the kinds of values and practices that can sustain life into the future.

[1] Swimme, Brian, and Thomas Berry. The Universe Story: From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era – A Celebration of the Unfolding of the Cosmos. 1st ed, Harper San Francisco, 1992. Quote from p. 243. Learn more about CIIS Professor Emeritus Brian Thomas Swimme and his co-authored book The Universe Story at our Digital Commons.