Forum on Religion and Ecology: Spotlights

• 5.22 Is a River Alive? A Short Review

  In this episode, our host discusses the new book by the British writer, Robert Macfarlane, Is a River Alive? It's an exciting contribution to the growing body of literature that expands our imaginations and our legal frameworks to account for the agency and liveliness of the natural world. 

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• 5.21 Rachael Petersen on Matter, Meaning, and Mind

  This episode features Rachael Petersen, a writer, thinker, and convener. We discuss her life and work at the confluence of philosophy, ecology, and transcendence. As Program Lead of Harvard’s Thinking with Plants and Fungi Initiative, Rachael guides interdisciplinary explorations into how cutting-edge plant science challenges our ideas of mind, matter, and meaning. She holds a Master of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School, where her research centered on panpsychism, pantheism, and the more-than-human world, with a special focus on German philosophy. You can learn more at her personal website: https://www.rachaelnpetersen.com/

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• 5.20 Natalia Schwien Scott on Ecological and Spiritual Practice

  This episode features Natalia Schwien Scott. She is an herbalist, wildlife rescue & rehabilitation apprentice, and Ph.D. candidate in the Study of Religion at Harvard University, where she recently completed a Master of Theological Studies degree with a focus on the intersection of ecology and spiritual practice. She researches relational ontologies, posthuman ethics, and diction on personhood in scientific discourse. She also serves as an Advisor and Program Associate for the Thinking with Plants & Fungi Initiative at the Center for the Study of World Religion, which we discussed in our previous episode. Learn more about her amazing work here: https://www.selkieprojects.com

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• 5.19 Thinking with Plants and Fungi, with Rachael Petersen and Natalia Schwien Scott

  This episode features Rachael Petersen and Natalia Schwien Scott, who co-launched the “Thinking with Plants and Fungi Initiative” at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard University in fall of 2022. We talk about the initiative and its culminating conference, which took place in May of 2025. We discuss their interdisciplinary exploration into how plants and fungi help us rethink the nature of mind and matter and humans’ relationship to the more-than-human world. You can learn more about the initiative and conference here: https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/research-programming/thinking-plants-fungiStay tuned in upcoming weeks for an episode featuring Natalia and another episode featuring Rachael. They're doing exciting work at the forefront of the sort of issues addressed at the intersection of religion and ecology.

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• 5.18 Cosmic Life, Cosmic Purpose: A Review

  In this episode, our host (Sam Mickey) reviews two books that engage with questions about the place of life, meaning, and purpose in the universe. First, he discusses the anthology, Towards a Philosophy of Cosmic Life: New Discussions and Interdisciplinary Views, edited by David Bartosh, Attila Grandpierre, and Bei Peng (Springer, 2024). It's notable for its interdisciplinary and transnational perspectives on the inherence of life in the universe. It includes a wonderful chapter by John B. Cobb, Jr. (1925-2024), a scholar of ecological civilization steeped in the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead. Second, Sam discusses Cosmic Purpose, by Kagawa Toyohiko (1888-1960) (Wipf and Stock, 2014). Kagawa was a Japanese philosopher and Evangelical Christian who, similar to the Jesuit paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, sought to align theological understanding of meaning and purpose with scientific discoveries of the evolution of life and the universe. If you are interested in ideas of purpose (teleology), these books are definitely worth reading.

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