Bron Taylor, Ph.D.
Professor of Religion
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
2010 Awardee

Taylor’s personal research draws on historical materials and ethnographic methods to illuminate the ways people in different times and places conceive of and relate to nature, including in Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future (University of California Press, 2010). According to Taylor, dark green religion involves perceptions that nature is sacred and has intrinsic value, a corresponding belief that everything is interconnected and mutually dependent, and a feeling of belonging to nature and felt kinship with all living things. This feeling of kinship enjoins a sense of responsibility to protect all life and the systems they are a part of, and upon which they depend. Taylor sees such spirituality as an anchor for environmental sustainability movements around the world.
Taylor is currently working on a book exploring the radical environmental movement in North America and hopes to follow this with a study of grassroots eco-social movements in Kenya. Meanwhile, he is developing an edited volume dealing with the cultural dimensions of sustainability with scholars associated with the Center for Environment and Development at Oslo University, participating in research sponsored by scholars at the United Nations University and with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, gathering researchers to plan a project entitled, “Religion, science, and the future,” and developing a volume examining the motion picture Avatar as an example of dark green religion. Meanwhile, Taylor is in discussions with two National Geographic documentary filmmakers about a series based on his latest book, and is developing a website (www.brontaylor.com) to enhance his research and teaching by providing video, sound, images, and other complementary resources.