Abstract
Worldviews play an important part in shaping and driving people’s more specific environmental attitudes and behaviors. In a religious context, attention to eco(theo)logical worldviews, defined as foundational beliefs about the relationships between God, the Earth and humanity, helps researchers and environmental practitioners alike to better understand the religious frameworks which may foster or impede environmental action. This study draws on data from the 2011 Australian National Church Life Survey to examine churchgoers’ beliefs about the presence of God in nature and human dominion over the environment. Australian churchgoers strongly affirmed the presence of God in the natural world, but were less affirming of dominion theology. Dominion varied between church traditions, but beliefs about the presence of God did not. The beliefs predicted a range of measures of environmental attitudes and behaviors. The results regarding dominion are consistent with findings from other countries, and the research extends previous limited work on the sanctification of nature to a concept of the presence of God in the natural world.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Barker, David C., and David H. Bearce. 2013. End-times theology, the shadow of the future, and public resistance to addressing global climate change. Political Research Quarterly 66(2): 267–279. doi:10.1177/1065912912442243.
Benedictus PP. XVI. 2010. If you want to cultivate peace, protect creation. Message of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI for the Celebration of the World Day of Peace, 1 January 2010. http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/peace/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20091208_xliii-world-day-peace_en.html. Accessed 29 July 2011.
Chryssavgis, John. undated. The Green Patriarch: Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and the protection of the environment. http://www.patriarchate.org/patriarch/the-green-patriach. Accessed 9 April 2013.
Clements, Ben. 2012. The sociological and attitudinal bases of environmentally-related beliefs and behaviour in Britain. Environmental Politics 21(6): 901–921. doi:10.1080/09644016.2012.724215.
Deane-Drummond, Celia. 2008. Eco-theology. London: Darton, Longman and Todd.
Dietz, Thomas, Paul C. Stern, and Gregory A. Guagnano. 1998. Social structural and social psychological bases of environmental concern. Environment and Behavior 30(4): 450–471.
Djupe, Paul A., and Patrick Kieran Hunt. 2009. Beyond the Lynn White thesis: Congregational effects on environmental concern. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 48(4): 670–686. doi:10.1111/j.1468-5906.2009.01472.x.
Douglas, Steve. 2009. Religious environmentalism in the West. II: Impediments to the Praxis of Christian Environmentalism in Australia. Religion Compass 3(4): 738–751. doi:10.1111/j.1749-8171.2009.00162.x.
Dunlap, Riley E., and Kent D. Van Liere. 1978. The “New Environmental Paradigm”: A proposed measuring instrument and preliminary results. The Journal of Environmental Education 9(4): 10–19.
Dunlap, Riley E., Kent D. Van Liere, Angela G. Mertig, and Robert Emmet Jones. 2000. New trends in measuring environmental attitudes: Measuring endorsement of the New Ecological Paradigm: A revised NEP Scale. Journal of Social Issues 56(3): 425–442.
Eckberg, Douglas Lee, and T.Jean Blocker. 1996. Christianity, environmentalism, and the theoretical problem of fundamentalism. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 35(4): 343–355.
Farrell, Justin. 2013. Environmental activism and moral schemas: Cultural components of differential participation. Environment and Behavior 45(3): 399–423. doi:10.1177/0013916511422445.
Fox, Matthew. 1983. Original blessing: A primer in creation spirituality. Santa Fe, NM: Bear.
Francis. 2015. Laudato Si’: On care for our common home, encyclical letter. https://laudatosi.com/. Accessed 13 July 2015.
Gardner, Gerald T., and Paul C. Stern. 2002. Environmental problems and human behavior, 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Pearson.
Gatersleben, Birgitta, Linda Steg, and Charles Vlek. 2002. Measurement and determinants of environmentally significant consumer behavior. Environment and Behavior 34(3): 335–362.
Gill, Robin. 1999. Churchgoing and Christian ethics. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Guth, James L., John C. Green, Lyman A. Kellstedt, and Corwin E. Smidt. 1995. Faith and the environment: Religious beliefs and attitudes on environmental policy. American Journal of Political Science 39(2): 364–382.
Hand, Carl M., and Kent D. Van Liere. 1984. Religion, mastery-over-nature, and environmental concern. Social Forces 63(2): 555–570.
Hayes, Bernadette G., and Manussos Marangudakis. 2001. Religion and attitudes towards nature in Britain. The British Journal of Sociology 52(1): 139–155. doi:10.1080/00071310020023073.
Hedlund-de Witt, Annick. 2012. Exploring worldviews and their relationships to sustainable lifestyles: Towards a new conceptual and methodological approach. Ecological Economics 84: 74–83.
Hedlund-de, Witt, Annick, Joop de Boer and Jan J. Boersema. 2014. Exploring inner and outer worlds: A quantitative study of worldviews, environmental attitudes, and sustainable lifestyles. Journal of Environmental Psychology 37: 40–54. doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2013.11.005.
Henry, Adam Douglas, and Thomas Dietz. 2012. Understanding environmental cognition. Organization & Environment 25(3): 238–258. doi:10.1177/1086026612456538.
Holmes-Smith, P. 2011. Structural equation modelling: From fundamentals to advanced topics. Melbourne: SREAMS.
Hu, Li-tze, and Peter M. Bentler. 1999. Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal 6(1): 1–55. doi:10.1080/10705519909540118.
Hughes, Philip J. 1997. Values and Religion: A Case Study of Environmental Concern and Christian Beliefs and Practices among Australians. Christian Research Association Research Paper No.3. Melbourne: Christian Research Association.
Hughes, Philip, Margaret Fraser, and Stephen Reid. 2012. Australia’s religious communities: Facts and figures from the 2011 Australian Census and other sources. Nunawading, Victoria: Christian Research Association.
Kaldor, Peter, Robert Dixon, Ruth Powell, John Bellamy, Bronwyn Hughes, Sandra Moore, and James Dalziel. 1999. Taking stock: A profile of Australian church attenders. Adelaide: Openbook.
Kanagy, Conrad L., and Fern K. Willits. 1993. A “Greening” of religion? Some evidence from a Pennsylvania sample. Social Science Quarterly 74(3): 674–683.
Kearns, Laurel. 1996. Saving the creation: Christian environmentalism in the United States. Sociology of Religion 57(1): 55–70.
Kearns, Laurel. 2004. The Context of Eco-theology. In The Blackwell companion to modern theology, ed. Gareth Jones, 466–484. New York: Blackwell Publishing.
Kenny, David A. 2014. Measuring Model Fit. http://davidakenny.net/cm/fit.htm. Accessed.
Kilbourne, William E., Suzanne C. Beckmann, Alan Lewis, and Ynte van Dam. 2001. A multinational examination of the role of the dominant social paradigm in environmental attitudes of university students. Environment and Behavior 33(2): 209–228. doi:10.1177/00139160121972954.
Klineberg, Stephen L., Matthew McKeever, and Bert Rothenbach. 1998. Demographic Predictors of Environmental Concern: It Does Make a Difference How It's Measured. Social Science Quarterly 79(4): 734–753.
Koltko-Rivera, Mark E. 2004. The psychology of worldviews. Review of General Psychology 8(1): 3–58. doi:10.1037/1089-2680.8.1.3.
Leonard, Rosemary J., and Miriam D. Pepper. 2015. Les attitudes face aux changements climatiques et les actions pour la décroissance énergétique des chrétiens pratiquants: les effets des persuasions religieuses et du capital social. Social Compass 62(3): 326–343. doi:10.1177/0037768615587812.
Leviston, Zoe, Anne Leitch, Murni Greenhill, Rosemary Leonard, and Iain Walker. 2011. Australians’ views of climate change. Canberra: CSIRO.
Leviston, Zoe, and Iain Walker. 2012. Second annual survey of Australian attitudes to climate change: Interim Report: Social & Behavioural Sciences Research Group, CSIRO.
Maio, Gregory R., James M. Olson, Lindsay Allen, and Mark M. Bernard. 2001. Addressing discrepancies between values and behavior: The motivating effect of reasons. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 37(2): 104–117. doi:10.1006/jesp.2000.1436.
Martin, William C., and Connie R. Bateman. 2013. Consumer religious commitment’s influence on ecocentric attitudes and behavior. Journal of Business Research. doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2013.03.006.
Milfont, Taciano L., and John Duckitt. 2010. The environmental attitudes inventory: A valid and reliable measure to assess the structure of environmental attitudes. Journal of Environmental Psychology 30(1): 80–94. doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2009.09.001.
Nooney, Jennifer G., Eric Woodrum, Thomas J. Hoban, and William B. Clifford. 2003. Environmental worldviews and behavior: Consequences of dimensionality in a survey of North Carolinians. Environment and Behavior 35(6): 763–783. doi:10.1177/0013916503256246.
Nordlund, Annika M., and Jörgen Garvill. 2002. Value structures behind proenvironmental behavior. Environment and Behavior 340(6): 740–756.
Olli, Eero, Gunnar Grendstad, and Dag Wollebaek. 2001. Correlates of environmental behaviors: Bringing back social context. Environment and Behavior 33(2): 181–208. doi:10.1177/0013916501332002.
Pepper, Miriam, Tim Jackson, and David Uzzell. 2009. An examination of the values that motivate socially conscious and frugal consumer behaviours. International Journal of Consumer Studies 33(2): 126–136. doi:10.1111/j.1470-6431.2009.00753.x.
Pepper, Miriam, and Jason John. 2014. Ecological Engagement. In An informed faith: The Uniting Church at the beginning of the 21st century, ed. William Emilsen, 189–213. Preston, Victoria: Mosaic Press.
Pepper, Miriam, and Ruth Powell. 2013. Local church environmental activity, occasional paper 20. Sydney: NCLS Research, Australian Catholic University.
Pepper, Miriam, Sam Sterland, and Ruth Powell. (2015). Methodological overview of the study of well-being through the National Church Life Survey. Mental Health, Religion & Culture 18(1): 8–19. doi:10.1080/13674676.2015.1009717.
Powell, Ruth, John Bellamy, Sam Sterland, Kathy Jacka, Miriam Pepper, and Michael Brady. 2012. Enriching church life: A guide to results from National Church Life Surveys for local churches, 2nd ed. Sydney: Mirrabooka Press & NCLS Research.
Pirages, D.C., and P.R. Ehrlich. 1974. Ark II: Social responses to environmental imperatives. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman.
Santmire, H. Paul. 1992. The travail of nature: The ambiguous ecological promise of Christian theology. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress.
Santmire, H. Paul. 2000. Nature reborn: The ecological and cosmic promise of Christian theology. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
Schultz, Wesley P., Lynnette Zelezny, and Nancy J. Dalrymple. 2000. A multinational perspective on the relation between Judeo-Christian religious beliefs and attitudes of environmental concern. Environment and Behavior 32(4): 576–591. doi:10.1177/00139160021972676.
Shaiko, Ronald G. 1987. Religion, politics, and environmental concern: A powerful mix of passions. Social Science Quarterly 68(2): 244–262.
Sherkat, Darren E., and Christopher G. Ellison. 2007. Structuring the religion-environment connection: Identifying religious influences on environmental concern and activism. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 46(1): 71–85. doi:10.1111/j.1468-5906.2007.00341.x.
Smith, Angela M., and Simone Pulver. 2009. Ethics-based environmentalism in practice: Religious-environmental organizations in the United States. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology 13(2): 145–179.
Stern, Paul C., Thomas Dietz, Troy Abel, Gregory A. Guagnano, and Linda Kalof. 1999. A value-belief-norm theory of support for social movements: The case of environmentalism. Research in Human Ecology 6(2): 81–97.
Tarakeshwar, Nalini, Aaron B. Swank, Kenneth I. Pargament, and Annette Mahoney. 2001. The sanctification of nature and theological conservatism: A study of opposing religious correlates of environmentalism. Review of Religious Research 42(4): 387–404.
Thompson, Suzanne C.Gagnon, and Michelle A. Barton. 1994. Ecocentric and anthropocentric attitudes toward the environment. Journal of Environmental Psychology 14(2): 149–157. doi:10.1016/S0272-4944(05)80168-9.
White Jr., Lynn. 1967. The historical roots of our ecologic crisis. Science 155(3767): 1203–1207.
Williams, Rowan. 2004. Changing the myths we live by, Lecture at Lambeth Palace 5 July 2004. http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/articles.php/1573/changing-the-myths-we-live-by-archbishop-delivers-major-environment-lecture. Accessed 29 July 2011.
Wolkomir, Michelle, Michael Futreal, Eric Woodrum, and Thomas Hoban. 1997. Substantive religious belief and environmentalism. Social Science Quarterly 78(1): 96–108.
Woodrum, Eric, and Thomas Hoban. 1994. Theology and religiosity effects on environmentalism. Review of Religious Research 35(3): 193–206.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Pepper, M., Leonard, R. How Ecotheological Beliefs Vary Among Australian Churchgoers and Consequences for Environmental Attitudes and Behaviors. Rev Relig Res 58, 101–124 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13644-015-0234-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13644-015-0234-1