Bulletin No. 1, 2016

20 Chinese University Bulletin No. 1, 2016 Humanity and Nature Scholars from CUHK’s Faulty of Arts offered us insights on how maintaining a harmonious relationship with Nature could be the first step towards adopting an eco-friendly lifestyle on a personal level and ensuring a sustainable economy in a larger global context. The Confucian concept of ren could help Christians see that humanity can be manifested in looking after nature. What motivated you to study inter-religious environmental ethics when you were in graduate school? In the late 1960s, the historian o f s c i e n c e Ly nn Wh i t e J r. argued that Christianity, with its relatively ‘anthropocentric’ nature (compared to paganism and most of the Asian religions), insisted that God allows man ‘to exploit nature for his proper ends’. As a Christian theologian, it is important for me to reflect on the problems within my own religion and at the same time, consider the ecological values of other religious beliefs and see what we could learn from them. Inter-religious dialogues between Christianity and Buddhism or Taoism on ecological ethics are relatively common. But you also looked at Confucianism … T he Con f u c i an con c ep t o f ‘ ren ’—generally translated as benevolence, humanity or love, is not limited to the relationship between human beings. According to the 16th century neo-Confucian philosopher Wang Yangming, ren should be extended to other animals, plants and non-living things in nature. The concept of ren could help Christians see that humanity can be manifested in looking after nature, instead of exploiting it. Why do we need a pluralistic and contextual approach to environmental ethics? It is unrealistic to wait until e v e r y o n e a g r e e s o n o n e s i n g l e a p p r o a c h t o a n y global environmental issue, as any approach may suit a certain group of believers in a specific contex t, but not the others. It is advisable to adopt a pluralistic and bottom- up s t ra t eg y be c aus e eve r y religion has its own priorities and preferences. What roles do religions play in advocating environmental ethics? Religious groups are organized social ins titutions with the cultural and human resources to support various environmental campaigns. For example, the Buddhis t organization, Tzu Chi, has been actively taking part in waste recycling projects throughout Asia. Some modern interpretations of religious doctrines also offer insight s on god ’s intended relationship between humans and nature. If you have attended wo r s h i p a t t he Chung Ch i College Chapel, you’d notice the Prayer for Holy Communion reminds believers to commit themselves to the protection o f Go d ’s c r e a t i on f o r ou r future generations. Prof. Lai Pan-chiu P rof. Lai Pan-chiu from the Department of Cultural and Religious Studies has started his research on environmental ethics since he was a postgraduate student of Theology at CUHK. He talked to the Bulletin about his research on eco-ethics and inter-religious dialogues between Christianity and some of the major religious beliefs in China.