Religion and Ecology in India and Southeast Asia

This work examines the part that Hindu and Buddhist traditions could play in resolving the ecological problems facing the Indian sub-continent and South East Asia. The study is of global significance - the creation of more sustainable relationships between people and the natural world is one of the most urgent social and environmental problems of the new millennium. David Gosling bases his arguments on extensive fieldwork, framed by the socio-political context of religious change in the regions. He looks at the religions both historically and from a contemporary perspective.

'This is a deep and intense book, written with empathy for everything involved, and is of vital global, social significance.' - Revd Mary Sellers, Church Times'Gosling's work is clearly and passionately written, betraying careful scholarship in science and religious studies. It should help to clarify the role of religious traditions in increasing ecological awareness, and, it is to be hoped, in promoting some resolution of the social and environmental problems our world faces' - Times Higher Education Supplement'The book is a must in any serious library dealing with ecology in India and Southeast Asia' - G. Gispert-Sauch, VJTR'... a book which should allow Hinduism and Buddhism, and activists from India and Thailand, to challenge those of us from "religions of the book".' - Andrew Wingate, Theology

David L. Gosling trained as a nuclear physicist and more recently was the first Spalding Fellow in Religions at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, where he is currently based. He was Director of Church and Society at the World Council of Churches at the University of Geneva and has published widely on environmental issues in south Asia.