Jainism & Ecology

by Christopher Key Chapple

This book in the S.L. Jain Reserach Series, intends to expand this discussion, inviting further collaboration on a topic of common concern - the fate of the Earth as a religious responsibility.

The twenty-five-hundred-year-old tradition of Jainism, which emphasizes nonviolence as the only true path leading to liberation, offers a worldview seemingly compatible with the goals of environmental activism. But can Jainism adopt a sociocentric environmentalism without compromising its own ascetic principles and spiritual tradition? How does traditional Jain cosmology view the natural world? How might a Jain ethical system respond to decisions regarding the development of dams, the proliferation of automobiles, overcrowding due to overpopulation, or the protection of individual animal species? Can there be a Jain environmental activism that addresses both the traditional concern for individual self-purification and the contemporary dilemma of ecosystem degradation?

The voices in this volume reflect the dynamic nature of the Jain faith and its willingness to engage in discussion on a modern social issue.