Forum on Religion and Ecology: Spotlights

A series of interviews from the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, focusing on people and organizations working at the confluence of religious and ecological perspectives. Interviews cover four main areas: 1) new and forthcoming publications, 2) engagement in practice, activism, and advocacy, 3) teaching and curriculum, and 4) perspectives from environmental humanities. Our Vision is a flourishing Earth community where religious and spiritual traditions join together for the shared wellbeing of ecosystems, life forms, and people on our common planetary home.You can watch the video recordings of this podcast here: https://fore.yale.edu/Resources/Multimedia/Video/FORE-Spotlights-Archive/

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Forum on Religion and Ecology: Spotlights

5.18 Cosmic Life, Cosmic Purpose: A Review

June 16, 2025 • Sam Mickey • Season 5 • Episode 18

In this episode, our host (Sam Mickey) reviews two books that engage with questions about the place of life, meaning, and purpose in the universe. First, he discusses the anthology, Towards a Philosophy of Cosmic Life: New Discussions and Interdisciplinary Views, edited by David Bartosh, Attila Grandpierre, and Bei Peng (Springer, 2024). It's notable for its interdisciplinary and transnational perspectives on the inherence of life in the universe. It includes a wonderful chapter by John B. Cobb, Jr. (1925-2024), a scholar of ecological civilization steeped in the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead. Second, Sam discusses Cosmic Purpose, by Kagawa Toyohiko (1888-1960) (Wipf and Stock, 2014). Kagawa was a Japanese philosopher and Evangelical Christian who, similar to the Jesuit paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, sought to align theological understanding of meaning and purpose with scientific discoveries of the evolution of life and the universe. If you are interested in ideas of purpose (teleology), these books are definitely worth reading.