New articles on spirituality and ecology

In 2024, I have written several articles on spirituality, ecology, and eco-emotions. 

Grief when one’s congregation does not understand one’s ecological grief: “Eco-spiritual grief”

Pihkala, P. (2024) ‘Ecological Grief, Religious Coping, and Spiritual Crises: Exploring Eco-Spiritual Grief’, Pastoral Psychology. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-024-01158-3 .

Grief scholars Burke and Neimeyer have studied “spiritual grief”, which occurs if there is an experience that one’s spiritual community does not understand one’s grief. I apply this to ecological grief and call the combination “eco-spiritual grief”. There are three categories:

a) “Insecurity with God” or disruption in beliefs and faith.

One’s beliefs may become troubled because of the felt crisis. This seems quite evident in many people’s processes of eco-anxiety and grief.

b) “Estrangement from the religious community”.

One may feel that others in the spiritual community do not understand ecological grief.

c) “Disruption of spiritual practices”.

For example, finding it difficult to pray as one has used to do, or experiencing difficulty in finding solace from nature connectedness (because of the grief). 

In the article, I also explore ways of “religious coping” with these crises. 

Constructive engagement with climate emotions in congregations

Pihkala, P. (2024) ‘Engaging with climate grief, guilt, and anger in religious communities’, Religions, 15(9), p. article 1052. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15091052.

What could be done in religious communities in relation to these three climate emotions? I’m proposing a method of four steps, applying wisdom from Miriam Greenspan and Tara Brach. For example, the complications of climate guilt demand careful attention, so that individual responsibility is set in a broader context. Constructive anger – which can manifest in deep determination – is a challenge for many Christian congregations and Buddhist communities. 

There is also forthcoming work with Dr. Johannes Cairns on Buddhist climate activism and climate emotions, stay tuned!