AFRICAN ECOLOGICAL SPIRITUALITY: PERSPECTIVES IN ANTHROPOSOPHY AND ENVIRONMENTALISM - A HYBRID OF APPROACHES
EDITOR
Ikechukwu Anthony KANU, OSA, PhD
First Published in 2021
A Publication of The Association for the Promotion of African Studies
COPYRIGHT © 2021 by The Association for the Promotion of African Studies
ISBN: 978-978-997-557-0
INTRODUCTION
This book is a response to the quest for a sacralized worldview as African eco-spirituality is a manifestation of the consciousness and experience of the sacred in the ecology which may serve as a sustained source for African communities’ and individuals’ practical struggle for the healing of the earth’s ecology and for humanity’s sustainable living from the earth’s resources (Taylor 2009; Schalkwyk, 2011). African eco-spirituality centers on “having a reverential attitude toward the environment in taking care of it while dwelling within its premises” (Suganthi 2019, n.pg.) and believes that the preservation of the environment depends on the spiritual awareness of men and women and an attitude of responsibility towards the ecosystem, which include tending, dwelling, reverence, connectedness, and sentience (Suganthi, 2019).
A cursory glance at the historical development of African anthroposophy, reveals that African earth-based spiritual traditions and innovative spiritual practices that are emerging in response to the painful realities of climate change, mass extinction, biodiversity loss, and the disruption of local and global ecosystems have for long not received the attention that it deserves. This work, therefore, would become one of the greatest ornaments and lights in the world of African eco-spirituality as it responds to questions that are long overdue from the world of African spirituality.
BOOK CHAPTERS