Religious Innovation for Sustainability: Greening God in the Japanese New Religious Movement Seichō no Ie

Abstract

As we grapple with our relationships with nature in search of sustainable solutions in our precarious age, religion has entered the sphere of environmentalism. Offering religious ideas as a key to sustainability, some have even been as bold to suggest religion as a panacea to all our environmental ills. In recent years this also rings true in part to the Japanese new religious movement Seichō no Ie that, since its inception in 1930, has in recent years made large scale efforts to ‘go green’. The thesis discusses Seichō no Ie’s transformation and, through fieldwork and interviews, explores what steps Seichō no Ie, both on a whole and through its individual members, are taking to contribute towards a sustainable future, how Seichō no Ie is framing the environmental crisis through their publications, activities and in discussions regarding ecological issues, and lastly, what the driving forces behind the greening of Seichō no Ie are according to its adherents. The thesis presents the concrete environmental initiatives of Seichō no Ie as observed during fieldwork at several Seichō no Ie facilities throughout Japan. It also illustrates how religiously inspired ecological ideas can manifest themselves in active measures. Interviews were chosen to get first-hand information from members and are analysed and coded in line with narrative analysis to explore the meanings members ascribed to the green shift taking place in Seichō no Ie. Finally frame analysis is employed to the same interviews to grasp Seichō no Ie’s larger cognitive framework. The thesis adds to the discussion on religion and the environment and shows the complex relationships that are behind the process of ‘greening’ and how religions are changing in the face of climate change.