Purifying the Earthly Body of God

Lance E. Nelson is Assistant Professor of Theological and Religious Studies at the University of San Diego.

• Acknowledgments Introduction Lance E. NelsonPart I: Theological and Textual Perspectives 1. Toward an Indigenous Indian Environmentalism Christopher Key Chapple2. The Ecological Implications of Karma Theory Harold Coward3. Attitudes to Nature in the Early Upanisads Arvind Sharma4. The Dualism of Nondualism: Advaita Vedanta and the Irrelevance of NatureLance E. Nelson5. Sacred Immanence: Reflections of Ecofeminism in Hindu Tantra Rita DasGupta Sherma6. Models and Images for a Vaisnava Environmental Theology: The Potential Contribution of Srivaisnavism Patricia Y. MummePart II: Views from the Field 7. Sin and Rain: Moral Ecology in Rural North IndiaAnn Grodzins Gold8. On the Ethics and Aesthetics of Recycling in India Frank J. Korom9. Learning the Story of the Land: Reflections on the Liberating Power of Geography and Pilgrimage in the Hindu TraditionDavid Kinsley10. Theology and Ecology at the Birthplace of Krsna Bruce M. Sullivan11. The Earth as Goddess Bhu Devi: Toward a Theory of "Embedded Ecologies" in Folk HinduismVijaya Rettakudi Nagarajan12. Idioms of Degeneracy: Assessing Ganga's Purity and Pollution Kelly D. AlleyConclusion Lance E. NelsonContributors Index

"The book considers, in a thoughtful and analytical way, a timely issue: how important and basic traditional ideas like asceticism, karma and rebirth, and purity and impurity influence contemporary Indian thinking about the environment. It has an impressive and diverse array of contributors, and there is a nice balance of theory and fieldwork. It shows well how India is 'sacred ground (and water).' " — Andrew O. Fort, Texas Christian University"This is the only book of which I am aware in the larger field of Indian studies and ecology where attention to religious textual resources is combined with the investigation of modern field contexts." — Rachel Fell McDermott, Barnard College, Columbia University