Deep Institutional Innovation in Religion in the Context of Climate Change

The role of religions in addressing the climate crisis is attracting increased attention in sustainability transition (ST) research. At the same time, an evolution in the framing of STs is making clearer the various potential roles of religions in fostering structural change for sustainability. This paper focuses on the potential role of religions in modifying the landscape of meta-rules and values that act as a selection environment for social, cultural and technological change. It highlights the potential for religions to assert landscape values of respect, love and care – for present and future generations, the planet, and other species – which are essential if STs are to be directed in ethical directions. To do so, however, religions will need to transcend their own internal contradictions, including ambivalent ethics and fundamentalist tendencies, that preclude engagement with other religious and secular actors in a process of open discovery for the common good.