‘Caring for nature’: Exploring the concepts of stewardship in European philosophies, spiritual traditions, and laws

Gilbert, Jérémie, Brattland, Camilla, de Maat, Sophie, Kramm, Matthias and Pelizzon, Alessandro (2024) ‘Caring for nature’: Exploring the concepts of stewardship in European philosophies, spiritual traditions, and laws. In, Ruales, Jenny García, Hovden, Katarina, Kopnina, Helen, Robertson, Colin D. and Schoukens, Hendrik (eds.) Rights of Nature in Europe Encounters and Visions. 1 ed. Routledge. (doi:10.4324/9781003318989-4).

Abstract

This collective chapter brings together scholars and activists from different disciplines to explore how the concept of stewardship of nature has developed in Europe. By focusing on the concept of stewardship, it explores the historical, philosophical, spiritual, and metaphysical traditions that could support the idea of caring for nature from a non-anthropocentric perspective. To do so the chapter critically explores the anthropocentric and theological resonance of stewardship in European philosophies, as well as pagan and non-Christian traditions. It then examines European Indigenous (Sami) perspectives and approaches to the concept of stewardship and caring for nature, before examining how the principle of local stewardship is taking shape under some of the ongoing RoN initiatives across Europe. The chapter highlights that a full implementation of the concept of stewardship in Europe requires questioning the materialist, rationalistic, and deterministic presuppositions that still underpin much of positivist legal thought in Europe.

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Contributors

Author: Jérémie Gilbert

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