Publications

Selected Publications  

Selected publications (some with abstracts) are divided into subject
areas to facilitate finding the resources of most interest.
(For a complete list of publications see the Curriculum Vitae)

Some of these articles are downloadable for those with Adobe Acrobat.

For an introduction and overview of the environment-
related research, see the publications overview.

Publications-Books

Affirmative Action

Affirmative Action at Work: Law, Politics, and Ethics. (University of Pittsburgh Press, Institutional and Public Policy Series, 1991).

Global Grassroots Environmentalism

Ecological Resistance Movements: the Global Emergence of Radical and Popular Environmentalism. (State University of New York Press, International Environmental Policy and Theory Series, 1995).

Encyclopedia

The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature (Continuum International Publishers, 2005). 

Table of Contents
Concluding Chapter
Review Excerpts

Publications-Articles
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Affirmative Action

See CV (Resume)

Bioregionalism, Deep Ecology, & Green Social Philosophy
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“Deep Ecology and its Social Philosophy: A Critique,” in Beneath the Surface: Critical Essays on Deep Ecology. Eds. E. Katz. A. Light, D. Rothenberg. (Boston: MIT Press, 2000), 269-299.

Deep ecology philosophy is both more and less plural than is usually recognized.  To assess fully such philosophy we must apprehend both its diversity and that which makes it possible to speak of deep ecology as an emerging philosophy and movement.  In this paper I (1) describe the forms deep ecology assumes as it trickles down from philosophers and shapes much of the grassroots environmental movement in the United States; (2) argue that the green ideology known as bioregionalism has almost universally been grafted onto deep ecology, becoming its de facto social philosophy; and (3) evaluate the central conceptual claims and bioregional social philosophy that are typically found in grassroots deep ecology.

“Bioregionalism: An Ethics of Loyalty to Place,” Landscape Journal, 19(1&2):50-72, 2000.  

Bioregionalism is an environmental movement and social philosophy that envisions decentralized community self-rule within political boundaries redrawn to reflect the natural contours of differing ecosystem types.  Emerging from the religious “counterculture” of the United States it has escaped these enclaves, and has begun to influence contemporary environmental politics and resource management strategies.  Its goal is nothing less than to foster an ethics of place and create sustainable human societies in harmony with the natural world, and consistent with the flourishing of all native species.  This paper assesses the history, types, impacts, perils and prospects of “countercultural” bioregionalism and its offshoots.

Nature Religion, Religion and Ecology, Environmental Ethics
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“Religion and Environmentalism in North America and Beyond,” Oxford Handbook on Religion and Ecology. Ed. Roger S. Gottlieb (Cambridge: Oxford University Press, 2006), 588-612.

“Nature Religion and Environmentalism in North America” (with Gavin Van Horn)  in Faith in America, v 3.  Ed. Charles Lippy (New York: Praeger, 2006), 165-190.

“New and Alternative Nature Religions in America” (with Joe Witt) in New and Alternative Religions in the United States. Eds. M. Ashcraft & E. Gallagher (New York: Praeger, 2006), 253-272.

"The Green Future for Religion?" in Futures Journal 36:991-1008, 2004.

Analyzes the evolution of and prospects for the 'greening of religion' phenomenon that is sometimes touted as a necessary prerequisite to the construction of environmentally sustainable societies.  Provides evidence that we may be witnessing the early, nascent stages of a global, civic earth religion that includes the worlds dominant religions as well as newer, non-supernaturalistic forms of nature religion.

"Ecology and Nature Religion" in the Encyclopedia of Religion, 2005.

An introduction to "nature religion" and the field sometimes called "ecology and religion"

“Earth and Nature-Based Spirituality From Deep Ecology to Radical Environmentalism” (part I),  Religion 31(2): 175-193, 2001.

In contemporary parlance people increasingly supplant the term “religion” with “spirituality” when trying to express what moves them most deeply.  I explore in the way “spirituality” is used and contested among those engaged in a wide range of “earth-based” or “nature-based” spirituality: from those who do so self-consciously (like pagans and deep ecologists), to practitioners of science-based spiritualities who rely on metaphors of the sacred to express their awe and reference for natural systems.  Despite great diversity, there is a shared worldview and ethics in both super-naturalistic and naturalistic forms of contemporary nature-oriented spirituality.  The common perception can be stated succinctly: The earth and all its life forms and processes are sacred.  We belong to them and they to us -- we are kin.  We should, therefore, act lovingly, reverently, and respectfully toward them. We must not unnecessarily injure these beings and processes when we take from them what we need to live.  The key to contemporary earth-based spirituality and ethics is, therefore, a felt sense of “connection,” kinship, and loyalty to earth, her life forms, and living systems.  This paper is presented in two parts.

“Earth and Nature-Based Spirituality From Earth First! and Bioregionalism to Scientific Paganism and the New Age” (part II), Religion, 31 (3) 225-245, 2001.

Nature & Supernature – Harmony and Mastery: Irony and Evolution in Contemporary Nature Religion,” The Pomegranate, #8 (May 1)

“On Sacred or Secular Ground? – Callicott and Environmental Ethics,” Worldviews: Environment, Culture, Religion 1(2):99-111, August 1997  

In Earth’s Insights Baird Callicott develops a science-based but religiously influenced global environmental ethics that attempts to resolve the relationships between science, religion, and morality.  He proposes to privilege science and relegate religion to a supportive and corrective role in environmental ethics.  I argue, on the contrary, that a rationally compelling environmental ethics is dependent on religion and that, ironically, the only way to resolve conundrums regarding science, religion, and morality, is to stand environmental ethics on sacred ground. 

“Earth First! Fights Back: Contextual Reflections on Resistance and Democracy,” Terra Nova: Nature & Culture 2(2):29-43, Spring 1997.  

Examines the recent escalation of direct action resistance to logging, focusing on the campaigns at Cove/Mallard, Idaho, and Warner Creek, Oregon. Argues that given the record of government lawlessness in its administration of biodiversity-related environmental law, direct action resistance is morally justifiable and yet, grassroots activists must also redouble efforts to defend and strengthen environmental laws and increase citizen vigilance with regard to them.  This latter endeavor is essential if activists are to force the government to employ the best science in its decision making and comply with its own statutory obligations.

Green Apocalypticism: Understanding Disaster in the Radical Environmental Worldview,” Society and Natural Resources, 12(4):377-386, June 1999.  

“Earthen Spirituality or Cultural Genocide?: Radical Environmentalism’s Appropriation of Native American Spirituality,” Religion, 27(2):183-215, April 1997.  

The appropriation by non-Indians of Native American religious practices has become a highly contentious phenomenon. The present analysis focuses on the controversy as it has unfolded within the `Deep Ecology' or `Radical Environmental' Movement in North America. Taking as its central case study Earth First!, the radical vanguard of this movement, it describes the diverse forms such borrowing takes, the plural American Indian and non-Indian views shaping the ensuing controversy, and the threats this controversy poses to a nascent and fragile indigenous-environmentalist alliance. Concluding reflections address the ethics of appropriation with the aim of reducing the tensions attending these phenomena. 

“Ecological Resistance Movements; Not Always Deep but if Deep, Religious: Reply to Devall,” The Trumpeter, 13(2):98-103, Spring 1999

“Earth First!: from Primal Spirituality to Ecological Resistance,” in This Sacred Earth: Religion, Nature, Environment. Ed. Roger Gottlieb. (Routledge, 1996), 545-557.

“Resacralizing Earth: Environmental Paganism and the Restoration of Turtle Island,” in American Sacred Space. Eds. D. Chidester and E.T. Linenthal. (Indiana University Press, Religion in America Series, 1995), 97-151.

“Earth First!’s Religious Radicalism,” in Ecological Prospects: Scientific, Religious, and Aesthetic Perspectives. Ed. C. Chapple.  (State University of New York Press, 1994), 185-209.

The United States radical environmental group Earth First! is animated by biocentric values based on religious perceptions and beliefs that can best be labeled “primal spirituality.”  To this religious “intrinsic value theory” is grafted an apocalyptic expectation based on ecological science and a militant urgency based on an anarchistic critique of contemporary nation-state governance.  To understand fully this movement we must apprehend not only its militant tactics or the internal disagreements about them, disputes that recently produced a major schism.  We must also understand the plural religious perceptions and traditions that serve as cultural tributaries to such movements, the way their emerging myths and innovative ritualizing sustain participants, and how ecological and political analyses are drawn into the overall worldview and ethics.  Understanding the factors giving rise to radical environmentalism and its various factions suggests that such groups are likely to play an increasingly important role in future environment-related struggles. 

“Grassroots Resistance: the Emergence of Popular-Environmental Movements in Less Affluent Countries” (editor and lead author, with contributions from H. Hadsell, L. Lorentzen, and R. Scarce), in Environmental Politics in the International Arena. Ed. S. Kamieniecki. (State University of New York Press, 1993), 69-89.

“Evoking the Ecological Self: Art as Resistance to the War on Nature,” in Peace Review: the International Quarterly of World Peace, 5(2):225-230, June 1993.  

“The Religion and Politics of Earth First!,” The Ecologist, 21(6):258-266, November/December, 1991. (This is an early, shorter version of “Earth First!’s Religious Radicalism”.)

Ecoterrorism and Ecotage
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“Diggers, Wolves, Ents, Elves and Expanding Universes: Global Bricolage and the Question of Violence within the Subcultures of Radical Environmentalism,” in The Cultic Milieu: Oppositional Subcultures in an Age of Globalization. Jeffrey Kaplan and Heléne Lööw, eds. (Walnut Creek: AltaMira, 2002), pp. 26-74.

(2002)

“Religion, Violence, and Radical Environmentalism: from Earth First! to the Unabomber to the Earth Liberation Front,” Journal of Terrorism and Political Violence, 10(4):1-42, Winter 1998.

 Since the 1980 formation of Earth First!, radical environmental movements have proliferated widely. Their adversaries, law enforcement authorities, and some scholars, accuse them of violence and terrorism. Here, I scrutinize such charges by examining 18 years of radical environmentalism for evidence of violence and for indications of violent tendencies. I argue that despite the frequent use of revolutionary and martial rhetoric by participants in these movements, they have not, as yet, intended to inflict great bodily harm or death.  Moreover, there are many worldview elements internal to these movements, as well as social dynamics external to them, that reduce the likelihood that movement activists will attempt to kill or maim as a political strategy.  Labels such as “violent” or “terrorist” are not currently apt, blanket descriptors for these movements.  Thus, greater interpretive caution is needed when discussing the strategies, tactics, and impacts of radical environmentalism.

Radical Environmentalism: Eco-Terrorism?,” in Viewpoints on War, Peace, and Global Cooperation (1996-1997 Annual Edition), 76-77.

Encyclopedia Entries
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Introduction & Readers’ Guide, Bioregionalism and the North American Bioregional Congress; Celestine Prophesy; Conservation Biology; Criticizing 'World Religions and Ecology’; Death and Afterlife in Jeffers and Abbey; Deep Ecology (with M. Zimmerman); Deep Ecology – Institute for; Disney Worlds at War; Diggers Song, Earth First! and the Earth Liberation Front; Environmental Ethics, Jane Goodall (with Paula Posas); Hundredth Monkey (and Monkeys in the Field); Radical Environmentalism (and Rodney Coronado and the Animal Liberation Front); Restoring Eden (with P. Illyn); Religious Studies and Environmental Concern; John Seed; Sierra Club (with G. Van Horn); Surfing (with G. Henning); Snyder, Gary – and the Invention of Bioregional Spirituality and Politics; United Nations’ ‘Earth Summits’; Paul Watson and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (with S. Best),  in Bron Taylor, ed., The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature (Continuum International Publishers, 2005).

Earth First! and Ecology and Nature Religions, in the Encyclopedia of Religion (Macmillian 2005).

Environmentalism and Earth First!, in Encyclopedia of Millennial Movements (Routledge, 2000).

Nature Religion and Deep Ecology in Contemporary American Religion (Macmillan, 2000).

Affirmative Action and Sustainability in Dictionary of American History (supplement). (Scribner's, 1996).

Deep Ecology, John Muir, Nature Religion, Neo-Paganism, New Age Religion, Sojourners Fellowship, in The Encyclopedia of American Religious History.  (Facts on File, 1996).

Radical Environmentalism, Environmental Movements: Less Affluent Nations, Eco-spirituality, Wildlands Project, in Conservation and Environmentalism: An Encyclopedia. (Garland, 1995).

Opinion and Popular Press
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Are Christian ethics dead in America? Chicago Tribune, paper and online editions, 5 December 2004.

Ecologist to Unabomber?, Los Angeles Times, 17 May 1996, B9.

`Bron Taylor Replies’ to Review of Ecological Resistance Movements, World Rainforest Report (Australia), 34 (June):25-26, 1996.

Environmental Studies: Getting Real, Oshkosh Northwestern, 21 April 1996, A11.

Environmentalists Nonviolent, USA Today, 19 April 1996, A13.

Environmental Law Imperiled, The Oshkosh Northwestern, 30 July 1995, A9.

Earth First! Journal Articles

Media Interest
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Diverse media, including national and international television, print, radio, and internet news organizations have interviewed Professor Taylor and have otherwise drawn on his published work in their articles.  For a list of interviews, see Curriculum Vitae.