Lucas Johnston
Assistant Professor of Religion and Environmental Studies
Office: 219 Wingate Hall
Phone: (336) 758-3341
Email: johnstlf@wfu.edu
Lucas Johnston is Assistant Professor of Religion and Environmental Studies. Dr. Johnston’s interdisciplinary educational background includes degrees in Religion and Nature (PhD), Environmental Ethics (Graduate Certificate), Theology (MA), and Psychology (BA). His primary intellectual passions revolve around the relationships between biocultural evolution and religion, with particular attention to contemporary sustainability-oriented social movements and cross-cultural political dialog related to ideas about nature. He is the author of Religion and Sustainability: Social Movements and the Politics of the Environment (Equinox Press, 2012), and editor of Higher Education for Sustainability: Cases, Challenges and Opportunities (Routledge, 2012). His other current research projects include:
- an examination of sustainability, security and religious violence
- a resource for the study of science and religion
- an exploration of Moravian environmental ethics, particularly as they relate to the history of the North Carolina Piedmont
- the emergence of environmental and social activism among performance-oriented youth subcultures
He currently serves as the Book Reviews Editor and Assistant Editor for the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture, is the At-Large Interdisciplinary Director for the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, is Co-Chair of the Religion and Ecology Group of the American Academy of Religion.
EDUCATION
Ph.D., University of Florida (Religion and Nature)
Graduate Certificate, University of Georgia (Environmental Ethics)
M.A., Graduate Theological Union (Ethics and Social Policy)
B.A., Wake Forest University (Psychology)
CURRICULUM VITAE
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Books and Special Issues
Religion and Sustainability: Social Movements and the Politics of the Environment (Equinox Press)
Higher Education for Sustainability: Cases, Challenges and Opportunities from Across the Curriculum (ed.) (Routledge)
(Co-Editor with Robert Sands) The Science of God: Natural Origins of Religion in an Evolutionary Perspective: A Special Issue of the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, Vol. 3, No. 4 (January 2010).
Book Chapters
“The Camel and the Eye of the Needle: Religion, Moral Exchange and Social Impacts,” in Stanley Brunn (ed.) The Changing World Religions Map (New York: Springer, forthcoming 2013) (with Robert Wall)
“Introduction,” in Lucas F. Johnston (ed.) Higher Education for Sustainability: Cases, Challenges and Opportunities from Across the Curriculum (Routledge, 2012) (with Dedee DeLongpre Johnston)
“Learning Outcomes: an International Comparison of Countries and Declarations,” in Lucas F. Johnston (ed.) Higher Education for Sustainability: Cases, Challenges and Opportunities from Across the Curriculum (Routledge, 2012) (with Debra Rowe)
“Epilogue,” in Lucas F. Johnston (ed.) Higher Education for Sustainability: Cases, Challenges and Opportunities from Across the Curriculum (Routledge, 2012)
“Practically Natural: Religious Resources for Environmental Pragmatism,” in Whitney Bauman, Richard Bohannon and Kevin O’Brien (eds.) Inherited Lands: The Changing Ground of Religion and Ecology (Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2011)
Academic Journals
“Looking at Sustainability through a Different LENS: One University’s Experience,” Sustainability: The Journal of Record, Vol. 5, No. 4 (August 2012) (with Anne Boyle, Bobbie Collins and Hubert Womack).
Witt, Joseph, Lucas Johnston and Bron Taylor. “Exploring Religion, Nature and Culture (continued): The Growing Field, Society, and Journal,” Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, Vol. 5, No. 1 (March 2011). PDF Version
Johnston, Lucas F. “Editor’s Introduction,” Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, Vol. 4, No.3 (September 2010).
“From Biophilia to Cosmophilia: the Role of Biological and Physical Sciences in Promoting Sustainability,” Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, Vol. 4, No. 1 (March 2010).
“The Religious Dimensions of Sustainability: Institutional Religions, Civil Society and International Politics since the Turn of the Twentieth Century,” Religion Compass (January 2010).
Review: Holthaus, Gary. Learning Native Wisdom: What Traditional Cultures Teach Us about Subsistence, Sustainability, and Spirituality, for Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics (November 2009).
“Evolutionary Controversy and a Side of Pasta: The Flying Spaghetti Monster and the Subversive Function of Religious Parody” (with Gavin van Horn), Golem: Journal of Religion and Monsters, Vol. 1, No. 2 (June 2007).
“Whose Security?: The Abuse of National Security Rhetoric in Resource Management,” Lisa Volkering, Dylan Wolfe, Emily Plec, William Griswold, Kevin DeLuca (eds). Proceedings of the Conference on Communication and the Environment. Athens: University of Georgia Press (June 2007).
“Buddhism and Nature: A Survey of Themes and Works in an Emerging Field,” Worldviews, Vol. 10, No. 1(May 2006).
Review: Miller, James (ed.) Perspectives on an Evolving Creation, in Ecotheology, Volume 10, No. 1 (April 2005).
Reference Articles
“Indigenous and Traditional Resource Management” (with Todd LeVasseur), in The Encyclopedia of Sustainability, Vol. 4. Great Barrington, MA: Berkshire Press (forthcoming 2011).
“Nutrition/Diet”(with Todd LeVasseur), in Global Resource on Environment, Energy and Natural Resources (GREENR). Florence, KY: Gale Educational Publishing (2010).
“International Commissions and Declarations,” in Willis Jenkins and Whitney Bauman (eds.) The Spirit of Sustainability: The Encyclopedia of Sustainability, Vol. 1. Great Barrington, MA: Berkshire Press (2009).
“Sociobiology,” in The Encyclopedia of Environment and Society, Paul Robbins (ed.) Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications (2007).
“Animal Reintroduction and Ecological Restoration,” in The Encyclopedia of Human-Animal Relationships. Mark Bekoff (ed.) (September 2007).
“Humanness” (with Anna Peterson), in The Encyclopedia of Human-Animal Relationships. Marc Bekoff (ed.) (September 2007).
ACADEMIC PRESENTATIONS and CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION
Imagined Solidarities: Common Cause or Conflicting Interests among Undergraduate Students and Their Faculties? American Academy of Religion, Special Topics Forum. Chicago, IL (November 2012).
“The Gospel of Efficiency, Spooky Action at a Distance, and the Hundredth Monkey: How Biological and Physical Sciences Helped Manufacture the Myth of Sustainability” Environmental History Association, Phoenix, AZ (upcoming April 2011).
Discussant: “Health and Healing: The Way of Traditional Chinese Medicine,” Health as Metaphor and Reality in Asian Perspectives: East-West Conference, Winston-Salem, NC (October 2010).
“God Does Not Speak with Forked Tongue: Southern Evangelicals, Science, and Sustainability Networks,” SECSOR, Religion and Ecology Consultation. Atlanta, GA (March 2010).
“Selling Sustainability as a Sacred Duty: Cognitive Tools for Cultivating Sustainable Alliances” American Academy of Religion, Religion and Ecology Group. Montreal, Canada (November 2009)
“Resuscitating Relics and Taboos: Imagined Pasts and Sustainable Futures,” International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, Amsterdam, Netherlands (July 2009).
“We Are All Related: The Function of Myth in the Sustainability Movement,” International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, Morelia, Mexico (January 2008).
“Refining Definitions of Religion for a Global Community,” American Anthropological Association, Washington, DC (November 2007).
“Pirates Can Predict the Weather: The Flying Spaghetti Monster and the Nature of Truthiness,” American Academy of Religion, Religion and Popular Culture Group. San Diego, CA (November 2007).
“Knee-Deep in the Muck: the Convergence of Theory and the Divergence of Practice in the Everglades,” International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, Gainesville, FL (April 2006).
“Scavenging the Savage Bones of Religion: Theorizing Religion and Nature,” International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, Gainesville, FL (April 2006).
“Whose Security? The Abuse of National Security Rhetoric in Resource Management,” Conference on Communication and the Environment, Jekyll Island, GA (June 2005).
“The Question of Purpose: The Use and Abuse of Evolution in Religion,” Southeastern Conference of the American Academy of Religion, Religion and Science Group, Winston-Salem, NC (March 2005).
“The Ethics of Restoration Ecology: Recovering the Value of Relationship,” American Academy of Religion, Religion and Ecology Group. San Antonio, TX (November 2004).
INVITED LECTURES
“Sustainability and Pro Humanitate,” Wake Forest University Office of Admissions, Mock Lecture for Prospective Students (November 2010).
“What’s Religion Got to Do With It?: Values, Ethics and Sustainable Futures,” Explorations: WFU Faculty Research Talk, Winston-Salem, NC (October 2010).
“On Educating the Whole Person through Sustainability,” Wake Forest University Office of Admissions , Mock Lecture for Prospective Students (March 2010).
“Religion, Science, and the Flying Spaghetti Monster,” Kalamzaoo College course Science and Religion (May 2008).
“Evolutionary Controversy and a Side of Pasta: The Flying Spaghetti Monster and the Subversive Function of Religious Parody,” Gator Freethought Presentation (April 2008).
“Ethics in Sustainability Discourse.” Invited Lecture for University of Florida Honors College Sustainability Seminar (March 2006).
“Sustainability and Ethics.” Invited Lecture for University of Florida Honors College Sustainability Seminar (March 2005).
REL 101: Introduction to Religion
REL 109: Introduction to Buddhist Traditions
REL 111: Introduction to First People’s Traditions
REL 240: Religion and Ecology
REL 244: Religion, Terrorism and Violence
REL 300: Approaches to Religion
REL 307: Magic, Science and Religion
ENV 201: Environmental Issues
ENV 302: Sustainability and Sustainable Development
ENV 391: Energy Policy and Sustainability
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