The Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology is a multireligious and interdisciplinary project founded in 1998 and based at Yale University since 2006.^[1] Since 2023, it has operated under the auspices of the Yale Center for Environmental Justice (YCEJ). In collaboration with other academics and environmentalists, it promotes the teaching and study of religion and ecology and highlights the activity of religious environmentalism around the globe. The Forum publishes books and articles, provides a monthly email newsletter, offers online Coursera courses, organizes conferences, and maintains a website emphasizing engaged scholarship and action for ecojustice.

From 1996 to 1998, Forum founders and directors Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim organized the Harvard Religions of the World and Ecology conference series of 10 conferences at the Harvard Center for the Study of World Religions.^[2]

The culminating conferences were convened in October 1998 at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge, Massachusetts,^[3] and the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.^[4] A symposium and press conference was also held at the United Nations, at which the founding of the Forum on Religion and Ecology was publicly announced.^[5] As a result of the Harvard conferences, a series of books was published by the Harvard Center for the Study of World Religions from 1997 to 2004, with nine volumes available in English (the tenth, Shinto and Ecology, was released in Japanese).^[6]

The Forum is based on the work of 'geologian' and historian of religions Thomas Berry, known for his book The Dream of the Earth, originally published by Sierra Club Books.^[7] Tucker and Grim edited his published works, including The Great Work, Sacred Universe,^[8] Evening Thoughts,^[9] Christian Future and the Fate of Earth,^[8] and Selected Writings on the Earth Community.^[10] In addition, with Andrew Angyal they published Thomas Berry: A Biography (2019), the first biography of Berry.^[11] A series of rare audio recordings of Berry in conversation with evolutionary cosmologist Brian Thomas Swimme was released in October 2023. Titled “The Collected Thoughts of Thomas Berry,” these were made available in digital format for the first time in 2023 for the 25th anniversary of the Forum.^[12]

In conjunction with the Thomas Berry Foundation, the Forum also maintains a website dedicated to Berry's life work and legacy.^[13] Tucker and Grim also founded an archive of his papers at Harvard University in 1998, which his sister Margaret Berry developed, part of the Harvard Library Environmental Science and Public Policy Archives.^[14]

In the Winter 2022-2023 issue of Columbia Magazine, a comprehensive view of the field of religion and ecology was published, which featured in particular the work of the Forum and of the Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary at Columbia University.

The Forum has hosted dozens of conferences around the world since the first Harvard conference in 1996, bringing together scholars of world religions, theologians, and ethicists with scientists, policymakers, environmentalists, and many more. Some of the most notable events include: Renewing Hope: Pathways of Religious Environmentalism;^[15] Living Cosmology: Christian Responses to Journey of the Universe;^[16] and Living Earth Community: Ways of Being and Knowing the World.

The Forum and its founders have published many books and articles on the topic of religion and ecology over the past 25 years. Some of the highlights include: the ten volumes of the Harvard Religions of the World and Ecology series (Harvard CSWR/Harvard University Press, 1996–2001);^[6] the 2001 Daedalus volume, "Religion and Ecology: Can the Climate Change?";^[2] the book Ecology and Religion (Island Press, 2014); "Integrating Ecology and Justice: the Papal Encyclical" (Quarterly Review of Biology, 2016);^[17] and Routledge Handbook of Religion and Ecology (Routledge, 2017).^[18] A full list of publications can be found on the Forum website.^[19]

The Forum has created two series of online courses, released through Yale University and the Coursera online learning platform.

In 2016, "Journey of the Universe: A Story for our Times" was released.^[20] This series contains 3 courses related to the Forum's sister project, the documentary film Journey of the Universe,^[21] and includes a class on Thomas Berry.^[22]

In 2022, "Religions and Ecology: Restoring the Earth Community" was released. This series includes 6 courses on religious traditions around the world and their relationship to the environment.^[23]