The relationship between post-development discourse and Islamic environmental theology

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Professor, Department of Social Development, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tehran, Iran

2 PhD in Sociology of Rural Social Development, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

10.22080/jsn.2025.28797.1088

Abstract

Since the idea of taming nature by Francis Bacon became the dominant spirit of the literature of modernization and development in the world, the concept of nature as a large cultural category has been reduced to a material and small subject in terms of its natural resources in the service of the well-being of human life.In such a discourse, the concept of nature was reduced to "environment".Today, this type of instrumentalist and possessive view of nature has been criticized and it is claimed that the lost cultural and spiritual meanings of nature have the ability to recreate and give existence to the modern environment. The so-called "post-development" thinkers and the thoughts around "environmental theology" with different origins have such a view of nature and environment. Post-development, as a counter-discourse for development, looks for the root of the environmental crisis in development. Besides that, environmental theology, including Islamic theology, considers the spiritual crisis and human worldview to be affected by the instrumentalist view of nature. The purpose of this article is to examine the points of commonality and difference of post-development views emerging from the literature of post-structuralism and fundamentalist Islamic theology and their solutions to reduce environmental crises and ultimately to link them for a better resolution of crises and to avoid a purely instrumental and engineering approach. The approach of the article is a descriptive-analytical one that tries to show that each of these perspectives have new capacities and ideas to preserve the environment, and with their connection,

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Journal of Society and the Environment
Volume 1, Issue 4
May 2025
Pages 57-91

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