Indigenous Voices in the Sustainability Discourse ─ Spirituality and the Struggle for a Better Quality of Life

This book is the outcome of a research program conducted by an international and multidisciplinary team of 20 scholars on the relation between indigenous spirituality and sustainable development. It reveals that there is a clash between the developmental views of modern scientific knowledge and traditional indigenous knowledge, each claiming to be better able to contribute to sustainability than the other. Some authors put more trust in modern science and others in indigenous spirituality, yet others occupy a position in between. Whatever their position, all authors hold that in principle evidence-based research can show which knowledge claim is more appropriate to bring about a better quality of life. Sylvia Marcos taught at Harvard University, Union Theological Seminary and Drew Theological Seminary. She has been Visiting Professor at Claremont Graduate University since 1996. Frans Wijsen is professor of Interreligious Studies in the Faculty of Religious Studies and director of the Institute of Mission Studies at Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands.