Abstract
The increasing individualization and isolation of many in contemporary society is being noted by writers and journalists. The impact of social media and shrinking social worlds has demonstrably changed conceptions of community and coarsened human interaction. This chapter examines religious approaches to relatedness.
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Notes
- 1.
Brian Bethune, “How Face to Face Contact Makes Us Happier”, Macleans September 2014, http://www.macleans.ca/culture/books/put-down-the-smartphone-how-face-to-face-contact-makes-us-happier/.
- 2.
This discussion of Indigenous ontologies is based on personal communication with Dr. Cindy Peltier, Chair of Indigenous Education, Nipissing University, 2017.
- 3.
Earth Activist Training, https://earthactivisttraining.org.
- 4.
The Gaia hypothesis imagines the earth as a complex, self-regulating and interdependent system. As a metaphor, it allows for the coming together of scientific, humanistic and religious approaches to environmentalism. The idea is closely associated with scientist and environmentalist James Lovelock but was taken up by many environmentalists including the Feminist Spirituality Movement.
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McCann, G., Bechsgaard, G. (2017). The Relational Matrix. In: The Sacred in Exile. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66499-6_6
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