INTRODUCTION

In Chapters 7 and 8, values have been couched in narratives that place ethical principles, obligations, and demands in the framework of a dynamic religious system, whether ecological, global, or cosmological in scope. The informants and the groups they represent, for the most part, work either from within a particular tradition, or begin from a multi-faith perspective. In each of the cases presented, these activists reach out to those outside their constituencies with large-scale, affectively rich narratives. This chapter reviews data gathered from high-level actors in secular organizations dedicated to the search for sustainability. The similarities between the tactics used by religious, interfaith, and secular groups will be clear. Although the religious dimensions of sustainability are perhaps more muted, and deep values and beliefs may surface further along in negotiations, religious and spiritual leaders are frequently directly mentioned as allies by those in the secular sustainability arena. Moreover, at least some of these informants consider themselves to be religious or spiritual but pursue their work through these secular venues. This attests to the fluid and permeable boundaries between religious and secular communities, at least in the United States and Europe. Finally, the examples gathered here support some theories regarding the importance of affectively tied, episodic memories in the formation of moral sensibilities. Certain modes of religiosity, which are not always confined to institutional religions or their adherents, are some of the primary vectors through which sustainability tropes are transmitted.