This project was initiated because there was an obvious need for (a) an examination of definitions of sustainability, (b) a more robust accounting of the history of sustainability-oriented social movements and their religious dimensions, and (c) descriptions of the ways that movement leaders endeavored to improve effective communication across and between communities with different value structures, practices, and world models. It became clear that some movement leaders were attempting to re-civilize the public sphere, making it safe for the presentation and democratic assessment of community values. After reviewing the emergence of sustainability and the historical prevalence of its religious dimensions, the goal has been to map the spread of some normative and religious features of sustainability within an expert network comprised of leaders from religious, interfaith, and secular non-governmental organizations. There was significant agreement among informants about some key religious features of sustainability movements, the strategies utilized to advertise them, as well as overlap on some of the motivating factors that prompted these thought leaders to engage in sustainability advocacy.

The informants discussed here are engaged in an economy of ideas, metaphors, and imagery, and in many cases religious ideation and language is the currency for exchange. A rough summary of the data will clarify the spiritual games played by these actor networks, and how the economies of ideas and significations they perpetuate support sustainability movements.