Item Detail
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26824
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2
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1
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English
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Enoch's Vision and Gaia : An LDS Perspective on Environmental Stewardship
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Dialogue : A Journal of Mormon Thought
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Summer 2011
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44
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2
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Stanford, CA
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Dialogue Foundation
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36-56
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Many faithful Mormons are not familiar with pronouncements concerning environmental stewardship by current and former Church leaders because such teachings typically do not receive as much emphasis from the pulpit and in Church curriculum materials as other more core teachings. Nevertheless, the Latter-day Saints (LDS) canon of scriptures and the teachings of Joseph Smith and subsequent LDS Church leaders reveal a rich theology pertaining to the origin and purpose of the earth and to people's responsibility as stewards over nature's bounty. Galli examines several salient implications arising from the LDS teaching that the earth has a spirit and feels pain as a consequence of the spiritual defilement and literal pollution inflicted on it by human beings, as the remarkable vision of the prophet Enoch suggests. This key aspect of Mormon ecotheology may resonate more with Native American beliefs, Eastern religions, and various philosophical traditions than with traditional Protestant and Catholic conceptions of the earth.