Eco churches, eco synagogues, eco Hollywood

<p dir="ltr">This chapter examines how motion pictures and readings of semi-historical texts, such as the Old Testament, can direct ideas and behavior that impact future events, ecologically. This is not a Philosophy, History, or Sociology of Religion paper; it is a rapprochement between ecocriticism and environmental communication studies. As Richard Buckram notes "religious communities (whatever we mean by religious) are a 'largely untapped resource' for getting the environmental message across'" (<i>Bible and Ecology</i>, 2010).</p><p dir="ltr">This paper examines ways in which the environmental crisis-approach of the ‘eco church’ (initiated by the international movement A Roche in 1983) has been adopted in Australia and in the UK. Its methodology moves from textual interrogation to a critique of the imaginative terrain (selected) of cinematography in the USA.</p><p dir="ltr">The first example of an eco church applying Judeo-Christian texts environmentally, is a case study of Tahlee Centre for Creation Care in NSW, Australia. Tahlee’s director (an agronomist turned preacher) worked with Punjabi farmers under the Green Revolution (aka the Third Agricultural Revolution). The second case study (in London) demonstrates a reapplication of the A Roche concept at Finchley Progressive Synagogue (among others) where the term 'eco synagogue' shifts its understanding of <i>tikkun olum</i> (‘repair of the world’) from being socially-oriented (anthropocentric) to inclusive of environmental actions.</p><p dir="ltr">The third section ('Jewish Hollywood and ecology') moves beyond church or synagogue and away from text to the secular imaginative terrain of cinematography in the USA; it notes media critic Phil Hoad’s comment that Hollywood — “loyal to its eco-sceptic audiences in middle America — has always been frosty towards environmental movies” (2011). Films discussed include: <i>Soylent Green</i> (1973), <i>Jaws</i><i> </i>(1975), <i>The Lion King</i><i> </i>(1994), <i>Finding Nemo </i>(2003), <i>Madagascar</i> (2005), and <i>An</i><i> </i><i>Inconvenient</i><i> </i><i>Truth</i> (2006). </p>