How did we get to where we are now? How did humans come to be so alienated from nature? This course will examine how religion, particularly that of the Christian West, has shaped the understanding of, and interaction with, nature on a global level. It examines the complex shift from understanding nature as sacred and revelatory, to its conceptualization as a commodity and resource. Students will explore the ethical and cultural consequences of this shift for the human-nature relationship, and contemporary attempts to recover a notion of sacred nature in the context of the environmental crisis.