Religion and Sustainable Development
In the past, the ascetic tradition of various religions seemed to be motivated by a denial of the value of the world. Often, salvation was presented as removing humans from the natural world, as if somehow matter itself was tainted, and could not, in any way, be associated with the world of the spirit. Manichaeism depicted the world as radically deficient and that even the human body is somehow evil. While many of the Fathers of the Church, including St. Augustine, opposed Manichaeism, they were not always enthusiastic about the natural world or even the human body.







