John Hart

Dr. Hart’s teaching interests are in the areas of social ethics, environmental ethics, liberation theology and ethics, and science and Christianity. His research interests and writing are focused particularly on issues of social and ecological justice, and on ecology as a bridge between science and religion. Internationally known for his work in social ethics and environmental ethics, he has given almost two hundred presentations, on four continents: in twenty-five U.S. states and in Canada, Brazil, Switzerland, Italy, Nepal and England.

Dr. Hart promotes environmental care, and relates the religious and environmental communities. He served as editor and principal writer of the Midwestern Catholic bishops’ land pastoral, Strangers and Guests: Toward Community in the Heartland (1980); wrote the draft of Pope John Paul II’s Iowa homily on land stewardship (1979); and was the Project Writer for the Western U.S. and Canada Catholic bishops’ bioregional pastoral letter, The Columbia River Watershed: Caring for Creation and the Common Good (2001), on the ethics, economics and ecology of the region. He has been involved in the development and dissemination of the Earth Charter. He serves on the Board of Directors of both the Montana Wilderness Association and the Montana Environmental Information Center.

Dr. Hart has worked with native peoples’ spiritual leaders and human rights activists, including as a Member of the Delegation of the International Indian Treaty Council (a Non-Governmental Organization accredited to the United Nations) to the U.N. International Human Rights Commission, Geneva, Switzerland (1987, 1990), and as an invited Observer at the World Conference of Indigenous Peoples, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil while participating in the United Nations Earth Summit (1992).