24 Meet the Author

Hi! My name is Etain Brunner. I am a third-year student studying environmental policy and decision making with a specialization in environmental justice. I wrote this chapter in the Autumn of 2021 while taking Religion and Environmental Values in America. I was inspired to write this chapter after reading Reinhold Niebuhr’s, “Man as Sinner” in the course. This chapter from Niebuhr’s book made me consider the role our ego and sense of self have played in the shaping of our values and beliefs and how that has therefore impacted and shaped our relationship to the environment, which is something I realized we often tend to overlook. As I was exposed to more authors, theologians, and philosophers throughout the course I realized there are many perspectives on the role of the ego and I decided I wanted to take a deeper look into this, while also pondering a world where there is no influence from the ego.