自從1960 年代以來，誕生了一個名為「生態與宗教」的學術領域，探討自然環境與人類宗教間的複雜關係。本文即企圖反思此一領域的方法論問題。我們要藉由「宗教的生態意義」此一主導問題來進行反思。本文分為三個部分：（1）尋找一種足以反映宗教生態學與環境倫理學之既有理論成果的整合進路；（2）藉由生態現象學來描述生態意向性的基本特徵；（3）透過魯曼的社會系統理論來建構一種將生態與宗教整合起來的階層模式。最終，本文主張，一個宗教是否能夠成功回應生態危機，端賴其是否能在「宗教傳統作為系統」與「宗教傳統自身」之間產生某種新生特質，而一個宗教的交談能力則可視為檢驗此一新生特質的指標。

Since the mid-1960s, there has been an emerging discipline, which might roughly be named 'Ecology and Religion', that studies the complicated relationships between the natural environment and mankind's religions. The goal of this article is to reflect on some methodological problems in this field. We attempt to achieve this goal under the guidance of a question: how do we obtain the ecological meaning of religion? This article includes three main parts: (1) searching for an integrated approach which reflects the multiple achievements of religious ecology and environmental ethics; (2) describing the basic character of ecological intentionality from the perspective of eco-phenomenology; (3) constructing a hierarchical model to integrate religion and ecology in terms of Luhmann's social systems theory. Finally, I attempt to point out that whether a religious tradition can produce a successful response to ecological crisis is determined by some kind of emergent property which occurs between the level of a 'religious tradition as system' and the level of a 'religious tradition in itself'. The stronger the ability of a religion to engage in inter-faith dialogue, the more possibility that religion may create the emergent property which can produce an effective resonance in the environmental field.