In the papers published from the 1979 Study Conference of the International Association for the History of Religions, Hultkrantz writes: “The ecological approach to religion is not new.”¹ In a summary of the discussion that followed the presentation of papers by Hultkrantz and others, published in the same volume, Lauri Honko emphasizes that Hultkrantz saw the advocacy of his ecological approach as a reminder of forgotten scholarly interest in the subject.² Hultkrantz’s statement can be partly supported by an examination of the work of “forerunners” in the development of the study of religion. Thinkers like Feuerbach, Frazer, and Freud appear to have comprehended something of the intricate historical relationship between “Religion” and “Nature.” In light of the development of various scholarly interests in environmental studies in the latter half of the 20^thcentury, the work of these 19^thcentury men would seem to provide a rocky foundation on which to build an investigation of the effects of natural environments on the development of religions. However, in the 21^stcentury, more than five decades after Hultkrantz’s first methodological essay on the subject, the relationship appears to remain unexamined.