A Public Theology of the Anthropocene: The Earth's Deep Freedom

This article is concerned with religion, science and ecology: religious and ‘religio-scientific’ perceptions of the environment and the human-environment relationship. It explores how a number of world religions and new science based cosmologies (as represented in a ‘field of religion and ecology’) understand and interact with the environment (particularly in response to the environmental crisis) and in particular analyzes how they use cosmogonic and cosmological, metaphors and myths, to ‘re-imagine’ it, and how in doing so may express and promote different (possibly more environmentally ‘friendly’; bio-centric, organic, spiritual) ways of relating to it than a ‘modern’ worldview (and associated environmentally ‘unfriendly’ – anthropocentric, mechanical, secular - metaphors and myths) that may be causing environmental degradation. The paper qualitatively and ethnographically explores two ‘eastern’ (Buddhism, and Chinese Religions) and two ‘western’ (Judaism and Christianity) religious traditions, as well as two new ‘religio-scientific’ cosmological visions (Deep Ecology and Gaia) (as stressed in the field of religion and ecology). It analyses their distinctive views on ecology, exploring metaphors and myths stressed, as well as commonalities between them and what they may mean for religion, the environment, and the human-environment relationship.

The principal assumption of this deliberation is that religion is undeniably political. In recent years ecological concerns have become a factor in both revealing the connection and acting as a catalyst for revolutionary development within religions themselves. Religion, ecology and politics inter-connected, and are theoretically illuminated through liberation, political, contextual and critical theologies. This deliberation aims to clarify, and suggest, frameworks of the inter-connections such that religion will be a greater force for social change and ecological sustainability. Of the many ways to bring ecology into the nexus of religions and politics, I first offer an overview of four specific approaches used within Christian ecotheology. Each presents a distinct manner of engaging religions with the ecological crisis. They will be discussed from the least to the most challenging, followed by an example of how each deals with climate change. The second section is a deliberation of two directions that need to be undertaken if religions are to be of significant influence in bringing spiritual resources to, and mitigating further, ecological ruin. The political dimension is discussed throughout.

WCC and Orthodox Academy of Crete Publication , 2021

This book is the sixth volume in the ECOTHEE book series of biannual publications, which first appeared in the sphere of ecumenical eco theology in 2008, following the first ECOTHEE conference (ECOTHEE 08) held in Crete to promote World Environment Day on 5 June 2008. Τhe present ECOTHEE 19 book is structured into four sections: Introduction Theological and philosophical reflections Ethics and best practice Global contributions. The articles in the in the first three sections are evaluated as scientific articles, while others can be considered personal contributions. We refer to those in the first category as articles and those in the second as contributions. A better understanding of the concept of environmental ethics for the common home (oikos) is a condition for a more effective human response to every challenge of the sustainability issue. Specifically, it will help to affirm eco justice and human responsibility for the care of the Earth and the vast communities of life. The theme of ECOTHEE 2019, Ecological Racism and Prophetic Voices of Ecological Crisis, was chosen to contribute to the WCC’s thematic focus on racism for 2019. The contribution of the basic sciences, psychology, philosophy and religious studies has been indispensable in developing ecotheology and environmental ethics. The Laudato Si’s recommendations, contemporary ecofeminism and green institutions were also discussed as part of consolidating peace and eco justice in the world today. There are many reasons why these ECOTHEE articles mark an important point in the development of ecotheology and environmental ethics. Despite the critical socio economic crisis coupled with moral recession in many parts of the global community, the continuation of the ECOTHEE publications confirms the growing interest in the discipline. It is important to admit that we need to sustain the development of ecotheology and environmental ethics given the predominance of secular trends in coping with the fragility of the earth’s balance system.

This essay is concerned with “religion and ecology,” or religious environmentalism. It analyzes how religious traditions are used to understand and interact with the environment and environmental issues, suggesting wass of relating to these that are different from and possibly less destructive and ecologically harmful than those of the modern secular worldview. It argues that religious traditions may thereby be gaining new private and public relevance, while perhaps also being changed in the process, becoming more envrionmentally friendly and ecumenical. The article ethnographically and qualitatively analyzes a “field of religion and ecology” comprising ecologically minded academics ansd representatives of various religious traditions who promote such ideas, stimulating new eco-spiritualities and theologies, possibly even a new eco-religious movement. It also explores the environmental reintepretation of several religious traditions within the field, highlighting not only some influential images and views but also any commonalities or convergences that may be arising or are being encouraged between them.

2015

The concept of eco-theology is a form of constructive theology formula that examines the interrelation between religion and nature, especially in dealing with the problems of the environment. Environmental problems caused by human hands, such as : landslides, floods, drought, pollution and etc are evidence that our environment is really in critical condition. Therefore, as human who directly interacts with environment has moral responsibility to preserve and maintain environmental quality. Human is center and the base of the entire environmental damage. And it happened because the patterns of human behavior itself is not sensitive to the environment, therefore, to solve environmental problems not only make regulation and sanctions but also develop the mental character leads to morality as the foundation to look at nature as an integral part of the human. Religion is the answer to open its followers’ awareness to the importance of protecting the environment, through the mechanism of ...

Asian Horizons, 2021

Grave ecological damages threatening our planet and human lives are side effects of ambivalent technological progress and an overuse of resources by a consumer culture of a growing world population of 8 billion. They also must be attributed, however, to a one-sided worldview of mastery and greed requiring ethical as well as spiritual responses. The article starts with an analysis of the biblical creation narratives arguing that they are hardly responsible for present day ecological catastrophes stemming from a different time and cultural context. It rather is the predominance of a scientific mindset with its subject-object dichotomy that regards nature as useable matter only, without worth of its own. This ideology needs to be corrected. Romantic holism and evolutionism further reduce the human sense of responsibility required to mitigate damages already done. Ecological laws and regulations are of importance, but need to be founded in a new worldview. For this "cultural revolution" (Laudato si' 142) Christian ethics should rediscover basic virtues as a sense of humility visa -vis the given reality as of measure and most of all gratitude for creation and its beauty of which humans are but a part.

Open Theology

This article considers some metaphysical and theological implications of the Anthropocene, which is the proposed name for a new geological epoch that is characterized by massive human disturbances of the Earth system. This stratigraphic time unit concludes the Holocene epoch that offered a relatively stable climate for human civilizations to emerge and flourish. The Anthropocene therefore marks the end of such natural stabilities - both real and imagined - along with a growing awareness of the dynamic agency or subjectivity of the Earth. By magnifying nonhuman subjectivity, the new epoch is widely interpreted by scholars across a range of disciplines as unsettling modern dualistic notions of human exceptionalism. Consequently, nonhuman nature is no longer a relatively inert background for human cultural activities. Humans and nonhumans must now be seen as interrelated Earth subjects. This nonmodern perspective suggests an ecological metaphysics of intersubjectivity along the lines o...

2018

P aul Crutzen and Eugene F. Stoermer popularized the Anthropocene as a new geological epoch marked primarily by human activity in a 2000 International Geosphere-Biosphere Program Newsletter. 1 Since then, "Anthropocene" has become a buzzword in all realms of environmentally concerned discourse. Most simply, Anthropocene means 'the age of the humans, ' coming from the Greek anthropos (human) and kainos (new). But the concept entails much more than the profound influence of humans on the Earth and its ecosystems, and is vibrantly debated in the scientific community. The Anthropocene has yet to be officially recognized as a geologic epoch, though it has been recently proposed for such recognition to the International Geological Congress. Nevertheless, the Anthropocene has taken hold in many academic fields and continues to prove its intellectual and imaginative potency. What might it mean to live in a time that is characterized by humanity's ability to affect changes in Earth's systems? What implications might such an understanding of our current geological epoch have for ethics, politics, religion, and philosophy? How will narratives of the Anthropocene shape and affect our thinking about and living into the future? These queries are explored in Religion in the Anthropocene, a collection of essays edited by Celia E. Deane-Drummond, Sigurd Bergmann, and Markus Vogt. This volume consists of seventeen essays by academics of various disciplines from North America, Europe, South Africa, and Australia; it provides primarily a Western lens to engage with the Anthropocene. This largely Western vantage, however, does not hamper the diverse and at times conflicting positions held in the text, which makes it all the more interesting. Religion in the Anthropocene is situated in the environmental humanities, which boasts the ability to "assess diverse scientific and cultural narratives" and provide "assessment of implicit religious narratives, or whether there are social and ethical implications" (1). It also promises to explore the "net of relations between society-culture-nature-subjectivity" as is the practice of the environmental humanities (2). The volume proves up to these tasks; it is a richly textured, multidisciplinary work that will appeal to a variety of readers in the academy, either in part or as a whole. Organized in six parts along disciplinary lines, the volume offers essays from historical, philosophical, theological, ethical, and sociopolitical perspectives. The seventeen essays are well outlined in the introduction, making a tailored reading of the text eminently possible. The book is, thereby, tremendously

Urbaniana University Journal, 2017