Theology and Ecology Across the Disciplines: On Care for Our Common Home: Religion and the University Celia Deane-Drummond T&T Clark

Theology and Ecology Across the Disciplines

On Care for Our Common Home

Open Access

Theology and Ecology Across the Disciplines

On Care for Our Common Home

Open Access

Description

The threat of ecological collapse is increasingly becoming a reality for the world's populations, both human and nonhuman; addressing this global challenge requires enormous cultural creativity and demands a diversity of perspectives, especially from the humanities. Theology and Ecology Across the Disciplines draws from a variety of academic disciplines and positions in order to explore the role and nature of environmental responsibility, especially where such themes intersect with religious or theological viewpoints.

Covering disciplines such as history, philosophy, literature, politics, peace studies, economics, women's studies, and the ecological sciences as well as systematic and moral theology, the contributors emphasize how these positions have begun to develop distinct perspectives on urgent ecological issues, as well as pointing toward specific practices at the local and international level. This volume provides a multidisciplinary point of departure for urgent conversations on environmental responsibility that resist simplistic solutions. Rather, the contributors highlight the complex nature of modern ecology, and suggest creative ways forward in the situation of an apparently intractable global problem.

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollection.com. Open access was funded by Knowledge Unlatched.

List of Figures
List of Contributors
Acknowledgments

Introduction, Celia Deane-Drummond and Rebecca Artinian-Kaiser (University of Notre Dame, USA)

Prologue: 'Understanding the Science of Climate Change', Philip J. Sakimoto (University of Notre Dame, USA)

Part I. Culture
1. Ecotheology before Ecology and Environmentalism: Reclaiming the Missing Heritage of Natural Theology - Christopher Hamlin (University of Notre Dame, USA)

2. Thoreau's Woodchopper, Wordsworth's Leech-gatherer, and the Representation of “Humble and Rustic Life” - Alda Balthrop-Lewis (Australian Catholic University, Australia)

3. How Ecology Can Save the Life of Theology: A Philosophical Contribution to the Engagement of Ecology and Theology - David Kirchhoffer (Australian Catholic University, Australia)

4. Key Issues in Ecological Theology: Incarnation, Evolution, Communion - Denis Edwards (Australian Catholic University, Australia)

Part II. Social Science

5. Creation and Creativity - Mark Hayes (Durham University, UK)

6. “No Compromise in Defense of Mother Earth”: The Religion and Politics of Radical Environmentalism - Kyle William Beam (Independent Scholar, USA)

7. Strategic Peacebuilding and an “Integral Ecology” - Michael Yankoski (University of Notre Dame, USA)

8. Against the “Unity” of Babel: Liberation Theology and the Language of Sustainable Development - Daniel P. Castillo (Loyola University, USA)

Part III. Critique

9. The Environment, the Common Good, and Women's Participation - Lisa Sowle Cahill (Boston College, USA)

10. The Planetary Boundaries Framework and Food Production: A Radical Redefinition of Sustainable Development? - Johan De Tavernier (KU Leuven, Belgium)

Part IV. Practice

11. Restoration and Transformation: A Theological Engagement with Ecological Restoration - Rebecca Artinian-Kaiser (University of Notre Dame, USA)

12. Laudato Si' and Standing Rock: Water Justice and Indigenous Ecological Knowledge - Christiana Zenner (Fordham University, USA)

13. Eating Our Way into the Care of Our Common Home - Norman Wirzba (Duke University, USA)

Part V. New Directions

14. Law For and From the Natural World - Mary Ellen O'Connell with Marie-Claire Klassen (University of Notre Dame, USA)

15. In Defense of Biodiversity: Biodiversity in Ecology and Theology - Carmody Grey (Independent Scholar)

16. Evolution:A Theology of Niche Construction for the Twenty-First Century - Celia Deane-Drummond (University of Notre Dame, USA)

Bibliography
Index

Product details

Published	Mar 19 2020
Format	Paperback
Edition	1st
Extent	272
ISBN	9780567693945
Imprint	T&T Clark
Dimensions	234 x 156 mm
Series	Religion and the University
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing

Environmentalism is a locus theologicus of our time: in it Christian theology starts to discover the consequences of belief in God. The gospel of liberation is tested as the means for a 'great transformation' of society. This creates a new kind of interdisciplinary encounter between theology and other disciplines which is represented in this book in an exemplary way.

Markus Vogt, LMU Munich, Germany
Following the lead of Pope Francis's Laudato Si, this helpful collection extends the dialogue of Christian theology with environmental humanities and sciences, modeling the kind of intellectual engagements across disciplines needed to adequately interpret rapid anthropogenic environmental change.

Willis Jenkins, University of Virginia, USA
Undoubtedly, exploring the potential of transdisciplinary cooperation is necessary to respond to the suffering atmosphere's complexity. Following in the Pope's wake and call for 'integral ecology,' skilled voices from different disciplines chorus the praise of creation and religious environmentalism. Unexpected cross connections emerge where evolution, liberation and hope embrace and resurrection meets restoration. Slow but steady challenges such as food, faith, water, wisdom, biodiversity, peacebuilding are falling into place – a place still ahead of us.

Sigurd Bergmann, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
This is a dynamic collection of serious thinkers, a rich resource that helps us attend to the greatest moral challenge of our time.

Studies in Christian Ethics