The history of the last 120 years without oil would be an alternative so profound it is hard to imagine it. Mechanised tanks, bulldozers, chainsaws, aerial bombers, pharmaceutical drugs, cancer epidemics, plastics, artificial fertilisers, high explosives, and US global dominance would all not have happened without it. This volume is a profound engagement with oil and energy and its intersections with divine energeia and climate change: deeply researched and yet lucid and readable, I highly commend it.

Michael Northcott, University of Edinburgh, UK

In our accounts of the economics of climate change, and even of the theology of dominion that lubricates it, we have missed a crucial part of the story: the effects of a particular white masculine individualism that have energized an extractivist civilization. Terra Rowe's critical petro-theology unearths the U.S. enchantment with autonomy and the aesthetic of the open highway flowing through an oily intersectionality. With “terranean” brilliance, she tracks the affective investments, theological and secularized, that keep Western fossil fuel so world-destructively energized.

Catherine Keller, Drew University, USA

Of Modern Extraction situates contemporary discourse about energy and climate change in the context of religious and theological histories that show how modern energy regimes align with gendered, racist, and colonial forms of power. Rowe develops this account of extractivism with an enviable knack for story-telling and an attention to philosophical detail.

Evan Berry, Arizona State University, USA

In Of Modern Extraction, Terra Schwerin Rowe provides us with the first great intellectual history of petroculture. By showing just how deeply Western understandings of energy and extraction are connected to theological notions of fulfilment, redemption, and divinity, Rowe opens us new avenues and insights into how power is written into subjective and social experience. Essential reading.

Imre Szeman, University of Waterloo, Canada

This book explores like no other the many enchantments of extractivism. Through Rowe's deep energo-theological lens we discover new sedimentary layers of our petrocultural attachment, including the figuration of oil as divine gift and animated savior. We also discover the urgent need to imagine alternative energy beyond theological modes of redemption and resurrection. Of Modern Extraction is a truly pathbreaking work of energy humanities.

Dominic Boyer, Rice University, USA

Of Modern Extraction offers a fascinating account of the theological aspects of energy, and the petro-theology that animates Western extraction. From inter-Scholastic debates about power to the resurrection logic of fossil fuels, Rowe beautifully weaves together unfamiliar histories that will inspire new directions in energy and climate scholarship.

Cara New Daggett, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA