For at least as long as the birth of environmentalism, discourses of ecological crisis have adopted, both consciously and unconsciously, themes and concepts derived from Jewish and Christian Apocalypses. These are ancient texts remembered best for their cosmic and spiritual revelations about the world and the world to come. The scope and methods of this adoption have varied widely: from symbolic representation (images of the Four Horsemen, for instance) to the influence of end‐time belief upon environmental policy. More recently, references to apocalypse have accompanied the study of climate change specifically. However, they have tended to do so without more than a superficial engagement with the theological and philosophical underpinnings of apocalyptic faith. This review article addresses this issue by engaging the meanings of apocalyptic faith within four distinct areas in the interdisciplinary study of climate change: (1) Christian ecotheology; (2) critical and social scientific discourse; (3) policy and media communications; and (4) contemporary philosophy and ethics. WIREs Clim Change 2014, 5:233–246. doi: 10.1002/wcc.264 This article is categorized under: Climate, History, Society, Culture > Ideas and Knowledge Trans‐Disciplinary Perspectives > Humanities and the Creative Arts
The Anthropocene concept allows human history to be imagined within the temporal framework of planetary processes. Accordingly some environmentalists increasingly favour lengthening the temporal horizons of concern beyond those of 'normal' moral deliberation. Whilst there are defensible reasons for doing so, I wish to take issue with the "secular time" perspective underlying some such approaches. To make my case, I present, in the first section, two recent manifestations of the long view perspective: a) 'deep future' narratives in popular climate science and futurism; b) the ideas behind the Long Now Foundation. In the second section, I apply a critical lens to these perspectives via classic analyses of secular time by Charles Taylor, Hannah Arendt and Giorgio Agamben. I conclude by suggesting that these post-secular critiques should be considered alongside recent approaches to the Anthropocene and the 'geological turn' from new materialist perspectives. Introduction: What time are we in? The call for a "geological turn" in the humanities (Yusoff 2013; Ellsworth and Kruse 2013) has been described as the need to rethink the time of human life. For those who accept that we are living in the Anthropocene epoch, human life must be thought within the geological processes of vast temporal stretches that both predate, and will outlive, human existence. Human life occurs within the 'epic narrative' of far futures. Epic, borrowing from the literary field, indicates a narrative in which 'the human' encounters or does battle with "alien orders of magnitude" (Dimock 2013:617). This presents a number of obvious difficulties of representation for literary theory ii , but the implications for ethical
Introducing Ecofeminist Theologies is one in a series of books, Introductions in Feminist Theology, which, as the titles indicate, introduce readers to some diverse perspectives of and developments within feminist theology. Some of the titles focus on theologies within cultural and regional contexts, such as African and Asian theology. Others deal with feminist constructions of traditional Christian themes, such as Christology and Redemption. All aim to give an overview of scholarship to date and indicate the directions in which feminist theology might or should move. They are accessible to the generally educated reader and to undergraduate students.Heather Eaton's volume on ecofeminist theology brings together multiple dimensions of ecofeminism and indicates how these dimensions have interacted with Christian theology. This is a big task for a small book. Eaton uses the metaphors of intersection and roundabouts to capture the sense of a dynamic field of scholarship and praxis that is, on the one hand, new and emerging but, on the other hand, around long enough to have identifiable streams. She understands ecofeminism as a very broad umbrella term for the many ways in which scholars and activists have made connections between ecology and feminism or even just between the earth and women (pp. 2-3). Key to understanding these connections is the theme of domination, the dynamics of which are very well presented throughout this book.Chapter one attempts to document all the avenues through which people come to consider the relationship of women to the ecological crisis. As traffic enters roundabouts, so too ecofeminists enter into a conversation from many different avenues, including social activism, scholarly activity, oppression, privilege, poverty, feminism, and ecology, to mention a few. Eaton documents some of the major early contributions (Rosemary Radford Ruether, Susan Griffin, and Mary Daly, among others) who were influential in shaping ecofeminism as a field. The chapter also contributes a brief timeline for key events on the global scene, such as major conferences and the initiation of United Nations organizations considering women's role in environment and development. There are also succinct summaries of contributions by non-theologians, Noël Sturgeon, Karen Warren, Hazel Henderson and others illustrating the diversity of ecofeminist positions and contributions.Chapter two is a very broad-stroked overview of theoretical and historical work regarding the relationship of women and nature in Euro-Western cultures as constructed by ecofeminists. Topics include the meanings and usages of the term 'nature' with a brief account of the usage of the word in Christian tradition, the history of the association of nature with femaleness, the emergence of patriarchy, explanations of the origins of patriarchy, theories about the origins of the domination of nature,
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