Tracing Origins of Twenty‐first Century Ecotheology: The Poetry of Christopher Southgate

Abstract

With the goal of better understanding how science, religion, and poetic art came together in the work of Christopher Southgate, the authors first explore his spiritual poetry. They come away with a better understanding of the author's commitment to a broad naturalism that contributes, along with his own faith experience, to his prose works in the emerging field of ecotheology. The authors conclude that Southgate's work is part of the worldwide emergence of a theological rationale that supports environmentalism, the protection of species, and the conservation of biodiversity. The authors find Southgate's poetry warm, appealing, accessible, and re‐readable to good effect, but with a thread of danger and warning throughout. Both features are quite appropriate for the environmental movement in the twenty‐first century.

Using Religious Poetry of the Seventeenth Century to Start Environmental Conversations in Protestant College Classrooms

“…They argue that Southgate’s readability and relatability coupled with his turns toward the dramatic and apocalyptic make his poetry a good starting point for people to accept and understand the reality of ecological change. His infectious “wellspring” of care for the earth, they argue, emerges from his poetic theology based on eschatological concerns (Rappaport & Corbally, 2018, p. 874). The ability to place a foot firmly in each community, Protestant and environmental, and meet religious people on theological terms is exactly what John Donne, Andrew Marvell, and George Herbert do with their eschatology as well.…”