The most “inconvenient truth” of all – and the most important: our moral responsibility for climate change.Despite scientific evidence and pressure from grassroots movements, the threat of an ecological crisis has for a long time failed to achieve prominence in ecclesiastical or political circles. And yet it is one of the biggest moral dilemmas of our time. In this groundbreaking book Michael Northcott examines theological attitudes to climate change, from the complacent to the apo...

God and Gaia explores the overlap between traditional religious cosmologies and the scientific Gaia theory of James Lovelock. It argues that a Gaian approach to the ecological crisis involves rebalancing human and more-than-human influences on Earth by reviving the ecological agency of local and indigenous human communities, and of nonhuman beings.Present-day human ecological influences on Earth have been growing at pace since the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions, whe...

This book records a set of dialogues between scientists, theologians, and philosophers on what can be done to prevent a global slide into ecological collapse. It is a uniquely multidisciplinary book that exemplifies the kinds of cultural and scholarly dialogue urgently needed to address the threat to the earth represented by our super-industrial civilization. The authors debate the conventional account of nature conservation as protection from human activity. In contrast to standard accoun...

Much current commentary on climate change, both secular and theological, focuses on the duties of individual citizens to reduce their consumption of fossil fuels. In A Political Theology of Climate Change, however, Michael Northcott discusses nations as key agents in the climate crisis.Against the anti-national trend of contemporary political theology, Northcott renarrates the origins of the nations in the divine ordering of history. In dialogue with Giambattista V...

This volume focuses on ‘fittingness’ as an ethical-aesthetical idea, and in particular examines how the concept is beneficial for environmental ethics. It brings together an innovative set of contributions to argue that fittingness is a significant but under-investigated facet of human ethical deliberation with both ethical and aesthetic dimensions. In widely diverse matters – from architecture to table manners – individuals and communities make decisions based on ‘fittingness’, also expre...

This book offers the first comprehensive systematic theological reflection on arguably the most serious issue facing humanity and other creatures today. Responding to climate change is often left to scientists, policy makers and activists, but what understanding does theology have to offer? In this collection, the authors demonstrate that there is vital cultural and intellectual work for theologians to perform in responding to climate science and in commending a habitable way forward. Writ...

People are born in one place. Traditionally humans move around more than other animals, but in modernity the global mobility of persons and the factors of production increasingly disrupts the sense of place that is an intrinsic part of the human experience of being on earth. Industrial development and fossil fuelled mobility negatively impact the sense of place and help to foster a culture of placelessness where buildings, fields and houses increasingly display a monotonous aesthetic. At t...

In Political Theology on Edge, the discourse of political theology is seen as situated on an edge—that is, on the edge of a world that is grappling with global warming, a brutal form of neoliberal capitalism, protests against racism and police brutality, and the COVID-19 pandemic. This edge is also a form of eschatology that forces us to imagine new ways of being religious and political in our cohabitation of a fragile and shared planet. Each of the essays in this volume attends t...

Christianity struggles to show how living on Earth matters for living with God. While people of faith increasingly seek practical ways to respond to the environmental crisis, theology has had difficulty contextualizing the crisis and interpreting the responses. In Ecologies of Grace, Willis Jenkins presents a field-shaping introduction to Christian environmental ethics that offers resources for renewing theology. Observing how religious environmental practices often draw on concep...

Concern for the environment has developed and intensified over the last few decades to the point where it now dominates much of our contemporary political landscape and culture. The rise of religious environmentalism in particular adds its own distinctive voice to the debate, for it seeks to trace both the malaise and a potential solution to environmental understanding.In Eco-Theology, Celia Deane-Drummond offers a comprehensive resource book for this burgeoning field of enquiry th...

'Certainly one of the most promising theological statements of our time.' --The Christian Century'Not for the timid, this brilliant book calls for nothing short of the overthrow of patriarchy itself.' --The Village Voice

Shaping a Christian Worldview presents a collection of essays that address the key issues facing the future of Christian higher education. With contributions from key players in the field, this book addresses the critical issues for Christian institutions of various traditions as the new century begins to leave its indelible mark on education.