Religion in Environmental and Climate Change

Suffering, Values, Lifestyles

Dieter Gerten, Sigurd Bergmann, Dieter Gerten, Sigurd Bergmann

• Publisher: Continuum
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781441166289
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion & Science

Climate change and other global environmental changes deserve attention by the the humanities - they are caused mainly by human attitudes and activities and feed back to human societies. Focussing on religion allows for analysis of various human modes of perception, action and thought in relation to global environmental change. On the one hand, religious organizations are aiming to become "greener"; on the other hand, some religious ideas and practices display fatalism towards impacts of climate change. What might be the fate of different religions in an ever-warming world? This book gathers recent research on functions of religion in climate change from theological, ethical, philosophical, anthropological, historical and earth system analytical perspectives. Charting the spread from regional case studies to global-scale syntheses, the authors demonstrate that world religions and indigenous belief systems are already responding in highly dynamic ways to ongoing and projected climate changes - in theory and practice, for better or for worse. The book establishes the research field "religion in climate change" and identifies avenues for future research across disciplines.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Notes on Contributors
• Part 1 Setting the Stage
• Chapter 1 Facing the Human Faces of Climate Change
• Chapter 2 Global Change and the Need for New Cosmologies
• Chapter 3 Religion in the Public Sphere: The Social Function of Religion in the Context of Climate and Development Policy
• Chapter 4 Contemplating Climategate: Religion and the Future of Climate Research
• Part 2 Sketching Sustainable Futures: Recent Dynamics in World Religions
• Chapter 5 Climate Justice from a Christian Point of View: Challenges for a New Definition of Wealth
• Chapter 6 Climate Justice and the Intrinsic Value of Creation: The Christian Understanding of Creation and its Holistic Implications
• Chapter 7 Evangelicals and Climate Change
• Chapter 8 Religious Climate Activism in the United States
• Chapter 9 The Future of Faith: Climate Change and the Fate of Religions
• Part 3 Regional and Indigenous Belief Systems in Climate and Environmental Change: Case Studies
• Chapter 10 Climate and Cosmology: Exploring Sakha Belief and the Local Effects of Unprecedented Change in North-Eastern Siberia, Russia
• Chapter 11 Religious Perspectives on Climate Change Among Indigenous Communities: Questions and Challenges for Ethnological Research
• Chapter 12 Vulnerable Coastal Regions: Indigenous People under Climate Change in Indonesia
• Chapter 13 Jaichylyk: Harmonizing the Will of Nature and Human Needs
• Chapter 14 Environment, Climate and Religion in Ancient European History
• Index