Eco-Theology: Essays in Honor of Sigurd Bergmann [First ed.] 9783506760364, 9783657760367

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Eco-Theology

Urheberrechtlich geschütztes Material! © 2021 Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn, ein Imprint der Brill-Gruppe

Urheberrechtlich geschütztes Material! © 2021 Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn, ein Imprint der Brill-Gruppe

Hans-Günter Heimbrock, Jörg Persch (eds.) in Cooperation with Filip Ivanovic

Eco-Theology Essays in Honor of Sigurd Bergmann

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Cover illustration: Watercolor illustration by Ingela Bergman

Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data available online: http://dnb.d-nb.de All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. © 2021 Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn, an Imprint of the Brill Group (Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, Netherlands; Brill USA Inc., Boston MA, USA; Brill Asia Pte Ltd, Singapore; Brill Deutschland GmbH, Paderborn, Germany) www.schoeningh.de Cover design: Anna Braungart, Tübingen Production: Brill Deutschland GmbH, Paderborn ISBN 978-3-506-76036-4 (hardback) ISBN 978-3-657-76036-7 (e-book)

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Content Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hans-Günter Heimbrock & Jörg Persch

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Crisis 1

Ecological Crisis – So What? Ethics, Views of Life and Academic Writing  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tage Kurtén

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Contesting Evil and Climate Crisis – a Discourse on Prerequisites for Individual Action  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kjetil Hafstad

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Hope and Fear in the Climate Crisis  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Paul Leer-Salvesen

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Nature 4

Eco-Theology Beyond Order and Chaos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Antje Jackelén

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The Romantics, the English Lake District, and the Sacredness of High Land: Mountains as Hierophanic Places in the Origins of Environmentalism and Nature Conservation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Michael S. Northcott

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Nature and Colonial Hybridity: Lars Levi Læstadius’s Karesuando Sermons  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mika Vähäkangas

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Content

Spirit 7

Pneumatology and Ecology: Reassessing the State of the Debate  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Ernst M. Conradie

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The Value of the Sensible World According to John of Damascus  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Filip Ivanovic

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Liberation of Mother Earth? A Hindu Declaration on Climate Change  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 Jon Skarpeid

Politics 10

The Sustainable Development Goals, the Club of Rome and Naming the Beast: Capitalism  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 Ulrich Duchrow

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Political Theologies in the Anthropocene  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 Peter Manley Scott

Praxis 12

A Religious Symbol for a Sustainable Practice? The Hope Cathedral from a Pragmatist Perspective  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 Jan-Olav Henriksen

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Rethinking Inclusive Education: What Can Be Learned from an Ecological Theology of Liberation?  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 Thor-André Skrefsrud

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Nature and Praxis. Theological and Phenomenological Remarks  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251 Hans-Günter Heimbrock Bibliography of Sigurd Bergmann 1985-2021  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

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Content

Index Names  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303 Keywords  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307 About the Authors  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

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Introduction The ecological crisis with its truly global dimensions is one of the burning issues of our time: Oceans and seas are both already severely polluted. Each day hundreds of species are irretrievably lost, as decennia forms of economy following unlimited growth ideology destroy more and more of their habitats and thus of the natural basis of life. A fair distribution of air, water, and fertile land for humankind is farer and farer away. We live on credit, allow ourselves more than we are entitled to now at the expense of the future. Given all this, there is need to re-act and to correct the direction, in which we are heading, regarding our political as well as technical future. However, there is also need to deal intellectually with causes and backgrounds of the ecological crisis, to reflect on religious, spiritual and cultural understandings of current developments. Precisely this is the starting point of this volume. The intention of the book is twofold: – Firstly, to highlight important issues and to engage with scholarly analyses concerning the interdisciplinary field of religion and environment in times of intensified crisis. By this we try to gain insight in spiritual roots of the current disaster and likewise to emphasize the utter need to deal also with ethical and spiritual aspects of this hot issue alongside political and technical aspects. – Secondly, to give thankful resonance to Sigurd Bergmann as an outstanding scholar working within this whole field as his lifelong endeavor. Without any doubt, the religious dimension of nature, environment, and climate change is one of the dominant themes in his lifetime achievement. In his publications, as well as in his teachings, he continuously gave and still gives inspiring contributions to what is called “Eco-Theology”. Academic friends, colleagues and students try to honor him at the occasion of his 65th birthday with this liber amicorum. Sigurd Bergmann was born January 5th, 1956 in Hannover. He started his academic education in Göttingen, Germany, and moved later to Sweden. In Uppsala he graduated in theology in 1980. From 1980 to 1988, he worked as an ordained minister in the diocese of Lund of the Lutheran Church of Sweden. He received his doctoral degree from the University of Lund in 1995 as a student of Lars Thunberg, Per Erik Persson, and Per Frostin. From 1999-2019, he was professor of Religious Studies (theology, ethics, and philosophy of religion) at the Department of Archaeology and Religious Studies of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim. In the 1990s, he worked as a secretary for the

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Nordic Forum of Contextual Theology, and initiated and founded the Institute of Contextual Theology in Lund. He was a fellow of the Swedish Research Council at the Department of Art History at Tromsø University, Norway, and taught Systematic Theology in Sweden at Göteborg University, and Lund University where he also has taught at the Department of Human Ecology. He also held and still holds the chair of the European Forum for the Study of Religion and the Environment. He is a member of the Royal Norwegian Society of Letters and Sciences DKNVS (and leader of its section for philosophy, history of ideas & religion since 2009). All through his life, Bergmann presented outstanding contributions to several debates in theology and religious and cultural studies at his workplaces in Scandinavia, as well as in international conferences in which he participated and networks in which he was a part of. Since 1985, he has published more than 250 papers, including a number of Nordic anthologies on the themes of diaconia, power, autonomy, ordinary life culture, and pluralism. The list contains studies on spirituality of early Christian theology, contextual theology, the spatial turn in religion, aesthetics and the religious dynamics of art and architecture. All this gives testimony to the wide spread research activities of Sigurd Bergmann around the globe (cf. the complete bibliography in this volume). Thus, the topic of this book, Eco-Theology, by no means covers all areas in which Bergmann has been academically active. However, given the current situation, as well as the occasion of Bergmann’s birthday, we believe it most appropriate to focus on this issue. Already half a century ago, scholars in various disciplines like philosophy, religious studies, and the humanities dared to put forward the provocative idea about the impact of religious images of nature on the Western culture as motivational soil for emerging problems in exploiting natural capital. The initial impulse presented Lynn White in his seminal essay “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis” already in 1967. His concern about Christian historical and spiritual backgrounds of the current abuse of the environment led to the crucial question “What did Christianity tell people about their relations with the environment?”. This question has been thoroughly debated, opposed and nuanced manifold. Nevertheless, this critical idea developed into a thorn in the side of Western culture, its religious and ethical debates together with other movements like feminist liberation theory and post-colonial studies to reassess age old ideals about humankind as unlimited power and supremacy upon all other species. It is the merit of Sigurd Bergman not only to engage in this evolving research movement since the late 80s, and to shape what later was labeled as

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“eco-theology” with engaged publications, speeches, and with the setup of effective research networks all over the world. He picked also up White’s suspicion that the roots of our global trouble concerning the environment are deeply religious. Moreover, he was one of the first to provide interdisciplinary discourses with profound insight into possible remedies to counteract the shortcomings of Anthropocene with its disastrous forms of economy, technique and cultural forms of life. To do so, he put heavy emphasis on getting in touch again with the long lost cosmological dimensions of human and extra-human existence in the modern Western worldview. He devoted much effort in his academic life to overcome the negative backside and the cost of significant human impact on Earth’s geology and ecology, including climate change. Surprisingly, his main intellectual tool to pick up this challenge and to develop an alternative Christian view was based on classical theological arguments. Starting with his dissertation on early Christian spirituality of the Greek theologian Gregory of Nazianz he demonstrated in unremitting efforts the intellectual necessity to bridge nature and spirit, to connect efforts as to liberate nature from human exploitation and to design a renewed spirituality. He pursued this goal with congenial interdisciplinary ideas, however, without nostalgic or romantic glorification of the past. This book project has been planned and started long ago. What not had been planned were the occurrences in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. Only a few weeks later the corona virus arrived in Europe and exploded as pandemic COVID19 causing firstly the infection of millions of people, secondly the deaths of almost one million people to now, and thirdly a global social, economic, and cultural disruption – a disruption that people have never experienced since World War II. Since then, Corona has deeply influenced life conditions all over the globe. It has reshaped the agenda of all public sectors, has asked for unprecedented political, medical and monetary efforts to cope as far as possible with the disastrous effects on human life conditions in all societies around the world. It is hardly surprising that among those, who reacted publicly to the pandemic and raised their voices for the need to change course the name of Sigurd Bergman is to find in the forefront. With harsh critical comments he tried to alarm his fellow citizens about what actually happened in Sweden, commenting on unethical measurements and a disastrous public health policy by the Swedish authorities. Nevertheless, he also forced critical thinking about guiding values and images for a “postCorona” society, which clearly displays its affinity to biblical ideas of radical

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conversion. As early as on March  30th 2020, Bergmann published a most engaging article in the Swedish church newspaper Kyrkans Tidning entitled “Omvändelse fullt möjligt post corona”; an English version was published shortly after entitled “You have to change your life. Our common post-corona future through a Swedish lense” 1. From its first sentence on “Once the coronavirus pandemic is over, we will wake up to a new society” this kind of manifesto tries to convince people to the insight that there is no viable way back to an old “normality”, it is only possible to change going forward in a veritable metanoia to a world worth living for. This article gained impressive resonance by intellectuals as well as in the civil society within Sweden and far beyond. In various ways also contributions in this volume pick up fruitful impulses of this text and propose answers to current challenges. Alongside the article published in March  2020, Bergmann took numerous other efforts dealing with the consequences of the pandemic. All this resulted quickly in the formation of an interdisciplinary network Science Forum Covid 19, which influenced public debates in Sweden and far beyond. This book with its 14 contributions intends to honor Sigurd Bergmann for all his academic and personal efforts in the areas of critical thinking, responsible ethics and ingenious spirituality in service of the earth as protected habitat. It presents responses from authors, coming from various parts of the world, from Sweden, Finland, Norway, Germany, Montenegro, the UK, South Africa, and Indonesia. The contributions cover a wide range of issues related to ecotheology, namely aesthetics, moral philosophy, theology, history of religion, philosophy of education, history of literature, political theory and economics. The editors after receiving all articles sorted them into five sections with the following keywords (which are, of course, not mutually exclusive). Crisis The first section starts with the article by the Finish-Swedish scholar Tage Kurtén (Åbo, Finland). His contribution entitled “Ecological Crisis – So What? Ethics, Views of Life and Academic Writing” draws on the Covid pandemic as moral, intellectual as well as theological challenge and gives an in-depth analysis of Sigurd Bergmann’s numerous works in this respect. The following text by Kjetil Hafstad (Oslo, Norway), “Contesting evil and climate crisis – a discourse on prerequisites for individual action”, focusses on the role of individuals for the survival of democratic societies. Taking up moral philosophy (from Aristotle up to Hannah Arendt) and paralleling ideas to Barthian theology, Hafstad clarifies the need for responsible ethical decisions

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based on the intrapersonal dialogue. In other words, he explains the importance to think alone in times of ecological crises. The third article is written by Paul Leer-Salvesen (Kristiansand, Norway). “Hope And Fear In The Climate Crisis” examines current social movements protesting ecological crises like Greta Thunberg and the “Fridays for futuremovement” as expressions of basic collective emotions. Drawing on examples like “Deep Ecology” developed by the Norwegian philosopher Arne Næss and Pope Francis’ ecological encyclical “Laudato si” his plea goes for personally rooted engagement combined with thoughtful political answers to the ecological challenges. Nature Eco-theological thinking in more than one way steps towards a renewed concept of nature. The three pieces of the second section pick up this task. In her article “Eco-Theology Beyond Order and Chaos”, Archbishop Antje Jakelén (Uppsala, Sweden) has a closer look at the science-and-religion discourse and its contributions to an adequate understanding of nature through modern scientific thinking. After historical remarks, she elaborates especially on theological models which pick up innovative ideas and metaphors like “emergence” or even “dance” to conceptualise “God” and “creation” beyond the traditional and restrictive binaries like order and chaos. Michael  S.  Northcott’s (Yogyakarta, Indonesia) article “The Romantics, the English Lake District, and the Sacredness of High Land: Mountains as Hierophanic Places in the Origins of Environmentalism and Nature Conservation” combines environmental, literary and religious studies to deal with nature. The article considers famous 18th and 19th century authors of English poetry and reconstructs the notion of romantic appreciation for mountains as places of moral and spiritual power in England and Scotland as early forms of environmentalism, particularly as protest campaigns against the industrial destruction of nature. In the last article in this section, Mika Vähäkangas, (Lund, Sweden) “Nature and Colonial Hybridity: Lars Levi Læstadius’s Karesuando Sermons”, deals with the religious approach to nature inherent to the 19th century pietist revival movement of the Northern Swedish and Finish Sami culture. The author especially investigates religious images and teachings about nature by the Lutheran theologian as well as botanist Lars Levi Læstadius. Religious rhetoric and images of nature are combined with a research perspective regarding colonialist and liberating interests in the texts.

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Spirit The third section draws on essential spiritual sources of eco-theology. In the opening article, Ernst Conradie, (Bellville, South Africa) “Pneumatology and ecology: Reassessing the state of the debate”, provides a detailed insight into the current state of the debate on pneumatology and ecology. Readers especially get insight into the multi-faceted teachings on the Hl. Spirit within the development of the classical Christian dogmatic on trinity. The patristic line of thought is followed by Filip Ivanovic’s (Podgorica, Montenegro) article entitled “The Value of the Sensible World According to John of Damascus”. He examines carefully relevant teachings of the Damascene to clarify what was at stake during the late iconoclastic controversy. Ivanovic explains the scope of dogmatic formula about the “creation in the image of God”. For patristic thinking it was not only relevant for human beings, but also for the entire cosmos – an argument which has pertinent impact on contemporary perspectives on nature as an ecosystem. The third article written by Jon Skarpeid, (Stavanger, Norway), “Liberation of Mother Earth? The Hindu Declaration on Climate Change”, broadens further the perspectives on the spiritual dimension of environmental studies, dealing with perspectives on climate change beyond Jewish and Christian religious traditions. The article offers a scrutinized critical reading of relevant Hindu declarations of the last decennium, elaborates on their religious images (e.g. the universe as “God’s body”) and compares them to traditional Hindu thought as well as to Christian images. In this contribution, readers can learn once more the lesson that “green theology” is by no means an idea exclusively known by Christian theologians. Politics A non-romantic approach to ecological thinking never leaves out questions of politics, power, and economy. Two contributions in the following section deliberately focus on these issues. In his article “The Sustainable Development Goals, the Club of Rome and Naming the Beast: Capitalism”, Ulrich Duchrow, (Heidelberg, Germany), examines goals of recent global declarations on sustainable development (United Nations, the Club of Rome) and unveils their hidden economic ideals about production, consumption, and money. Following this, he reconstructs the socio-historical development of imperial capitalism in Western societies through modernity.

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Evaluating factors like property order, the money order and wage labor the author presents a harsh critique on ruinous ecological implications of the ruling economic system. His plea for a less ruinous alternative draws on growing new alliances between social and religious movements. Peter M. Scott, (Manchester, UK), “Political Theologies in the Anthropocene”, addresses political aspects of ecological theology. To do so, he evaluates five recently published outlines of political theology regarding their profile to deal with nature and the environment on implicit normative ideals. Discussing particularly issues like order, justice, suffering and violence, Scott develops a critical evaluation of their understanding of nature. The overall goal is to “to construct the political” in an area of the Corona pandemic. Praxis The last section offers three pieces discussing different ways to react to current ecological crises in regard to religion and religious practice. Jan-Olav Henriksen, (Oslo, Norway), focusses on a masterpiece of artistic ecological engagement in his article “A Religious symbol for a sustainable practice? The Hope Cathedral from a pragmatist perspective”. Henriksen describes in his text a unique local church activity to construct a swimming church building from thrown away plastic and to locate it on the coast side of Frederiksborg, Norway. Furthermore, this symbolic practice is interpreted as a form of reflective practice by means of Peircian semiotics. The next piece bridges public education to ecological discussions in theology. In his article, “Rethinking inclusive education: What can be learned from an ecological theology of liberation?”, Thor-André Skrefsrud, (Hamar, Norway), introduces patterns and ideals of inclusive school education to the readers. Furthermore, he presents a relecture of the educational ideal that schools should provide equal opportunities and participation for all students through the perspective of Liberation theology. This leads back to the critical question of how to understand the very nature of “integration” of diverse groups in public education. In the last article of the book entitled “Nature and Praxis. Theological and phenomenological remarks”, Hans-Günter Heimbrock, (Frankfurt/Main, Germany), deals with the interrelation of pastoral practice and a renewed ecology. Admitting that pastoral theology in its history so far has developed almost no interest in the physical world, the article follows the question what theology might learn from an ecological approach for its own tasks. A fruitful answer leads to the re-examination of anthropological models of perception

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as an embodied encounter with the interpersonal and the natural world taken as life-world. Finally, some words of thanks. We are most grateful to Dr. Martina Kayser and Dr. Rebecca Hagen as well as Uwe Meier of Brill Germany to grant the opportunity to realize the project, thanks to Filip Ivanovic for his contributions to the editorial work, special thanks to Ingela Bergmann for her watercolor painting on the front cover. Dear Sigurd, thanks for a lifelong commitment to the field of public theology for the benefit of humankind and nature, for your uninhibited struggle for an engaged intellectual discourse, thanks for all your contributions to eco-theology, many of us owe you much – ad multos annos! The Editors Hans-Günter Heimbrock

Jörg Persch

Endnote 1 

Published on the blog of the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, University of Munich May 18th 2020.

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Crisis

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Ecological Crisis – So What? Ethics, Views of Life and Academic Writing Tage Kurtén Nature Strikes Back Sometimes things change rapidly in an unexpected way. While I was writing this article the COVID-19 virus grew into a pandemic threat to human life all over the world. Different countries reacted in different ways during the winter and spring of 2020. The reader will have a better picture of the midterm consequences of the new virus than I had at the time of writing this. The government in Finland initiated severe restrictions on 12th March 2020. Among other things, this influenced the location where I wrote this text. The university closed my place of work for two months. As much of the relevant literature was on the bookshelves in my office, I had to remould some of my ideas. During that same time, however, Sigurd Bergmann wrote a short article in a Swedish church newspaper where he commented on the ongoing crisis and made some important points. As these were relevant for my planned argument, I gratefully took advantage of them. Sigurd Bergmann’s well-written text was published on March 30th, 2020.1 The main picture at that time was that most people who contracted the virus did not become seriously ill; only the elderly and those with pre-existing health problems were at the highest risk. The first peak of the spread of the virus had already slowed down in China and South Korea, while the number of deceased was growing the most rapidly in Southern Europe and North America. Africa and some parts of South America had seen only smaller numbers of coronavirus cases. Bergmann was afraid of what would happen if/when the virus spread to the huge refugee camps in Syria, Turkey and Europe. The poor medical services in all the poorest parts of the world, until then exhibiting only a small spread of COVID-19, made him seem almost desperate. At the same time Bergmann saw new insights won by the virus trying to make itself at home in the human body. He hoped that the world community would make a conversion (metanoia), although he was not too optimistic. He longed for a new, “post-growth” society as an outcome of the present crisis.

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Tage Kurtén Could the central banks in Europe at last redistribute capital to those who produce goods and services for welfare, nature, climate and justice instead of giving intensive care to so named profit production? Who will cry over follies like cheap flights, SUVs, profitmaking welfare business, and coal power plants?2

He saw the possibility of a global change of mind; something valuable could grow out of the destructive pandemic disease. The situation that Bergmann described makes us painfully aware of our vulnerability when confronted by dangerous diseases. At the same time, it also points at the current ecological crisis. COVID-19 has resulted in a worldwide reaction and a search for solutions notwithstanding the economic consequences. Is it possible to hope for such a new way of thinking related to obvious critical changes in the global natural environment? That is Bergmann’s question. This article offers insight into that question. Is it a moral challenge? If so, what is the moral aspect of that challenge? Can we hope for a universal consensus in a, perhaps much needed, environmental ethics?3 I take my point of departure in a text of Bergmann from the 1990s. While trying to interpret what he wrote at the beginning of his career, I will give some arguments for the role of ethics in environmental questions. The title of this article, Ecological Crisis – So What? deliberately and provocatively expresses a possible indifference to the crisis. Is it possible to understand such an attitude of ignorance in the light of climate change and other contempoary environmental challenges? If so, under what conditions? The Importance of Compost Sigurd Bergmann’s comments about the COVID-19 virus mirror several important aspects of our present predicament. He understands human being as an integrated part of nature as a whole. As part of nature the coronavirus comes creeping into the human body. Every part of nature stands in an inevitable relation to every other part, in one sense or another. He finds that human societies ought to accept and adjust to being a part of a larger whole. He presupposes, or at least hopes, that politicians would act accordingly. In one sense he leaves open the question of whether his claim is an ethical/moral one or indeed something else. That notwithstanding, I find the pathos with which he expresses his points reveals an indignation which is moral. What his writings leave open, however, is how to understand and deal with this moral aspect, both in daily life and as an academic scholar.

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I have known Sigurd Bergmann for three decades. I first met him in Lund, Sweden, in the summer of 1991. One of his Doktor Väter the newly appointed professor Per Frostin, had brought together some systematic theologians from Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden in order to found a Nordic Network for the study of contextual theological questions. Later Iceland also joined the network. I represented Finland. The term “contextual theology” was quite fresh. We saw a range of possibilities to contribute, from our Nordic viewpoint, to global theology as well as the upcoming discussion of contextual theology. Sigurd was then a doctoral student finishing his thesis. Ever since, he and I have, albeit occasionally, although sometimes more intensely, met and worked together on different issues. Over the years, among other things, the Nordic network resulted in six books collecting thematic articles by older and younger Nordic theologians. One of Bergmann’s leading themes, beginning with his dissertation, has been environmental questions. Quite early, in the middle of the 1990s, Bergmann wrote an article within our network on the phenomenon of composts. There he noted the, then in Sweden, increasing interest amongst ordinary people in building composts. By taking his point of departure in this everyday activity, with no religious connotations in a traditional sense, he pays attention to an element of what we today could call “lived religion”.4 He uses Jürgen Habermas’ concept “lifeworld” and speaks of a narrow lifeworld culture in contrast to a wider universal and monumental culture.5 Monumental culture focuses on a universal human history and on, what we see as, unperishable cultural elements, while lifeworld culture focuses on delimited contexts and smaller narratives. The lifeworld culture centers on actions, while the monumental culture puts observations in focus. Perhaps we could interpret him as saying that observation as the basic attitude makes one stress a universal view, while a narrower focus on concrete actions favors smaller contexts. He finds that modernity tends to accentuate a universal aspect, while lifeworld culture is an expression of postmodern traits.6 Bergmann points at an ambiguity in the phenomenon of a compost. We can think of two different attitudes, represented by two different people making compost. The first, modern, person values the compost only as a means to an end. Bergmann criticizes this understanding of compost for not evaluating the non-human environment as an end in itself. However, one can also understand, according to him, that the compost is an expression of something with more lasting value in itself. That is the view of the other person. In that latter sense compost is not simply a thing, an artefact in culture made for a special

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purpose, the compost in itself also creates and stands for cultural values being an end in itself.7 Theologically Bergmann puts aside a traditional distinction between the sacred and the profane. He stresses that the everyday culture (“the profane”) contains religious elements. The individual looking at, and acting with, the compost through and with a “spiritual eye”, attaches a meaning and a function to the compost far beyond its meaning as an expression of waste sorting and of producing mould/humus because it is useful.8 Bergmann finds academic partners close to himself among scholars stressing the relation between cognition and way of life, such as the anthropologist Clifford Geertz. Bergmann notes that religion, according to Geertz, is the mutual acknowledgement of a worldview and ethos.9 Bergmann shows how worldviews and ethos join together in humans’ working with the compost and he gives a possible interpretation of the compost in a Christian context. Academic theology can thus, according to him, suggest ways of relating to and being in the world. He does seem to say, however, that academic theology cannot normatively state how a Christian ought to live.10 By analyzing three different aspects of compost, as a material, a social and a mental dimension, Bergmann makes explicit what it means to see worldviews and ethos as two sides of the same coin. He makes clear how people working with compost can be an expression of a specific understanding of humankind and their physical environment. The three dimensions together are, thereby, necessary parts of a certain way of perceiving the physical world. A person can express this way of perceiving only by means of acting in a specific way.11 Leaning on his doctoral thesis about the Holy Spirit liberating nature, Bergmann concludes with a theological emphasis on compost as a profound cultural criticism of modern society. This “compostmodern” theology describes the path to peace with and on earth as a cooperation between the soil/earth, culture and the Holy Spirit. He states that when together Christians confront the earth and each other, joined in and by the Holy Spirit, in and around the compost, they transform the face of the earth.12 Environmental Ethics – a Theoretical Undertaking? Bergmann has remained critical towards important features of modernity. One young scholar, who has taken part in conferences arranged by the European Forum for the Study of Religion and Environment (established by Bergmann, among others), Suvielise Nurmi, shares this critique in her doctoral thesis, when she discusses what I like to call “mainstream moral philosophy”.

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The term “mainstream moral philosophy” is used here to refer to an understanding of ethical questions as theoretical ones, with which it is possible to deal only on a strictly theoretical level. The aim has often been to find grounds for a normative theory. This branch of moral philosophy often leads to what we would call, in the words of professor Lars Hertzberg, a “law model” for ethics.13 In her dissertation, defended at Helsinki University in 2020, Suvielise Nurmi sets as her task to analyze critically the notion of a moral agency as “an individual human being that has taken over a divine task as moral legislator”. Presupposed is the idea that we cannot count on a divinity in modernity. It turns out that environmental ethics consist of a broad range of different theories within moral philosophy. Nurmi analyzes them as three different frameworks for ethics; one primarily on logical grounds (“exceptional humanism”), another on some kind of natural/empirical grounds (“evolutionary naturalism”) and a third postmodern constructivist one. She exemplifies the latter using feminist ethics and reaches her own solution which she calls “relational moral agency”.14 Nurmi’s main argument against an “exceptional humanism” in environmental ethics is its anthropocentric view of moral agency. According to her, it presupposes a view of agency that “requires isolatedness, freedom, autonomy, impartiality and rationality. If these features are considered to be preconditions for morality, they should be unchangeable and as eternal as morality itself.”15 She leans on natural science in a central part of her critique. Nurmi points at some geologists who describe the post-industrialized earth as Anthropocene. They underscore the inevitable relation between humans and other parts of nature in a way that questions the presumptions of exceptional human agency. Her main point is that the exceptional humanism presupposes an anthropocentrism, in which the ability to detach oneself from nature and from social others is at the core of being moral. This presumption is plainly wrong, Nurmi states. Human beings are never autonomous in that sense.16 She asks whether this critique of the autonomous agent would lead to a deterministic view of humankind. According to Nurmi, human agency is not autonomous but neither is it necessarily naturally or socially determined. It is possible to take into account the agent as contextually situated and defined without denying the uniqueness of the individual agent. This is what she later describes as a “relational agency”.17 Her second framework, a naturalist view, does take into account that humans are part of and in some sense determined by nature, and calls in question the idea of a strictly separated will, because that would lead to a split view

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of the agent, between the will and natural inclinations. Although Nurmi sticks to an idea of non-determined moral agency, she wants to defend results coming from natural sciences concerning humankind. However, she states that this does not necessarily reduce human actions to pre-determined occurrences. We cannot explain away moral actions, she states. She finds that the naturalist view among moral philosophers does not satisfactorily solve the classical problem of how to combine determinism with freedom of the will and with a meaningful idea of moral responsibility.18 Nurmi argues that the necessity of taking human embeddedness in nature into account while also defending moral agency is best understood by the concept of relational moral agency: empirical theories are not enough. However, she also denies absolute freedom. Thereby the understanding of moral challenges becomes more realistic, according to her.19 Nurmi’s third alternative, alongside the humanistic and naturalistic approaches, is a socially grounded environmental ethical approach. She takes her examples from constructivist feminist environmental ethics. Ecofeminism builds upon a view of humankind in anthropology.20 The constructivist approach sees ethics as contextually bound. It is shaped by a particular culture, by symbols and by historically-situated semantic structures. This perspective is quite different from the two former views. Moral questions are not private questions. She stresses that every human subject stands in relations to his/her natural and social surroundings. “Our wishes and beliefs are dialogically bound to those of other people and to our material and living surroundings. [---] By describing the world, we transform humanity; and by interventions in the material processes we construct our own nature and that of various others.”21 When Nurmi develops her own view of an ecological, relational moral agency, she describes a kind of virtue ethics that does not emphasize the importance of the individual moral subject. The ethically important phenomenon is the concrete action by a person situated in a natural and social environment. However, the “pure” action is nothing in itself. In Nurmi’s relational view, it is important that every human action is put into much wider contexts than an atomistic action in itself. Thereby, many of the problems in mainstream analytical moral philosophy also fade away. “Truth about the good exists, but it also escapes”, she writes.22 I think that Nurmi has made many important, often critical, observations. She contributes to the ongoing discussion concerning environmental ethics in a fruitful way when she reformulates the truth question: “Rather than talking about procedures for moral truth as emerging from discourse, we should talk about moral procedures emerging from organic dialogues. An ethical theory

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that adopts an ecological relational moral agency should be one that cares about the ecological virtuousness of the moral agent.”23 In the last resort, however, I think that her critique is not radical enough. I will try to show this by presenting another way of understanding and approaching the place of moral and ethics in human life. External and Internal Views Nurmi’s analysis gives an overview of Western moral philosophy and of environmental ethics in particular. I choose to see the three frameworks that she has presented as three alternative (meta)ethical theories trying to catch what ethics and morality is. “Exceptional human ethics” sees ethics primarily as leaning on rational deliberation. Ethical problems find solutions on rational grounds. “Evolutionary ethics” gives a scientific explanation of morality. We can treat ethical dilemmas with the help of science (such as psychology or the like). “Constructivist approaches” understand morality as a socially embedded phenomenon. We ought to solve ethical problems by deepening our understanding of social relations and dependences. We find many important observations in all three frameworks expounded by Nurmi. There are good rational arguments concerning action theory; we learn to see that psychological and other studies based on natural sciences help us understand better the behavior and the human ways of living; and social constructivism helps us learn to see the importance of social inter-connectivity. In addition, from Nurmi we learn to raise critical questions concerning both the implicit and explicit ethical theories claiming to give universally validity, and in some sense find solutions to our understanding of moral humankind and ethical statements. I now take this final aspect further. All the theories presented with the help of Nurmi have one important feature in common, one which, I think, also applies to Nurmi’s own view. They understand morality and treat ethics as a phenomenon in human life that is external to participatory subjects. All the different approaches see morality as something that can be observed and described without taking further notice of the moral subject’s own perspective. Accordingly, when discussing moral problems we do not have to involve ourselves as moral subjects. If we choose to take a moral stand, we can state it from a third person perspective. We understand moral language as referring to a reality outside ourselves. Right and wrong, good and evil are words referring to a reality, given – in some sense – outside the moral subject. The three theories offer different answers to the

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question of how we can reach that reality. This is, however, of less importance for my present argument. All the views mentioned above seem to miss an internal aspect of our moral language. A moral remark tells us something about the person uttering the remark. When I, for example, say “We must take good care of people infected by COVID-19”, this can, of course, be seen as an expression of my worry about becoming infected myself. However, as a genuine moral remark it also contains something more. The comment reveals my personal engagement in the wellbeing of those already infected. This “something more” cannot be explained by an ethical theory stating that it is an ethical obligation to take care of infected people. At the end of the day any moral view of mine is an expression of what kind of person I am. This part of me is always – to some extent – hidden from other people. My comment above may make my fellow people notice that I am a person that says it is important that we take good care of diseased people. That is as far as they can go. If, however, I act in accordance with the utterance above by, for example, taking part in caretaking, they are able to think that I genuinely mean what I say, and perhaps find me morally good. Nonetheless, it is only me who can know to what extent I really am morally involved in my own remark. My point here is that the moral point of view is dependent on the person I actually am. In order for others to understand my comment better, they must know more about me than only this plain remark. The moral aspect of that remark is closely connected to me as a person. In order to understand the meaning of any language, we must look at what surrounds the use of that language. We cannot catch the meaning of language by overall theories combining language expressions using only an outer, external, reference.24 Obviously this applies to ethical language too.25 Academic Research – Descriptive or Normative? Since David Hume a classical discussion in moral philosophy has concerned “is” and “ought”. According to Hume’s famous guillotine we cannot conclude what ought to be done from what is a fact. I will comment on that view in what follows. I think there are two different, but nonetheless related points to be made. One follows from the understanding of moral language just described. The other has to do with the role a person’s wider view of life seems to play in her/his perceiving and describing reality.

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Bergmann ended his aforementioned article with a sketch of a “compostmodern theology”. He developed further his earth-centered understanding of humans in front of their compost by taking up a divine dimension. Bergmann contrasts the one person working with his/her compost as a value in itself to the economic person of modern society making compost on a utilitarian basis. He finds that the compost, understood in the former sense, represents a way of relating to natural processes in sharp contrast to existing neoliberal economy and the idea of endless economic growth. Through the high value put on mulching the compost, culture represents a highly legitimate critique of the economic theory, that is letting the quantitatively endless growth be the norm of our intercourse with nature and that uses the successful colonialization of money still more in life-worlds as a logical evidence of its validity.26

Bergmann sees this modern economic reality as an expression of an ideological view. He calls it an idolatry. According to my interpretation, this entails the idea that a modern view is also value-based in its premises; i.e., what many modern thinkers would take as facts in some sense (such as economic, scientifically-based, theories) Bergmann sees as absolute value assumptions that modern economic thinking does not treat with the critical (and relativizing) distance it (according to Bergmann, so it seems) deserves. The other person at the compost expresses an understanding of reality that involves the element of taking full care of his/her natural environment. Related to this twofold understanding of the agents, Bergmann finds it acceptable to take in a theological aspect, replacing the idol “economic theory” in the first with the “idol” God in the second way of perceiving the world. I think that Bergmann describes how our way or understanding the environment is marked by a wider view of life. In such a more holistic understanding, facts and values are intertwined, revealing what the person finds important in her/his life. Any attempt to analyze elements of facts and values apart from each other can sometimes be both misleading and even impossible.27 An open question remains as to whether Bergmann, as an academic scholar, claims that one of the normative ways of understanding and acting is better than the other. If so, what makes him entitled to do so? Important for much of modern moral philosophy is, as I have hinted at, the idea that moral views can be treated from a third person perspective. When we understand moral attitudes and assessments as expressing the first person (and perhaps sometimes the second person) views, we must for our part relate to the moral statements (the ethical language) of the moral

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subject in a way that rules out the idea that ethical questions necessarily have universal answers.28 The question then raised is whether this would actually lead to moral relativism, i.e. to an attitude of “anything goes”. One critique of seeing moral language as closely bound to the moral subject is that it leads to ethical relativism.29 The concept of relativism is valid only when one strives to find general, normative theories in a third person perspective. If we accept a moral standpoint as internally attached to the person taking that particular standpoint, the perspective changes radically. We no longer judge the moral value of a certain action by asking whether that action is done in accordance with some ethical theory or moral norm and, instead, our starting point takes moral expressions as a particular person’s standpoint. A person who makes a moral utterance does so in a first person perspective. We find a moral assessment meaningful when we can see an internal relation between a moral judgement and the person making that judgement. People reveal, by their very actions, just what kind of person they are. We can understand what they mean by morally right and wrong through their way of acting and speaking.30 The understanding of ethics that I have briefly sketched here does not make ethics into anything relative. In human life, we presuppose that we humans are moral beings with an interest in what is right, what is wrong, what is evil and what is good. Philosophers like Ludwig Wittgenstein and Knud E Løgstrup have rightly emphasized an absoluteness in our understanding of what morality is.31 However that does not imply that we could express a moral demand in a, perhaps normative, theory or rule contending a universal truth. A moral aspect of an action of ours contains our whole attitude towards this action. This includes an internal element, crucial for the moral point of view. We do not exhaust this viewpoint by taking external aspects into account. Accordingly, a third person cannot exhaustively assess the ethical value of another person’s action. A person’s moral attitude finds expression in different ways in different situations. The concrete action combines large numbers of factors (one’s lifeview, important traditions, concrete contexts, social networks etc.) influencing the way one lives and chooses to act. A third person can, of course, expect that we are consistent and that our way of using moral language is understandable when related to the way we do behave. Nonetheless, the other person must leave open the final meaning of my way of acting.32 One might ask whether this would make academic ethics a meaningless activity. This is true only to the extent we expect that academic ethics should present normative theories, universally valid rules for morally right conduct. What remains for ethics in the academic world, if we accept the view I have presented, is to describe and analyze the way people live and act. The task lies

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in trying to understand people’s way of living and their use of language. The key to that understanding lies in the contexts (in space, time, social surroundings, theoretical tradition etc.) where the individuals live and act. We can undergo this kind of research in theology, in descriptive ethics and in the study of views of life33. I find it fruitful to understand much of the work of Bergmann in line with these observations of mine. Can Ethics Help us in our Ecological Crisis? We started with the question as to whether we have reason to hope for a common normative environmental moral theory that could unite our universal community. My answer is no. The way of understanding morality that I have described excludes this possibility. It does not, however, follow that academic investigations in ethically challenging environmental problems are in vain. By describing such ecological problems in a holistic, contextually related, way, scholars can expose the interplay between many important factors influencing a concrete situation. By pointing at conditions taken for granted, and by reflecting upon participants’ views of life, the researcher can help people see things that earlier they were not able to see. This, in turn, can make people change their way of acting and perhaps their whole way of living. However, the change (metanoia) is their own; it is not normatively given them by the ethical “expert”. I believe that the position I have sketched out in this article, one that I personally embrace, also does justice to some of the profound features in Bergmann’s way of approaching and understanding the world, nature, humans, environmental challenges, academic research, theology and ethics. One of Bergmann’s more recent publications is an article he wrote for a joint book on Eschatology.34 The authors of that book consisted of colleagues who, during the 1990s, were in charge of the Nordic network for contextual theology. Bergmann develops some ideas where he stresses a space-aspect of understanding Christian eschatological thinking. He also offers some examples of artistic expressions, both in visual arts and in poetry.35 I will not analyze his arguments in detail here. However, I find it possible to interpret his view in a way which stresses the importance of a holistic approach for understanding both the place of a religious belief and of an integrated moral attitude, in such a way that resembles the position I have tried to articulate in this article. The following quotation following a poem by Rainer Marie Rilke, is offered as an example:

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Tage Kurtén /…/ Rilke experiences not having a home in time and nevertheless desiring to dwell in turmoil. Such an experience seems to be highly relevant and representative for modern people in a world where homelessness and uprootedness are accelerated by the processes of despatialisation and disembedding /…/. Accelerating climate change intensifies this existential demand even more as it is clear that damage caused by environmental change are to the largest degree anthropogenic. /…/ the human being him/herself is held responsible for producing a style of life, work, production and consumption which is unsustainable and is destroying the conditions of life for his/her own species as well as for many others. /---/ Reflection on what anthropogenic climate change does to our selfunderstanding as God’s image in a good creation increases the already well known existential alienation people experience in modern life, /…/ the acknowledgement ‘of our existential need for a spiritual homecoming’. ‘Spiritual’ should here not be understood as the opposite of physical, but as the internal driving force for a good spatial design in all its facets. Existential homelessness represents a crucial challenge for building environments that assists one’s homecoming.36

I started with Bergmann’s reaction to the challenges of the current COVID- 19 pandemic. When I recollect Bergmann’s thoughts in that text, and when we compare those to his compost narrative and his article from 2018, a picture of a consistent position and a consistent way of arguing emerges. Guided by the philosophical position I have tried to put forth in this article, I also find it easy to understand what Bergmann is saying and moreover: why. Conclusions My intention has been to give a glimpse into Sigurd Bergmann’s thinking. Taking an early article of his as my starting point, I have tried to illustrate some points in understanding the ethical challenges in our contemporary way of living. At the beginning of this text, I asked whether ethics and morality has any part to play facing today’s environmental challenges. I have denied that academic ethics could provide us with concrete normative solutions. However, studies in ethics and in views of life do have a part to play, nonetheless. If we realize that moral aspects are more indirectly communicated, and thus leaving room for every individual to find her/his own concrete solutions to daily and worldwide challenges, we can see the importance of realizing that we are moral beings. Research in humanities can serve us in our struggle with our current challenges.

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Possible ways to express ethical viewpoints in our lives abound. As moral individuals, every one of us can only hope that people in general share our views as to what is right and morally compelling. A morally compelling view can be communicated through our own way of living, and with the help of narratives and academic studies showing internal connections between, for example, a religious tradition and a way of handling concrete problems in daily life. We started with the question: Environmental crisis – so what?. Is such an ignorant attitude possible, given that we are moral beings? I am not able to answer that question with a firm NO (even though I would very much like to!). However, for my own part, I can take the environmental challenges seriously; try to meet them in one of the many different ways that I have found adequate, and by so doing hope that my example will influence others in a positive way. I think such an attitude comes close to the view we can learn from Sigurd Bergmann.37 References Backström, J & Torrkulla, G. 2001 Moralfilosofiska essäer. [Essays in moral philosophy.] Stockholm: Thales. Bergmann, S. 1995 Geist der Natur befreit. Die trinitarische Kosmologie Gregor von Nazianz im Horizont einer ökologichen Theologie der Befreiung. Mainz: Grűnewald. 1998 “Jord, kultur och Ande. Komposten i humanekologisk och teologisk belysning.” [Earth, culture and Spirit. The compost in a humanecological and theological light.] in Bergman, S & Bråkenhielm CR (eds), Vardagskulturens teologi (The Theology of Everyday Culture) Nora: Nya Doxa. 2014 Religion, Space, and the Environment. New Brunswick – London: Transactions Publishers. 2018 (ed.) Eschatology as Imagining the End. Faith between Hope and Despair. London – New York: Routledge. 2020 Omvändelse fullt möjlig post corona. [Conversion is quite possible postCorona.] in Svenska Kyrkans tidning. [Newspaper of the Church in Sweden] 30.3.2020. Bråkenhielm, C R, Essunger, M, Westerlund, K. 2013 Livet enligt människan. Om livsåskådningsforskning. [Life According to Humans. On Life-View studies.] Nora: Nya Doxa. Gaita, R. 1991 Good and Evil. An absolute coneption. Houndmills – Basingstcke – Hampshire: Macmillan.

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Henriksen, J-O & Kurtén, T. 2012 Crisis and Change. Religion, Ethics and Theology under Late Modern Conditions. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Kurtén, T. 1987 Grunder för en kontextuell teologi. [Foundations for a Contextual Theology] Åbo: Åbo Akademis förlag. 1997 Bakom livshållningen. [Behind the Attitude to Life.] Åbo: Religionsvetenskapliga skrifter. 1998 Det handlande subjektet och det moraliska kravet. [The Active Agent and the Moral Demand.] Åbo: Skrifter utgivna av institutet för ekumenik och socialetik vid Åbo Akademi. 2016 Moralisk öppenhet. Förutsättningar för etik bortom religiöst och sekulärt. [An Open Morality. Conditions for Ethics beyond Religious and Secular.] Uppsala: Uppsala Studies in Social ethics. Kurtén, T & Molander, J. 2005 Homo Moralis. Människan i rättssamhället. [Homo Moralis. Man in a Society ruled by Law.] Lund: Studentlitteratur. Løgstrup, K.E. 1991 Den Etiske Fordring. [The Moral Demand.] Copenhagen; Gyldendal. Nurmi, S. 2020 Ecological Relational Moral Agency. Conceptual Shifts in Environmental Ethics and their Philosophical Implications. Helsinki: University of Helsinki. Winch, P. 1972 Ethics and Action. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Wittgenstein, L. 1965 “A Lecture on Ethics.” in Philosophical Review. Vol. LXXIV. 1971 Philosophische Untersuchungen. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. von Wright, G.H. 1986 Vetenskapen och förnuftet.[Science and Reason.] Helsingfors: Söderströms. 1993 Myten om framsteget. [The Myth of Progress.] Stockholm: Bonniers.

Endnotes 1  2  3 

Bergmann 2020. Svenska Kyrkans tidning 30.3.2020. Bergmann 2020. My translation. The Finnish philosopher George Henrik von Wright (most widely known for his contributions to the shaping of deontic logic) published a series of books in the 1980s and 1990s where he analyzed the environmental challenges. For over ten years he mentally moved from putting hope in the rationality of humankind to a much more pessimistic view. In his last writings he found that he could not see that it would change (metanoia) before

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26  27  28  29  30  31  32  33  34  35  36  37 

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the conditions for life globally became unbearable. (von Wright 1993, 149-50) He did not count on humans as being moral beings at all. Already in 1986 he wrote that religions had lost their authority, and ethical systems on non-religious grounds were not convincing enough. (von Wright 1986, 62-64.). Bergmann himself refers to this term in Bergmann 2014, 382. Bergmann 1998, 227-229 Bergmann 1998, 227-228. In later texts he speaks of “late modern traits”. Bergmann 1998, 228. Bergmann 1998, 228. Bergmann 1998, 229. Bergmann 1998, 231. Bergmann 1998, 231-236. Bergmann 1998, 247-248; see also Bergmann 1995, 336-338. Kurtén-Molander 2005, 207-208. Other authors talk about the “standard picture” of moral philosophy, see Backström – Torrkulla 2001, 8. Nurmi 2020, 19-21. Nurmi 2020, 39. Nurmi 2020, 40. Nurmi 2020, 40. Nurmi 2020, 64. Nurmi 2020, 64-66. Nurmi mentions Peter Berger- Thomas Luckmann and Clifford Geertz, see Nurmi 2020, 74. Nurmi 2020, 89. Nurmi 2020, 275. Nurmi 2020, 276. For example Wittgenstein 1971; Kurtén 1987. A critical understanding of moral language that comes close to the view I just sketched we can find for example by the before mentioned Hertzberg, but also by Peter Winch and Raimond Gaita. See Winch 1972, Gaita 1991. For my part I have given arguments for the view in, for example Kurtén 1998, 120 passim, and Kurtén 2016, 337 passim, where the texts are written in English despite the Swedish-speaking title of the books, and more in detail (in Swedish) in Kurtén-Molander 2005, 9-22. Bergmann 1998, 246. My translation. For the role of secular and religious views of life, see Kurtén 1997, 105-134; Henriksen & Kurtén 2012, 1-34, 225-248. For a discussion of the universalizability of moral judgements, see Winch 1972, 141 passim. Nurmi is, for example, afraid of totally accepting a contextual and constructivist ecofeminism because of that. She therefore claims that the moral subject necessarily must make moral assessment on external grounds. (Nurmi 2020, 268.) For further elaboration, see different articles in Kurtén 2016. See Wittgenstein 1965, 5; Løgstrup 1991, 56-58. For a wider elaboration of the arguments in this paragraph, see Kurtén 2016. The study of life-views related to Systematic Theology has been primarily developed in Sweden. Cf. Bråkenhielm, Essunger, Westerlund 2013. See Bergmann 2018. These are aspects that he elaborated on in more detail in his major work “Religion, Space, and the Environment”. (Bergmann 2014.) Bergmann 2018, 101. I thank Åbo Akademi University for a grant to help me to finish my text.

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Contesting Evil and Climate Crisis – a Discourse on Prerequisites for Individual Action Kjetil Hafstad In this contribution I will look into the role of individuals for saving democratic societies in perilous times, with climate crisis and extraordinary new wave of political mismanagement in important countries. A useful framework to develop such ideas is given by Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann in their seminal book from 1966, The Social Construction of Reality.1 Here they made a bold strike on a grand theory of how human society is constructed by the multitude of individuals and is an entity that meets every new generation as a whole, something given, a kosmos with sets of rules nomos, constituted by conventions, religion and rituals which together seem largely to make sense. New generations meet this as something given. It seems to be a consistent whole, made up of conventions that every new generation has to internalize and learn. From time to time this kosmos and its nomos is questioned, either by lack of dwindling strength of conviction or by experienced irrelevance. Then society as a compact whole becomes uncertain. All that was taken for granted are not fully convincing any more, and impulses for changes occur. Most often, such forces for change are met by strong forces of legitimation, defending status quo, Berger and Luckmann observe. The outcome is always uncertain, but often deep changes occur, giving society new chances. The theory shows ways of renewing society, by education and fostering. But in the process of internalizing the given framework, new learners also get access to critical traditions, which can overturn the acquired set of knowledge and science. The interesting part of this theory of human and humanistic interchange in building and conserving society as a whole is that individuals then play a significant role, even without other power than the power of conviction and dedication, because questioning potentially can make orders taken for granted to crack. This theory helps to understand important dimensions of construction of human society, and make meta-reflection important both to maintain parts of a given society, but also for change of prejudices, rules and habits. Since August  2018, we have seen a clear example of how an individual conviction, made by a child, can spurn a worldwide movement for change. Greta Thunberg has visualized how simply meeting up before the Parliament

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in Stockholm with the sign “Skolstreik för miljöet” (“school strike for the climate”), has inspired to worldwide protests among children, youngsters and adults against the lack of action from politicians all over the world. How to move the world to live sustainable? How can we deal with evil that undermines landscapes, air, life of all sorts, plants, insects, animals, human beings? These last few years, established, great democracies fade and autocratic leaders prevail, also in countries where we hardly could imagine this to happen and old authoritarian rulers seem to bully opposition to silence. Many raise worried questions of what we now can do as individuals. We cannot expect these political leaders to take responsible action. History shows however, dramatic changes come from increasing popular movements. These movements start with individuals who consider and think. I will go into a sector of this field, the impact of an individual on democracy in times of confusion, not unlike ours. One could assume that individuals are of very small significance in democracies where power normally belongs to elected majorities who loyally represent majority groups. – And in societies ruled by dictators, individuals seem to be even less important. But history can show other results, changes sip through, like water, by individuals. In times of change, habits of behavior and function of institutions are questioned, Berger and Luckmann maintained. Individual actions and thoughts can then make big differences. I will present two lines of argument to illuminate this, reading contributions from Hannah Arendt and Karl Barth. In her lectures from 1965 on “Some Questions on Moral Philosophy” Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) discussed “the questions on how individuals reacted and behaved (after the Nazi takeover) and how the few rules and norms where people ordinarily distinguish between right and wrong, changed, rules building upon either divine or human law who were for every normal human being self-evident and valid.”2 She stated that ordinary people are able to make such distinctions between justice and injustice without further notice, and this is regarded as common. She wondered how it came about that her own people (the Germans) in spite of their heavy tradition of moral thinking and modern development of industry and commerce, a well-organized society, changed moral, almost from one day to the next: “until all this collapsed overnight, without any clear early warning, as the situation occurred, as moral in original sense … suddenly and unexpectedly could easily be replaced … – with another moral as it were table manners”3 How came it about that her people changed moral obligations overnight in 1933? For moral philosophy and for theology, such sudden changes are enigmatic. It took only few months in 1933 to isolate non-Arian people. They lost their

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jobs, were robbed for their property and subsequently killed – or only robbed and expelled, until 1942. After the Wannsee-conference, January  1942, every Jew was killed.4 Winston Churchill, who remarked on the fundamental changes he had experienced, facing the terror in Germany: “Scarcely anything, material or abstract, which I was brought up to believe was permanent and vital, has lasted. Everything I was sure, or taught to be sure, was impossible, has happened.”5 These observations contrast to the moral tradition, where thinking since Aristoteles usually starts with the good as the outset, evil is an obstacle, even a mystery.6 Discourses on evil, held by most moral philosophers through the ages, normally state that the moral good is self-evident, and that distinguishing between right and wrong is absolute, and every sound person is able to see this without any education.7 Arendt gives this discourse solid ground. I find it important to follow these considerations, to inspire us today. She leans to Socrates’ saying that it is better to suffer injustice than to do injustice. – However, these insights have not stood up to the storm of our time, she also remarks looking back on the recent wars.8 Moral philosophy has moved into new ground after the disasters in Nazi-Germany causing 15 millions of deaths and Stalin’s grim Soviet Union, where probably around 27 million people lost their lives in the atrocities of internal political persecution and war. These changes do however not annul basic considerations, and we better start there. She maintains that some basic moral sentences are axiomatic; they are selfevident, not possible to prove.9 So in the field of moral actions, we are left with our best, intuitive knowledge, or reflections on the common good, but hardly any strong proofs of just and unjust, right and wrong. The theologian Karl Barth (1886-1968) worked intensely with the contemporary question of evil, but he can also make a shortcut: Do as the Huguenots in prison. They inscribed on the prison walls: résistez!10 The Inner Way Arendt takes interest in Socrates’ way of thinking, when perceiving evil and this can bring us further. Socrates in Gorgias accepts that his arguments may not convince his opponents, but he states that his opponent Kallikles will never come to terms with himself, but for ever contradict himself. Socrates on his part will rather die than contradict himself.

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Socrates opens the reflections, seeing the subject’s relation to himself and the fundamental importance to be in concordance with the own self.11 The central thought here is that Socrates finds himself as a subject, together and in dialogue with his own self, and will stay in concordant relation at all costs.12 This doubling of the thinking of the subject has moral consequences for Socrates and for his understanding of morality. Everyone is stuck with him-or herself, as one-in-two. One can be in disaccord with oneself. If I am in disaccord with another person, I can leave. But I cannot leave myself. Therefore it is recommended to be in accordance with myself, before I take another person’s opinion in regard. This is the deep reason for Socrates’ advice: better to suffer injustice, than to cause injustice. – For in the last case, I’ll stay in disaccord with myself forever. That is not pleasant: “when I do injustice, I condemn myself to live in unbearable intimacy with a perpetrator; I cannot get rid of him … So, as I am my partner when I think, I’ll be my partner when I act. I know the offender and will be condemned to live with him.”13 This and only this is for him unbearable, and has nothing to do with what other people or gods for that sake, state or think they see. The human language makes it possible to live in an open communication with oneself. This is the quality of the human being, and the source of moral choice “If it is the ability to language that differentiates human beings from other animals – and that was what the Greeks believed in fact, and what Aristotle later proposed in his famous definition of the human kind – then it is through this silent dialogue I have with myself, that my humanity will be confirmed.”14 If we presuppose that there could be an intact, open, honest communication with oneself, this line of thought will be a good support to resist evil, in oneself – and also teach others to follow the same path. Arendt describes however very well how this could not be the case. Everyone can choose delusions. She followed and gave report of the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem 1961, who was a technician behind the Holocaust. Eichmann talked endlessly through the interrogations and admitted all the facts that he remembered from the planning and organizing of the Holocaust. But as he saw it himself, he acted as an honest and dutiful public servant. Arendt tries to understand his attitude. She dismisses that he was a case of pathological untruthfulness combined with endless stupidity, and neither was he a case of criminal obduracy. No, she says, Eichmann constructed his self- understanding in line with all his contemporary Germans. “Everyone had been adjusted to the habit of

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deceiving themselves, because this was a sort of precondition to survive. This habit has been prolonged until now, so that, after 18 years since the Nazi-regime collapsed, the content of these lies are as good as forgotten – it is often difficult not to have the opinion that lies and self-deceptions are integral parts of the national character of Germans.”15 Since Arendt wrote this, much has changed for the better in Germany. Now, other people and Nations than the Germans may be inclined to similar delusions. Arendt describes how Eichmann is fully convinced to have acted in accordance to his own conscience and followed orders as a responsible public servant. He could forget about many important facts from the history of Holocaust, but remembered well the phrases that he had consoled himself with, during his – by common standards – incomprehensible brutal daily work. “Important is that he has not forgotten a single of the phrases by which he consoled himself and which gave him an ‘uplifting sentiment’ in one or other situation. When the judges in cross-examination tried to speak to his conscience, he played these ‘uplifting sentiments’ back to them, and it shocked and confused them as they realized that the defendant always had ready a special uplifting cliché for every period of his life and for every activity he had exercised.”16 So even if every human person has a constant inner dialogue, there is no guarantee that the outcome of this conversation will end up in the rational way Socrates had in mind. As Nietzsche has pointed out: the inner dialogue can ‘rewrite’ what happens: “This I did says my memory. I cannot have done this, says my pride, and does not give in. At last, the memory gives in.”17 It is also troubling to see that the mass-murderers of the war could be rather sympathetic people. Arendt remarks that they could be devoted family father with intellectual interests. “Let me remind you that the murderers in the Third Reich did not only led exemplary family life but also used their time off reading Hölderlin and listened to Bach – and then proved that intellectuals can be drawn into crime just as any other.”18 In a more recent study, Harald Welzer studies how just ordinary people were able to change into mass murderers. He points to the community which made these mental changes possible and replaced individual judgment.19 Arendt brings just this point further, and considers the individual’s relation to society and to him-or herself. She asks whether the calamity could be better understood, when we investigate the human gifts to remember and think – She observes that the culprits seemed to miss such gifts.20 She then goes into the deeper structure of Socrates’ thoughts on justice and injustice. Criterion for judging what is just or unjust is not the communal habits or conventions, she states, but at the end what I decide for myself. And this again depends on thinking. She investigates the premises for thinking:

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One must be alone to perform the inner dialogue which is thinking, and that is more than to be conscientious or experience oneself. “This to-live-with myself is more than self-perception which always will follow me in all I do and in every condition I am. To be with myself and to judge for myself, is articulated and comes to shape in the processes of thinking. And every process of thinking is an activity where I talk with myself about what I just now concentrate on.”21 This requires being alone. To be able to think, I must be alone with myself. Thinking can however easily be interrupted, Arendt remarks: “When someone turns to me, I will have to respond to him and not to myself. And when I do so, I change. I become One who of course is self-conscious, that means has self-perception, meaning consciousness, but who no longer will be responsive to my inner self.” Of course is it possible to open up for a dialogue with a person close to me, and so think together. But that sort of intimate exchange is at the same time something quite different from being in inner dialogue with myself. The point is to comprehend what it takes to be alone and in dialogue with myself – and what this condition brings, different from other relations and situations. When I talk to another, I am not any more two with myself, but one: “When in my solitude my process of thinking comes to still stand – I will be reduced again to be only One.”22 The reason for this change of condition may be that someone talks to me, or I start to do something, or I am simply tired – the result being that I will be One, and not Two – in inner dialogue. The statesman from antiquity, Cato said: “I am never more active when I do nothing, and I am never less alone as when I am together with myself”23 The loneliness that gives space for inner dialogue is utterly creative. What she points at with these comments which by first glance can seem paradoxical, is that it is an open human possibility to shape a distance to society, to common conventions and to common rules and critically consider whether they are valid. The basis for doing this is to be anchored in oneself, be thinking in the inner dialogue as mentioned, rooted in the remembered history. “This is only valid for those who are beings who think, those who need their own company in order to be able to think.”24 – So, the mere alone-ness is in itself not sufficient. You need to think and remember. Here is the valuable source to understand the right limitations of life, and to understand the basic morality that set limits to what the community and the individual can allow themselves to do. “When a person is a being who thinks, who is rooted in his thoughts and his memory, and then knows well that he has to live with himself, he will realize that there are limits to what he can allow himself to do.” And here she can come close to define evil. The thinking person does not meet these boundaries from outside, but has to draw them herself, she states. “These limits can change in a remarkable and uncomfortable way, from

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person to person, from country to country, from century to century, but the limitless, extreme evil is only possible where these roots in the remembered history are lost. These roots and the reflection on them are missing when people only glide over the surface of the events and allow themselves to be carried away by the events without trying to grasp the implications of events – which they very possibly were able to grasp.”25 Such opportunities should not be put aside, as could be convenient in the situation, but be grasped, for one’s own and the interests of society. Here is a mighty tool to ground acting for survival, for landscapes, life and society. We can see how Arendt’s urge to question radically both habits and common order, to think alone, not forgetful, not opportunistic, she opts for the root of humanity in remembered history. Only then we can stand up against the limitless, extreme evil. There are striking similarities in her understanding to what we find in Karl Barth. Barth investigates the evil as extreme in a curious way. He calls evil “Nichtiges” and then brands it as emptiness, limitlessness, stupidity, inertia, as something alien to critical thought and investigation. Arendt at her side, also remarks that evil in view of the inner dialogue remains “formal” and “without content”.26 She consequently avoids talking evil up. She admits that she then leaves a dominant tradition that has talked about radical evil, after having observed the Eichmann-trial: “I changed my mind and do not any more speak of radical evil… . I hold nowadays on the contrary that evil is always only extreme but never radical, it has no depths, and no demonry. It can destroy the whole world, just because it like a mushroom goes on proliferating at the surface. Deep and radical is always only the good.”27 You have to think in order to distinguish between the fundamental difference between good and evil. She admits that her primary concern in her work is to understand.28 If you go to these themes and talk in general, you lose insight and oversight: “Where everybody cries: we are guilty, then you cannot discover any more the real crime done. Whether one has participated in massacre of hundreds of thousand or only kept quiet and lived privately, reduces to a not so important gradual question. I cannot bear that.”29 This is also helpful for ecology. A trouble for coming to action is that small contested questions are put in the way for the real big issues. We can quarrel over electric cars versus petroleum cars, whether diesel cars shall be banned in city centers – and lose the big picture of immanent, dangerous, definite changes in atmosphere and climate. A deep human tragedy is to lose the ability to connect to oneself in inner dialogue, because this is a source of creativity and a personal, ultimate measure for how to deal with others. In a way, this philosophical insight concurs

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with religious thinking, Arendt proposes. The deepest, hidden crime is to lose this ability that constitutes the human person, Arendt finds studying Socrates: “to lose this ability, to lose the loneliness and then the creativity, with other words: to lose the self that constitutes the person.” To avoid such loss is in a way the “crank” that moral inquiry revolves around and is a revelation of the inner meaning of human life and subsequently of evil, close to religious thought. “The ultimate measure for behavior towards others lies always in the own self, not only in strictly philosophical but also in religious thought.”30 For political reasons to recur to the individual dialogue with the self, is utterly required, when the “common morality” is not sustainable any more. This was the extreme that happened in 1933. The non-Arians were expelled from the normal society, lost their jobs, their respectability, were marginalized. After few weeks, they were almost invisible. Common standards towards these groups were acquitted, by propaganda, by new laws, by coercion. Normality was left, emergency introduced. “Here follows that the Socratic morality is only relevant in times of crisis and that the self as criterion for moral action is a sort of exception.”31 Arendt combines this observation with the critical remark that people, who in peaceful times, without any danger, present high-flying moral norms, are just ridiculous. In her view, there are times when you must oppose convention, other times when that sort of resistance is only pitiful. What was almost unthinkable in the postwar Western world has again occurred, in other forms than 90 years ago. Through centuries, hard earned, mature democracies seem to fade, when we perhaps most need them. – The Western world and EU should not accept that dictatorial regimes tear up common democratic history, in Poland, Hungary and The US, among several. These regimes shut eyes for the threat from climate change. Our environment changes dramatically, due to our common habits of exploration of natural resources and habitats. We need to think, everyone, and contribute to change for the better. Arendt’s line of thought illuminates that especially in times of crisis, individuals may through their resistance have deep influence on and even change the course of history. Seen in view of the background presented by Berger and Luckmann, her presentation of the available presence of mind in individuals, may contest the legitimacy of current conventions on unimpeded consumerism. To cling to this present kosmos, with its established nomos of relentless use of natural resources seems then outdated, not least through the Coronacrisis we at the writing moment are hit by. Seldom in our history have so many individuals had the opportunity to think for themselves. Hopefully this sort of quietness may turn the outdated nomos of consumerism upside

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down and open for new ways of behavior. In times of crisis, we are dependent on individuals that have the courage to resist evil. Such crisis with countless people isolated, in fear for health, jobs and future can also open hopeful prospects for deep change. In 1989 the outdated subjugating regime of The German Democratic Republic disappeared overnight as a ghost. The people expressed their minds, took to the streets, and the wall tumbled. The regime, for decades regarded as solid rock, disappeared as a ghost, cracked as a troll in the sun. Arendt sees evil as more of lacking presence in one’s own life, and a sort of avoiding the evident tasks, open for sight. This I take as a prelude to go into a theological way of discussing the same theme. I will start to describe some basic elements in Karl Barth’s construction, in his creation theology, Volume III of his Church Dogmatic. It is here we also find his most elaborate discussion on evil – and the role of human individuals. Barth, Emptiness (Nichtiges) and Responsibility Barth uses here the concept “Nichtiges”. This he sees in the context of the act of creation, understood as an act of distinguishing between what God wanted from what he did not choose.32 There is another distinction that makes understanding even trickier. Barth writes of the good shadow side of creation as well. There are limitations for life, in size, in length and space. These limitations are not evil, but limitations, mostly to benefit life itself. But, he says, these shadows are also like a hiding place for evil, an “alibi”, another place out of sight. Then there is risk for losing sight, not to detect evil’s sinister work in these shadows.33 So this evil, Nichtiges, is that what God has not chosen, the chaos God left when he created. Therefore this entity has a certain negativity. It is not only nothing, Nichts. It has a sort of peculiar reality; it is real insofar that God is against it.34 So Barth avoids the traditional critique that God is “behind” evil and therefore needs theological defense, theodizé. On the contrary, Barth states, God is not at all behind evil, he is categorically against it, has not chosen it in his act of creation, but he gives evil its existence, when being against it. But, this act gives Nichtiges its peculiar existence and room for activity. This bold stroke also reveals that in resisting evil, humankind is allied with God. The construction carries also hope. Evil exists for so long as God is still fighting evil. The overwhelming burden of evil is in the long turn not for humankind to destruct. That is in God’s hand. In the meantime, the right and hopeful attitude is resistance. There is nothing to find in evil itself, it is only chaotic, something unwanted, as sort of active emptiness, chaos.

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Within this framework, the responsibility is limited for every one of us. With this same limitation, everyone may take responsibility within own resources and possibilities. And in doing this, partake in the bigger picture of all creation. At the end, with the limited means you and I command, we partake in our own place, what comes out of the whole creation. Barth uses a pars pro toto- perspective, that respects the limitations of every single life and underlines that this does not limit that everyone has responsibility in her and his own place.35 This is a major point in Barth’s understanding. This can be illustrated with his own biography. Prominently, he opposed the Nazi-regime in 1933 and 1934 and tried to raise opposition in the German protestant Churches. During the years in Switzerland after he was dismissed from his chair at Bonn University 1935, he supported as best as he could, the opposition against the Nazis, in Germany and elsewhere. After the war, he rushed to Germany to offer help to students in the destroyed country, and stayed with them in preliminary locations in Bonn. Later he opposed German re-armament and put serious questions in order to problematize the division West/East with the Iron Curtain, and opposed the development of the atomic bomb. Contrary to most of his western colleagues, he did not principally reject the new communist regimes. He tried to inspire churches in East to take the new political leaders on their words, solidarity and equal rights. He stayed in touch with church leaders in Hungary and Deutsche Demokratische Republik, talked with eastern communist political leaders and would not accept the rhetoric so widespread in the 1940ties and 50ties that communism was the same as totalitarianism, on the same line as the Nazi-regime. The interesting point is still that he could do so without any theological reason. He used his own mind, or simply common sense.36 When we see the theological framework he builds for using his human reason in day to day decisions, we see that this is the limited responsibility he also draws on, in his theology of providence. Everyone has responsibility for what happens in his or her own context. The responsibility is however limited, because we are put into a much broader framework, where God is an active actor on behalf of his creation. How to understand the presence of the divine in the creation? In a phrase that opens in the direction that Jürgen Moltmann underlines in his “God in Creation”, where Moltmann propagates panenteisme, that God is present in the very core of life.37 All life has similarities in its progress, from microorganisms to whales, and this strange fact is here somewhat present in the language different theologians with engagement for ecology as Knud E. Løgstrup, Moltmann – and Barth.38

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So as Barth opens the reflections regarding the Universe, he stays also local: Human action is modest, is limited in time and space – but partaking in the All. At the end of the day: he is not far from the practical reasoning we found in Arendt’s re-reading of Socrates, after the disasters of World War II. One could find it strange that Barth, being on the offensive against the Nazi-influence in Germany and the German protestant churches from 1933 till 1945, does not discuss this period when he is dealing with evil. The volumes on creation were written in the period just after the war, first as lectures for students in Germany and Switzerland, then edited within the series of Church Dogmatic. The Volume III/3 is published in 1950. One can however clearly see that in his view, evil is hard on mankind, but on the other side not a theme to ponder on. Barth then opposes the theological tradition that will see the consequence of the belief in creation as a link between God and evil, and then be compelled to develop a theodicy. On the contrary, Barth states, there is no link: God is permanently against evil, and in this continuous fight, his creation is invited to partake. Evil releases cruel forces, with hope-destroying consequences. This is nothing to understand, just to resist. On the same line, we find Hannah Arendt. She abhors a utilitarian scope on human life, rendering each and every one, exchangeable, superfluous. In the Human Condition, she “sings an ode to the uniqueness of every birth and praises .. ‘the miracle of life’.”39 Dealing with evil in such perspectives open the mind for how fragile our life is. We can take the everyday in peace for granted, as long as possible. But when we reconsider, we are inevitably exposed to dangers. This situation is in itself however far from evil. The fragility makes us vulnerable for evil, but is in itself one of the moving dimensions of human life. Martha Nussbaum opens The Fragility of goodness with the wise remark: “… part of the peculiar beauty of human existence just is its vulnerability.”40 In the Greek philosophical tradition, the interest is focused on the fragility of human existence, and that means this weak creature has to maintain life and dignity. Fragile human beings can resist evil by understanding their human condition and acting virtuous, remembering and thinking. We could perhaps even say that the Platonic tradition with a leaning to the individual perspective, which Arendt heavily uses on in her discussion of Eichmann, and which I have presented as means to understand the futility of evil acts, and the advantage of remembering and thinking for humans, must be supplemented with Arendt’s fascination also for Aristotelian tradition. Here the social theatre of society is at the center. The human actions in the public space “exhaust their full meaning in the performance itself”41 the space

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of appearance in the polis invites each person to display an “original courage” that is nothing less than the “willingness to act and speak”,… to expose himself to other people and, in their presence, to “risk the disclosure”.42 Frail human beings should not be “lost” in thought, but risk to be great in resistance, where action in interaction is the meaning. There is also a strong impulse for the core values of democracy coming from Socrates. Socrates was a citizen of the Athenian democracy and used his right to pose fundamental questions – preferably to individuals. Even in a democracy of that time, it was too much. His steadily questioning caused concern and irritation among the other citizens. At the end he was accused to seduce the youth – and even sentenced to death for this offence. Contradiction was not easy to swallow – even in our first known democracy. It is still a challenge. The thin lines of thought I have drawn have a focus on one of the most important and contested elements in democratic reflection, the value of contradiction. To put facts right, we need openness of speech and humility: Without contradiction – and also protests – democracy doesn’t work. Contradiction can however also lead astray: Even in the center of the contemporary “free world”, the current federal government of the US, subdues free speech with cascades of fake information, untimely activities and blunt, unfounded contradictions. These proceedings evidently stages clouds of fog to hide what really is going on or is not happening at all as promised. In such time, we need more than ever the abilities to think properly and just. To allow contradiction is an act of humility: I can propose, but I do not own the truth by myself. On the one hand, we have the broad attempts to insist on the freedom to think and speak freely, without any constraints, then we also have to accept that the result can be very unwanted. In every community this is not easy to accept, and the examples are infinitely. Every dictatorship, from Napoleon to Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin, but also the numerous smaller dictators worldwide, past and present, will not accept contradictions and will stamp such freedom as hostile or evil. And typically, Trump creates tsunamis of contradictions, but for himself, he refuses to be contested or criticized. The tradition of contestation is the very background for constitutional insisting on freedom of thought, speech and freedom of religion. One of the supporting ideas for this freedom is of course that in every decision one needs objections in order to sift arguments before decisions.43 But also more enlightened constitutions are considering restraints. It is hard to accept the alterity of others and their rights to keep on being different. Berger and Luckmann do not solve these questions in any way. But their framework of construction of human reality illuminates that every given society may

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reach an end of their legitimacy. To see this and act boldly, we need individuals like Socrates when questioning everyone in Athens, or Jesus when turning the tables of moneylenders. – And Karl Barth trying to underline those individual acts of protest that may resist evil and save society. The fragility of life and the urge to raise questions to the present organization of society leads to humility: no one can proclaim to have found solid, secure solutions to our problems. This is evidently the case, when we are facing the climate change. We know far too little how we can act wisely. The more we learn of the intricate intersection of life firms, the more we need to know. Therefore are of course individuals so important, presenting innovating and often very different ideas for how to deal with the crisis. All of us are responsible, in our own limited context. We need to look into the tradition of freedom of thought, religion and speech. We need individuals like Greta Thunberg to inspire for change of attitudes and habits. In her modest, but direct way, she questions our societies fundamentally, inspiring all of us for radical changes. Deep changes has happened before, due to individuals, daring to think. There we find inspiration to give our own, limited contribution here we are, just now. We can perform our lives in society, being willing to act and speak and then also risk our future – or even save it. References Arendt, Hannah, Über das Böse. Eine Vorlesung zu Fragen der Ethik, München Zürich: Piper Verlag, 2013. Eichmann in Jerusalem. Ein Bericht von der Banalität des Bösen, München Zürich: Piper Verlag, 2013. Ich will verstehen. Selbstauskünfte zu Leben und Werk, München Zürich: Piper Verlag 2013. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics. Barth, Karl, Kirchliche Dogmatik, Dritter Band Die Lehre von der Schöpfung, Dritter Teil (KD III/3), Zollokon-Zürich: Evangelischer Verlag A.G 1950. Theologische Fragen und Antworten. Gesammelte Vorträge, 3. Band, Evangelischer Verlag, Zollikon Zürich 1957 Das christliche Leben. Die Kirchliche Dogmatik IV/4, Fragmente aus dem Nachlass 1959-1961, Hg. Hans-Anton Drewes und Eberhard Jüngel, Theologischer Verlag Zürich 1976 Späte Freundschaft in Briefen: Briefwechsel Carl Zuckmayer - Karl Barth, Theologischer Verlag Zürich, Zürich 1977.

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Berger, Peter and Thomas Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality. A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge, Doubleday, New York 1966. Hafstad, Kjetil, “Enighet som konfliktskaper” (Concordance as Generator of Conflicts), Kirke og Kultur, Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 2015, 73-86. “Politisk praksis uten politisk teologi. Tilfellet Karl Barth som aktuell impuls” (Political praxis without political theology. The case of Karl Barth as impulse for contemporary reasoning), Norsk Teologisk Tidsskrift Vol. 84. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1983, 97-108. Kristeva, Julia, Hannah Arendt, New York: Columbia University Press, 2001. Lepore, Jill, These Truths. A History of the United States, Norton, New York 2018 Moltmann, Jürgen, Gott in der Schöpfung. Ökologische Schöpfungslehre, München: Chr. Kaiser Verlag, 1985. Friedrich Nietzsche, Jenseits von Gut und Böse Zur Genealogie der Moral, Leipzig: Alfred Kröners Verlag, 1930. Nussbaum, Martha, The Fragility of Goodness. Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. Welzer, Harald, Täter. Wie aus ganz normalen Menschen Massenmörder werden, Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 2005.

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The central argument in this contribution was developed in fruitful discussions with my international colleagues in the research project “Reassembling Democracy: Ritual as Cultural Resource (REDO)” at the University in Oslo. The Social Construction of Reality. A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge, Anchor books New York 1967. Hannah Arendt, Über das Böse. Eine Vorlesung zu Fragen der Ethik, Piper, München Zürich 2013, 10. My translations through this text, see also: English version Some Questions of Moral Philosophy, printed in: Hannah Arendt Responsibility and Judgment Jerome Kohn (Ed.), 2003. “bis all dies ohne grosse Vorwarnung über Nacht zusammenbrach, als die Situation eintrat, dass die Moral plötzlich ohne Hüllen im ursprünglichen Sinn des Wortes dastand als ein Kanon von ‘mores’, Sitten und Manieren nämlich, der gegen einen anderen ausgetauscht werden konnte, ohne dass das mehr Mühe gekostet hätte, als die Tischmanieren eines Einzelnen oder eines ganzes Volkes zu verändern.” Arendt, Über das Böse, 10f. I have described and discussed these changes in a contemporary perspective in my recent article “Enighet som konfliktskaper” (Concordance as Generator of Conflicts), Kirke og Kultur, Universitetsforlaget Oslo 2015, 73-86. Churchill, quoted by Arendt, Über das Böse, 10. Nicomachean Ethics, Book I,1. Evil is not framed, just discussed as different sorts of inappropriate behaviour, Book VII,1. Arendt, Über das Böse, 47. Arendt, Über das Böse,48.

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Kjetil Hafstad Arendt, Über das Böse, 50. In June 1942 Barth lectured in the Pauluskirche in Basel on the tasks of the Cristian congregation in times of peril and pointed to the Huguenots: “Das berühmte Résistez! An eine Kerkermauer zu schreiben, werden nur die wenigsten in die Lage kommen. Es wird aber sehr viel darauf ankommen, dass möglichst viele ganz schlicht einen entsprechenden Knopf ins Nasetuch machen, dass sie ja es nicht vergessen: Résistez!” “Die Christliche Gemeinde in der Anfechtung”, in: Theologische Fragen und Antworten. Gesammelte Vorträge, 3. Band, Evangelischer Verlag, Zollikon Zürich 1957, 308. “Und ich wenigstens … bin der Meinung, dass lieber auch meine Lyra verstimmt sein und misstönen möge oder ein Chor, den ich anzuführen hätte, und die meisten Menschen nicht mit mir einstimmen, sondern mir widersprechen mögen, als dass ich allein mit mir selbst nicht zusammenstimmen, sondern mir widersprechen müsste.” Gorgias 482c-d, Arendt, Über das Böse, 70. Arendt, Über das Böse, 70, note 29, where Arendt points to the phrase in greek: eme emauto, which Schleiermacher in his translation of Plato’s writings renders like this: ich allein mit mir selbst. “wenn ich Unrecht tue, bin ich dazu verdammt, in unerträglicher Intimität mit einem Unrechttuenden zusammenzuleben; ich kann ihn nie loswerden  … So wie ich mein Partner bin, wenn ich denke, bin ich mein eigener Zeuge, wenn ich handle. Ich kenne den Täter und bin verdammt, mit ihm zusammenzuleben.” Arendt, Über das Böse, 70f. “Wenn die Fähigkeit der Sprache den Menschen von anderen Tiergattungen unterscheidet – und das ist es, was die Griechen tatsächlich glaubten und was Aristoteles in seiner berühmten Definition des Menschen später ausdrückte –, dann ist es dieser stummen Dialog, den ich mit mir selbst führe, in welchem meine spezifisch menschliche Eigenschaft bestätigt wird.” Arendt, Über das Böse, 73. “Allen aber war zur Gewohnheit geworden, sich selbst zu betrügen, weil dies eine Art moralischer Voraussetzung zum Überleben geworden war; und diese Gewohnheit hat sich so fortgesetzt, dass es heute noch, 18 Jahre nach dem Zusammenbruch des Naziregimes, wo doch der spezifische Gehalt jener Lügen so gut wie vergessen ist, manchmal schwerfällt, nicht zu meinen, dass Verlogenheit und Lebenslüge zum integrierende Bestandteil des deutschen Nationalcharakters gehören.” In: Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem. Ein Bericht von der Banalität des Bösen, Piper, München Zürich 2013, 129. (First edition in English Hannah Arendt, “Eichmann in Jerusalem”, 5 parts, in: The New Yorker February-March 1963.) “Wesentlich ist, dass er sich nicht eine einzige der Phrasen vergessen hatte, die ihm in der einen oder anderen Situation ein ‘erhebendes Gefühl’ verschafft hatten. Wenn die Richter im Kreuzverhör versuchten, sein Gewissen anzusprechen, tönten ihnen diese ‘erhebende Gefühle’ entgegen, und es entsetzte sie, ebenso wie es sie verwirrte, als sie entdeckten, dass der Angeklagte ein spezielles erhebendes Klischee für jeden Abschnitt seines Lebens und für jede Tätigkeiten, die er ausgeübt hatte, parat hatte,” Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem, 131 He didn’t catch the discrepancies between the realities he experienced and the “map” he followed by leaning on the clischées he clung to. he was rather content “und merkte überhaupt nicht, dass da so etwas wie eine ‘Inkonsequenz’ zutage trat. Wir werden sehen, dass diese schaurige Begabung, sich mit Klischees zu trösten, ihn auch in der Stunde seines Todes nicht verliess,” 133. Friedrich Nietzsche, Jenseits von Gut und Böse. Zur Genealogie der Moral, Alfred Kröners Verlag, Leipzig 1930, Viertes Hauptstück, Sprüche und Zwischenspiele, § 68, s 78, Arendt, Über das Böse, 120. “Lassen sie mich abschließend an jene Mörder im Dritten Reich erinnern, die nicht nur mustergültiges Familienleben führten, sondern auch ihre Freizeit gerne damit

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verbrachten, Hölderlin zu lesen und Bach zu hören, und damit bewiesen.., dass Intellektuelle ebenso einfach in Verbrechen hineingezogen werden können wie jeder Andrere auch.” Arendt, Über das Böse, “es ist  … für die Analyse von Täterhandeln deswegen von Bedeutung, weil die Entscheidungen für das eigene Handeln nicht rein situativ und individuell getroffen werden, sondern immer auch an diesen grösseren Rahmen gebunden sind – in dem Sinne etwa, dass die wahrgenommene Legitimität einer Judenerschiessung durch einen gesellschaftlich dominanten Antisemitismus und Rassismus  … kontextualisiert ist.” Harald Welzer, Täter. Wie aus ganz normalen Menschen Massenmörder werden, Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2005, 16. Arendt, Über das Böse, 80. “Dieses Mit-mir selbst-Zusammenleben ist mehr als die Selbst-Wahrnehmung, die mich bei allem, was ich tue, und in jedem Zustand, in dem ich mich befinde, begleitet. Mit mir selbst zu sein und selbst zu urteilen wird in dem Prozessen des Denkens artikuliert und aktualisiert, und jeder Denkprozess ist eine Tätigkeit, bei der ich mit mir selbst über das spreche, was immer mich gerade angeht.” Arendt, Über das Böse, 81. “Wenn … in der Einsamkeit mein Denkprozess aus irgendeinem Grund zu Stillstand kommet, werde ich wieder Einer.” Arendt, Über das Böse, 82. “Niemals bin ich tätiger, als wenn ich nichts tue; niemals bin ich weniger allein, als wenn ich mit mir selbst zusammen bin.” Arendt, Über das Böse, 84 – the quotation comes from Cicero, and the sentence is stated by Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, se ibidem page 84, note 33. “Die Gültigkeit lässt sich deshalb nur für den Menschen behaupten, insofern er ein denkendes Wesen ist, das wegen des Denkprozesses sich selbst als Gesellschaft benötigt. Nichts von dem gilt für die Verlassenheit und die Isoliertheit.” Arendt, Über das Böse, 85. “Wenn /eine Person/ ein denkendes Wesen ist, das in seinen Gedanken und Erinnerungen wurzelt und also weiß, dass sie mit sich selbst zu leben hat, wird es Grenzen geben zu dem, was sie sich selbst zu tun erlauben kann.” – “Diese Grenzen können sich in beachtlicher und unbequemer Weise von Person zu Person, von Land zu Land, von Jahrhundert zu Jahrhundert ändern; doch das grenzenlose, extreme Böse ist nur dort möglich, wo diese selbst-geschlagenen und gewachsenen Wurzeln, die automatisch Möglichkeiten einschränken, ganz und gar fehlen. Sie fehlen dort, wo Menschen nur über die Oberfläche von Ereignissen dahingleiten, wo sie sich gestatten, davongetragen zu werden, ohne je in irgendeine Tiefe, derer sie fähig sein mögen, einzudringen.” Arendt, Über das Böse, 86. Arendt, Über das Böse, 96. “I changed my mind und spreche nicht mehr vom radikal Bösen  … Ich bin in der Tat heute der Meinung, dass das Böse immer nur extrem ist, aber niemals radikal, es hat keine Tiefe, auch keine Dämonie. Es kann die ganze Welt verwüsten, gerade weil es wie ein Pilz der Oberfläche weiterwuchert. Tief aber und radikal ist immer nur das Gute.” Arendt in Ferngespräch mit Thilo Koch, in Ursula Ludz, see Hannah Arendt. Ich will verstehen. Selbstauskünfte zu Leben und Werk, 6. Aufl. Piper Verlag, München 2013, 38. Ibid., 48. “Wo alle rufen: Wir sind schuldig, kann man wirklich begangene Verbrechen nicht mehr entdecken. Ob einer an der Massaker von Hunderttausenden mitwirkt hat oder ob er nur geschwiegen und in der Verborgenheit gelebt hat, wird zu einer Frage unerheblicher Gradunterschiede. Dies, meine ich, ist unerträglich.” Arendt, Ich will verstehen, 44. “Doch wenn wir /Socrates/ hierin folgen und ihn dann fragen, was die Sanktionen für jenes berühmte, den Augen der Götter und Menschen verborgene Verbrechen sein würden, hätte er in seiner Antwort nur sagen können; der Verlust dieser Fähigkeit, der Verlust der Einsamkeit und … damit der Verlust der Kreativität – mit anderen Worten:

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Kjetil Hafstad der Verlust des Selbst, das die Person ausmacht.”… “..Das letzte Mass für das Verhalten gegenüber Anderen /ist/ immer das Selbst gewesen, nicht nur in strenggenommen philosophischen, sondern auch im religiösen Denken.” Arendt, Über das Böse, 87. “Woraus folgt, dass die Sokratische Moralität politisch nur in Krisenzeiten relevant ist und dass das Selbst als Kriterium moralischen Verhaltens politisch eine Art von Ausnahme-Mass darstellt.” – “Doch jene, die unter vollkommen normalen Bedingungen hochfliegende moralische Normen anrufen, ähneln denen stark, die den Namen Gottes vergeblich in Anspruch nehmen.” Arendt, Über das Böse, 91 cfr. 94. KD III/3 83. “das Nichtige  … in seiner Wirklichkeit unerkannt bleibt und um so ungescheuter und ungehemmter sein gefährliches, sein verderbliches Wesen treiben darf.” KD III/3, 339. “Das Nichtige aber ist das, was Gott als Schöpfer nicht wählte, nicht wollte, woran er als Schöpfer vorüberging, was er nach der Beschreibung Gen. 1,2 als das Chaos hinter sich liess, ohne ihm Wesen und Existenz zu geben: Das Nichtige ist das, was nur in dieser Negativität, die ihm in Gottes Entscheidung zugewiesen ist … nur zu Gottes linker Hand wirklich ist, so und hier aber allerdings in seiner höchst eigentümlichen Weise wirklich, relevant und sogar aktiv ist.” KD III/3, 84. “Indem er /jeder Mensch/ sich selbst kennt, kennt er den Himmel und die Erde. Indem er sich selbst verantwortet, verantwortet er an seinem kleinen, aber in höchster Ernsthaftigkeit nun gerade ihm zugewiesenen Ort, in seinem kurzen aber in höchster Ernsthaftigkeit nun gerade ihm gewährten Stunde die Kreatur als solche und als Ganzes, ist er durchaus nicht nur eine Figur auf irgend einem Nebenkriegsschauplatz, sondern die verantwortliche Person an der Stelle in der Mitte aller Dinge, an der sich entscheidet, was aus der ganzen Kreatur werden soll.” KD III/3, 265. I tried some years ago to pinpoint Barth’s theological reasoning in his contributions on urgent political matters, but had to acknowledge that he simply argued with straight forward human reasoning, in all the mentioned actions, see Kjetil Hafstad, “Politisk praksis uten politisk teologi. Tilfellet Karl Barth som aktuell impuls” (Political praxis without political theology. The case of Karl Barth as impulse for contemporary reasoning), Norsk Teologisk Tidsskrift 84. 1983, s. 97-108. See Jürgen Moltmann, Gott in der Schöpfung. Ökologische Schöpfungslehre, Chr. Kaiser, München 1985, 115. For many, the very idea that Barth could be ascribed interest in ecology is strange. But in his late work on ethics, he sees the dangers clearly in the mechanical way technology works, against nature, Karl Barth, Das christliche Leben. Die Kirchliche Dogmatik IV/4, Fragmente aus dem Nachlass 1959-1961, Hg. Hans-Anton Drewes und Eberhard Jüngel, Theologischer Verlag Zürich 1976, 389ff. – And he develops an open interest in natural life itself, in exchange with the playwriter and poet of nature, Carl Zuckmeier. Späte Freundschaft in Briefen: Briefwechsel Carl Zuckmayer – Karl Barth, Theologischer Verlag Zürich, Zürich 1977. Julia Kristeva, Hannah Arendt, Columbia University Press, New York 2001, 7f. – referring to Hannhah Arendt, The Human Condition, Univerisity of Chicago Press, Chicago 1958, 247. Martha Nussbaum, The Fragility of Goodness. Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1986, 2. Kristeva, Arendt, 71. Kristeva, Arendt,72. Jill Lepore, in her illuminating book These Truths. A History of the United States, Norton, New York 2018, presents the never ending fight over the Constitution in the US – and the contradictions conveyed by the very same Constitution.

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Hope and Fear in the Climate Crisis Paul Leer-Salvesen Prelude: Greta Thunberg In January 2019 Greta Thunberg stood on a podium before some of the world’s most powerful leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and delivered an unforgettable speech about hope and fear in the climate crisis. She said: Adults keep saying, “We owe it to young people to give them hope.” But I don’t want your hope. I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day, and then I want you to act. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if our house is on fire. Because it is.1

It is painful to hear a sixteen-year old speak like this about the future and hope. Fortunately, Greta Thunberg has expressed herself differently elsewhere. She has not abandoned the hope that we are capable of changing our practices and attitudes to nature and the climate. Had the future seemed without hope to her, it would most likely have shattered her powerful and admirable commitment. What she no longer wants to hear is naive talk, like “Go back to sleep, dear! It will all come out alright in the end!” It is the escapism of adults that she is challenging, that which makes us close our eyes to all the signs that something is disastrously wrong in our treatment of nature, and that it is a collective and deadly escape from reality when we fail to place the climate crisis at the top of the world’s political and economic agenda. That is why Greta Thunberg would rather see panicking adults than hopeful adults. In speech after speech she tries to wake us with fact-based knowledge pointing out all the signs that something is terribly wrong with the planet’s ecology: Climate gas emissions and pollution, extinct and threatened species, global warming, melting ice and rising sea level. She uses facts to alarm us that the future will be unbearable if we do not act now. Realism and Hope Thus, Greta Thunberg has much in common with the theologian of hope Jürgen Moltmann who sets out to combine realism and hope in active and

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sustainable ethics: Realism and hope are not contradictory. We need both if we are to achieve a political system that can stop the vast destruction taking place in nature. As Moltmann wrote in the introduction to his book Ethics of Hope in 2012: Realism teaches us a sense for reality – for what is. Hope awakens our sense for potentiality – for what could be. In concrete action, we always relate the potentiality to what exists, the present to the future. If our actions were directed only to the future, we should fall victim to utopias; if they were related only to the present, we should miss our chances.2

Is it at all possible to combine realism and hope in this way when faced with the climate crisis? It must be possible. If no one else, then Christian churches must insist that it is possible. One of the most important things the Church has taught me is that it is not true that we are going straight to Hell. I have learnt that it is possible to go into the world with faith, hope and love without losing ourmind and that it is possible to build both politics and ethics upon this triad. If this is not possible, if the future is really so bleak, then we may as well start tidying up and not waste our strength on things we don’t need. If we are on our way to Hell, then we need to close down all kindergartens, schools and universities, our foremost institutions of hope. Schools are in essence built on the premise that growth and change are possible and that we must prepare for a future that is coming. If this hope is shattered, we should sack all teachers and academics and replace them with cognitive therapists who can impart strategies of survival and denial. We must get rid of writers, poets, painters and composers. There is little point in creating art if no one can read, see or listen in the future. Provide circuses and sedatives instead, so that we can for a brief while forget where we are. There must be hope! Hope affects us. Hope gives energy. Those who hope are like pregnant women, says Jürgen Moltmann3, using this lovely image to illustrate mankind’s peculiar position between the present and the future: The pregnant woman draws strength from the future to endure a strenuous present. She pats her stomach and feels life. Moltmann elaborates this image of the pregnant woman and says the following about the relation between the future and the present: Hope is anticipated joy; anxiety is anticipated terror. Both are undetermined. Expecting brings the determined into the undetermined of hope and anxiety. Waiting can mean simply to “wait and see,” in which case we contribute nothing to the arrival of the expected. Waiting can also mean expecting, in which case we prepare for what we expect. The expected future is already determining the present. Waiting can also mean watching. I don’t know when it is coming, but it

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is already at hand. I begin to live in the nearness of the expected and open all my senses to meet the coming. A field of expectation is emerging, in which the expected can always enter.

Active hope is strengthened by the visible signs that something is in fact being done to save our ecosystems: In the summer of 2019 I was collecting plastic from a beach with a five-year old boy. He scampered about collecting plastic bottles and every kind of plastic packaging, dumped in the sea by thoughtless adults. I have no right to deprive a child of the hope that it works! His enthusiasm gives me hope and makes me notice other small signs. Salmon has returned to my home river. The sea is clean enough to swim in, even in the harbour. Toxic emissions have been reduced in all our major cities in Norway. I’m not saying everything is in order. Climate change is appalling, but we must allow ourselves to gather up the signs that there is still a future. Greta Thunberg may well be right in insisting that there are more reasons for fear and panic than for hope. She is right that the reasons for fearing the future are many and weighty. Yet we must allow ourselves to pat our stomachs and feel the life within, note that we are, in spite of everything, carrying our future. To approach the future with fear and trembling leads to paralysis. Chronophobia In her book Chronophobia4, the American art historian Pamela Lee researched anxiety in art in the 1960s. The term means “Fear of time” in a literal translation from the Greek; the word can also mean “fear of the future”. This phenomenon has been used by therapists working with long-term prisoners in American penitentiaries. They describe the prisoners’ feeling that death is ever approaching, while they have never lived. Nothing good lies ahead of them. There is no hope in the future. In recent years the term chronophobia has been used by therapists and counsellors who see fear of the future among their young clients. The English journalist Kaya Burgess5 (The Times, 4. January 2020) writes that more and more young people seek help for their fear of the future. Burgess uses the term “eco-anxiety” to describe their condition: Their minds are invaded and bombarded by information about all the threats to the future of the planet. Fear for the future of the planet and their personal fear for themselves merge into one paralysing condition: eco-anxiety. Therapists and counsellors constitute the main professional group working with anxiety and fear. Psychoanalysts traditionally look for the cause of anxiety in the subconscious, while psychotherapists investigate the patients’

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relationships in order to understand their mental health. Following “the relational turn” in fields like philosophy, theology and psychology, most therapists or counsellors will try to learn more about the patients’ network in order to understand how they are afflicted. There is no reason why the climate crisis should make therapists less concerned with the impact of good or less fortunate relationships. Yet there is good reason to expand the nature of relationships to include the ecosystem and the larger natural environment. The Danish theologian and philosopher K.E. Løgstrup used the term “interdependence” for the mutual dependence we live in from cradle to grave. He soon found a way to describe how this interdependence includes more than merely human life. He speaks of nature as our origin and urged that the respect we should show our parents, according to the fourth of the Ten Commandments, should be extended to nature. Deep Ecology The Norwegian philosopher Arne Næss6 was a pioneer of this extended view of relations and countered the notion that only human beings have absolute value. He was quick to protest against forms of anthropocentrism limiting mankind’s relevant ethical relations to fellow humans: Human beings, animals, plants, all life is inter-related and mutually interdependent. This is the basic perspective in The Deep Ecology Platform7 that Arne Næss formulated with George Session in 1984. Their thinking was, that different professions and people with different politics and views of life can and must agree on a fundamentally new understanding of life and ecology. An important point is not to speak of human value alone, but to recognise that other forms of life have intrinsic value. That is implicit in this definition of relationship that where a recognition of the other part’s value is intrinsic. It is clearly expressed in the first article of the Platform: The well-being and flourishing of human and nonhuman life on Earth have value in themselves (synonyms: inherent worth, intrinsic value, inherent value). These values are independent of the usefulness of the nonhuman world for human purposes.

The Platform takes issue with ideologies and politics that instrumentalize all other forms of life according to how useful they are for humans. We see this thinking in politicians’ insistent rhetoric about “natural resources” as if the rest of creation were placed there as our food store. Arne Næss was ahead of his

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time in describing the devastation of natural life as manmade, and he urged us to reflect. We see this in paragraph 4 of the Platform: Present human interference with the nonhuman world is excessive, and the situation is rapidly worsening.

The Deep Ecology Platform set down four decades ago was aimed at all those who see that humans are in the throes of destroying their relationships, not with other people, but also with animals, plants and all other forms of life. Arne Næss assumed this insight would be shared by many people of different religions and persuasions. He was particularly aware that this extended perception of relationships is to be found in oriental religions that are less anthropocentric than our western monotheism. His point is not where we start out from as humanists, atheists, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Muslims or Hindus. The point is whether we agree to the eight points of the Platform. And if we do agree, then we are committed to act upon this, as clearly set out in the last point: Those who subscribe to the foregoing points have an obligation directly or indirectly to participate in the attempt to implement the necessary changes.

Climate Justice The American psychoanalyst and writer Donna  M.  Orange8 argues that her own colleagues have been far too slow to take on board that the climate crisis affects and will continue to affect people’s mental health and quality of life. The most severely afflicted are and will be the poorest. Therapists have long been used to addressing existential questions; why are they then not concerned with the greatest and most existential question of all, the very existence of the planet? Orange asks her colleagues to listen to Pope Francis and read his encyclical of 2015: Laudatio Si’ – On care for our common home.9 The Pope is the first world leader to underline how climate change will dramatically increase the differences between the rich and the poor. Orange says we will have to work for social justice while doing what we can to reduce emissions and take care of ecological diversity. Eco-ethics and ethics of justice are two sides of the coin, and therapists must consider everything that could be detrimental to patients’ wellbeing and makes them feel helpless facing their own future. Therapists and counsellors can no longer concentrate on the challenges of the individual alone. In her chapter “Towards climate justice” Orange urges:

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Paul Leer-Salvesen Climate justice involves, I think, two inextricable elements: (1) reducing carbon in the atmosphere to the 350 parts per million needed for a livable planet (Nasa, 2008)10, and (2) doing this in a way that not only does not further harm the world’s most vulnerable people, but also restores some measure of basic dignity to their lives. Implicitly this definition claims that climate justice is restorative justice, that the rich of the world must come to see ourselves as having perpetrated, and continuing to perpetrate, massive injustice against the world’s poorest, and see ourselves as owing restitution.11

It could hardly be more powerfully stated that there must be an end to the cautious neutrality of therapists and the reluctance of counsellors to commit themselves to clear ethical and political standpoints. Those who through their professions encounter people’s existential problems need to become climate activists, as the climate threat is the greatest threat we and our patients and clients face, insists Orange. She goes on: Any one concerned by the climate threat will have to become involved in the fight against poverty and for social justice. One thing we know already, and this will only get worse in the future: The climate crisis does not fight fair. No middle road is possible, either for therapists or others who take upon themselves human pain and suffering. Orange asks: “Without justice for the poor, why save the planet?”12. Pope Francis argues along the same lines. This is bigger than “nature conservation”. If the planet is to be saved, we shall need to combat the policies and ideologies that have paved the way for this present crisis and future catastrophe. The reason why the Pope appears so radical in his climate ethics and eco-theology is because his analysis targets the financial world and the capitalist system. One of the salient points in his encyclical Laudato Si’ is to see the climate threat in the light of exploitative economic politics and an ominously growing gap between rich and poor. Thus the Pope (and his team): We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental. Strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, at the same time protecting nature.13

This is one of the reasons why the Norwegian moral, social and political philosopher Arne Johan Vetlesen14, like Donna M. Orange, sees Pope Francis’ encyclical as far more radical and fundamental than for instance the Paris Agreement reached in 2015. As Vetlesen says: “The Pope has understood what the Paris Agreement has not grasped. Continued economic growth is the problem, not the solution.”

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The Face of Ethics, Lesbos Many people, however, live in a present time so full of distress that they cannot take in anything as long term as the future of the planet. Their own immediate future is more than enough. If you are sitting in a leaking rubber dinghy in the Mediterranean on a dark night from Turkey to Lesbos, it is unlikely that you will be contemplating the climate crisis. Your perception of the future is another: The next day, next hour, the next minute. In 2015-2016 more than one million refugees came to Greece, mostly to Lesbos and other islands in the Aegean. Lesbos has 85 000 inhabitants. Ten times as many came to the island, and many remained for a long time before they were sent on elsewhere. I wonder how my home town in Norway had reacted if that many refugees turned up on our beaches and in our harbours, ten times the city’s population. Would we have passed or failed this test of our love and humanity? I saw them coming, a group of wet, bedraggled fellow creatures in the harbour of Mollivos on Lesbos one May morning in 2015. There I was, snug and dry, having breakfast in a taverna. I was preparing a lecture for later that day in Metochi Study Centre, run by Agder University in a monastery on the island. Ironically the lecture was about love in contemporary ethics and the revolutionary extension of the love of others that we find in Leviticus  3: First the nearly three thousand year old text tells us: “[T]hou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” This is radical enough, yet the command still covers love within a more or less homogenous group. Then follows this almost shocking elaboration: “And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your Land, ye shall not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself.” (Leviticus 19, 33-34). The text moves from the particular to the universal. This understanding of love does not discriminate according to ethnicity or country of origin. All of a sudden there were more than a hundred refugees in the harbour where I was having breakfast. They were helped on to the beaches by the Coast guard and local volunteers. Not everyone made it, not that day or in the months and years to come. There is no account of how many drowned. At least thousands. I met a group of survivors, their faces showing both fear and hope, if I interpreted their expressions correctly. Yes, they had survived the journey in miserable rubber boats from Turkey four kilometres away. Yet they had good reason to fear what was coming: The refugee camp Moria in Mytilene, or equally desolate camps on the Greek mainland, and a future in a Europe that didn’t want them, even a return to where they came from. The first to organise aid to

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the refugees, were the people of Lesbos. Taverna owner Melinda and her staff managed to serve meals twice a day to many hundred people in the Mollivos harbour. Many others joined them. They collected clothes, diapers and bottles for families with babies. The priest Papa Stratos dropped everything and organised a provisional aid network with women from his congregation. I met him again in 2017, and asked why he worked night and day for the refugees. “Because they’ve come”, was his answer, free of complex ethical theories. “Ethics of the face” Emmanuel Levinas would have called it, and Levinas would probably have quoted the old Hebrew commandment to love, and he would have reminded us that the appeal from the face of the other is radical and unequivocal: “Don’t kill me!” says the other. Then, according to Levinas, he says “Show me compassion!”. Papa Stratos had a large warm heart. Then after two years of gruelling work for the refugees, this heart ceased beating. RIP, Papa Stratos! You did so much for all the people who suddenly came to your island. Certainly, not all Greeks and Italians who are overwhelmed by refugees are heroes. Some are scared for their own future. Some are angry because tourists stop coming. The economy has been precarious in the Mediterranean since the Finance crisis and the refugees have not improved the situation. Of course, Greeks and Italians are insecure and anxious, and they rightly accuse Europe of letting them down! Yet throughout these years there have been everyday heroes at great cost to themselves. Now in 2020 I hear that they have had to provide food relief for Greeks on Lesbos. The crisis has made a deep impact. In the autumn of 2017 I saw an art exhibition at the Frissiras Museum in Athens. Young Greek artists had been invited to show their interpretations of the current situation in Greece. I have not seen such a political exhibition for many years. I stood transfixed by one exhibit that powerfully expressed the fear of the future in Greece: “The adolescent” by Vasilis Perros. It is the picture of a young naked man sitting on a word cloud of hopelessness: Angst, fear, no future, no job, no home, are among the words in that cloud. The young man could have been from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, anywhere in the Middle East. He could also have been a young Greek, Italian or Spaniard exposed on that desolate heap of words. A whole generation of young people in the Middle East and the Mediterranean have had their dreams of the future disrupted and broken by economic crises, wars and migration. And this comes on top of climate anxiety that increasingly concerns the young, even in Mediterranean countries, where so many of them have more than enough coping with their own individual worries.

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Visions of the Future “Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil”, said Aristotle in a famous quote – or more extensively in his book Rhetoric15 where he gives a comprehensive analysis of the phenomenon of fear: “Fear may be defined as a pain or disturbance due to a mental picture of some destructive or painful evil in the future”. Aristotle probably meant that the ability to depict what you fear in the future is a characteristic that sets us apart as human beings. It does seem an apt description of being human. Our species has a different conception of time than we have hitherto observed in other animals. We should perhaps slightly qualify this, as research continually reveals amazing similarities between humans and animals. Yet we can surely claim that humans pose other and more probing questions about the past and future than non-humans do. This affects our fear and anxiety. We are not only afraid of actual enemies we can see, hear and smell. We can form mental pictures of danger and anticipate what may be coming. Human beings can conceive the finitude of life, termed “Seim zum Tode” [Being-towards-death]as the German philosopher Martin Heidegger called it, the idea of a Being towards death. Martin Heidegger must have seen this awareness of death as part of the life of the individual, in each person’s Dasein, inspired by the phenomenon existential dread, as described by Søren Kierkegaard. Today we see more clearly that notions of finite life include the very ecosystem we form part of, the planet and natural life. Mankind’s existential fear (of death) and anxiety for the future reach beyond the death of the individual and encompass the annihilation of culture and nature. New images of fear are drawn up in new arenas today, but chronophobia is still nourished by that human phenomenon described by Aristotle as: “Mental pictures of some destructive or painful evils in the future.” Fear can mobilise, but also paralyse. Fear can help us make sensible and creative decisions to minimise risks and eliminate dangerous alternatives. But fear can also demoralise us and numb us. Jürgen Moltmann perceptively compares the two and says we need both fear and hope, both “an ethics of fear” and “an ethics of hope”: Anxiety awakens all our senses, making them alive to imminent threats, and prepares our reason to recognize in the facts of the present “the signs of the end”. Without these abilities we would be like the people in Pompei who didn’t notice the eruption of Vesuvius or couldn’t accept that it was happening. We would feel as safe as the people before the Flood, who despite a biblical warning did not see anything coming (Matt. 24. 38-39). Humanity would long since have become

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Paul Leer-Salvesen extinct. An ethics of fear sees the crises; an ethics of hope perceives the chances in the crises. In the exuberance of hope, the temptation is utopianism; in fear, the temptation is alarmism.16

Eco-ethics and eco-politics need depictions of what could be in store for us in the future. Some important images of the future are provided by researchers who use present knowledge and collected data to set up probable and possible scenarios for the immediate and more distant future. Other images are provided by politicians with their varying understanding of research, and these may lead to important decisions as to what is desirable or not. However, in our culture we also need other images of the future than those of researchers, statisticians, and politicians; those other images come from the Arts. Writers have drawn up extensive utopias in novels and science fiction. Poets, painters and other artists have depicted both fear of the future and optimism. This genre has been a godsend for films and Tv series, both highbrow and popular. Every day the air reverberates with gasps of horror as future scenarios are played out in cinemas or on TV. The Stoic Solution In his film Melancholia of 2011, the Danish director and writer Lars von Trier depicts an apocalypse that tears me up every time I see it. The film is about a wedding celebrated in a lovely Toscana mansion. At the beginning of the film the mood is excellent. The young couple’s happiness is infectious and old family conflicts lie dormant. For a while. Suddenly everything changes. There is a violent sound and a blinding light in the sky. We realise that something ominous is about to happen. The reason is: A huge meteor is about to collide with the Earth. The name of the meteor is Melancholia, the collision is inevitable, in a few hours the meteor will strike and all life on Earth will perish. The story continues in a classic mode, as seen in many films and novels: von Trier explores the reactions of the wedding guests when they hear of the imminent apocalypse. Some find an escape route in drink and drugs. Others try to remain merry as long as possible. The raucous male chauvinist can’t bear to wait. He reaches for his gun and ends his life. By the last scene a mother and daughter are reconciled to one another and to their fate, clinging to each other in love and tenderness. It is beautiful and horrific. The message is: Take what is coming! There’s nothing you can do about it. Meet your end with dignity. Lars von Trier can be seen as a modern Stoic.

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Epicure is the classic Stoic, and like most philosophers he is preoccupied by the question of death. He observes that people around him fear death. They fear what inevitably comes in every person’s life. But having pondered this question Epicure has found out that we need not fear death! In a way it doesn’t really exist! Or rather: Death and I cannot exist at the same time, and therefore there can be no reason to fear it! He uses the following famous argument to console those who might fear death: “If death is annihilation”, says Epicure, “then it is ‘nothing to us.’ If death is bad, for whom is it bad? Not for the living, since they’re not dead, and not for the dead, since they don’t exist.17”

Epicure’s solution is seemingly a consolation. Yet anyone who feels that people are relational creatures will protest. Let me present a counterfactual idea: Aristotle would no doubt have protested strongly if the two Greek philosophers had met! In his texts we find profound reflection about human life as relational life. Humans are social beings, Aristotle claimed, and it is not possible to understand human life as a singular and isolated form of life. These are important ideas in Aristotelian ontology, and in his ethical thinking and teaching, for example in The Nicomachean Ethics where he delivers his famous analysis of friendship He states that it is impossible for a man to be happy alone; it is only possible to reach happiness if you have someone with whom you can share your joy, says Aristotle! Epicure’s solution to the problem of death is not for me! I will not say that I am unafraid of death, but that my fear concerns those who surround me. I am afraid to lose my loved ones. I am afraid of once more being left alone. Thus my fear of death is relational, so there is little consolation in hearing that there is no death as long as I’m alive. It’s just not true! Anyone who has ever grieved over someone they loved knows this. Lars von Trier made a powerful film about people who with varying degrees of success meet their own fate and that of the planet with dignity. Like all good works of art it is open to interpretation. I will not claim that the film’s apocalypse can be equated with a possible global ecocatastrophe. Yet if we make this leap of imagination and see Melancholia as a comment on the fear of the future borne by so many because of the climate crisis, it could be summed up like this: “There’s very little or nothing you can do to prevent what’s coming. The future is on its way whether we like it or not. Hope just makes your disappointment greater and the waiting more painful. You may as well accept your fate with dignity!” I have no grounds for saying that this was the intention of the film maker, but there are plenty of climate deniers and climate sceptics who think along these lines. That is why we now desperately need the combination

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of “ethics of fear” and “ethics of hope” that Jürgen Moltmann has given us. What we do not need is resignation! An Eco-theological Alternative In 1967 Lynn White wrote a seminal article: “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis”18 in which he claims that the Judeo-Christian creation narrative carries much of the blame for the eco-crisis. Judaism and Christianity provide religious and theological justification for an anthropocentrism that allows humans to exploit the rest of creation so grossly. White blamed Jewish and Christian theologians for contributing to speciesism that proclaims Man the lord of creation with unlimited rights. This view informs White’s reading of Genesis 1. The article gave an impetus to the blossoming of both Jewish and Christian eco-theology in the following years. Much could be said to qualify this criticism, for instance that Immanuel Kant, René Descartes and other secular philosophers of the Enlightenment represented an anthropocentrism consistent with that of the theologians. However, there is little point in such criticism. We are many theologians today who feel that it is the essential responsibility of both theology and philosophy to confront anthropocentrism, and that it is possible to read the Biblical accounts of creation in other ways than those questioned by White. Not least Sigurd Bergmann has contributed to new readings and interpretations in his many articles and books. He too has thought about the climate crisis in the light of the Christian theory of creation and he points out how manmade climate change may challenge the very notion of a good creation: Reflection on what anthropogenic climate change does to our self-understanding as God’s image in a good creation increases the already well known existential alienation people experience in modern life, a widespread alienation and detachment which requires the acknowledgement19 “of our existential need for a spiritual homecoming”.20

Bergmann quotes Michael Northcott who, like himself, describes the spirit of the age as “home sickness”. Both give us good reasons for caring more for oikos, our home. Hope and Love What can the churches give us in a time when people more than ever fear the future? There are many good reasons to continue working on an eco-theological Urheberrechtlich geschütztes Material! © 2021 Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn, ein Imprint der Brill-Gruppe

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criticism of the anthropocentricism that has been and is so central to the development of the ecological crisis. Recent documents on eco-ethics and ecopolitics that have been issued by the major churches clearly point to a change in Christian ethics in the last decades: There is a movement away from anthropocentrism towards including ecological perspectives in the theology of creation. There is an excellent presentation and analysis of this development in Asla Maria Bø Fuglestad’s Norwegian PhD thesis Miljøargumentasjonen i kirkelige institusjoner21 (The milieu argumentation in church institutions). She looks at various texts from the Vatican and the Lutheran World Federation and she notes how the encyclical Laudato Si’ strikes a fine balance between communicating with those familiar with Christian thought and rhetoric and those to whom it is unfamiliar: In Laudato Si’ images and concepts from Christian faith and traditions are still central. Yet Pope Francis is more concerned than Pope John Paul II in making sure that his message is received as relevant and meaningful by people, regardless of their faith. One of the ways to ensure this is to use poetic language in the Encyclica showing himself in a poetic light. The use of poetic language helps convey the idea that religions and religious narratives can impart truth differently from the natural sciences. As shown above, the Pope builds up a dichotomy between religious language and the “language of mathematics”. In that way the Pope presents himself as representative for an approach to the climate issue that supplements the scientific, rather than replace it.22

Pope Francis and most protestant theologians do not hold with a contradiction between theology and the natural sciences. On the contrary they emphasise how religious traditions, art and science can mutually supplement each other’s view of nature and inspire a new politics that will nurture the ecological balance of the planet. However, these perspectives are not in unison. There are cases of acute divergence between religion and natural science. In the protestant right wing in the USA and other countries there are creationists who, from their fundamentalist reading of the Bible, reject evolutionary ideas. In Turkey and other countries with strict Islamic groups there is to be found a similar religious criticism of natural science, which includes trying to prevent the teaching of evolution in school. We can also find examples of aggressive secularism and atheism pitting religion and science against each other as diametrical opposites. This is unnecessary and can lead to weakening the urgent effort that needs to be made against the climate threat and ecological devastation. We need Pope Francis and other religious thinkers who can communicate climate ethics widely. There are at least three languages that speak of nature: That of science, that of religion and the artistic. We need all three in order to further understanding, insight and hope. And love! We need all the help we can get in order to arrive Urheberrechtlich geschütztes Material! © 2021 Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn, ein Imprint der Brill-Gruppe

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at a new form of love that reaches beyond our own species and embraces our origin, nature. “Love makes hope possible,” says Werner G. Jeanrond in an article on Love and Eschatology. “Love is not a divine imposition on men, women, and children. Rather it is the divine gift that allows us to hope for the consummation of God’s promise, not against but for and with the participation of humankind.”23

The Christian churches cannot deny fear of the future, as it is already here, with reasons and causes well explained by natural science. But the Christian church can and shall impart hope. Christian eschatology does not subscribe to the view of the future that everything is heading for disaster, or that we must meekly accept our imminent fate. A sustainable Christian eco-theology must strive to develop the triad faith, hope and love so that this language is understood by people, within and outside the church, and without new contradictions arising between religion and science. References Aristotle: Rhetoric and Nichomachean Ethics Loeb Classical Library. Bergmann, Sigurd 2018: Time turns into space – at home on earth in Bergmann, Sigurd ed: Eschatology As Imagining The End Routledge. Burgess, Kaja: “Young people seek help for anxiety over climate change” The Times 4. January 2020. Bø Fuglestad. Asla Maria 2018: Miljøargumentasjonen i kirkelige institusjoner – En retorisk analyse av Vatikanet og Det lutherske verdensforbunds miljøargumentasjon University of Oslo. Frans 2015: Laudato S’ http://www.vatican.va/content/vatican/en.html Jeanrond, Werner G 2011: Love and Eschatology Dialog: A Journal of Theology Volume 50, Number 1. Lee, Pamela M 2004: Chronophobia MIT Press. Løgstrup K.E: 1984 Ophav og Omgivelse. Betragtninger over historie og natur (Metafysik III) partly translated as Source and Surroundings, in: Løgstrup, Metaphysics. Volume I – II, Milwaukee Marquette University Press. Moltmann, Jürgen 2012: Ethics of Hope Fortress Press. Northcott, Michael S 2013: A Political Theology of Climate Crisis Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. Næss, Arne 1989: Ecology, community and lifestyle Canbridge University Press. Orange, Donna M. 2017: Climate Crisis, Psychoanalysis and Radical Ethics Routledge.

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Vetlesen, Arne Johan 2015: The Denial of Nature: Environmental Philosophy in the Era of Global Capitalism Routledge. White, Lynn: The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis Science 10 Mar 1967: Vol. 155.

Endnotes 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20  21  22  23 

https://real-leaders.com/greta-thunberg-i-dont-want-your-hope/ Downloaded 30-01-20. Jürgen Moltmann Ethics of Hope Fortress Press 2012 p. 3. http://faith.yale.edu/sites/default/files/moltmann_expectation_0.pdf Prepared for the Yale Center for Faith & Culture consultation on “Expectation and Human Flourishing,” June 2015. Lee, Pamela M 2004: Chronophobia MIT Press. Kaya Burgess: Young people seek help for anxiety over climate change https://www.thetimes. co.uk/article/young-people-seek-help-for-anxiety-over-climate-change-wsqhggv2n. Næss, Arne (1989). Ecology, community and lifestyle. Cambridge University Press. pp. 164-65. http://www.deepecology.org/platform.htm. Orange 2017 p. 21. :http://vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_ 20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html. In December 2008 Goddard Institute for Space Studies at NASA published this warning from a group of scientists: “Humanity must find a path to reduced atmospheric carbon dioxide, to less than the amount in the air today. If climate disasters are to be averted.” Orange 2017 p. 22. Orange 2017 p. 23. Pope Franciscus Laudato Si’ 139. http://www.katolsk.no/nyheter/2017/09/norsk-filosof-hyller-pave-frans. Aristotle Rhetoric (II.5) Moltmann 2012, p. 4. https://www.iep.utm.edu/epicur/. White, Lynn: The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis Science 10 Mar 1967: Vol. 155. Bergmann 2018 Time turns into space – at home on earth in Bergmann, Sigurd ed: Eschatology As Imagining The End Routledge. Northcott 2013. Fuglestad 2018. Ibid., p. 327. Jeanrond 2011 Love and Eschatology Dialog: A Journal of Theology Volume 50, Number 1.

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Nature

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Eco-Theology Beyond Order and Chaos Antje Jackelén Theology has faced many difficulties in understanding creation. In modernity our understanding of creation has often meandered between two ditches: the ditch of exploitation on the one hand and the ditch of romanticism on the other hand. Francis Bacon’s early seventeenth-century view of nature as a wild woman who should be tamed and be stripped of its treasures led down into the ditch of grave exploitation. A view of nature that is merely fascinated by fine-tuned balance and closes its eyes to the struggle for survival that is continuously raging in nature will end up in the ditch of romanticism. Neither of these alternatives offers a possible road ahead. It cannot be a matter of either order or chaos. It is rather about interplay between chaos and order, and about opening our eyes to the risky characteristics of nature and creation. Creating always implies taking risks, evidently also for the Creator with a capital C.1 Such sliding into the ditches is not a viable foundation for a sound theology. Theology has to be grounded in Scripture, receptive of theological traditions, aware of the relevant science and responsive to the challenges present in temporal, spatial and linguistic contexts. Eco-theology must address sustainability in all its dimensions, ecological, economic, social and spiritual. The many facets of Sigurd Bergmann’s theological work bear clear witness to this. In this essay, I will take a closer look at how the science-and-religion discourse has contributed and continues to contribute to an adequate understanding of concepts that are vital to theology in general as well as to eco-theology. Science and Theology on Nature/Creation A Historical Perspective The history of the relationship between theology and the natural sciences in the Western world is not unlike the dynamics of a growing family. In medieval times, theology was the queen of sciences. In the 13th century, Thomas Aquinas created a powerful synthesis of the best knowledge about religion, philosophy and nature. His principal resource was the philosophy of Aristotle, which had come to Christian Western Europe thanks to the high standards of Muslim scholarship. Christian theology in and of itself also inspired scientific inquiry. Where God is understood as the creator who has endowed nature with order and humans with creative rationality, inquiry into how nature works can

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indeed become a way of worship. Reading and understanding both “the book of scripture” and “the book of nature” can be noble and necessary enterprises. In that sense, early modern science was very much a child of theology. Quite a number of the pioneers of modern science were close to theology or the church (for example Johannes Kepler and Nicolaus Copernicus). When Kepler formulated what has become known as his third law of planetary motion, he felt “carried away and possessed by an unutterable rapture over the divine spectacle of the heavenly harmony.”2 Nevertheless, just as children must struggle their way through adolescence, the natural sciences had to strive for their emancipation and autonomy. It still happens that Darwin’s theory of evolution is presented as the classical clash between science and theology. The impression that there was a univocal Christian outcry against Darwinism, that was only gradually modified into more friendly relationships, is a false one, however. This misunderstanding is kept alive, for example, by references to John William Draper’s History of the Conflict between Religion and Science, 1874, and Andrew Dickson White’s A History of Warfare of Science with Theology, 1896. Already when these books came out, their martial imagery was an inadequate description of what was going on. In fact, in response to the so-called Copernican revolution, as well as in response to the publication of Darwin’s The Origin of Species in 1859, Christian scholars have from the beginning adopted a wide variety of strategies. The opinion of a British theologian by the name of Aubrey Moore (18481890) may stand as one example of alternative views. As he put it, under the guise of a foe, Darwin had done the work of a friend.3 Darwin’s service of friendship was the liberation of Christian theology from naive images of an intervening God whose acts resemble those of a magician more than those of a creator. The lukewarm concept of an occasionally interfering deity was no longer viable. Either God is totally absent, or God is active in the processes of the world. It goes without saying that the latter alternative in particular has spawned considerable theological activity. The idea of God creating in, with and under natural and social processes is a fruitful one. Relationships between science and theology have been more flexible than frequently presumed, especially in public discourse. A point in case is the socalled Genesis and geology debate between 1790 and 1850. It resulted from the insight that geology operated with a significantly larger time scale than usually assumed in the biblical exegesis in those days. Even today, Bible scholars and theologians are not always aware of the vast range of scales they touch upon when reasoning about the earth, the world, our solar system and the universe, from the beginning of creation to its end.

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It is important to note that the nineteenth century debate on “Genesis and Geology” was not a matter of religion versus science but of religion within science.4 Often, leading Christian theologians and scientists together “were concerned that the book of nature should not be at variance with Scripture and, in coming to terms with the apparent ‘cognitive dissonance,’ a variety of harmonization schemata were put forward.”5 A new genre of literature developed that dealt with the harmony of the Bible and science. Catholics as well as Protestants of various denominational shades were involved in the effort to devise reconciliation outlines. Historian Nicolaas A. Rupke has pointed out that during the early part of the nineteenth century, much of this literature was produced by English-language scientists, such as the Anglican divine and geologist William Buckland (1784-1856) at Oxford. During the second half of the nineteenth century a number of monographs by theologians, mainly in Germany, appeared. Furthermore, in Germany “entire magazines were devoted to the issues, such as the Catholic Natur und Offenbarung (1855-1910) and the Protestant Natur und Glaube (18971906).”6 Between 1870 and 1890 several monumental books were written that engaged the science of the day in dialogue with the theology of creation, as for example: Franz Heinrich Reusch, Nature and the Bible: Lectures on the Mosaic history of creation in relation to natural science,7 from 1886. According to Rupke, the “high point of the reconciliation literature was reached with the formidable scholarship of Otto Zöckler, renowned also for his work in the areas of Old and New Testament studies, dogmatics and church history. His Geschichte der Beziehungen zwischen Theologie und Naturwissenschaft, mit besondrer Rücksicht auf Schöpfungsgeschichte (2 vols., 1877-9) is a classic of the genre and remains valuable as a source book on the subject, along with his Gottes Zeugen im Reich der Natur.”8 But also in numerous other countries, various publications on Christian belief and modern science appeared. If this indicates that people of faith have responded in manifold ways to science, the same holds true for technology, the applied side of science. As Oxford historian John H. Brooke has pointed out, from the seventeenth century on, theological responses to technological progress have always been ambivalent.9 There was neither simple opposition between technological development and religious faith nor simple acceptance of all kinds of technology. On the one hand, science, technology and rational religion became allies in fighting superstition,10 suggesting that improvement of the God-made world should not be considered sacrilegious.11 Yet, on the other hand, the same improvements could also be considered utterly presumptuous, in the same way as even today genetic enhancement of organisms is sometimes understood to imply

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the denial of the original goodness and order of creation, and thus to dishonour God the Creator. The truth of the matter then is that the relationship between science, technology and theology has always been multi-faceted. Nevertheless, the warfare model has bedevilled the historiography of the subject ever since, and for many decades it was fashionable to speak of ‘the warfare waged by traditional religion against scientific knowledge.’12 The past five decades or so have given rise to major revisionist scholarship by historians. They have shown that religious and theological responses to scientific theories have varied not only with time, but also very much depending on geographical locations.13 It is not only theology that is contextual. Even science is contextually received. What surfaces as “cognitive dissonance”, often is mainly an “institutional dissonance”.14 Conflicts are not always the result of conflicting thoughts, theories and ideas. They may even more so be the result of rivalling groups within and between institutions. During the period in question the scientific community was at a very different stage as an institution compared to Christian faith communities, which certainly also impacted the way disputes and conflicts developed. Now, how did theologians in those days handle the challenge posed by the then new perspectives of geological time and history? How was the Biblical hexaemeron, the six days of Genesis 1, to be reconciled with the fossil record of a vast geological past? Three basic types of reconciliatory exegesis have been identified, the day-age interpretation, the restitution or gap interpretation and the idealist version.15 The day-age interpretation states that the term ‘day’ in Genesis 1 cannot be taken to mean a period of twenty-four hours – simply because the sun and other celestial bodies were not created until the fourth ‘day’. Thus, it was assumed that days meant periods that could accommodate millions of years. The main problem with this approach, however, is how to harmonize the sequence of geological periods with the number of days of creation. And that seems like a pretty daunting task. The second model focuses on the first two verses of Genesis 1. The first verse, “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” is not a prospective summary of the creation week in the verses that follow, but a retrospective reference to the primeval creation of matter, the stars, the planetary system, and the earth. The second verse, “the earth was a formless void,” was taken to describe the history of the earth after an indefinite and possibly very long interval at the moment of the last geological revolution, as a preparatory statement of the creation of the human world. Thus, interpreters who chose this model inserted a time gap between verse 1 and 2 that could accommodate all of geological history, which had taken place before ‘the six days of creation.’ Through the

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early decades of the 19th century, this gap interpretation became increasingly popular with geologists. It seemed like a good fit that gave the schema “a gloss of religious and scientific credibility.”16 It gave geology all the time it needed and a literal interpretation of the Genesis days of creation (hexaemeron) was left intact. Yet, the glory did not last too long. In the 1850’s primitive tools made of chipped flint mingled with the bones of extinct Pleistocene mammals were discovered. This meant that humans must have been contemporaneous with extinct mammals and therefore of much greater age than allowed for by biblical chronology. The third reconciliatory model of interpretation is the idealist one that states that the creation days represent crucial moments rather than periods: “… the six days do not signify six consecutive periods, but six moments of God’s creative activity which can be logically distinguished from one another, six divine thoughts or ideas realized in the creation,”17 as Franz Heinrich Reusch expressed it in 1886 in his two volume Nature and the Bible: Lectures on the Mosaic history of creation in relation to natural science. Rather than actual days, the creation days needed to be understood as a logical list of aspects of divine creation. It is an ideal, not a real sequence. These three ways of reconciling Genesis and geology had one thing in common: They provided science with considerable freedom to pursue its investigations of the physical world. At the same time biblical literalism was also weakened from ‘inside’, as historical methods started to be used in the study of the Pentateuch. Indeed, “[m]ore radical than the revisions that were forced on many believers by science, was this critical tradition within theology”18 (Among the significant exegetes in this critical tradition are Johann Gottfried Eichhorn and Julius Wellhausen). Moreover, and increasingly so, the Christian religion became subject to the comparative study of religion. Once the Enuma Elish and the Gilgamesh Epos became known, it became clear that there are relationships between myths, cultures and religions. The recognition that the biblical material is not as unique as one may have thought opened for new types of inquiry. These historical remarks draw our attention to two insights that may helpful in the development of an eco-theology for our time. First, it is not only in these days, or since the invention of the atomic bomb, or since growing awareness of environmental crises and climate change, that people have thought about how science, technology and faith can relate to each other. There have been constructive attempts to develop an integrated worldview all along. The attempt to critically and self-critically yoke new scientific knowledge with theological knowledge is not unique for our time; it can look back on a long history. Second, these historical examples shed light on processes of development in

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theology itself. Sometimes the impression is given that science and theology are totally different in their methods of research. While scientists build hypotheses, collect data, and interpret them in order to objectively prove or disprove their hypotheses, theologians remain always stuck with the same old truth they are repeating over and over. If theologians disagree, it is not because of data, but mere subjectivity. Or so some prejudice goes. Yet, taking a look only at the two last centuries of theological scholarship, we realize that this is not how it works. Theologians have looked at data all along, data about the physical and social world as well as data about the texts they deal with; they interpret these data and draw their conclusions. In the light of these data older hypotheses are thrown away or modified, new ones embraced … until another circle of data and interpretation causes further revisions. Methods and processes in science and in theology are not altogether different. They are different, but not all that different. The Epic of Creation and Theology Leaving the historical perspective, I now turn to the question, how can the scientific epic of creation help us here and now to rethink Christian theology of Creation and thus facilitate eco-theological work? In doing so, I will pay special attention to theories of complexity and emergence. Biblical scholars have shown that creation stories and motifs in the bible are not primarily about how it all got started. Rather, they offer an answer to the question: what does it mean? What does it mean that there is water and land, stars and planets, flora and fauna, and humankind interfering with nature? What does it mean to live in a world that mirrors the reality of the dreadful curses of Genesis 3, but that nevertheless insists on pointing out that God did not send off humankind unprotected into the world: God made garments of skin for the man and the woman and clothed them, as an often overlooked verse in Genesis 3 tells us (Genesis 3.21). What does it mean to live in a world shaped by the interplay of nature and culture, where – as Genesis 4 implies – humans within seven generations (mystical interpretation of numbers) went through a cultural evolution into farmers, artists and technologists (Gen 4.2122). The interpretation of these mythological stories suggests that creation theology is more about the complexities of life than about the beginnings. The fact that we – apart from all other creation material in the Bible – have two parallel creation stories in Genesis 1 and 2 that do not really fit together directly side by side makes it impossible to argue for a literal understanding of any of them; and the genre in itself forbids it; myths are just not meant

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to be taken literally. Their truth claims exceed literal reading: Their task is to convey what is extremely complicated or impossible to express in the language of facts. In some circles, this multiplicity of voices has been understood as a threat to the reliability of the biblical tradition, or to a Christian worldview. We are now living in a time of decreasing knowledge about the Bible and theology and increasing, politically driven, polarization especially between Islam and Christianity. These dynamics might lead us to a revival of creationist and literalist accounts, which makes it even more important to teach about the richness of the biblical tradition as a constant challenge to transcend the boundaries of our homemade worldviews. Theology has always depended on non-theological models of thought in order to frame its discourse about nature and God. For centuries, Christian theologians have drawn on philosophers, especially Plato and Aristotle. When philosophy of nature turned into science, it was science that contributed to the shaping of theological thought about nature. Generally, the assumption was not that science would lend objective truth to theological statements. More often, scientific theories would provide inspiring metaphors for the articulation of a theological language that matches contemporary contexts. The articulation of what creation means provides a telling example in this respect. Within a framework based on the fundamental distinction between binaries, such as matter and form or matter and spirit, the doctrine of a creation out of nothing (creatio ex nihilo) makes a lot of sense. It safeguards the sovereignty of God; but it also underlines the goodness of all creation. If everything comes from the word of a good creator, nothing can fall outside, in the domain of a potentially evil force. But the doctrine also has its downsides. In the end, divine goodness tends to be overpowered by the idea of divine omnipotence. The doctrine also leaves Gen 1.2 – about the earth being a formless void and God’s spirit hovering over the face of the waters – without any intelligible interpretation. Some theologians have pointed out that the notion of creation out of chaos is closer to the biblical sources than creation out of nothing. This, of course, does not decide the case, as the history of Christian thought knows of many doctrines that lack a clear scriptural foundation; but it provides at least motivations for considering alternatives. Mythically, chaos has tended to be understood as evil. Creation then is basically synonymous with the slaughter of the chaos beast. Theologian Catherine Keller identifies this understanding, which she calls tehomophobia (from the Greek phobos, which means fear, and from the Hebrew tehom, which means the deep, the sea or the chaos; cf. the Babylonian Tiamat, the watery chaos) as harmful. The creative potential of the tehom fell victim to a tradition demonizing it as evil disobedience.19 She

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points out that the biblical material also contains an often neglected tehomophilic (from the Greek philia, which means friendship, love) strand, which is less interested in hegemonic and linear order and that interprets creation as co-creation.20 Waters and the earth do their own creation (Gen 1.20,24), and God takes delight in the play of Leviathan, the chaos monster (Psalm 104.26). This is a radical shift from chaos understood as enemy to chaos understood as potentiality. In light of this shift, Keller suggests that creatio ex nihilo be complemented by creatio ex profundis, out of the profundity and womb of God, understood as the multidimensional continuum of all relations.21 Drying up the sea (tehom) is fatal – as fatal as the emptying of the earth’s aquifers. Christian repression of the transitional and wild is not only bad for the environment, as Keller says.22 It also eliminates the possibility of understanding complexity and emergence as significant features of the natural world, I would add. If this issue remains unsettled, we tend to build in yet another ostensible conflict between scientific and religious views of the world. The dualism of matter and form, of order and disorder can no longer constitute a sufficient framework for understanding nature, creation and creativity. The door seems open for a liaison between emergence and tehomophilic understandings of creation and creativity. It must not be forgotten, though, that such understandings come at a cost. They give up something of the clarity of distinction between matter and form or spirit, good and evil, order and disorder. Creation is a risk for everybody involved, including God; its story needs to be read as a narrative of transformation and of metamorphosis, as philosopher John Caputo claims, and not as a neat onto-theological metaphysics.23 Keller is not the only theologian to choose messiness over clarity. Elisabeth Johnson has suggested that it was the fear of chaos that motivated an obsession with order in God, coming along with a support of hierarchical and oppressive structures.24 Or, in the words of another theologian, Ruth Page: “The axiom of Christian faith that God is a God of order and not of disorder has meant in practice that disorder has been ignored, or, explained away, or written off as sin. … But that has left Christianity speechless in the face of much disorder, … The emphasis on order has never reflected the dual experience of stability and change, the disequilibrium inherent in present order in open systems.”25 Page goes as far as to state: “The outcome of God’s Gelassenheit [composure, equanimity], therefore, can only be a world in which the multiple finite freedoms which have been let be, explore their own possibilities and make their own orders.”26 As the work of Keller, Caputo, Johnson and Page shows, theology has resources to develop other ways of talking about creation than to focus on design and order. For instance, we may want to investigate how a theological category

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like promise may look when combined with evolutionary thought. Roman Catholic theologian John Haught has explored this perspective in his books God After Darwin and Deeper than Darwin.27 He argues: “When the idea of divine creation is tempered by accounts of God’s vulnerability, and when nature itself is viewed as promise rather than simply as design or order, the evidence of evolutionary biology not only appears consonant with faith but lends new depth to it as well.”28 Haught relies heavily on process theology, hence part of the critique that has been addressed towards process theology applies to his work as well, such as difficulties in framing redemption and eschatology in line with major strands in Christian theology. Nevertheless, the replacement of God the designer by God the “infinitely liberating source of new possibilities and new life”29 is consonant with important elements of Christian theology, such as the concept of freedom, certain aspects of eschatology, the priority of the possible over against the actual (Eberhard Jüngel30), and the notion of novelty. Such thought is also in consonance with a science that describes the natural world by using the terminology of emergence and self-organization. The Epic of Creation as an Epic of Emergence Catherine Keller is probably right with her thesis that tehomophilic strands provide a more adequate understanding of creation and creativity than tehomophobic ones. Along these lines, she states that “the wounds inflicted by certainty … will be better healed by a discourse of uncertainty than by just another sure truth.”31 This rhymes perfectly well with what one of the leading figures in complexity research, Stuart Kauffman, has expressed quite poignantly. Contemplating the insight that we cannot even predict the motions of three coupled pendula, he exclaimed: “Bacon, you were brilliant, but the world is more complex than your philosophy.”32 Natural selection is not enough to account for the development from cell to organism and to ecosystem, according to Stuart Kauffman. He concludes that we need both science and story to make sense of the universe.33 Evolutionary theory must be rebuilt as “a marriage of two sources of order in biology – selforganization and selection”34, suggesting that science in general should be regarded in terms of an “intermarriage of law and history.”35 This, he muses, may be the starting point of a general biology that can formulate laws for all biospheres.36 Kauffman is not alone: He draws heavily on Per Bak’s concept of self-organized criticality as a general mechanism to generate complexity.37 The Brussels school under Ilya Prigogine would substantiate Kauffman’s claim about history. We have reached a description of physics that brings a narrative element into play on all levels, says Prigogine.38 Systems biology provides yet another example; it took on many of these insights as it gained attention for

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both research and teaching, so much that some spoke of a paradigm shift in biology.39 But what is emergence? Emergence describes a dynamics that can be characterized by getting “‘something more from nothing but’ or, less euphoniously but more accurately, ‘something else from nothing but’ – since the point is not that one encounters something greater or something more, but that one encounters something else altogether.”40 Another point is that emergence does not disqualify reductionism – sometimes called ‘nothing-buttery’, as long as reductionism remains a heuristic tool among others and is not given ontological character. Yet another point is that the ‘something else’ in turn can participate in the process of generating a new ‘something else’ at another level of organization. Hence, “today’s something else may be tomorrow’s nothing but.”41 Emergence means the coming into being of new modes and levels of (self) organization and (co-)operation that transcend the limits of a system’s inherent causality. It gives us an enhanced view of causality by reaching beyond the rigidity of the physical origins of life, which, of course, implies neither the absence of causality nor an understanding of causal chains limited to compoundity or complicatedness. As Paul Davies has noted, “Complexity reaches a threshold at which the system is liberated from the strictures of physics and chemistry while still remaining subject to their laws. Although the nature of this transition is elusive  …, its implications  … are obvious.”42 In this sense, complexity is something like a paradox made plausible! Radical indeterminacy is understood as a natural transition. Simplistic understandings of causality in terms of A leads to B leads to C are being enriched by accounts that make causation, chance and surprise close neighbours. Emergence is radically surprising, yet not totally enigmatic. What can this do for our theological understanding of creation and for ecotheological reasoning?43 I will offer five sketches, drawn in light of emergence. How Can We Speak about Nature? In light of emergence, nature presents itself as shaped by two seemingly opposite tendencies. On the one hand, it is marked by an openness that facilitates evolution and complexification; on the other hand it bears the mark of a restraint that imposes order. Consequently, we see a powerful creativity in nature, provided by the laws of nature. Again, we see the paradox made plausible – yet not domesticated. This vision of nature suggests that opposing tendencies are linked together; openness and restraint are one in nature.44 Theologically speaking, this would mean that Manichaeism has rightly been debunked as wrong teaching. Concepts that work with the unity of the hidden and revealed God are better suited to express this vision. Nature is not a chain

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of sand grains or beings trickling from the hand of a supposedly almighty creator. It is better understood as the story of becoming and complexification. The mixture of catastrophism and creativity has its correspondence in a creator who is both immanent and transcendent and for whom creation also is a process of kenosis (Greek for emptying) and vulnerability. Creation is “a dicey business” for everybody, including God.45 Concepts of complexity reckon with a phase space of potentiality linked to natural phenomena. This is an image for the idea that every event is “surrounded by a ghostly halo of nearby events that didn’t happen, but could have.”46 In terms of theological analogy, this could mean that a field of transcendence is coupled to factual reality. The “adjacent possible”47 has a role in processes of actualization; it can in fact be seen as a part of actuality. It is in this sense that I think we can understand Paul Tillich’s definition of the eschaton (the last, the ultimate) as the “transcendent meaning of events.”48 The transcendent meaning of events would be revealed in the real togetherness of actuality and potentiality. This concept of a space of potentiality implies a beneficial disruption of simple notions of intervention. Equating divine action with the violation of the laws of nature is a non-viable concept. Searches for expanded concepts of causation are well justified and called for.49 How Can We Speak about Human Nature? The concept of emergence may also be helpful in addressing the question of human nature. More than before we are now aware of the necessity of framing the discourse about human uniqueness from the vantage point of continuity rather than discontinuity. Bluntly anthropocentric concepts have rightly been debunked in favour of more creation-oriented models. Human nature needs to be seen in continuity with non- human nature, as well as in continuity between nature and culture. Traditional theological understandings of human uniqueness (imago dei) have often focused on cognitive traits, like human rationality and intelligence, that have set humans apart from the rest of nature. An understanding of human uniqueness in terms of emergence brings difference. It emphasizes both continuity and discontinuity with the rest of nature. It accounts for our close ties with the animal world as well as for the uniqueness in which symbolic and cognitively fluent minds bring about language, art, technology, religion, and science, as Wentzel van Huyssteen has pointed out.50 Within eco-theology, it remains a task to account for an anthropology that understands humans as the part of nature they are, while at the same time articulating the specifics of human potential and responsibility – a concept of emergence, one might say.

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The purpose of human beings is “to be the agency, acting in freedom, to birth the future that is most wholesome for the nature that has birthed us.”51 This is how Philip Hefner describes the human task of being “created co-creator”. The phrase captures humanity’s situation well. It captures our human duality, our tragedy and our power. Human beings are creators, and yet they are creation: radically dependent and interdependent. Human beings are creators who are co-creators: they are called to make their creative powers available for God’s creating and transforming project. As humans, we are creative, both in our constructive endeavours and in our destructive activities, inventive in our constant attempts to stretch our limits, and, driven by curiosity, to cross the line between what can be perceived as immanent and what is transcendent. In that way, humans seem to incurably religious. How Can We Speak about God? God is not the designer of outcomes, rather the wellspring of the frameworks in which complexification can occur. The watchmaker image of God has given way to a networker image of God.52 This is the definite end of any deistic concept of a God who winds up a cosmic clockwork and then retires to watch the process of mechanical unwinding. In this vision, God is the transcendent creator as well as the immanent creative energy. This concept acknowledges both creatio originalis and creatio continua. The idea that God has created the world to be self-productive or self-organizing seems to offer a possibility of modifying concepts of God as a designer, so that they include evolutionary concepts allowing for freedom and genuine novelty. God as the wellspring of complex autopoietic systems is Godself living a complex life, implying change, having freedom and granting freedom. In light of this, problematic divine attributes such as immutability and impassibility can be revisited in an adequate way. Grace and freedom can be conceptualized without ruling out the notion of God’s transformative power. As Niels Henrik Gregersen has put it: “Re-described in a theological perspective, the theory of self-organisation suggests that God is not a remote, supra-cosmic designer of a world but the blessing God who creates by bestowing on nature a capacity for fruitful, albeit risky, self-development.”53 In this regard, I have come to find the metaphor of dance very useful. I am certainly not the only one. Friedrich Nietzsche uses it over and over again in his philosophy to describe the prime quality of a good philosopher: Above all, a good philosopher should be a dancer. Arthur Peacocke and Ann Pederson have used the music and dance imagery in regard to God and creation: God the choreographer of an ongoing dance or the composer of a yet-unfinished

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symphony, shaping creation where variation and improvisation are the state of the art.54 I have used the metaphor of dance to describe the relationship between time and eternity.55 Time in itself is manifold and relates to eternity in different ways. Time and eternity can be described as partners in a cosmic dance, who, turning and pulsing, move with and against each other. The strength of this metaphor lies in the fact that, with the assumption that the dance is not over-choreographed, it allows for movement and spontaneity. The static idea of a cosmology with an infinitely uniform flow of time does not correspond to the scenario of contemporary science. The image of dance represents more adequately what we know about the cosmos. We may even go so far as to claim kinship between the dimension of dance that is a mark of the cosmos on the one hand and what we can say about the Trinity on the other hand. For instance, as an image of the Trinity, Elisabeth Johnson draws a triple helix engaged in a perichoretic dance, as an expression of apparent chaotic and, nevertheless, highly disciplined movement and complexity.56 The dance is creative: “The circular dynamism within God spirals inward, outward, forward toward the coming of a world into existence, not out of necessity but out of the free exuberance of overflowing friendship.”57 The metaphor of dance comes with the ability to thematise the relationships of process and rhythm, space and time, the unique and the recurrent, detail and generality, individuality and sociality, idea and action, and the like. This flexibility and openness is simultaneously also its weakness. It need not necessarily be a liturgical dance of joy in God, as hymns and theological literature so gladly assume. It can just as well be the Nietzschean dance of the self-glorification of the strong. How Can We Speak about Natural Evil? Theories of complexity are relevant to the question of natural evil. Why do earthquakes happen if creation is meant to be good? As Bak remarks, selforganized criticality (the state of maximum slope in a sand pile) can be conceived of as the theoretical underpinning for catastrophism, that is, the opposite philosophy to gradualism.58 It implies that catastrophes happen and need to happen, and that they happen as a consequence of very small events. This thought has its theological counterpart in apocalypticism, which tends not to be a favourite subject for theologians. Often, its well-behaved cousin eschatology has been tremendously more popular than this unruly enfant terrible. Yet, as Catherine Keller rightly points out from an ecotheological perspective, an antiapocalyptic stance that joins with theological positions that diminish the role of the chaotic in creation (the tehomophobic strand), as tempting as it may

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seem, colludes with a conservative triumphalism so often detrimental to the environment.59 The time may have come to reconsider the theological evaluation of apocalypticism, particularly in areas where natural evil and moral evil reinforce one another, which we can clearly observe with regard to the issues of the climate and the environment. When climate researchers speak of “tipping points,” threshold events that lead to major and irreversible changes, it is certainly about a scenario a scenario of apocalyptic scale. Along these lines, the concept of emergence adds sophistication to one of the traditional ways of engagement with the unsolved problem of theodicy. It supports a pedagogical approach by suggesting that nature works in a way that requires a price to be paid for complexification, because complexification needs both order and disorder. Nature displays criticality and catastrophes as well as creativity and stability. This does not diminish the role of pain and evil and does not explain the magnitude of evil. Pain that is understood in a framework of emergence is not less than pain, but not being able to feel and articulate pain would be an even greater evil. This is why lament is and must continue to be a vital element of religious practice. We can speak of a cosmic passion history and realize that, in a complex world, evil has several roles.60 What Can Emergence Contribute to an Understanding of Sacramentality? The concept of emergence has a theological equivalent in the concept of sacramentality. Both emergence and sacramentality can be understood as having the capacity of expressing the continuity between the physical, mental and spiritual in terms of a differentiated relationality. Both express the fact that the less complex can birth the more complex. You get something else from nothing but. In the Eucharist, bread and wine emerge into shared communion with Christ; in baptism, out of water and word emerges a new life in Christ. Properly understood, sacramentality is the radicalization of the idea that a phenomenon is more than it gives itself out to be. It moves beyond a general acknowledgement of the significance of potentiality. Rather than focusing on the actual only, emergence encourages a view of reality as a blend of the actual and the potential. Sacramentality radicalizes this by declaring the potential to be part of the actual: For the human eye and tongue, bread is bread, and wine is wine; a sacramental view claims that the reality of communion in Christ surpasses the apparent actuality by turning that which according to human perspective is (merely) potentiality into reality. Bringing emergence thought together with the theology of the sacraments seems fruitful both for Western theology as well as the theology of the Eastern Churches and their understanding of sacramentality and divine energies.

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What Bearing Does a Heuristic Understanding of Emergence Have on Theological Method in General? Emergence presupposes the existence of clusters of networks. A word of caution may be in order, though. The human mind with its seemingly insatiable desire to recognize patterns has a tendency to imagine networks and clusters of networks as a state of order. However, radical interconnectedness implies much more disorder than a sanitized concept like clusters of networks suggests. Mathematically one can clearly distinguish the ordered structure from the disordered; and both are there!61 Bringing emergence and theology together may therefore in praxis be much riskier than theory would indicate. One of the less dramatic implications of viewing the practice of theology in light of emergence is the requirement that theology as a discipline needs to increase its attention to communal, ecumenical and interfaith approaches. Developments in the religious landscape cannot be understood adequately by focusing on the religious experience of single individuals or the content of one specific religious tradition or geographic region alone. One has to take into account relations with the rest of nature, as well as a full societal scope. Global wisdom cannot be attained. Yet, neither can local wisdom be attained without seeking the wisdom of global perspectives. This may seem a conundrum, but it has become all the more obvious that it is part of our human condition. We should not dodge it, but embrace it. Conclusion I started out by looking at the history of the reception of the theory of evolution, stating that responses have varied considerably and that the history of the engagement of theology with evolution is not a history of conflict. I have then tried to describe some recent developments in Christian creation theology in relation to the scientific epic of creation, giving some special attention to the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo. From there, I moved on to explore the thesis that creation is about complexity and emergence rather than design and order. Many current intellectual pursuits across a variety of disciplines tend to be driven by the will to understand nature, science and religion in terms of dynamic systems, interrelatedness, discontinuities and processes of complexification. In this situation, emergence serves as a fruitful concept. It seems applicable over the entire spectrum of knowledge. Emergence is not easily defined, however, and its concomitant interpretations can be as flawed as any. From the five theological sketches I have offered I conclude that in philosophy and theology, emergence contributes to the critique of ontological metaphysical statements. Narrative understanding is always necessary: Metaphysics cannot do without myth. Emergence thought invites us to see opposing

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tendencies in a perspective that is different from what usually goes by the name of Cartesian dualism. Reconsidering the role of the potential and the real allows for an understanding of binaries such as immanent-transcendent, order-disorder and nature-culture along the lines of what I would call a differentiated relationality. Differentiation is still possible and called for. However, relationality takes the driver’s seat. This, I think, invites us to envision nature, God, evil, sacramentality and theological method as such along the lines of complexity and emergence. Fides quaerens intellectum – faith seeking understanding is a task as arduous and rewarding as ever. In the wake of a global pandemic, as well as in addressing the current climate crisis, the need of theological models and practices that take into account complexity and emergence is obvious. References A Bishops’ Letter About the Climate. Church of Sweden, 2020. Available at https:// www.svenskakyrkan.se/a-bishops-letter-about-the-climate. Bak, Per, How Nature Works: The Science of Self-organized Critically (New York: Copernicus 1995). Brooke, John and Geoffrey Cantor. 1998. Reconstructing Nature. Edinburgh: T & T Clark. Brooke, John H. “Detracting from Divine Power? Religious Belief and the Appraisal of New Theologies.” In: Celia Deane-Drummond and Bronislaw Szerszynski with Robin Grove-White (eds.). 2003. Re-Ordering Nature. London, New York: T & T Clark. Caputo, John D. The Weakness of God: A Theology of the Event (Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2006). Caspar, Max. 1959. Kepler. Transl. by C. Doris Hellman. London: Abelard-Schuman. Gillespie, Charles C. 1951. Genesis and Geology: A Study in the Relation of Scientific Thought, Natural Theology, and Social Opinion in Great Britain, 1790-1850. New York, Evanston and London: Harper and Row. Goodenough, Ursula and Terrence W. Deacon. “The Sacred Emergence of Nature”. In: Philip Clayton. The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Science. 2008. Gregersen, Niels Henrik. 2008. “Emergence: What is at Stake for Religious Reflection?” In Philip Clayton and Paul Davies (ed.), The Re-Emergence of Emergence: The Emergentist Hypothesis from Science to Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Gregersen, Niels Henrik. Theology and the Sciences of Self-Organised Complexity. In: C. W. du Toit (ed.) 2000. Evolution and Creativity. Pretoria: Research Institute for Theology and Religion, University of South Africa.

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Gregory, Frederick, Nature Lost? Natural Science and the German Theological Traditions of the Nineteenth Century, Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 1992. Haught, John F. Deeper Than Darwin: The Prospect for Religion in the Age of Evolution. Boulder CO: Westview Press, 2003. Haught, John F. God after Darwin: A Theology of Evolution. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 2000. Hefner, Philip. The Human Factor: Evolution, Culture, and Religion. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993. Jackelén, Antje. God Is Greater: Theology for the World. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. 2020. Jackelén, Antje. Time and Eternity: The Question of Time in Church, Science, and Theology. Translation by Barbara Harshaw. Templeton Foundation Press, 2005. Johnson, Elizabeth A. 1994. She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse. New York: Crossroad. Johnson, Elizabeth. She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse. New York: Crossroad, 1994. Jüngel, Eberhard. 1971. “Die Welt als Moglichkeit und Wirklichkeit. Zum ontologischen Ansatz der Rechtfertigungslehre”. In Jüngel, Unterwegs zur Sache. Theologische Bemerkungen. Munchen: Chr. Kaiser, 206-233. Kauffman, Stuart. 1995. At Home in the Universe: The Search for Laws of SelfOrganization and Complexity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kauffman, Stuart. Investigations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000). Keller, Catherine. “No More Sea: The Lost Chaos of the Eschaton.” In: Dieter T. Hessel and Rosemary Radford Ruether (eds.). 2000. Christianity and Ecology: Seeking the Well-Being of Earth and Humans. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. Keller, Catherine. 2005. God and Power. Counter-Apocalyptic Journeys. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. Livingstone, David. Putting Science in its Place. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. Meindl, Svenja. “Otto Zockler – Ein Theologe im Spannungsfeld zwischen Theologie und Naturwissenschaft im 19. Jahrhundert.” In: Glaube und Denken. Jahrbuch der Karl-Heim-Gesellschaft, 19. Jahrgang 2006, Frankfurt a M et al.: Peter Lang. Page, Ruth. God and the Web of Creation. London: SCM Press, 1996. Peacocke, Arthur and Ann Pederson. 2005. The Music of Creation. Fortress Press: Minneapolis. Peacocke, Arthur. 2004 [1979]. Creation and the World of Science, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press: Oxford. Prigogine, Ilya. “Zeit, Chaos und Naturgesetze” in Die Wiederentdeckung der Zeit, ed. A. Gimmler, M. Sandbothe and W. Ch. Zimmerli (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1997).

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Reusch, Franz Heinrich. Nature and the Bible: Lectures on the Mosaic History of Creation in Relation to Natural Science, 2 vols. Edinburgh: Clark, 1886. vol. 1. Rupke, Nicolaas A. Christianity and the Sciences. In: Sheridan Gilley and Brian Stanley, The Cambridge History of Christianity, Vol 8. World Christianities c.1815-c.1914. Cambridge University Press 2006. Russel, Bertrand. Religion and Science. London, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1975 [1935]. Ulanowicz, Robert E. Ecology, the Ascendent Perspective. 1997. New York: Columbia University Press. Woese, Carl R. “A New Biology for a New Century.” In: Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews 68:2 (2004).

Endnotes 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8 

9  10  11  12 

More about this in A Bishops’ Letter About the Climate. Church of Sweden, 2020. Available at https://www.svenskakyrkan.se/a-bishops-letter-about-the-climate. Max Caspar. 1959. Kepler. Transl. by C. Doris Hellman. London: Abelard-Schuman. 267. I owe this reference to John H. Brooke. John Brooke and Geoffrey Cantor. 1998. Reconstructing Nature. Edinburgh: T & T Clark. 165. Charles  C.  Gillespie. Genesis and Geology: A Study in the Relation of Scientific Thought, Natural Theology, and Social Opinion in Great Britain, 1790-1850. New York, Evanston and London: Harper and Row, 1959. passim. Nicolaas A. Rupke. Christianity and the Sciences. In: Sheridan Gilley and Brian Stanley, The Cambridge History of Christianity, Vol  8. World Christianities c.1815-c.1914. Cambridge University Press 2006. 164-180. (165). ibid. Two volumes. Edinburgh: Clark. Rupke, op cit. 165. Zöckler’s History of the relationships between theology and science, with special reference to the creation story, Two volumes, appeared originally Gütersloh: C.  Bertelsmann, 1877-1879. For biographical information on Zöckler, see Svenja Meindl. “Otto Zöckler – Ein Theologe im Spannungsfeld zwischen Theologie und Naturwissenschaft im 19. Jahrhundert.” In: Glaube und Denken. Jahrbuch der Karl-Heim-Gesellschaft, 19. Jahrgang 2006, Frankfurt a M et al.: Peter Lang. 77-99. See also: Frederick Gregory, Nature Lost? Natural Science and the German Theological Traditions of the Nineteenth Century, Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 1992. John  H.  Brooke. “Detracting from Divine Power? Religious Belief and the Appraisal of New Theologies.” In: Celia Deane-Drummond and Bronislaw Szerszynski with Robin Grove-White (eds.). 2003. Re-Ordering Nature. London, New York: T & T Clark. 43-64. Ibid., 54. Ibid., 45. Bertrand Russell, Religion and Science. London, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1975 [1935], 7.

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See for example research by David Livingstone, Putting Science in its Place. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. Cf Rupke, op cit, 179. This and the following according to Rupke 167ff. Rupke, 168. Franz Heinrich Reusch. Nature and the Bible: Lectures on the Mosaic History of Creation in Relation to Natural Science, 2 vols. Edinburgh: Clark, 1886. vol. 1, 356. Quoted according to Rupke, 169. Rupke, 169. Catherine Keller. “No More Sea: The Lost Chaos of the Eschaton.” In: Dieter T. Hessel and Rosemary Radford Ruether (eds.). 2000. Christianity and Ecology: Seeking the Well-Being of Earth and Humans. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. 183-98, here 183. Catherine Keller. 2005. God and Power. Counter-Apocalyptic Journeys. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. 137-145. Keller, God and Power, 146f. Keller. No More Sea. 196. John D. Caputo, The Weakness of God: A Theology of the Event (Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2006), 55-83. Johnson, Elizabeth. She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse. New York: Crossroad, 1994, e.g. 196f. Page, Ruth. God and the Web of Creation. London: SCM Press, 1996. 37. Page, 38. Haught, John F. God after Darwin: A Theology of Evolution. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 2000, and Haught, John F. Deeper Than Darwin: The Prospect for Religion in the Age of Evolution. Boulder CO: Westview Press, 2003. Haught, God after Darwin, X. Ibid., 120. See Jüngel, Eberhard. 1971. “Die Welt als Möglichkeit und Wirklichkeit. Zum ontologischen Ansatz der Rechtfertigungslehre”. In Jüngel, Unterwegs zur Sache. Theologische Bemerkungen. München: Chr. Kaiser, 206. Keller, God and Power, 150. Stuart Kauffman. 1995. At Home in the Universe: The Search for Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 303. Stuart Kauffman, Investigations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 119. Ibid., xi. Ibid., 267. Ibid., 157. Bak, Per, How Nature Works: The Science of Self-organized Critically (New York: Copernicus 1995). Ilya Prigogine, “Zeit, Chaos und Naturgesetze” in Die Wiederentdeckung der Zeit, ed. A.  Gimmler, M.  Sandbothe and W.  Ch. Zimmerli (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1997), 91. Carl R. Woese, “A New Biology for a New Century.” In: Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews 68:2 (2004): 173-186. 176. Ursula Goodenough and Terrence  W.  Deacon. “The Sacred Emergence of Nature”. In: Philip Clayton. The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Science. 2008. Chapter 50. 853-87. (here 854).

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45  46 

47  48 

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Antje Jackelén Ibid. Paul Davies, “Introduction: Toward an Emergentist Worldview,” in From Complexity to Life: On the Emergence of Life and Meaning, ed. Niels Henrik Gregersen (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2003), 8. These and the following thoughts about emergence and theology are based on Antje Jackelén.“Creativity Through Emergence: A Vision of Nature and God.” In: Envisioning Nature, Science, and Religion. Ed. James  D.  Proctor, Templeton Press  209. 180-204. For a critical discussion of the use of emergence in theology see pp. 189-194, as well as my article “Emergence Everywhere?! Reflections on Philip Clayton’s Mind and Emergence.” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 41 (September 2006): 623-32. Robert  E.  Ulanowicz speaks of a “two-tendency universe” in in Ecology, the Ascendent Perspective, 93-95. He discusses the significance of two opposing trends in ecosystem development in his “Process Ecology: A Transactional Worldview,” in International Journal of Ecodynamics 1 (2006): 103-114. Caputo, The Weakness of God, 64. J. Wentzel van Huyssteen, “Evolution and Human Uniqueness: A Theological Perspective on the Emergence of Human Complexity” in The Significance of Complexity, ed. Kees van Kooten Niekerk and Hans Buhl (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), 199 [drawing on the phase space concept as developed by Ian Stewart in his Life’s Other Secret: The New Mathematics of the Living World, (London: Penguin, 1998)]. I have borrowed this term from Kauffman’s Investigations without necessarily following his definition. Paul Tillich, “Eschatologie und Geschichte,” in Der Widerstreit von Raum und Zeit: Schriften zur Geschichtsphilosophie, Gesammelte Werke Bd. 6, edited by R.  Albrecht. Stuttgart: Evangelisches Verlagswerk (1963):77 [“jedes beliebig kleine oder beliebig grosse Geschehen nimmt Teil am Eschaton, am transzendenten Geschehenssinn”]. Cf. Philip Clayton. “Natural Law and Divine Causation: The Search for an Expanded Theory of Causation,” Zygon 39 (2004): 615-636. See also Niels Henrik Gregersen, “The Idea of Creation and the Theory of Autopoietic Processes,” Zygon 33 (1998): 333-367. Gregersen suggests a distinction between structuring and triggering causes to the understanding of complexity and emergence. While a triggering cause always has a direct relation to an effect, a structuring cause has no one-to-one relationship to a particular effect. J. Wentzel van Huyssteen, “Evolution and Human Uniqueness: A Theological Perspective on the Emergence of Human Complexity” in The Significance of Complexity, ed. Kees van Kooten Niekerk and Hans Buhl (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), 211-12. Philip Hefner, The Human Factor: Evolution, Culture, and Religion. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993. 27. As pointed out for example in Gregersen’s writings on the subject, e.g. in Gregersen, Complexity: What is at Stake for Religious Reflection?, 156. N. H. Gregersen. Theology and the Sciences of Self-Organised Complexity. In: C.  W.  du  Toit (ed.) 2000. Evolution and Creativity. Pretoria: Research Institute for Theology and Religion, University of South Africa. 57-91., 82. For music as a model of God’s creativity, see Arthur Peacocke and Ann Pederson. 2005. The Music of Creation. Fortress Press: Minneapolis. Regarding dance, see Arthur Peacocke. 2004 [1979]. Creation and the World of Science, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press: Oxford. 106ff. Antje Jackelén. Time and Eternity: The Question of Time in Church, Science, and Theology. Translation by Barbara Harshaw. Templeton Foundation Press, 2005.

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Elizabeth  A.  Johnson. 1994. She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse. New York: Crossroad. 220f. Op cit, 222. Bak, How Nature Works, 131. Keller, No More Sea, 185. I have elaborated this in Antje Jackelén. God Is Greater: Theology for the World. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. 2020. 167-217. Cf. Robert E. Ulanowicz, Ecology, the Ascendent Perspective, 77-80.

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The Romantics, the English Lake District, and the Sacredness of High Land: Mountains as Hierophanic Places in the Origins of Environmentalism and Nature Conservation Michael S. Northcott I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. Psalm 121, 1-2 Could you ever discover anything sublime, in our sense of the term in the classic Greek literature. I never could. Sublimity is Hebrew by birth. (Coleridge 1835, 406) How divine, The liberty, for frail, for mortal, man To roam at large among unpeopled glens And mountainous retirements … regions consecrate. To oldest time! Wordsworth (1841, 133) The mountain is nearest the sky and this invests it with a double sacredness: on the one hand it participates in the spatial symbolism of transcendence, and on the other hand it is the domain par excellence, of the atmospheric hierophanies and as such the abode of all gods. Bede Griffiths (1996, 10)

Sigurd Bergmann has devoted his life’s work, and passion, as a scholar and teacher, to the relationship between aesthetics, religion and the conservation of the natural environment. In an extraordinarily inter-disciplinary oeuvre his studies have included pneumatology and the doctrine of creation in Gregory of Nazianzus1; the role of religion – including sacred architecture – in the aesthetic shaping of human dwellings and habitat2; the role of religion in mediating and responding to anthropogenic climate change3; and the religious implications of the announcement by geologists and others that industrial

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humans have inaugurated a new geological epoch in which they themselves have become an evolutionary force4. At the heart of much of Bergmann’s work is the aesthetic turn of philosophy, its connection with religious aesthetics, and the way in which aesthetics have informed and shaped religious engagements with the built and natural environments, and especially religiously motivated efforts to conserve the natural environment in response to the ecological crisis, and especially climate change. In this chapter I argue that this concern with aesthetics, religion and nature conservation is also the cultural and religious launchpad of the modern environmental movement which may reasonably be said to have begun in the English Lake District in the nineteenth century. This claim however runs counter to much of the scholarly literature on religion and the ecological crisis in which Christianity is often said to be the key cultural root of the attitude of domination towards the nonhuman that has characterised the rise of industrial and science-informed civilisation and the related crisis of climate change and biodiversity decline. This argument goes back to a well-known and much commented upon essay by Lynn White Jr. but it is also reflected in many subsequent surveys of the field of religion and ecology5. I argue in what follows, that, considered with sufficient historical acuity and scientific depth, Christianity, and more especially the influence of poetic parallelism in the Hebrew psalms on both English and German romantics, played a central role in the origins of romantic poetry, and of the romantic sensibility for certain landscapes, and especially mountainous areas; that this romantic sensibility in its origins was closely linked to the nature-religion imaginary of the Hebrew Psalter; and that it played a significant role in the origins of modern environmental awareness, and in particular in the first efforts to conserve the non-human environment from industrial pillage by setting aside certain landscapes as protected areas or parks. If my case is proven by the evidence I present below, then White’s claim that Latin or Western Christianity is the key cultural and historical root of the ecological crisis needs significant revision. Indeed, as I argue elsewhere, this claim, and its frequent repetition by other scholars, neglects the significant role of Reformed Christianity in generating a post-Reformation spirituality of nature.6 For Jean Calvin in particular nature was the ‘theatre of God’s glory’, and hence wild places were viewed by Calvin as places where humans are more able to contemplate the glory of God’s original creation than in humanity’s actively managed and built environments since the latter are more greatly marked by humanity’s fallibility and fallenness.7 The Calvinist origin for the modern sensibility for wild places also explains why so many Presbyterians were and remain leaders in the environmental movement, especially in North America, as documented by Mark Stoll8, Belden Lane9 (2011) and Evan Berry10.

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The Sublime and the Defense of ‘Wild’ Landscapes The early origins of environmentalism were characterised by a number of interconnected projects to open up access to, and to protect, certain areas of the nonhuman environment in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Included in these connected projects was the Open Space Movement, a movement which was primarily focused upon opening up access to parklands and forests near cities and which influenced the development of large urban parks, such as Manhattan’s Central Park, in the planning of North American cities.11 Most scholars characterize the Open Space Movement as secular in origin, though against this Elizabeth Baigent has recently documented the religious motivations of leading advocates of this movement, including Octavia Hill and H. Rawnsley.12 The earliest efforts to open up access, and to resist industrial encroachments on mountainous areas focused on the area of Northwest England which became known as the Lake District, and the Scottish Highlands. The Scotsman, and North American wilderness campaigner, John Muir was influenced by this new approach in England and Scotland and became known as the ‘father’ of the United States National Parks system because of his early advocacy of protected areas in the Californian sierra, and in particular the extension of Yosemite park to include the large area that it does today.13 The cultural and philosophical origins of the eighteenth and nineteenth cultural appreciation of lake and mountain landscapes are generally characterised as follows without reference to religion. This new approach to nature is said in particular to be rooted in the discovery of the ‘sublime’ in the writings of Immanuel Kant, Edmund Burke and other philosophers14. The new conception of the sublime was associated with a new aesthetic and poetic appreciation of mountainous, rocky and vast landscapes as awesome, and even fearsome, places, and as sources of moral authority and spiritual revelation.15 The emergence and growing influence of the concept of the sublime was particularly associated with, and also promoted, the recreational practice of walking, and at times scrambling or climbing, between, and to the summits of, mountains and high places with a focus particularly on waterfalls, rocky crags, and summit and other landscape vistas.16 This new appreciation of mountains led to a range of efforts to conserve access to high land and open space, including efforts to legislate for a right of mountain access, to keep open footpaths, and to restrain landowners from excluding ordinary people from open space or high land. These efforts at open access were accompanied by projects to resist industrial and urban encroachments on mountainous, hilly and wild

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places – the English Lake District – including campaigns against railways into the area, and against plans to raise the level of lakes with dams and pipes to turn them into reservoirs for urban water supplies for Northern industrial cities including Manchester and Liverpool.17 Analogously United States environmentalism is also said to have its historical origins in the campaign headed by John Muir against the Hetch-Hetchy dam in the Yosemite valley.18 The same is true in a much later period of Australian and New Zealand environmentalism which, a century later, began around campaigns to resist the damming and flooding of valleys on the Gordon River in Tasmania and the South Island of New Zealand.19 The origins of the new appreciation of mountains, waterfalls and hilly landscapes, which is the root of the other features of early environmentalism, are clearly and unarguably connected with the Romantic movement of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. However the religious influences and origins of the Romantic movement, and by extension the role of religion in the origins of environmentalism, have been under-investigated, and even down-played, by literary critics and environmental historians. Indeed it is often claimed, after Lynn White Jr. (1967), that there is an intrinsic contest between Hebrew and Christian cultural understandings of nature as divinely created and the modern ecological or environmental sensibility, and that Christianity, far from being a source for ecological sensibility, is instead responsible in large part for the modern ecological crisis.20 In an influential account, Marjorie Nicolson calls the new eighteenth century sensibility of mountains as places of beauty and splendour the ‘aesthetic of the infinite’.21 She argues that it represented the ‘transfer of vastness from God to interstellar space, then to terrestrial mountains’, and that this transfer may first be found in early modern literature, and especially in descriptions of the sky, the stars, and high mountain vistas in John Milton’s sixteenth century writings on paradise. Milton had walked in the Alps, and in both Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained he wrote lyrically about the natural vastness of the cosmos, of high mountain vistas and landscapes.22 The influence is traceable from these passages in Milton to early pioneers of the new aesthetics of nature, mountains and landscape, and from them to modern conservation efforts. Coleridge, who was a close friend of Wordsworth and who, with Ruskin, Carlisle and others belonged to a number of associations established to defend the Lake District from development, refers to Milton a number of times. Analogously, Paradise Lost was one of only four books that John Muir regularly took with him on his walks in the Californian Sierra.

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Robert Lowth and the Discovery of Hebrew Poetic Parallelism The new romantic appreciation for mountains as places of moral and spiritual power, as well as testing grounds of physical endurance, may be traced not only to Milton but also to the ground-breaking lectures on Hebrew poetry of Robert Lowth, poetry professor at Oxford University in the eighteenth century. Lowth made startling innovations in the study and interpretation of Hebrew poetry and his lectures significantly influenced the Romantic poets and writers who first advanced the cause of nature conservation in England, including Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth. Lowth’s lectures were also translated into German and were read by the German romantics, including Herder and – Hölderlin. In his lectures, and in his textual reconfiguring Green Victorians: The Simple Life in John Ruskin’s Lake District Chicago, The University of Chicago Press ritvoof Hebrew poetry in translation, Lowth revealed the symbolic power of poetic parallelism in their content and delivery which had been literally lost in translation for many centuries23. Lowth identified in the flexible and yet rhythmic ebb and flow of Hebrew parallelism a linguistic style more free flowing, and more direct and engaged with the emotions of the writer, and hence the reader, than that of classical poetry, and in so doing argued for the greater sublimity – a word he uses hundreds of times in his lectures – of Hebrew compared to more formalistic classical styles of poetry: and his advocacy of the Hebrew style as sublime encouraged the emergence of a new free flowing style of English poetry among his students. Lowth also sought to show in his exegesis and literary critical remarks on Hebrew texts that the openness of Hebrew poetry to the passionate expression of feeling, and especially towards natural beauty and divine power, was driven by a sense of the immanence of the divine Creator in the grandeur of the natural world, and the resonance between the soul of the poet and the glorious marks of the maker in Creation. The association that Lowth identified in Hebrew poetry between the Hebrew awareness of the divine Spirit in nature and the emotions and spirit of the poet deeply influenced the romantic poets in their new identification of moral and spiritual values in nature – and more especially in rocky crags, mountains, waterfalls, upland forests, and mountain vistas.24 The animistic strain in Hebrew poetry was recovered by Lowth in such a way that it inspired the romantics of the eighteenth century themselves to recover a sense of divine presence in the temple of creation – especially on the high mountain, in the ‘vernal wood’, and in the living creatures that inhabit them. Lowth’s influence on the romantic nature imaginary can be seen in the way that Coleridge adopts the style of Hebrew parallelism Lowth identified in his Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner. The poem reveals a powerful sense that the

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relationships humans have with nonhumans are imbued with great moral and spiritual power: the killing of the Albatross leads the Mariner to find ‘a burning fire shut up in his bones’ and to confess to a wedding guest that ‘he prayeth best who liveth best, All things both great and small, For the dear God, who liveth us, He made and loveth all’. Like Lowth, Coleridge argued against stylised literary forms which intervene between the mind of the poet and the living forms of creatures: Nature has her proper interest, and he will know what it is, who believes & feels, that every Thing has a Life of it’s own, and that we are all ONE LIFE. A Poet’s Heart and Intellect should be combined, intimately combined & unified, with the great appearances in Nature -- & not merely held in solution & loose mixture with them, in the shape of formal Similies.25

Coleridge later argued that the poetic imagination was ‘the living Power and prime agent of all human Perception, as a repetition in the finite mind of the eternal act of creation in the infinite I AM’.26 And for Coleridge, as for Lowth, the supreme example of such imagination in the history of poetry was that of the Hebrews, in which the imagination strongly identified with the natural landscape, and especially features such as mountains and large vistas of sky, which revealed the transcendent power of their Creator in the proximity of earth and sky, and the fearsome awe of rocky high places. The Romantic Origins of Mountain Walking In a letter to Sarah Hutchinson27, and in his journals, Coleridge recorded a famous seven day walk in the Lake District which included a dangerous descent of a particularly vertiginous rock face of the mountain Scafell, which some argue is the first recreational rock climb in Britain, and which he recorded afterwards in letters and a notebook, though there had been earlier recreational mountain climbs in the Swiss Alps.28 Coleridge had ventured onto the mountain late in the day and in the urgency of his later descent he encountered a series of ledges, the last two of which were more than double the height of a person and from which there seemed to be no safe way down. As he sat down to contemplate a way forward Coleridge recalled that ‘the sight of the Crags above me on each side, and the impetuous clouds just over them, posting so luridly & so rapidly northward, overawed me. I lay in a state of almost prophetic Trance & Delight.’29 Eventually coming out of his trance, he espied a rock chimney which he could slide down while lying down and so made his way without harm off the rock face.

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Having in one week essayed a dramatically new cultural perception of mountains, in a way that anticipated the new recreations of mountain climbing and wilderness hiking, and hence the opening up of the Alps, the Himalayas, and the Rockies – and eventually mountain areas across the planet – to exploration and climbing by millions who were to follow in Coleridge’s steps, Coleridge returned home with his clothes and boots in tatters and to the disapproval of his wife. Coleridge subsequently joined a campaign to open Scafell to walkers and preserve public access for recreational purposes. This was the pioneering model of early voluntary action to open up wild nature for human restoration rather than exploitation, and led soon to a broader movement for public access to mountain areas, first in Britain as led by Brice, Coleridge, Hill, Hunter Rawnsley, Ruskin and Wordsworth, and then in the American West as led by John Muir. At the same time, campaigns were launched to buy up and set aside what were seen as some of the most precious lake and mountain landscapes of the Lake District in public trust in a body which the Anglican clergyman Hardwick Rawnsley – who had also attended Lowth’s lectures – first thought to invent and called the National Trust. Wordsworth and Coleridge were of course close friends and undertook many walks into mountainous and hilly areas in England and Scotland together, and eventually Wordsworth settled in the Lake District where Coleridge also lived for a few years. Like Coleridge, Wordsworth also had attended Lowth’s lectures, and took Hebrew poetry and prophecy as the inspiration for his own poetry which departed significantly from the overly formal style of predecessors such as Alexander Pope. His adoption of a less formal, and more flowing, poetic form in The Prelude highlights in particular the prophetic sense for nature, and especially wild and mountainous places, as places that resonated with a person’s emotions, and as places of divine authority, including judgment. In a well-known passage Wordsworth describes how in his youth he had gone into the hills to snare woodcocks and that when the deed was done I heard among the solitary hills Low breathings coming affect me, and steps Almost as silent as the turf they trod

On another trip he stole birds eggs on a mountainside and describes how While on the perilous ridge I hung alone With what strange utterance did the loud dry wind Blow through my ear! the sky seemed not a sky Of earth – what motion in the clouds! (Wordsworth, The Prelude)

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As in Coleridge’s Mariner nature is alive with retributive moral and divine power, and provoked this second paradigmatic account of the glimmerings of the ‘environmental conscience’30 (which is now so much a part of being a modern in a consumer society which has the Earth herself in its vice like mechanistic and polluting grip. In a later poem Wordsworth attributes a liberating divine power to mountainous regions, and finds in them a presence divine: How divine, The liberty, for frail, for mortal, man To roam at large among unpeopled glens And mountainous retirements … … regions consecrate To oldest time! and, reckless of the storm That keeps the raven quiet in her nest, Be as a presence or a motion – one Among the many there; and while the mists Flying, and rainy vapours, call out shapes And phantoms from the crags and solid earth As fast as a musician scatters sounds Out of an instrument; and while the streams (As at a first creation and in haste To exercise their untried faculties) Descending from the region of the clouds, And starting from the hollows of the earth More multitudinous every moment, rend Their way before them – what a joy to roam An equal among mightiest energies; And haply sometimes with articulate voice, Amid the deafening tumult, scarcely heard By him that utters it, exclaim aloud, “Rage on, ye elements! let moon and stars Their aspects lend, and mingle in their turn With this commotion (ruinous though it be) From day to night, from night to day, prolonged!” (Wordsworth, Works, V,125)

In a section of a longer poem, ‘Home at Grasmere’, Wordsworth writes of the beauty of the mountains and his sense that they were protectors of his home in the valley below: Embrace me then, ye Hills, and close me in; Now in the clear and open day I feel Your guardianship; I take it to my heart; ‘Tis like the solemn shelter of the night. But I would call thee beautiful, for mild,

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Grasmere expresses a conservationist stance towards this beautiful and peaceful place which Wordsworth felt was guardian to himself and to his sister who was buried there: he describes it as a place both for bodily rest and recreation, and for revitalisation of soul.31 Later, with his friend John Ruskin, and the Anglican vicar of Grasmere, Hardwick Rawnsley, Wordsworth would turn his efforts to becoming guardian in turn of the beauty, and solemn shelter, of Grasmere and the district of the Lakes more broadly. John Ruskin, though not born in the Lakes like Wordsworth, took up residence at Brentwood on Coniston Water with a view front and centre from his house across the lake of Coniston Mountain and its nearby rocky prominences. Ruskin had also attended Lowth’s lectures on Hebrew poetry in Oxford. Writing of mountains in Modern Painters Ruskin considered them among the supreme marks of divine wisdom and kindness in the forming of the earth into its present state. And he left open the question that troubled geologists at the time which was whether the Earth had previously been formed in a state where rocky obtrusions and upthrusts such as mountains were not to be found: From what first created forms were the mountains brought into their present condition? … The present conformation of the earth appears dictated, as has been shown in the preceding chapters, by supreme wisdom and kindness. And yet its former state must have been different from what it is now; as its present one from that which it must assume hereafter. Is this, therefore, the earth’s prime into which we are born: or is it, with all its beauty, only the wreck of Paradise?32

Ruskin also recorded changes in the weather and atmospheric conditions in the region of Coniston. In his essay The storm cloud of the nineteenth century, he spoke of strange weather effects that he attributed to ‘Manchester’s devil darkness’ including on one particular morning an unusually violent thunderstorm, and later a ‘black fog’ which obscured the hills, including the crag of ‘Eaglet’ on Coniston above the lake.33 In writing of Manchester’s devil-darkness, Ruskin was attributing atmospheric changes in the Lake District and over its mountains not to a supernatural force but to the polluting chimneys of the coal-fueled industrial factories of Manchester, just sixty miles from the Lake District, and known at the time as the workshop of the world.

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From the ‘Presence Divine’ to Environmental Campaigning Having now offered some textual evidences for the connection between Hebrew poetry, its animistic view of nature and spirit, and the romantic view of nature, and especially of mountainous and highland landscapes, as places where a ‘presence divine’ may be felt, and where Nature particularly displays her power as moral authority and spiritual source, I will now show briefly the efforts Coleridge, Wordsworth and Ruskin, and their associates made, as environmental pioneers to protect nature from industrial encroachments, and to underwrite legal rights of access to the mountains and lake shores, so that people on foot could walk and climb for recreational and spiritual purposes as they had done, and which they had recorded in their journals, poems, and books, such as Woodsworth’s Guide Through the District of the Lakes.34 Ruskin and Wordsworth, along with Thomas Carlisle and the Anglican clergyman Canon Hardwick Rawnsley, who went on to found the English National Trust with Octavia Hill and Robert Hunter, were among the founding members of the first documented environmental protest campaign in human history, namely the Thirlmere Defense Association.35 The Thirlmere Defense Association was set up to resist the legislative proposal of Manchester City Corporation to raise the level of Lake Thirlmere, by means of a dam, in order to make its water available to the factories and resents of Manchester through a seventy-mile pipeline. The campaign was ultimately unsuccessful but it led to other efforts by Ruskin, Wordsworth and their associates to resist industrial encroachments on the mountainous region of the Lake District – in particular proposed new railway routes – which were more successful, including opposing a proposed extension of the railway line from Windermere.36 Rawnsley was the Anglican vicar of Wray, Windermere, and later resident of Grasmere, who for over thirty years was among the most vocal and effective campaigners for the conservation of the Lake District, with Ruskin and Wordsworth set up the Lake District Defense Society to campaign against proposed quarries and railway lines that would have despoiled the central lakes. In what has been described as a volcanic career, that made him among the most famous of nineteenth century English vicars, Rawnsley spoke the length and breadth of England, led mass walks on hilly areas of the Lakes from which landowners were trying to exclude walkers, and mounted numerous campaigns for the opening up and protection of wild lands.37 There is however no full length biography of Rawnsley, and the role of an Anglican vicar in setting up the first voluntary nature conservation trust which has become the largest membership organisation in Britain is little known. It is not unreasonable to speculate that

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the hiddenness of Rawnsley’s pioneering role, and lack of scholarly as well as broader recognition of Rawnsley, is because it does not fit with the mainstream narrative of environmental historians that Christianity was the problem and an avowedly post- or even anti-Christian environmentalism is the answer. Rawnsley’s most lasting legacy was his idea to establish a ‘national trust’ which would buy up and hold in public trust, precious landscapes for the enjoyment of future generations, starting with certain areas of the Lake District. Rawnsley formed a small pioneering committee with Robert Hunter and Octavia Hill and the National Trust was formally inaugurated by them with the purchase of a piece of land in the Lake District in 1895. At a meeting of the Selborne Society of which John Ruskin, William Morris and Octavia Hill were all members, and which was founded ‘to perpetuate the name and interests’ of Gilbert White, the English vicar who had written the seminal The natural history and atiquities of Selborne. Hunter, who was solicitor to the society, and was enlisted by Rawnsley, along with Hill, to set up the National Trust, five years later, at a meeting of the Selborne Society, summarised the cause as being ‘to preserve wild nature against the inroads of industrialism, so fast encroaching on the world’s green places’ and along with Thomas Bryce, who led the campaign for access to mountain areas and sponsored a legal bill to this effect, he linked the conservation of nature and of ancient human antiquities.38 This same linkage was made by the Huxley Commission on Wild Life Conservation which Lloyd George’s government set up in 1947 when they argued that the Ancient Monuments Protection Act (1882) was a precedent for the conservation of natural places: ‘There is but a narrow gap between these and the [nature] reserves, which are both ancient monuments and living museums – a living embodiment of the past history of the land’.39 The prominent role of Hebrew poetry, an Anglican vicar, and romantic accounts of moral authority and spiritual experience associated with mountainous landscapes, in the origins of environmentalism indicates that its origins are closely intertwined with the Jewish and Christian heritage of European civilisation. Far from being a ‘secular’ project, or even an alternative ‘nature religion’ was many historians have claimed, I have revealed in this short paper a strong genealogy between mainstream Christianity, and biblical texts, and modern efforts to resist the encroachments of industrialism, pollution and trade on, and to conserve access to, mountainous and ‘wild’ landscapes. While it is the case that wilderness alone will not ‘save’ industrial civilisation from wrecking the planet, and is even an ambiguous way of conceiving of the intrinsic value of the nonhuman since it implies an original alienation between humans and the ‘wild’40, it is nonetheless the case that out of the new romantic sensibility for wilderness as a place of spiritual revelation and recreation of mind and body Europeans and North Americans developed the Urheberrechtlich geschütztes Material! © 2021 Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn, ein Imprint der Brill-Gruppe

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sensibilities which later led to legislative efforts to regulate industrial pollution and the destruction of nature in general, and to resist or at least reduce the reengineering of ‘nature’. My argument in this chapter for the genealogical connections between the modern movement to conserve mountains and mountainous landscapes as places for human recreation and retreat and the view of mountains and other wild places as sacred places in Hebrew religious poetry, has resonances with the phenomenological theory of comparative religion as developed by Mircea Eliade. Eliade argued that the hierophanic association of the sacred with places next to the sky – viz the ‘most high’ places which are mountains – is among the oldest of the religious instincts of humanity, long pre-dating the Axial Age: ‘he who ascends by mounting the steps of a sanctuary or the ritual ladder that leads to the sky ceases to be a man; in one way or another, he shares in the divine condition’41: The transcendental category of height, of the superterrestrial, of the infinite, is revealed to the whole man to his intelligence and hi soul, It is a total awareness on man’s part; beholding the sky, he simultaneously discovers the divine incommensurability and his own situation in the cosmos.42

It is because the mountain is perceived as the meeting point of the sky – which is the transcendent abode of the gods – with the earth that so many of the world’s mythologies have a sacred mountain as the place of revelation, or as the central point of their cosmogonic structure.43 But that such hierophanic associations also play a significant role in world religions, including Christianity, down to modernity in promoting the conservation of mountain landscapes as ‘wilderness’, is unacknowledged by almost all environmental historians. But as I have shown in this paper, the eighteenth century romantic sensibility for mountains as sacred places, analogous to ancient human monuments and temples, and as needing guarding from the profane activities of factories and trade, played a definitive role in originating the modern idea of nature conservation of highland, and of other cultural and ecological landscapes. The symbolic representations of mountains as sacred in the writings, activities and campaigns of Coleridge, Ruskin, Rawnsley and Wordsworth and their associates is I propose indicative of the generative role of Hebrew and Christian texts and sensibilities in the modern environmental movement, and in the modern ‘consecration’ of mountains and highlands as the new ‘sacred’ spaces set aside as National Parks, for biodiversity conservation and for human spiritual and physical recreation. This account represents a significant corrective to the widely held claim, from White Jr. onwards, that Hebrew and Christian texts and thought, in their

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putative anti-animist and anthropocentric tendencies, were intrinsically anti-ecological in their cultural impacts in the West. As Wordsworth argued, Hebrew poetry was less stylised and more free-flowing and open to human passions than classical poetry and thought precisely because its critique of idolatry resisted the anthropomorphisation of nature.44 And hence it would be the seedbed for a new appreciation of nature – apart from human influence – as a source of moral and spiritual power in the modern age. As this genealogical essay has demonstrated, modern nature conservation emanates from the seventeenth and eighteenth century recovery of the poetic Hebrew idea of nature, and especially of high and mountainous lands, as hierophanic places which are alive with elemental and spiritual powers and hence are places where the veil between heaven and earth is thinner and the human soul is able to pierce into the mystery of being. Though in the texts of the romantic poets themselves the new reading of biblical poetry offered by Lowth was already submerged in the free flow of their poetic imaginary of nature and the sublime, nonetheless, as Roston argues, ‘the Davidic idea of the mountains and valleys coming to life in order to praise their creator and fulfil his commands had contributed to the new view of an animate nature’.45 References Albritton, V. and Jonsonn F. A., (2016) Green Victorians: The Simple Life in John Ruskin’s Lake District Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Ancient Monuments Protection Act (1882) legislation.gov.uk. https://www.legislation. gov.uk/ukpga/1882/73/pdfs/ukpga_18820073_en.pdf Baigent, E. (2011) ‘“God’s earth will be sacred”: Religion, Theology, and the Open Space Movement in Victorian England.’ Rural History 22: 31-58. Bandler, H. (1987). ‘Gordon Below Franklin Dam, Tasmania, Australia: Environmental Factors in a Decision of National Significance’. The Environmentalist. Springer Netherlands. 7: 43-54. Bergmann, S. (1999, 2005a) Geist, der Natur befreit: Die trinitarische Kosmologie Gregors von Nazianz im Horizont einer okologischen Theologie der Befreiung (Mainz: Grünewald-1995), 11; revised English edition: Creation Set Free: The Spirit as Liberator of Nature (Sacra Doctrina: Christian Theology for a Postmodern Age, Vol. 4) Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 2005. Bergmann, S (2005b) Architecture, Aesth/Ethics and Religion (ed.) Frankfurt/M. and London: Verlag für interkulturelle Kommunikation. Bergmann, S (2009) Theology in Built Environments – Exploring Religion, Architecture, and Design, ed., New Brunswick and London: Transaction.

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Bergman, S (2010a) Religion and Dangerous Environmental Change: Transdisciplinary Perspectives on the Ethics of Climate and Sustainability, (ed. with D. Gerten, BerlinMünster-Wien-Zürich-London: LIT. Bergmann, S (2011) Religion in Global Environmental and Climate Change: Sufferings, Values, Lifestyles, ed. with D. Gerten, New York and London: Continuum. Bergmann, S (2017) Religion in the Anthropocene, ed. with C. Deane-Drummond and M. Vogt, Eugene OR: Wipf & Stock Cascade 2017. Bergmann, S (2020), Weather, Religion, and Climate Change, London: Routledge, 2020. Berry, E. (2015). Devoted to Nature: The Religious Roots of American Environmentalism. San Francisco: University of California Press. Brady, E. (2013) The Sublime in Modern Philosophy: Aesthetics, Ethics and Nature, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Burke, E. (1757, 1909) A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, New York: P F. Collier. Coleridge, S.  T. (1802) Letter to Sarah Hutchinson reproduced in David Vallins (ed.) Coleridge’s Writings: On the Sublime New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003, 49-50. Coleridge S. T. (1835), Tabletalk in W. G. T. Shedd (ed.) The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Vol VI, New York: Harper and Brothers 1884. Coleridge, S. T. (1895) Letters Vol II, Boston MA: Houghton Miffin. Coleridge S. T. (1907), Biographia Literaria, Third edition, London: Henry Frowde. Cronon, W. (1995) ‘The trouble with wilderness’, in Uncommon Ground: Toward Reinventing Nature New York: W. W. Norton. Cranz, G (1989) The Politics of Park Design: A History of Urban Parks in America. Cambridge MA: MIT Press. Eliade, M. (1987) The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion, New York, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Griffiths, B (1996) Pathways to the Supreme, New York: Harper Collins. Hall, D. W. (2016) Romantic Naturalists, Early Environmentalists: An Ecocritical Study, 1789-1912, London: Routledge. Hyde, W.  W. (1917), ‘The development of the appreciation of mountain scenery in modern times’, Geographical Review 3,s, 107-118. Jarvis, S. (1999) ‘Wordsworth and Idolatry’, Studies in Romanticism, 38, 3-27. Kant, Emmanuel (1754, 1961) Beobachtungen über das Gefühl des Schönen und Erhabenen, Eng. Trans. John T Goldthwait, Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Lane, B.C. (2011). Ravished by Beauty: The Surprising Legacy of Reformed Spirituality. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Lowth, R. (1835) Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews, trans. G. Gregory, Third edition, London: Thomas Tegg. Milton, J. (1674, 1980) Paradise Lost, G. K. Hunter (ed.) London: Allen and Unwin.

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Milton, J. (1679, 1932) Paradise Regained, E. H. Blakeney (ed.) London: E. Partridge. Muir, J. (1917) The Writings of  John Muir: Our National Parks, Boston MA: Houghton Miffin. Murphy, G. (2006) Founders of the National Trust. London: Pavillion Books. Nicolson, M. H. (1959) Mountain Gloom and Mountain Glory: The Development of the Aesthetics of the Infinite, Seattle, University of Washington Press. Northcott, M. S. (2015) Place, Ecology and the Sacred: The Moral Geography of Sustainable Community, London, Bloomsbury. Northcott, M.  S. (2016) ‘Lynn White Jr. Right and Wrong: The Anti-Ecological Character of Latin Christianity, and the Pro-Ecological Turn of Protestantism’, in Todd le Vasseur and Anna Peterson, eds., Religion and Ecological Crisis: The “Lynn White Thesis” at 50 New York, Routledge, 2016, 61-74. Northcott, M. S. (2018) ‘Reformed Protestantism and the Origins of Modern Environmentalism’ Philosophia Reformata, 83, 19-33. Ranlett, J. (1983) ‘“Checking nature’s desecration”: late-Victorian environmental organization’, Victorian Studies 26, 197-222. Richter, R.W. (2005). The Battle Over Hetch Hetchy: America’s Most Controversial Dam and the Birth of Modern Environmentalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ritvo, H. (2009) The Dawn of Green: Manchester, Thirlmere, and Modern Environmentalism. Chicago, University of Chicago Press. Roston, M. (1965) Prophet and Poet: The Bible and the Growth of Romanticism, London, Faber and Faber. Ruskin, J. (1884) The Storm-Cloud of the Nineteenth Century London, George Allen. Ruskin, J. (1887) Modern Painters Vols 1-5, London, John Wiley. Stoll, M. (1997). Protestantism, Capitalism, and Nature in America. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. Strachan, G. (2008), Prophets of Nature: Green Spirituality in Romantic Poetry and Training, Edinburgh, Floris Books. Taylor, B (2010) Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. White, L Jr. (1967) ‘The historical roots of our ecologic crisis’, Science 155, 1203-7. Wordsworth, W. (1835) A Guide through the District of the Lakes in the North of England, Kendall, Hudson and Nicolson. Wordsworth, W. (1841) The Excursion: A Poem London, Edward Moxon.

Endnotes 1 

Bergmann, S. (1999, 2005a) Geist, der Natur befreit: Die trinitarische Kosmologie Gregors von Nazianz im Horizont einer okologischen Theologie der Befreiung (Mainz: Grünewald 1995), 11; revised English edition: Creation Set Free: The Spirit as Liberator of Nature (Sacra Doctrina: Christian Theology for a Postmodern Age, Vol.  4) Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 2005. Urheberrechtlich geschütztes Material! © 2021 Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn, ein Imprint der Brill-Gruppe

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3 

4  5 

6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14 

15  16  17  18  19  20  21 

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Bergmann, S (2005b) Architecture, Aesth/Ethics and Religion (ed.) Frankfurt/M. and London: Verlag für interkulturelle Kommunikation; Bergmann, S (2009) Theology in Built Environments – Exploring Religion, Architecture, and Design, ed., New Brunswick and London: Transaction. Bergman, S (2010a) Religion and Dangerous Environmental Change: Transdisciplinary Perspectives on the Ethics of Climate and Sustainability, (ed. with D. Gerten, Berlin-MünsterWien-Zürich-London: LIT; Bergmann, S (2011) Religion in Global Environmental and Climate Change: Sufferings, Values, Lifestyles, ed. with D. Gerten, New York and London: Continuum; Bergmann, S (2020), Weather, Religion, and Climate Change, London: Routledge, 2020. Bergmann, S (2017) Religion in the Anthropocene, ed. with C.  Deane-Drummond and M. Vogt, Eugene OR: Wipf & Stock Cascade 2017. White, L Jr. (1967) ‘The historical roots of our ecologic crisis’, Science 155, 1203-7; Northcott, M. S. (2016) ‘Lynn White Jr. Right and Wrong: The Anti-Ecological Character of Latin Christianity, and the Pro-Ecological Turn of Protestantism’, in Todd le Vasseur and Anna Peterson, eds., Religion and Ecological Crisis: The “Lynn White Thesis” at 50 New York, Routledge, 2016, 61-74. Northcott,  M.  S. (2018) ‘Reformed Protestantism and the Origins of Modern Environmentalism’ Philosophia Reformata, 83, 19-33. Ibid. Stoll, M. (1997). Protestantism, Capitalism, and Nature in America. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. Lane (2011). Berry, E. (2015). Devoted to Nature: The Religious Roots of American Environmentalism. San Francisco: University of California Press. Murphy,  G. (2006) Founders of the National Trust. London: Pavillion Books; Cranz, G (1989) The Politics of Park Design: A History of Urban Parks in America. Cambridge MA: MIT Press. Baigent, E. (2011) ‘“God’s earth will be sacred”: Religion, Theology, and the Open Space Movement in Victorian England.’ Rural History 22: 31-58. Muir, J. (1917) The Writings of John Muir: Our National Parks, Boston MA: Houghton Miffin. Kant, Emmanuel (1754, 1961) Beobachtungen über das Gefühl des Schönen und Erhabenen, Eng. Trans. John T Goldthwait, Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press; Burke, E. (1757, 1909) A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, New York: P F. Collier. Brady,  E. (2013) The Sublime in Modern Philosophy: Aesthetics, Ethics and Nature, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hyde, W. W. (1917), ‘The development of the appreciation of mountain scenery in modern times’, Geographical Review 3,s, 107-118. Ritvo, H. (2009) The Dawn of Green: Manchester, Thirlmere, and Modern Environmentalism. Chicago, University of Chicago Press. Richter, R. W. (2005). The Battle Over Hetch Hetchy: America’s Most Controversial Dam and the Birth of Modern Environmentalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Bandler,  H. (1987). ‘Gordon Below Franklin Dam, Tasmania, Australia: Environmental Factors in a Decision of National Significance’. The Environmentalist. Springer Netherlands. 7: 43-54. Taylor, B (2010) Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Nicolson,  M.  H. (1959) Mountain Gloom and Mountain Glory: The Development of the Aesthetics of the Infinite, Seattle, University of Washington Press, p. 273.

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Michael S. Northcott Milton, J. (1674, 1980) Paradise Lost, G. K. Hunter (ed.) London: Allen and Unwin; Milton, J. (1679, 1932) Paradise Regained, E. H. Blakeney (ed.) London: E. Partridge. Lowth, R. (1835) Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews, trans. G. Gregory, Third edition, London: Thomas Tegg. Strachan, G. (2008), Prophets of Nature: Green Spirituality in Romantic Poetry and Training, Edinburgh, Floris Books. Coleridge, S. T. (1895) Letters Vol II, Boston MA: Houghton Miffin, p. 864. Coleridge S. T. (1907) Biographia Literaria, ch. 13. Coleridge, (1895), Letters Vol II. Hyde, (1917). Coleridge,  S.  T. (1802) Letter to Sarah Hutchinson reproduced in David Vallins (ed.) Coleridge’s Writings: On the Sublime New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003, 49-50. Strachan, G. (2008), Prophets of Nature: Green Spirituality in Romantic Poetry and Training, Edinburgh, Floris Books. Hall, D. W. (2016) Romantic Naturalists, Early Environmentalists: An Ecocritical Study, 17891912, London: Routledge, p. 131. Ruskin, J. (1887) Modern Painters Vols 1-5, London, John Wiley, 6.177. Ruskin, J. (1884) The Storm-Cloud of the Nineteenth Century London, George Allen. Wordsworth, W. (1835) A Guide through the District of the Lakes in the North of England, Kendall, Hudson and Nicolson. Ritvo, (2009). Albritton, V. and Jonsonn F. A., (2016) Green Victorians: The Simple Life in John Ruskin’s Lake District Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Murphy, (2006). Ibid. Huxley Commission qtd. in. Ranlett,  J. (1983) ‘“Checking nature’s desecration”: lateVictorian environmental organization’, Victorian Studies 26, 197-222, p. 200. Cronon, W. (1995) ‘The trouble with wilderness’, in Uncommon Ground: Toward Reinventing Nature New York: W. W. Norton; Northcott, (2015). Eliade, M. (1987) The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion, NY, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, p. 119. Ibid. Griffiths, B (1996) Pathways to the Supreme, New York: Harper Collins, p. 10. Jarvis, S. (1999) ‘Wordsworth and Idolatry’, Studies in Romanticism, 38, p. 3-27. Roston,  M. (1965) Prophet and Poet: The Bible and the Growth of Romanticism, London, Faber and Faber, p. 125.

Acknowledgement Research for this paper was undertaken with the support of Ford Foundation (Indonesia) grant entitled ‘Co-designing Sustainable, Just and Smart Urban Living’ awarded to the Indonesian Consortium of Religious Studies, Graduate School, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2020.’

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Nature and Colonial Hybridity: Lars Levi Læstadius’s Karesuando Sermons Mika Vähäkangas “In the redemptive name and blood of Jesus Christ all of your sins are forgiven” is repeated to each repentant sinner – and in the Lutheran tradition everyone is a sinner, all the time. On the wall, there is a replica of a 19th century bust portrait of a stern dark-haired priest, Lars Levi Læstadius. The polar summer day, lasting for a month, illuminates the greenery outside. I can trace these words, and the feeling of sobriety and communality, back to my earliest childhood memories, being a descendant of a family rooted in the Laestadian revival movement. The annual stays, sometimes two, from my home in the far south of Finland to the very northern periphery, instilled the feeling of deep rootedness and identity – this is where we really come from. The religious leanings of my extended family regulated strongly the everyday life up north, and in stark contrast with the secular lifestyle of the southern Finnish industrial community where I grew up. I felt growing up between two conflicting worlds. In this chapter, I will analyse nature images in Lars Levi Læstadius’s Karesuando sermons through the lens of colonial hybridity. This means that I analyse the nature-related imaginary and his way of describing the natural state of humans in comparison to the rest of the nature. This question is highly personal in the sense that it not only relates to my family’s religious background and my sense of in-betweenness but also to my later phases of life as a missiologist and an Africanist. Processes on the borders of cultures and religions have always strongly attracted me as well as the colonial power structures embedded in them. Due to the fact that Laestadianism turned predominantly Finnish as a movement, the Sami roots of both the founder and the movement have been more or less actively concealed.1 The aim of this chapter is thus to shed some light on this concealed dimension of the background of today’s largest revival movement in the Nordic region. Rev. Lars Levi Læstadius (1800-1861) was the founder of Laestadianism, a movement later splintered in a number of factions. He spent his early pastoral career (1826-1849) in the northernmost parish of the state church of Sweden, Karesuando. The congregation members consisted primarily of Sami nomadic people while agricultural Finns were in the minority. I have chosen to concentrate on the sermons from the Karesuando period due to the following reasons: First, the Karesuando parish was so poor that it could not sustain its priest

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properly but in order to make the ends meet for his family, he had to farm, hunt and find other additional income. Thus, his relationship to the nature resembled more his congregants’ eking out their living from the scarce arctic resources rather than later in the somewhat better off Pajala parish. Secondly, the fact that Karesuando parish was predominantly Sami is in line with his partly Sami background and this background may have influenced his sermons more in Karesuando than in Pajala. Pajala was predominantly Finnish speaking, and thus the language and culture of the parishioners were such that he had had to learn at an adult age. Læstadius preached mostly in Finnish Torneådals-dialect, or “Meän kieli” (literally “our language”), a form of Finnish that is partially unintelligible to speakers of other dialects or the official form of Finnish. In spite of him having learned it as an adult, his language is remarkably rich and for the most part grammatically correct. This dialect in its 20th century form was my mother’s language and I grew up hearing it daily. In some occasions, Læstadius preached in Swedish, the official language of the kingdom, but mostly elsewhere than in his parishes because in Karesuando, the parishioners mostly would not have understood it. Swedish was a language he learned from his childhood, it being his father’s mother tongue. Therefore, it is impeccable. Læstadius preached only seldom in Sami, his mother’s mother tongue that he mastered since his childhood, partly because the form of Sami (Pitime Sami) he learned as a child was unintelligible for the Karesuando Sami (North Sami) and even the form he learned as a youngster (Luleå Sami) was different.2 Finnish and Sami are related Finno-Ugric languages or families of languages, which made it easier for the Sami to understand sermons rather in Finnish than the Indo-European Swedish. Different forms of Sami can be counted even as different languages in the sense that their speakers cannot communicate with each other or do so only with great difficulty. In addition to questions of intelligibility, Finnish had established its position as the language of Christianity among the Sami whereas their mother tongue related to the traditional religious heritage.3 I have found only one originally Sami sermon from the Karesuando period but it has little related to nature and creation. Due to my lacking proficiency in Sami, I needed to resort to Finnish and Swedish translations of that sermon. The remaining 54 Finnish and Swedish sermons and sermon fragments I have used are transcriptions of the original manuscripts, many of which have been poorly preserved, not least because of the harsh arctic conditions especially in the nomadic lifestyle of the 19th century Sami. The transcripts are full in the sense that they contain all legible letters of the originals. Additionally, the transcribers have dated the manuscripts whenever there is no date mentioned in the transcript itself. In some cases, the transcripts are written on recycled

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paper, the other side of which can reveal the date, coupled with the knowledge of which Sunday or feast the sermon deals with. References to the sermons follow the coding and pagination of the transcripts but I have added the year of preaching for additional information. The sources available concentrate heavily on the latter part of Karesuando years when Læstadius was already a recognised spiritual leader in the area, and his sermons were considered worth preserving. Of the last Karesuando year, 1849, I have included only sermons related to the liturgical year until his farewell sermon, but not the two others, due to the fact that they would probably have been preached in Pajala, most of the year having been spent there. Some of the sermons are not dated at all but in all likelihood most of them would stem from the Pajala-years due to the fact that the majority of preserved sermons stem from that period. Læstadius’s sermons were copied by hand so that itinerant revivalist lay preachers could read them for audiences that had no possibility of listening to him in person. In most cases, the sermons survived in this form. It is possible that Læstadius graphic, even vulgar and crude, expressions were somewhat sanitised already at this stage. Additionally, the sermons have often been edited, both in terms of language and contents, when publishing. Usually the editors have been Finnish Laestadians who took increasingly great liberties in editing as the time passed. Unfitting expressions and too pagan (read: Sami) content were deleted from the texts.4 Another reason for editing was to make the archaic and dialect Finnish more intelligible to the readers no longer fluent in Meän kieli. The transcripts I use here are unpublished and from Rev. Seppo Leivo’s archive. My approach to the texts is thematic close reading. In this reading, I classify sermons and their parts, down to the level of sentences, into levels of centrality depending on how close they come to my research question on creation and nature. The previous research that comes closest to the topic at hand is Eeva Hämäläinen’s MTh thesis on the animal imaginary in Læstadius’s sermons on the Gospel of Matthew.5 However, the sources are different, edited and published versions of mostly later Pajala sermons. Also the theoretical approach differs. This study provides, however, useful comparative data and analysis. Lilly-Anne Østveit Elgvin’s article “Lars Levi Læstadius og naturen” (2008) comes also close to the topic of this chapter. A great difference, again, between this chapter and her article is that the sources are completely different – here they are unedited early sermons in original languages, many of which she had no access to at all and not at least in their unedited form. Additionally, she bases her article heavily on Læstadius’s pastoral dissertation Dårhushjonet6 and secondarily on his later sermons. Her PhD dissertation on Læstadius’s

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spirituality is a central contribution to the study of his sermons in the sense that the sermons play a crucial role among the sources.7 Læstadius has mostly been researched as the founder and leader of the Laestadian revival movement or as a botanist. The major approach has been church historical or theological.8 Kosti Joensuu’s PhD dissertation differs from this for being psychological and philosophical rather than theological.9 Nilla Outakoski’s PhD dissertation on Læstadius’s view on hobgoblins (kadnihah) is, until now, perhaps the research that takes his cultural context most seriously.10 Juha Pentikäinen’s and Risto Pulkkinen’s general study of Læstadius follows this line and sheds light also to some political and social themes.11 Considering the approach, the two last studies come closest to this one. There were also a monograph and two anthologies published around Læstadius’s birth second centenary that updated Læstadius-research.12 At the moment, there is an ongoing debate on Læstadius’s anti-colonial nature or his complicity to colonial exploitation, a theme covered by Anne Heith. She describes how Læstadius’s participation in the exhumation and plunder of Sami skulls from graveyards by race biologists raises accusations of colonial complicity.13 His sermons, in turn, reveal a person fiercely critical towards colonial capitalist exploitation.14 The theoretical lens of hybridity chosen here helps me to refrain from proposing a verdict on whether he was a colonialist or liberationist. From the point of hybridity, one cannot be but both. Whether he was more a colonialist than a liberating figure cannot be judged solely on the basis of the sermons. I will begin by introducing Læstadius’ colonial situation, partly also as portrayed in Læstadius’ sermons followed by an analysis of him as a colonial hybrid. Thereafter, I will deal with nature and creation in the Karesuando sermons. 19th Century Lapland as a Colonial Context The Sami are traditionally a predominantly nomadic first nation who have been pushed northwards primarily by Finnish expansion since prehistoric times. Especially in the areas where Finns were relying on slash-and-burn agriculture, they needed constantly new areas, which caused pressure towards Sami nomadic lifestyle. The colonisation of the Sami, and their last resort, Lapland (Lapp an old term roughly meaning Sami), started gradually as the Nordic state structures grew stronger after the Reformation period of the 16th century, leading to attempts to Christianize the Sami. This mission relied strongly on coercion.15

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Sami culture and identity came first under intensive attack in Turku (Åbo in Swedish) diocese in the 18th century. This diocese covered the area of Sweden that was later to become Finland. The rest of the Swedish dioceses were more lenient towards Sami culture and identity. Finns were thus avant-garde in the Sami cultural genocide.16 The 19th century witnessed economic, cultural, political and administrational developments that would revolutionise Sami life in Karesuando. The first of them would be that Finland changed hands in 1809 from Sweden to the Russian empire that granted Finland political autonomy. At first, this did not affect the Karesuando Sami lifestyle too much. Traditionally, they would travel with their reindeer herds between the winter and summer pastures in Karesuando (in today’s Northern Sweden) and Kautokeino (in today’s Northern Norway) areas. These two areas were parts of Sweden (containing also Finland), albeit at different times since Norway separated from Denmark in 1814 and became united with Sweden in a personal union through the monarch. This means that throughout the 19th century, the Karesuando Sami annual migration patterns contained crossing of a national border. These borders were typically colonial because they in no way reflected the cultural and linguistic realities on the ground. However, these borders were not closely defined, and there was no border control. The Sami wandering between the countries were counted as citizens of each while staying in each country. However, as the governmental control of Lapland was tightening, the borders got more closely defined and controlled, leading eventually to their closure for the Sami wandering across the borders. This was a major blow to the nomadic lifestyle of the Karesuando Sami. The governmental interest and control in Lapland depended largely on the increasing economic importance of the area as a source of raw materials.17 In the north of Sweden, the cultural space of the Sami was rapidly shrinking through the Swedish national culture, and partly also agrarian immigrant Finnish culture getting stronger.18 While governmental and ecclesiastic control of the Sami lifestyle narrowed down the Sami religious and cultural freedom, the business in liquor decimated the economic base of many a family. The compound effect of these phenomena was disastrous. The liquor producers and sellers were typically culturally Swedish or Finnish shopkeepers. The outcome of all this was that the Sami nomadic lifestyle was no longer possible the same way as it was when the borders were open, the herds were sold to shopkeepers for liquor and the space for cultural expression was rapidly shrinking due to governmental and ecclesiastic control. The religious and cultural traditions with music, especially drums and traditional singing ( juoigan in North Sami), shamanism as well as traditional places of worship were almost decimated.

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The question of liquor reveals some of the complexities of the colonial situation: On one hand, the shopkeepers selling liquor represented the oppressive colonializing cultures and had as persons the state apparatus backing. This business could also be seen as a dimension of colonial economic exploitation whereby the colonised lost their economic resources to the colonisers. On the other hand, the Swedish government outlawed 1842 the liquor business as socially harmful even if the implementation of that law had its flaws.19 The Sami culture is very peaceful and egalitarian in nature – they have never had any armies nor grand social hierarchies. This made them an easy prey to the colonializing neighbours. However, at one point, the Sami did rise in arms against the colonial tyranny. In Norway, in Kautokeino, the Laestadian revival and its preceding revival had gained a strong position among the Sami, not least through the migration patterns between Karesuando and Kautokeino.20 Kautokeino was even more Sami-dominated in terms of population than Karesuando. The Norwegian state church priest related to the revival in a very sceptical manner, and it was naturally strongly opposed by the business elite making money of liquor sales labelled as sin by the revivalists. The situation escalated in 1852 gradually into Kautokeino rebellion in which the revivalist Sami killed two men of Norwegian descent. The revivalist rebel leaders were condemned to death, life imprisonment and long prison sentences – even the two latter often meaning the death of the convicted not used to living indoors.21 The Kautokeino rebellion was efficiently used in colonial propaganda against the Sami and the Laestadian revival movement as well as against Læstadius himself. This means that after 1852 in Pajala, Læstadius had to be more careful in what he preached than in Karesuando or the Pajala early years. The debate on whether the rebels were Laestadians or not continues up to today. The Life and Legacy of the Colonial Hybrid Lars Levi Læstadius In postcolonial thought, one has often analysed the cultural-social process in which both the colonised and the colonisers end up. Homi Bhabha describes one of the cultural dimensions of this process hybridity.22 It needs to be noted that for him, the concept of hybridity is positive because it facilitates the third space between the colonised and the colonisers. It is exactly in this third space that movement towards liberation is possible. Cultural hybridity takes place wherever one ends up living between the worlds. In case of colonial cultural hybridity, the worlds are those of the colonisers and the colonised. The concept of hybridity is taken from the plant world – in hybridization, two plants produce a third plant that is a mixture

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of the two but a plant with altogether new characteristics. Considering that Læstadius was not only a man of frock but also a prominent botanist, this terminology fits like hand in glove. This hybridisation is strongest where the relationships between the colonised and the colonisers are the closest. The most intimate and closest hybridisation happens therefore in mixed marriages. In Læstadius’s case, born in Arjeplog in 1800, this hybridisation had gone on in his family in generations because both of his parents had both Swedish and Sami ancestry.23 His father’s cultural background was dominated by Swedish while his mother’s was more Sami-influenced. Læstadius’s Sami identity was clearly in tension with his Swedish identity, which led to a strengthening of his Sami identity. His relationship to his father was problematic due to the father’s violence and drinking problem whereas the mother was warm and caring. This imbalance in relationship to parents was reflected in many ways: When preaching about God’s love, Læstadius tended to call God gender-neutrally as the “heavenly Parent”.24 This Parent was not particularly gender-neutral in the sense that she appeared as rather specifically feminine having given birth to the believers25 and breast-feeding them.26 When referring to God’s wrath, he would turn to male language and describe God as Father. In his final vision on his deathbed, Læstadius saw God approaching as a bare-breasted mother.27 This genderdichotomy seems to have reflected on his cultural identity. He felt being halfSami and Sápmi (Sami-land) matriot, feeling it to be his motherland, not his fatherland (which he may have considered Sweden).28 Additionally, male gods were balanced by female gods like Madder Akka, a goddess that protects women.29 Through his schooling, eventually studying theology and botany at Uppsala university, Læstadius was introduced to the values and lifestyle of the Swedish elite.30 At least, if relying on his interpretation of his early career, he absorbed this lifestyle. He ended up becoming the vicar (kyrkoherde) in the Karesuando parish in 1826. He married in 1827 with Brita Catarina Alstadius, and they got fifteen children of whom twelve survived until adulthood. Læstadius’s botanical interest could contribute to making the ends meet by his service as a guide to French botanical expeditions and his collection and sales of botanical specimens to foreign researchers. Læstadius gained membership, among others, in the French légion d’honneur for his services to botany. As mentioned above, he was also complicit in the physical anthropologists’ plundering of Sami graves. Collection of plants for other scientists and participation in grave plundering gave him much needed extra income. He was also an ethnologist and linguist, collecting Sami mythology and creating a written form for the type of Sami he knew from his youth.31

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He was nominated an inspector for the Swedish Lapland parishes in the end of 1843 during a time when he was undergoing a deep existential crisis. Right after the nomination, in January 1844, he was inspecting Åsele parish and met with a young Sami woman called Maria in Laestadian oral tradition. Her name was probably Milla Andersson-Clemensdotter and she belonged to a revival movement called “the readers” – people who read the Bible and devotional literature. Through a dialogue with this young lady, the university educated vicar came to see Christian faith in a completely new light.32 Now his preaching took a new character – dramatic, graphic and folksy. In a bit less than two years, one can speak of a revival movement around the vicar. Laestadian movement came to be defined by its fanatical tea-totalism, strong stand against sins coupled with emphasis on salvation by grace attained through contrition and absolution. The revival and the dramatic style and content of the sermons led to tensions and conflicts, not least with the persons who benefited from the sales of liquor – those who also benefited from the colonial economic structures. Læstadius ended up being in between the worlds in many ways. As a priest and especially as the inspector of parishes he served the state church which was a part of the colonial machinery. At the same time he was a revivalist leader whose actions caused stir among the colonised and led to the need of inspection. Laestadian revival built on an earlier tradition of Sami Christian revival like the extatic “shouter” revival (čuorvut) and the “readers”.33 The early Laestadian revival included also extatic elements that were in line with Sami shamanistic traditions.34 Yet, in his sermons he is highly critical about Sami traditional religion. It seems that Læstadius built at least partly consciously on the earlier Sami Christian revivalist traditions – the magazine that he wrote was called “Ens ropandes röst i öknen” (“A Shouter’s Sound in the Wilderness”) that obviously had a Biblical John the Baptist-connotation through the concept of wilderness but also a reference to the almost disappeared “shouters”.35 Læstadius had also to control that the parishes followed the Conventicle Act of 1726 that banned revival meetings without pastoral leadership. Instead of controlling the following of this clericalist law, which anyways was never effectively controlled in the Sami areas,36 he empowered itinerant lay preachers by having them read his sermons – and commenting them – while presiding religious gatherings. Worse still, some of these preachers were women.37 The church had obviously chosen a rabble rouser to preserve order. This trouble-making priest was subversive also in terms of cultural identity. Being university educated and speaking impeccable Swedish, he definitely was a part of the cultural elite. His task was to civilise and uplift the people of the colonised lower cultures, especially the Sami who were estimated to be on the lowest rung of the ladders of civilisation, just below the Finns. However, in his Urheberrechtlich geschütztes Material! © 2021 Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn, ein Imprint der Brill-Gruppe

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sermons, he admired the simple and honest way of life.38 He actually states quite provocatively in two of his writings directed for the learned elite that the Sami are better people than the urban Swedes.39 The Swedish elite, however, appears as hedonistic, hypocritical and exploitative towards the weakest of the society.40 Obviously, he did not count himself in that company but rather as a spiritual leader rising up from the ranks of the poorest segments of the society. He had spent a part of his childhood in utter poverty. Læstadius’s cultural hybridity in terms of Sami mythology and religion is most visible in his Karesuando sermons where there are several references to the hobgoblins (kadnihah), the benevolent human-like creatures living under ground, and traditional places of worship like the lakes connecting this world and the underworld (sáiva).41 His approach to Sami traditions is not without critique. His description of Sami traditional religion is very negative,42 and hobgoblins are depicted as sinful lost people instead of consoling and supportive helpers, as in Sami traditions. However, he wished that even the hobgoblins would come to faith and salvation in Jesus Christ.43 When considering the message of Læstadius before and after meeting Maria in 1844, what is striking is that his pre-revival sermons were revivalist in nature in the sense that they called the hearer to conversion. There is a clear theological, stylistic and pastoral continuity before and after 1844.44 The earliest sermons, mostly in Swedish, are very individualistic and there is hardly any reference to societal power structures whereas in the post-1844 Finnish Karesuando sermons the power structures meet fierce critique.45 Thus, to begin with, Læstadius appears as culturally and linguistically hybrid in addition to his hybridity in terms of social position. One may wonder how this hybridity is reflected in his way of relating to the nature – as theologian, botanist, farmer, hunter and mountain trekker. How does a modern educated person relate to the nature when he not only lives in but also of the nature, when his very survival depends on how he uses and relates to nature?46 In the following, I will concentrate on such nature imaginary that differs from or develops further the biblical imaginary. Thus, even though Læstadius made extensively use of the image of a wolf and sheep47 – something very concrete for his congregants whose reindeer were threatened by wolves and other predators – I will not concentrate on details of such because of little additional analytical value in terms of his thought and context. Preacher as a Dog Læstadius’s preaching style was close to the daily realities of his and his parishioners’ life. That meant, inevitably, that it was close to the nature because the Urheberrechtlich geschütztes Material! © 2021 Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn, ein Imprint der Brill-Gruppe

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population of Karesuando eked out its living of the nature – reindeer herding, small-scale agriculture, hunting and gathering. One of the animals most useful and closest to humans throughout history is the dog. In the arctic lifestyle, dogs are not only guardians and helping hands in hunting but also of help in managing herds of reindeer.48 Læstadius shows a great affection to dogs.49 Therefore, and also because of the central role dogs played in the lives of both Sami and Finnish arctic lifestyle, they occupy a very central role in his nature imaginary. There is a recurring image of a watchdog or a herding dog that by her barking warns a shopkeeper about thieves or guides the sheep. Here, dog stands for a proclaimer of the gospel.50 He explains through a metaphor on bear hunting how sinful people are more angry at a preacher scolding (in Finnish scolding and barking are the same word) them for their sins rather than the Satan. Likewise, a bear gets so irritated by a dog that he misses the approaching hunter who can shoot him. Unlike a bear, rabbits and sheep are intimidated by a dog and run and thereby these animals are clever just as the believers who let the preacher’s words terrify them about their sinfulness which eventually leads to salvation while the unrepentant sinners are stupid like a bear concentrating the irritating dog instead of the real threat, the hunter.51 The comparison between the good and bad animals happens also between different dogs. Some dogs are mute and therefore not good for shepherding or anything else and will therefore just be hanged unlike those dogs that bark but do not bite and help the Saviour in taking care of His flock. They also help in sorting out the goats from the sheep.52 Here, Læstadius obviously directs his critique against the Church of Sweden priests who do not condemn sinful way of life and thereby miss barking and sorting out the people leading sinful life from the true believers. One may also wonder whether the point in a sermon about many a soldier having a “rabbit’s heart” refers to priests not daring to preach against sin.53 Puppies of Grace and Other Saved People Therefore, it is not surprising that he makes extensive use of Jesus’s saying where he refers to the Phoenician woman as a puppy whereupon she depicts herself as a dog eating bread crumbles under the table of her master (Mark 7: 24-30). Læstadius calls the believers often “armonpenikat / nådesvalpar”, “puppies of grace” and there is a reference to Mark 7 mentioning that the puppy is the Canaanite woman (by which he must have referred to the Phoenician

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woman). He describes how the believers are like orphans suffering on the “cold floor of the world” and proceeds to describing them as puppies waiting for crumbles from the heavenly Parent. Here, we see a great resonance to the arctic lived reality where the isolation of the houses was far from perfect and cold entered the house through the floor when the heated air ascended upwards.54 The affectionate nature of the puppy-image becomes especially visible in Læstadius’s farewell sermon in Karesuando when he would move on to the newly founded Pajala parish where the priest’s living conditions would be much easier. Here, he describes the parishioners as puppies suffering a lot, but whom the heavenly Parent loves.55 Læstadius compares the puppies of grace to shameless dogs that steal bread even from the table, referring to the state church hierarchy that claimed to represent the Gospel without understanding the order of grace.56 Even elsewhere, dogs can also represent evil, such as bloodhounds.57 Therefore, it seems that for Læstadius, dogs are useful as an analogy to humans in general. His verbal caressing of the parishioners in the farewell sermon continues with other favourite animals: the birds. The birds receive praise for their conjugal love – bird couples do not quarrel with each other like humans, especially when drunken – or like dogs do, as well, for that matter.58 While dogs are close and useful to the arctic survivor eking out his living, birds are distant and mostly of no use except larger game birds. The birds are a source of aesthetic enjoyment but sometimes also a welcome companion to a trekker in the endless Lapland wildernesses. Læstadius depicts in his farewell sermon doves and nightingales as companions to the lonely traveller, probably referring to the congregants as his companions.59 What surprises in the choice of these birds is the lack of the today very popular, sociable and fearless companion to the trekker, Siberian jay (perisoreus infaustus). This bird was, moreover, a bringer of good luck in Sami traditions. In Finno-Ugric traditional religions, the soul of a hunter would transfer to a Siberian jay at death. However, in Finnish traditions, the relationship to Siberian jay was ambiguous and in West European traditions including Swedish, it was mostly a bird of bad luck, as the Latin name containing infaustus, inauspicious or unfortunate.60 This intercultural ambiguity may have caused Læstadius to abstain from choosing to use that bird in the sermon. Other birds that he refers to are tits61 and swallows which refer to the parishioners, as well, and whom he asks God to feed with mosquitoes (of which there is no short of during the brief arctic summer). The most surprising choice of a bird is raven, a bird considered as a harbinger of bad luck for the Sami but also a clever creature.62 Still, young ravens may stand here for the saved believers.63 Yet, “black birds”, possibly ravens, appear in another sermon as destroyers of harvest in a field.64

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Metaphors on Spiritual Blindness Birds do not only represent the good. Læstadius calls the northern hawk owl (surnia ulula) by its popular and rather demeaning name “pissihaukka” (urine hawk) and this nocturnal bird of prey stands for someone not willing to see the light of the Gospel.65 What is noteworthy is that owl does not stand for wisdom in the local tradition but rather for stupidity. In Meän kieli of even today, calling someone an owl is a blunder referring to one’s stupidity. Another group of animals that Læstadius uses for describing people unable or unwilling to see the light of grace is the fish. The fish escape from the light like humans unwilling to repent.66 Elsewhere, Læstadius points out that especially burbot (lota lota) hides itself in the mud of the bottom and is not easy to catch. Here he develops further the Biblical image of fishing about proclamation of the Gospel. He describes the different ways in which fish known to the parishioners react to fishing: grayling (thymallus thymallus), salmon (salmo salar), vendace (coregonus albula) or perch (perca fluviatilis).67 Thus, when turning specific about different species of fish, they represent various ways of relating to the Gospel. Even in the imaginary of spiritual blindness, Læstadius involves dogs: just like puppies are born eyes closed and therefore blind, so are humans born spiritually blind in their natural state until Jesus opens the eyes with a paste (referring to the healing miracle of John 9:14).68 This image implies that he did not consider this spiritual blindness always as conscious and wilful state but rather a sorry state resulting from the Fall. Yet, when it comes to the wolf cubs, they are blind because they live in a cave. Sinful humans who perceive themselves as holy, yet lacking repentance, are like those wolf cubs. They see themselves in the kingdom of heaven whereas they see (true) Christians in hell.69 His description of human natural condition in comparison to animals is not always completely logical: in his Sami sermon of 1843 he laments how his hearers are ignorant of their Creators just like animals but refers then to Isaiah 1:3 where the prophet laments how the ox and donkey know their owner but the Israel does not know God.70 When on one of his inspection tours and preaching in Sorlsele in 1844, during the time of his existential crisis, he preached in Swedish about how the humankind or the world is like a blind herd of pigs rushing down an escarpment chased by wolves.71 Here, the reference is clearly to Mark  5: 1-20 (and the equivalent Synoptic passages) where Jesus sends a legion of demons from a possessed man into pigs who rush off the cliff and drown into the lake of Galilee. Thus, while Læstadius explains that the pigs stand for spiritually blind

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humans, he introduces wolves to represent the demons. What has to be noted is that Sorlsele is located far south of Karesuando, and is an agricultural community which means that pigs belonged to the everyday life there. Animal Images of the Satan Wolf is a constantly recurring image of the Devil in Læstadius’s sermons. That is why he explains in many of them wolves’ way of hunting, obviously willing to warn and encourage the parishioners. Thus, he points out that the wolf leaves tethered animals unharmed while those reindeers and goats that roam wild become its prey.72 He expects the hearers to understand his point which is probably that Satan does not harm those humans who are God’s children or who are bound by God’s law and love whereas those humans who drift without principles are an easy prey to Satan. He also points out that he has heard that the wolves are so timid that they do not attack animals that fight against them, even if they would be reindeer calves. If, however, the animal attacked panics and is afraid, even if a full-grown male reindeer (that has big horns) or a big animal like a horse, the wolf will kill it.73 Læstadius refers also to the Biblical image of the wolf and sheep, and wolves in sheep’s clothing.74 Using wolf-imaginary for describing the Devil or evil forces is well in line with Sami mythology according to which the Devil had created the body of the wolf whereas its spirit comes from God. Additionally, wolves have magical powers and humans can, in some instances, turn into wolves.75 Another Biblical image of the Devil is the snake, or in some sermons, viper (vipera berus) which is the only venomous snake in the area, and even that at the very northern limits of its range.76 However, the role of the snake in the tradition collected by Læstadius is ambiguous in the sense that a snake living in one’s yard could be seen as a protecting figure.77 Læstadius makes use of also animals not mentioned in the Bible to refer to the Devil, namely cat and hawk. In one sermon, he describes how the Satan plays with the world, or people in the world, like a cat plays with a mouse.78 Læstadius looks definitely more like a friend of dogs rather than cats. Cats’ play with mice that they have caught appears probably as cruel to him, and additionally, even the fact that since the Medieval Ages, cats became associated with the Devil, witchcraft, heresy and evil in general.79 One of the images of Satan in Læstadius is also hawk as the obvious threat to the lives of the small birds, which, as seen above, often stand for the saved believers.80

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Natural State of the Humans in Animal Metaphors Natural state of humans is thoroughly sinful in Læstadius’s interpretation. It deals not only with the spiritual blindness that prevents humans from seeing their sinful state but also with actual evil deeds like adultery, theft, exploitation and drunkenness. However, due to his spiritual blindness and need to present himself as a good person, a natural human being works hard to keep up the appearances. Therefore, Læstadius describes such persons as “chaste whores, honest thieves, merciful liquor merchants and sober drunkards.”81 In comparison to the rest of the nature, Læstadius sees in the humans in their natural state both parallels and differences. Most often, he points out that humans are worse than animals, worse than birds or even wolves or lions.82 The lions were familiar to the parishioners only through the Bible, and even there the original Mikael Agricola’s 16th century Finnish translation was highly misleading – “jalopeura” (“a noble deer”)! Because the Bible depicts lions as horrendous predators, we can assume that they stood there for the very worst that the animal kingdom has to offer. Thus, sinful humans would be the worst that the material world has to offer. Furthermore, human intellect, in its natural state, is fallen and therefore cannot contribute to salvation.83 In his natural state, a human is an enemy of both God and fellow humans, like the “urine hawk”.84 The Sami hunted the northern hawk owl as an enemy of the Siberian jay.85 The use of the hawk owl may refer to this tradition. Yet, even here, dogs enter the picture: like dogs in heat, sinful humans involve in copulation, which does not lead to steady partnerships but rather quarrels. A contributing factor to this behaviour in line with canine sex-life is naturally liquor.86 In one of his Swedish sermons, Læstadius makes use of a popular animal image of a sexually loose man, “horbock” (a “whore he-goat”) referring to a man attracted by whores.87 A human in the natural state is not only spiritually blind but also involved in sinful actions. Læstadius goes into details in his goat-imaginary in Karesuando even if the goats did not belong to the lifestyle there. He points out that a she-goat, especially in heat, smells bad and her meat at that time would not be palatable for humans but rather for wolves and lions. He also maintains that the Bible says that the goats eat mice as foxes or hawk owls and worms like crows (sic). The result of this diet is that their meat is dark like crow’s meat. They do not produce wool like sheep and their milk is not good but rather “breast milk of intellect”. For all these reasons, the goats are separated from the sheep.88 In his rather fanciful comparison between the meek and nice sheep and the terrible goats, it should have become clear to the listener that the fierce preacher is not actually making any comparisons between animals but between the

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revivalists and their opponents. It is difficult to figure out from where he gets his “Biblical” information about the horrible diet of goats. However, the fact that he makes use of his often recurring image of breast milk clearly points out that his argumentation is in the spiritual rather than zoological realm. One would never refer to an animal’s milk as breast milk – that wording belongs to the humans who have breasts while animals have udders. Additionally, the fact that he points out that the goat’s milk is milk of intellect signals to the hearer that the point is about the intellectually oriented people who attempt to interpret Christian faith rationally. This was something completely unacceptable for him.89 His argumentation against the rationalistic tendencies in theology takes a nature-related twist even elsewhere. “The creatures do believe that God has created them and that God preserves them but we do not know whether that kind of belief/faith contributes to the salvation of a soul.”90 Here, the seemingly uncertain wording about matters of salvation actually serves as a vessel of irony: the faith of the rationalists is compared to animals’ knowledge of their creator and their chances of salvation are compared with the salvation of the rest of the creation. Most likely, Læstadius and the revivalists would make a sharp separation between humans and the rest of the creation in relation to salvation of souls. Their interpretation of this salvation was so strongly related to conversion, repentance and godly life, all very human experiences, that the rift between the nature and the humans is deepened. The life of a believer is constant struggle against all of the temptations. The saved state is never fully secured but there is a possibility of relapsing back to the natural state. Læstadius calls this natural state “vanha Adami” (“the old Adam”). In one of the sermons he describes how the old Adam rises up “like a bear from its nest.”91 Here, the imaginary comes from bear hunting. The bear were hunted mostly when they were hibernating, and when they woke up, often already wounded by the hunter, they would be fierce. The point is, therefore, to refer to how fierce and dangerous the relapse from the state of grace is. What is noteworthy is that Finno-Ugric peoples, including the Sami, consider bear a holy animal.92 Bear was actually the holiest animal for the Sami.93 Thus, in spite of the terrifying idea of a wounded bear attacking, the image of bear was not entirely negative for the hearers, of which Læstadius was fully aware. Animals as a Property Considering that reindeer constituted the economic basis of life for his parishioners, and was also culturally an utterly central animal for the Sami,94

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Læstadius makes very few references to them. The only references to reindeer during Karesuando period depict them as property. The rest of the cultural significance is not covered. Læstadius points out in a sermon during an inspection visit to Vittangi that “if a cow, a sheep or a reindeer dies, then you will be sad but you will not be sad or devastated for having crucified Jesus through your bad life.”95 Here, he preaches at the cultural and economic borderland between nomadic Sami and agricultural people and chooses animals related to both agricultural and nomadic lifestyle. The point is to accuse the listeners for being materialist instead of spiritually oriented. Livestock would have been the major form of possessions for the Sami at that time, and cattle as well as sheep would play a greater role as possessions than in the south of Sweden where agricultural land was much more productive and had relatively hugely more economic value than in the north. Læstadius expresses a similar idea also in Karesuando: “… for perhaps many thinks that (s)he knows God better than a bull knows its owner, it is certain that they know better their reindeer and cattle than God.”96 What is notable here is the use of “karja” (“cattle”) which can refer both to reindeer and bulls or cows. Here, the bull comes into the image through Isaiah 1: 3 where the prophet points out that a bull knows its owner but Israel does not know God. Here, Læstadius likens his listeners to Israel and thereby himself as a prophet, and continues to point out to their materialist orientation. One may wonder how fair the listeners not involved in the revival felt these accusations. After all, knowledge of one’s reindeer was an essential part in surviving. Læstadius’s point was probably, at least partly, that the salvation of souls was much more important than bodily survival to which reindeer contributed. Other Nature Metaphors Considering that Læstadius was a renowned botanist, he uses surprisingly few metaphors from flora. This must have been a result of his pastoral analysis. For the Sami, animals culturally played a much more central role than the plants.97 One of his sermons makes extensive use of Jesus’s parable of the sower (Mark  4: 1-20 and synoptic equivalents). In that parable, there are several types of ground on which the seed falls. Læstadius follows the parable plot rather closely but describes the types of soil in a manner that relates to the Karesuando geological and biological circumstances.98 What is different from the original parable is that Læstadius emphasises the need of hard work in

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agriculture. In this manner, he combines the parable with Matthew  9:37 or Luke 10:2, referring to the revivalists as labourers on the fields.99 What makes the treatment of the topic particularly contextual is his remark that during the summer’s long arctic day the harvest grows well even in the middle of the night.100 This parable contains also animal dimension with birds coming to snatch the seeds. Here, Læstadius names the birds as black birds, possibly ravens, and adds also goats and cows which come to destroy the field. Læstadius has also an original metaphor related to agriculture: he describes the parishioners as “maitojyvät” (literally “milk grains” meaning sprouts). He prays in his farewell sermon that God would protect the sprouts from frost, i.e. all evil.101 These “milk grains” play a similar affectionate role as the birds and puppies above. The sprouts are delicate like small birds and puppies, and additionally they carry the promise of a future harvest. This image belongs, however, to agricultural imaginary but is intelligible to anyone with even most elementary understanding of growing any plants. Læstadius uses also images of other natural phenomena, even if very seldom. The most common such image is that of sun, namely “armon aurinko” (“sun of grace”).102 In the far north, the sun is very gracious, indeed. It is hardly ever too hot or scorching but a source of warmth, light and comfort in the harsh arctic environment. It is an ultimate blessing in the natural sphere, and thus functions well as a reference to salvation in Christ. In Sami culture, the sun is a very positive deity. Also the most important dimension of Sami livelihood, the reindeer, stems from the sun.103 The sea and the waves serve also as a powerful image in Læstadius’s preaching. They stand for doubts and hesitation, and he shifts quickly from the sea to the image of Jordan river wondering whether David will be able to row his boat over to the other side of the river.104 He uses this image twice during the same Sunday two years in a row. In his inland parish, even if some of the listeners would have been nomadic Sami moving long distances, sea was an unfamiliar habitat. The annual migration between summer and winter pastures happened entirely inland but included the crossing of rather big rivers. Therefore, the image of crossing the mighty Jordan was a much more potent image. (Yet, Læstadius and the parishioners would have been surprised about the modest size of the famous river in comparison to the many big streams in their vicinity.) The quick swift from the unfamiliar sea to Jordan and thereby the everyday experience was typical for Læstadius. Additionally, Jordan did not only stand for a specific river in Palestine or in the spiritual realm but in the minds of the revivalists, the grand Torneå-river became a local manifestation of the spiritual realm and thereby Jordan. The shift from the unfamiliar to the generally known happened step by step.

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What Does Læstadius’s Nature Imaginary Reveal of Him as a Proclaimer? Læstadius’s nature imaginary sheds light to several dimensions of his thinking: contextuality, theology and his views on nature and through those, his way of relating to the two cultural worlds between which he found himself. Læstadius was consciously and consistently contextual. Already a comparison between the animals he refers to in Karesuando and Pajala as well as elsewhere witnesses clearly to his pastoral analysis. The Swedish crown created an “odlingsgränsen” (border of agriculture) between nomadic areas where no farms were allowed and areas where agriculture was encouraged in 1867, six years after Læstadius’s death. This border was located between Karesuando and Pajala. One can safely assume that the border reflected the existing realities where Karesuando was nomadic and Pajala agricultural. Numerically the most common animal in his Pajala sermons seems to be sheep followed by chicken.105 Chicken did not belong very much to the everyday life in nomadic Karesuando whereas they would be very common in the Pajala agricultural setting. Sheep are a strong Biblical image which explains their importance also in Karesuando even if they belonged rather to Pajala. Snakes would be more present in Pajala than Karesuando so it is not surprising that this Biblical image was rather common in the former106 whereas less so in the latter. Small birds were an image that Læstadius used in both contexts, and they were likewise usual in both. What is interesting is a striking difference in the use of dog as an image. In Karesuando sermons, dogs are almost omnipresent whereas they are rather absent in later sermons. Here, the centrality and usefulness of dogs in reindeer herding must have contributed to this. The difference in animal imaginary is clear between the two parishes and is reflected also in inspection sermons. For example, the only reference to pigs is in Sorlsele, a largely agricultural community.107 Thus, it seems obvious that he chose consciously such images that reflected the hearers’ everyday life. This is well in line with his social and economic interest shown in the sermons. Læstadius’s sermons can therefore be labelled as consciously contextual. In this contextualization, he was able to shift between the two cultures, nomadic Sami and agricultural Swedish, the latter of which he had to transpose to the agricultural Finnish. In this manner, he was able to make use of his position in between cultures. Theologically, he found himself allied in a certain manner with romanticism through his fierce critique of Enlightenment rationalism. At the same time, he would definitely reject all liberal romantic interpretations of theology. In spite

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of the fact that he agreed about the centrality of human psyche in Christian faith, and especially salvation, he would in no way discount the objective reality of redemption in Christ. The criticism towards Enlightenment rationalism definitely stems from Pietism but has strong resonance with Sami culture, as well. It is hardly a coincidence that the strongest Sami revivals, the shouters and the Laestadians, were ecstatic in nature. In this manner, Læstadius’s critique towards Enlightenment stems from the third space between Sami traditions and revivalist Christian offensive against Sami religion. Læstadius’s relationship to the nature was very complicated. On one hand, he was a natural scientist and deeply involved in botanical research especially during his early years. He was classifying and thereby intellectually subduing the nature in the grand Linnaean project. As a Christian priest, a revivalist leader and a scientist, he was also involved in the disenchantment of nature.108 This is most obvious in his rationalising approach to some Sami traditions, like explaining the Saivo-lakes in his written work on Sami mythology.109 Yet, the sermons prove that he does not go the whole way. For example, the hobgoblins do not disappear from his cosmology even if he hardly had scientific evidence on their existence. And, when writing to the Swedish learned aristocracy in the Lunatic and Crapula mundi (The World’s/Humankind’s Hangover),110 he chooses to approach nature in a romantic manner via vitalistic philosophy.111 Læstadius appears here again highly context-conscious. Depending on to whom and about what he was writing or preaching, his emphasis was shifting. Again here, he was hovering between the worlds – that of a scientific sceptic towards Sami or Finnish folk belief as well as revivalist supernaturalism seeing God’s hand behind everything in the nature. He was well informed of both academic and folk traditions, and adjusted his means and his message accordingly. His emotional relationship to nature and natural objects, seen through the early sermons, hovered between rather cool and instrumental attitude, like towards the reindeer. He does not show in the sermons any of the affection Sami have towards them. He sees them rather just as property. With small birds, however, his romantic affection comes to full blossom. These creatures, which profit humans directly only little are one of the greatest sources of joy for him in the natural world, seen at least through the early sermons. Læstadius’s treatment of dogs in the Karesuando sermons is multifaceted and sheds light to his and probably also Karesuando parishioners’ relationship to nature. His attitude towards dogs appears as both close and complicated: on one hand, many dogs are lovable either as puppies or companions and on the other hand, dogs are useful helping hands to the herder or as watchdogs. Yet still, some dogs are useless and even repulsive. Thus, the dogs are a help in

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the struggle for survival in the harsh arctic environment. In this role, they are not only means of production or nameless kegs in the wheel of reindeer-based economy but also companions. Yet, this companionship and shared struggle for survival does not extend to the whole species – useless or aggressive dogs do not enter into the sphere of the dog-human pact. The data at hand does not reveal whether he would have held a similar opinion on the reindeer. The difference is, of course, that the reindeer end up being eaten by humans or predators whereas dogs do not belong to the Karesuando diet. In that sense, ultimate alimentary instrumentality enters in the picture. The relationship to the wild nature appears multifaceted and similar to the relationship with dogs: on one hand, there is the esthetical and emotional love of nature and on the other hand, the surrounding nature is a resource to exploit in order to survive. The dimension of exploitation becomes most visible in his sermons on the parable of the sower. There, different types of the local soil are analysed for their agricultural potential in an area not having any major agricultural activities. Here, Læstadius’s earlier propagation for the extension of agriculture into the Sami lands112 finds its expression in sermon format. As noted above, his approach to the little birds express most vividly his love and admiration for nature in his sermons. And, the wild nature is also threatening as seen in the images of especially wolf. Conclusion This chapter set out to analyse nature in Læstadius’s early sermons mostly to the predominantly Sami Karesuando parish. These sermons reveal a very complicated relationship to nature. The picture gets even more complicated when compared to his messages to other audiences like the Swedish educated elite. This is due to the fact he took his listeners’ and readers’ contexts very seriously. This does not make him uncritical towards cultures or humanity in general. His anthropology is very pessimistic emphasising human fallenness. He describes this fallenness often through nature metaphors. In Karesuando, he demythologised nature to the extent he considered it necessary for his Christianising mission. He dismissed Sami deities and spiritual beings as well as rituals connected to them while, at the same time, not emptying the Sami cosmos of all of its mythical creatures. For example, the hobgoblins could remain even if he depicted them in more negative light than Sami traditions did. In relation to the Enlightenment rationalistic learned elite in the South of Sweden, he promoted a rather romantic, holistic and vitalistic approach.

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While he acknowledged the human need to exploit the nature in order to survive, one can trace a dimension of companionship, which becomes most visible in his sermons including dogs and small birds. When dealing with different kinds of animals, he reveals his complicated relationship to the Sami traditions. He is well aware of them and makes occasionally use of them overtly or covertly. However, in many instances he decides to deconstruct the Sami traditions either by giving animals new symbolic positions in the Christian cosmos like that of young raven seen in positive light. In some other cases, he simply ignores some dimensions of the web of meanings around animals like bears or reindeer. There are also surprising omissions from the animals important for Sami cosmos, like that of Siberian Jay. The images of nature in Læstadius’s early sermons are yet another proof of his uncomfortable but fecund position between different worlds. He found himself between the three cultures and languages: Sami, Finnish/Meän kieli and Swedish. He was also located simultaneously in different social worlds as Swedish state church priest, scientist, revivalist leader and father struggling to gather income from the nature to make the ends meet for the big family. He also balanced between cosmologies – Sami and Finnish traditional religion, revivalist Christianity and Enlightenment scientific world-view. The outcome was a third space in-between the colonial and colonised structures, values, beliefs and practices. This third space produced by his colonial hybridity contributed to the formation of the Laestadian revival, which can also be seen as a third space. Just like Læstadius can be interpreted as colonising and liberating, simultaneously related to nature both mystically and in an exploiting manner, so can also the subsequent Laestadian movement. In the third space, there are no heroes clean as doves (to use a local northern metaphor) nor thoroughly rotten scoundrels. The third space is like life in its full complexity – it is complicated. References Bhabha, Homi 1994 The Location of Culture. Abingdon & New York: Routledge. Elgvin, Lilly-Anne Østtveit 2000 “Lars Levi Læstadius’ natursyn og naturbilder i hans forkynnelse,” [Nature and Natural Images in Lars Levi Laestadius’s Proclamation] Prismet, Pedagogisk tidskrift 51/6, 247-254. 2010 Lars Levi Læstadius’ spiritualitet. [Lars Levi Læstadius’s Spirituality] Bibliotheca theologiae practicae 88. Skellefteå: Artos.

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Franzén, Olle 1973 Naturhistorikern Lars Levi Læstadius. [Lars Levi Læstadius the Natural Historian] Tornedalica 15. Umeå. Hallencreutz, Carl 1987 “Lars Levi Læstadius’ Attitude to Saami Religion”, Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis 12, 170-184. Häkli, Esko 1966 “Johdanto,” Lars Levi Læstadius: Saarnoja, predikningar, 5-9. [“Introduction,” Lars Levi Læstadius: Sermons] Helsinki: Akateeminen kustannusliike. Hämäläinen, Eeva 2015 “Prowastin kaarneenpojat ja pissihaukat: Laestadiuksen kielikuvat eläimistä Kirkkopostillan tekstisaarnoissa Matteuksen evankeliumista”. [The Vicar’s Raven Chicks and Hawk Owls: Læstadius’s Animal Images in Church Postil Textual Sermons on the Gospel According to Matthew] MTh thesis, University of Helsinki. Heith, Anne 2018 Laestadius and Laestadianism in the Contested Field of Cultural Heritage: A Study of Contemporary Sámi and Tornedalian Texts. Northern Studies Monographs 6. Umeå: Umeå University & The Royal Skyttean Society. Joensuu, Kosti 2016 The Physical, Moral and Spiritual: A Study of Vitalist Psychology and the Philosophy of Religion of Lars Levi Laestadius. Rovaniemi: University of Lapland. Jonsell, Bengt, Inger Nordal & Håkan Rydving 2000 Lars Levi Læstadius, botaniker, lingvist, etnograf, teolog. [Lars Levi Læstadius, Botanist, Linguist, Ethnographer, Theologian] Oslo: Novus. Kinnunen, Mauri 2012 Kadonneen jäljillä – lestadiolaisia naissaarnaajia etsimässä [In Search of the Hidden – Looking out for Laestadian Female Preachers] https:// maurikin.blogspot.com/2015/01/kadonneen-jaljilla-lestadiolaisia.html Accessed 2020-01-03. Læstadius, Lars Levi 1842-1849 Sermons from the Karesuando period. Unedited transcripts in electronic format in possession of the author. 1824 Om möjlighetern och fördelen af allmänna uppodlingar i Lappmarken. [On the Possibility and Advantage of General Agriculture in Lapland] Stockholm: Zacharias Häggström. 1843 Crapula mundi. [The World’s Hangover] Hernoesandi: Jonas Svedbom.

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Saamenkieliset saarnat ja kirjoitukset: Samiska predikningar och skrifter. [The Sami Sermons and Writings] Transl. Lauri Mustakallio & Georg Gripenstad. Helsinki: Akateeminen kustannusliike. 2000 Saarnat, III osa. [Sermons, vol. 3] Lahti: Esikoislestadiolaiset ry. 2015 The Lunatic: An Insight into the Order of Grace, Commonly Known as “Servant in the Crazy House”: Systematically Presented in the Form of Observations of the Characteristics and States of the Soul, in Accordance with the Psychological Perspectives of the Biblical Authors, Pertaining to the Highest Idea of Christianity – Reconciliation. Haparanda: Biblioteca Laestadiana. Larsson, Bengt 1999 Lars Levi Laestadius: Hans liv och verksamhet och den Laestadianska väckelsen. [Lars Levi Læstadius: His Life and Ministry and the Laestadian Movement] Skellefteå: Artos. Manner, Katja 2006 Naisen ruumiin teologia Lars Levi Laestadiuksen saarnoissa. [The Theology of Female Body in Lars Levi Læstadius’s Sermons] MTh thesis. Faculty of theology, University of Helsinki Metzler, Irina 2009 “Heretical Cats: Religious Symbolism in Religious Discourse”, Medium Aevum Quotidianum 59, 16-32. Nesset, Sigmund & Øivind Nordenval 2000 Vekkelse och vitenskap: Lars Levi Læstadius 200 år. [Revival and Science: Lars Levi Læstadius 200 Years] Tromsø: Ravnetrykk. Nilsson, Kristina 1988 Den himmelska föräldern: Ett studium av kvinnans betydelse i och för Lars Levi Laestadius’ teologi och förkunnelse. [The Heavenly Parent: A Study of Woman’s Meaning in and for Lars Levi Læstadius’s Theology and Proclamation] Uppsala: Teologiska institutionen, Uppsala Universitet. Outakoski, Nilla 1991 Lars Levi Laestadiuksen saarnojen maahiskuva. [The Image of Hobgoblins in Lars Levi Læstadius’s Sermons] Oulu: Oulun historiaseura. Pentikäinen, Juha & Risto Pulkkinen 2011 Lars Levi Laestadius: Yksi mies, seitsemän elämää. [Lars Levi Læstadius: One Man, Seven Lives] Helsinki: Kirjapaja. 2018 Saamelaisten mytologia. [Sami Mythology] Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura. Siitonen, Hannu & Heikki Willamo 2005 Kuukkeli: sielunlintu. [Siberian Jay: The Soulbird] Helsinki: Otava.

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UN Secretariat 1947 First Draft of the Genocide Convention [UN Doc. E/447] http://www. preventgenocide.org/law/convention/drafts/ accessed 2020-06-04 Vähäkangas, Mika 2012 “Har det andliga en samhällelig betydelse? Laestadius tidiga predikningar i sin koloniala kontext”, [Does the Spiritual Have a Social Impact? Læstadius’s Early Sermons in Their Colonial Context] Svensk Teologisk Kvartaltidskrift 88, 145-154. Vähäkangas, Mika et al. 2012 “Nordic theologies” in Creation and Salvation Vol. 2: A Companion on Recent Theological Movements, ed. Ernst M. Conradie, 145-172. Studies in Religion and the Environment vol. 6. Zürich & Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2012. Wahlberg, Erik 1966 “Lars Levi Laestadiuksen kirjasuomi,” [Lars Levi Læstadius’s Literary Finnish] Lars Levi Laestadius: Saarnoja, predikningar, 10-15. Helsinki: Akateeminen kustannusliike. Weber, Max 1919 “Wissenschaft als Beruf” in Kleine Schriften und Vorträge, Max Weber: Gesammelte Werke [“Science as a Calling” in Small Writings and Lectures, Max Weber: Collected Works] (electronic version of the 1919 original). https://www.molnut.uni-kiel.de/pdfs/neues/2017/Max_Weber.pdf Accessed 2020-01-08. Wikmark, Gunnar 1980 Lars Levi Laestadius’ väg till nya födelsen. [Lars Levi Læstadius’s Way to Being Born Again] Stockholm: Verbum. Zorgdrager, Nellejet 1997 De rettferdiges strid – Kautokeino 1852: Samisk motstand mot norsk kolonialisme. [The Strife of the Righteous – Kautokeino 1852: Sami Resistance against Norwegian Colonialism] Nesbru: Vett & Viten, Norsk Folkemuseum.

Endnotes 1  2  3 

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Pentikäinen & Pulkkinen 2018, 478-488. Pentikäinen & Pulkkinen 2018, 465-466. There are conflicting ideas about Laestadius’s mother tongue. Cfr. Wahlberg 1966, 12 and Pentikäinen & Pulkkinen 2011, 155. Most likely, he communicated with no problem in both languages whereas his Finnish was some weaker. See also Manner 2006, 17-18, especially footnote 109. On the linguistic realities of Lapland see Pentikäinen & Pulkkinen 2018, 82, 84-88, 92. Outakoski 1991, 46.

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Hämäläinen 2015. In English translation: Laestadius 2015. Elgvin 2010. For a good summary of Laestadius-research until 2006, see Manner 2006, 9-13. Joensuu 2016. Outakoski 1991. Pentikäinen & Pulkkinen, 2011. Larsson 1999; Nesset & Nordenval 2000; Jonsell, Nordal & Rydving 2000. Heith 2018. See Vähäkangas 2012. Pentikäinen & Pulkkinen 2018, 69-89. Pentikäinen & Pulkkinen 2018, 86-87. See UN Secretariat 1947, §1, 3. Cultural genocide did not eventually become a part of the convention on genocide, but the term has been discussed since 1947. It is a fitting term for the Sami situation in the sense that while the number of Sami persons killed by the four colonising powers and their predecessors, Russia, Finland, Sweden and Norway, is little, Sami culture and languages have been almost decimated. See Zorgdrager 1997, 89-118. However, one needs to realise that the ethnic lines of demarcation between the Sami and the Finns were not quite as sharp as in the 20th century. The Sami were often fluent in Finnish, and used it in ecclesiastic contexts, and the ethnic border between Finns and Sami that had settled to farm was porous. In the cultural and linguistic sphere, there were many overlaps as multilingualism, loan words and cultural exchange between these linguistically rather closely related peoples. Zorgdrager 1997, 177. Pentikäinen & Pulkkinen 2018, 463, 480-481. Zorgdrager 1997. See, for example, Bhabha 1994. See Franzén 1973, 260; Outakoski 1991, 53-54; Elgvin 2010, 106-108; Pentikäinen & Pulkkinen 2018, 465-466. See Elgvin 2010, 44, 70, 241-245, 263-264; Elgvin 2000, 250. For example PITK6 (1848), 1-2; 2PAAST1 (1849), 5. He is not very consistent in his choice of words but in some rare instances, he describes that it is the Father that has given birth to the believers. PITK6 (1848), 4. See also Elgvin 2010, 245, 257. For example PITK6 (1848), 3. In some sermons he refers even to Jesus as a breast-feeding parent to the believers. 6KOLM2 (1848 or 1849), 4; 2PAAST1 (1849), 4-5. See also Elgvin 2010, 243, 244; Manner 2006, 71, 77-80. Elgvin 2010, 267-268. Pentikäinen & Pulkkinen 2018, 467-468. Laestadius 2011, Deities §29; Outakoski 1991, 77; Pentikäinen & Pulkkinen 2018, 240-243. See also Hallencreutz 1987. Nilsson 1988, 169. For Laestadius’s life details see e.g. Pentikäinen & Pulkkinen 2011; Larsson 1999; Franzén 1973. Larsson 1999, 56-57. Zorgdrager 1997, 134-138; Outakoski 1991, 16-17; Pentikäinen & Pulkkinen 2018, 460-464. Zorgdrager 1997, 415; Pentikäinen & Pulkkinen 2018, 464.

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See 4ADV5 (1848), 3-4 for his use of this Biblical terminology on John the Baptist (in Finnish) connecting it to the style of proclamation of the “shouters”. Pentikäinen & Pulkkinen 2018, 480. Kinnunen 2012. See, for example, 3LOPP3 (1849), 9; 9KOLM2 (1848), 11-12. Laestadius 1843,  §11 referred to in Pentikäinen & Pulkkinen 2018, 477; Laestadius 2011, introduction to Offerings. 5PÄÄS4 (1848), 2-3. Outakoski 1991, 68-74, 151, 154-155. See also Laestadius 2011, Deities §93-101; Pentikäinen & Pulkkinen 2018, 208-218, 256-267. Laestadius 1978, 36; 2000, 2320 (the original sermon in Sami). One needs to note that Laestadius counts himself in the continuum of Sami culture, speaking of “our forebears”. 3LOPP3 (1849), 9. Outakoski 1991, 81, 152-153, 155. 3LOPP3 (1849), 9-10. Wikmark 1980, 104-115. 9KOLM2 (1848), 2-3; On exploitation see also for example JOULU8 (1845), 10; 2LOPP3 (1849), 1; KÄRÄJÄ4 (dating uncertain), 2; SAARNA3 (1846), 2-3. See Elgvin 2008, 2. For example 2PAAST1 (1849), 3-4; JOULU2 (1847), 8-10; LASK1 (1849), 3. See also Hämäläinen 2015, 58-63. Pentikäinen & Pulkkinen 2018, 454-455. Elgvin 2008, 7. Examples of Laestadius’s “dog sermons”: 4ADV5 (1848); KINK11 (1848); KINK24 (1848). For example KINK11 (1848), 5-8; KINK24 (1849), 2-6. On dogs in later sermons see Hämäläinen 2015, 33-35. 4ADV5 (1848), 5-6. 26KOLM6 (1848), 6-7. KINK23 (1848), 2, 3. 2PAAST1 (1849), 5-19. 2PAAST1 (1849), 5-19. 2PAAST1 (1849), 5-19. 7KOLM2 (1848), 11. See also JOULJS2 (1848), 3; TARK8 (1844), 5. 3RUK24 (1848), 10. 2PAAST1 (1849), 19-20. Pentikäinen & Pulkkinen 2018, 411, 455-456, 458; Siitonen & Willamo 2005, 35-37. Great tits were considered as boding bad luck by the Sami (Pentikäinen & Pulkkinen 2018, 457-458) but Laestadius speaks here of tits in general. Even later in Pajala, he refers to tits very positively. Hämäläinen 2015, 52-53. Laestadius 2011, Deities §80; Pentikäinen & Pulkkinen 2018, 452-453, 457-458. In a Pajala sermon, he refers to raven as an evil bird. Hämäläinen 2015, 21. He depicts swallows very positively also in Pajala. Hämäläinen 2015, 49-51. 2PAAST1 (1849), 18-19; 2RUK1 (1848), 12; MARIA4 (1848), 8. SEKSA3 (1849), 3, 4. For example LASK1 (1849), 5-6; MARIA2 (1849), 4. Likewise, in Pajala, “pissihaukka” stands for evil. Hämäläinen 2015, 23-24. LASK 1 (1849), 2; MARIA2 (1849), 5; MARIA6 (1849), 2. 5KOLM2 (1848) is a real fishing sermon – the whole sermon revolves around fishing and different types of fish and nets.

36  37  38  39  40  41  42  43  44  45  46  47  48  49  50  51  52  53  54  55  56  57  58  59  60  61  62  63  64  65  66  67 

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TARK12 (1848), 2. LASK1 (1849), 6. Laestadius 1978, 35. TARK8 (1844), 4. HELAT3 (1847), 10-11. Alike in Pajala. Hämäläinen 2015, 28-30. KINK23 (1848), 6. For example TARK8 (1844), 4-5. Pentikäinen & Pulkkinen 2018, 435-441. MARIA4 (1848), 1-3, 7-8; PITK6 (1848), 7. Image of snake for evil becomes much more usual later in Pajala. Hämäläinen 2015, 40-42. 77  Laestadius 2011, Deities §82. 78  MARIA4 (1848), 13. 79  Metzler 2009. 80  2PAAST1 (1849), 18-19; 2RUK1 (1848), 12; MARIA4 (1848), 8. 81  2KOLM4 (1848), 7-8 (part translated above in italics): “Ihminen … luulle, luonnollisesa tilaisuudesans: että hän on hyvä vaikka hän on paha. Hän tunde itsensä siviäxi, vaikka hän on varas ja ryöväri … Tästä suuresta sokeudesta tulevat siviät huorat, rehelliset varkat, armahtavaiset viina porvarit ja raitit juomarit.” 82  PÄÄS3 (1848), 10-11. 83  JOULJS2 (1848), 7-9; JOULU2 (1847), 1-2. 84  MARIA2 (1849), 4-5; 6KOLM2 (1847 or 1848), 3-14. 85  Siitonen & Willamo 2005, 36. 86  3RUK24 (1848), 8. 87  TARK8 (1848), 6. 88  26KOLM6 (1848), 7-10. Crow stands for evil and goat for the unbelievers also in later Pajala sermons. Hämäläinen 2015, 25-26, 30-32. 89  Laestadius 1848. 90  PÄÄS3 (1848), 6: “Kyllähän luondokappalet sitä / uskovat, että Jumala on heitä luonnut ja että Jumala on heitä ylöspitänyt Mutta emme tiedä, vaikuttako semmonen usko mitään sjelun aututeen.” 91  SEKSA3 (1849), 6: “… jo nouse vanha Adami, niin kuin karhu pesästä”. Also in a later sermon in Pajala, he refers to bear as a dangerous and ferocious creature. Hämäläinen 2015, 38-39. 92  Laestadius 2011, Offerings §54. 93  Pentikäinen & Pulkkinen 2018, 411, 419-434. 94  Pentikäinen & Pulkkinen 2018, 411, 441-446. 95  TARK12 (1848), 3: “Jos lehmä, lammas tahi poro kuolee, niin silloin teille tulee suru, mutta ei teille tule surua eikä murhetta siitä, että te olette Jeesusta ristiinnaulinneet teidän kehnon elämänne kautta.” 96  JOULU8 (1845), 2: “… sillä ehkä moni nyt luulle tundevansa Jumalata, paremin kuin härkä tunde Isändänsä, niin se on vaari että, he tundevat paremin Porojansa ja karjansa kuin Jumalata”. A similar idea also on the following page (3) of the same sermon. 97  Pentikäinen & Pulkkinen 2018, 409. 98  SEKSA3 (1849), 1-2. 99  SEKSA3 (1849), 2-3. 100  SEKSA3 (1849), 2. 101  2PAAST1 (1849), 18-19; similar use of the same image also in SEKSA3 (1849), 3. 102  RIPP5 (1846), 4; SEKSA3 (1849), 3.

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Mika Vähäkangas Laestadius 2011, Deities §11-12; Pentikäinen & Pulkkinen 2018, 411. 4LOPP2, 1-3 (1849); 4LOPP5 (1848). Hämäläinen 2015, 64. Hämäläinen 2015, 64. TARK8 (1844), 4. On Entzauberung see Weber 1919, 536. Laestadius 2011, Deities §85-88. Laestadius 2015; 1843. Vähäkangas et al. 2012, 149. Laestadius 1824.

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Spirit

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Pneumatology and Ecology: Reassessing the State of the Debate Ernst M. Conradie Introduction Pneumatology and ecology is a core theme in Sigurd Bergmann’s oeuvre – from his magisterial doctoral dissertation entitled Creation Set Free: The Spirit as Liberator of Nature to many more recent contributions.1 Anyone familiar with Sigurd’s work cannot but admire his ability to weave together themes that are not readily held together – Patristic theology, Sami art, Marxian social analysis, theological method, the spatial turn, architecture, Tim Ingold’s anthropology, weather patterns, contemporary ecotheology, name it. One may say that it is his understanding of the Spirit, inspired by Gregory of Nazians, that enables him to move from the one to other. Moreover, he has managed to create room for others to explore such themes in an inter-disciplinary and at times trans-disciplinary way through the European Forum on Religion and the Environment and through the book series Studies in Religion and the Environment published by LIT Verlag. In this contribution I will not engage directly with Bergmann’s work on ecotheology. Instead, I will seek to assess the current state of the debate on pneumatology and ecology2 – to which he continues to contribute on a regular basis.3 I will take as a point of departure the quite traditional outline of what pneumatology entails that I typically provide for my third year students in the very first week of a course on “The doctrine of the Holy Spirit” offered at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) where I am based. UWC is the foremost historically black institution in the country, with a majority of students coming from educationally and economically disadvantaged backgrounds, politically often (but not always) quite radical and theologically often (but not always) quite conservative. My outline for students serves the purpose of rooting contemporary Pneumatological discourse in the classic Christian tradition, while ecotheology often tests and transcends the boundaries of that tradition. I will use the outline as an agenda and a checklist for what has and has not been accomplished in discourse on pneumatology and ecology. Of course this remains very parochial, given the point of departure at my home institution. Nevertheless, it may at least serve as a proposed agenda – with which others can then engage

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critically. At least, the self-reflective question is whether I practice (in research) what I teach to students. A Trinitarian Pattern At UWC we pride ourselves that our theology programmes are thoroughly ecumenical and thoroughly contextual.4 For systematic theology this means that we take our cue from the Nicene confession – not because it is uncontested but because this is the first ecumenical council that provides a point of reference for all further reflections on the Christian faith. Often the remarkable Faith and Order study Confessing the One Faith (1991)5 is the first prescribed text. What makes a reference to the location of Nicaea handy in the (South) African context is that it demonstrates that Christianity is neither a Western, nor an Eastern, a Northern or a Southern religion but one that has spread globally from Jerusalem where three continents meet. Given the role of Emperor Constantine this also provides a clue to the need for postcolonial / decolonian critique, also as far as understanding the Triune God is concerned.6 From the Council of Nicaea (325) onwards any discussion of the content and significance of the Christian faith has followed – or has departed from – a Trinitarian pattern. Christians believe in God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The phrase “departed from” is deliberately ambiguous here as it could mean both a point of departure that serves as a foundation or a process of moving away from that point of departure. Actually, it is not even a point of departure, as the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed is at best the temporary conclusion of an ongoing process of reflection that stretches as far as back as the evolution of cultural consciousness in early human history. More precisely, the confession of faith in the Triune God is in my view best understood as a doxological conclusion, the word beyond which more words are no longer appropriate. Nevertheless, such a symbol can again give rise to the thought.7 Each of the terms in the Trinitarian formula used above (“Christians believe in God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit”) have been adopted and adapted from other contexts. They are used here in English with the range of semantic connotations that this language provides. Each of the terms has become deeply contested – Christianity – belief – God – Father – Son – Holy – Spirit. The task of Christian theology is to engage with such contestations, both critically and constructively, to reflect on both the contested content and the possible significance of this faith, for us, today. Either way, for better and often for worse, the

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heuristic role of the creed cannot be side-stepped, especially given its temporal location in the advent of the Constantinian Empire – with its long-lasting consequences. If this introductory description of the field of pneumatology can serve as a provisional agenda, how should the state of the debate on pneumatology and ecology be assessed on this point? Any cursory glance at the available titles suggests considerable confusion in Christian ecotheology. Some more classic contributions, for example by Jürgen Moltmann,8 Michael Welker,9 Sigurd Bergmann, Denis Edwards,10 Elizabeth Johnson11 and Geiko Müller-Fahrenholz12 use the term “spirit” clearly with reference to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, the One who proceeds from the Father. Many other contributions use the terms Spirit / spirit deliberately in order to seek continuity with other religious traditions, with a range of less institutionalised forms of spirituality, or to critically engage with the “spirit of the age”, especially with reference to capitalism, consumerism and globalization. This does not necessarily imply that the Trinitarian roots of Pneumatological discourse are denied, only that the Spirit moves far beyond where Christ or the manifestations of Christ may be found – the biblical witnesses to Christ, the church, the sacraments, Christian ministries and missions. Amongst the many contributions here, one may mention the otherwise diverse work of Matthew Fox,13 Mary Grey,14 Mark Wallace,15 Sharon Betcher16 and Grace Ji-Sun Kim.17 The Work of the Spirit The person and the work of the Holy Spirit, like that of the “Son” and the “Father” can hardly be separated. Nevertheless, the kind of questions that are prompted by the person and work of the Spirit remain distinct and are best treated on their own. One may say that the “person”, that is the identity and character, of the Holy Spirit can only be known on the basis of the work of the Spirit, in the same way that the immanent Trinity can only be known on the basis of the economic Trinity. The order of knowing may well be different from the order of being here. In order to avoid rampant speculation, it may nevertheless be appropriate to discuss the work of the Spirit first. Traditionally, four aspects of the work of the Spirit, each with subdivisions, can be distinguished, namely in terms of creation, salvation (including the means of salvation), church (including the sacraments as means of salvation) and consummation:

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The Creator Spirit The Nicene Creeds speaks of the Spirit as the “Giver of Life”. This is not a theory of the origin of life, but an affirmation that each new living organism is dependent upon the Spirit as the “Breath of Life”. In the biblical witnesses, this role of the Spirit is closely tied to the renewal of life, to regeneration, which then borders upon the work of salvation. The resurrection of Christ takes place through the power of the Spirit so that Christian hope includes the hope that the Spirit can bring forth new life from death, deadliness and despair. Often this is portrayed with Ezekiel’s image of a valley of dry bones. In contemporary ecotheology this aspect of the work of the Holy Spirit is widely recognised – as a dimension of the Christian faith that was neglected in the recent past and now needs to be retrieved. Amongst the many available contributions one may again mention Elizabeth Johnson’s Women, Earth and Creator Spirit and Denis Edwards’ Breath of Life. One may add that this emphasis gained considerable impetus in ecumenical circles through the theme of Canberra Assembly of the World Council of Churches in 1991, namely “Come, Holy Spirit, Renew the Whole Creation”.18 The Spirit and Salvation In Nicene Christianity the salvific work of the Spirit is closely tied to the atoning work of Christ. The one cannot be reduced to the other though. In the biblical imagery of the Letter to the Ephesians: without the foundation established by Christ, the temple erected by the Spirit would crumble. Without the work of the Spirit, what Christ has accomplished would make no difference in our world, for us, today. The Spirit’s work is based on the foundation, pattern and paradigm of Christ’s work.19 However, since there are widely diverging views of atonement, it comes as no surprise that the Spirit’s work of salvation is likewise understood in diverging ways. At UWC many students have found Gustav Aulén’s typology on atonement20 helpful to explore the contrast between Pneumatological concepts such as liberation / healing (see Aulén’s classic type), reconciliation (see Aulén’s Latin type) and reconstruction and development (see Aulén’s modern type).21 In my own work I clustered together various biblical and contemporary images under these three types.22 Another way of organising the material, especially in the Protestant tradition, follows the distinctions between regeneration (also renewal), justification, sanctification, vocation and the perseverance of the saints. It is not necessary to engage

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here in the more detailed debates on such distinctions. Suffice it to say that in each case this is best understood as the work of the Spirit. When such conceptual maps are employed to assess the state of the debate in contemporary ecotheology, a few striking features become evident: First, the dominant soteriological metaphors are probably the liberation of creation / creatures,23 while the word “healing” also appears in many titles.24 Second, such terms are often discussed without explicit reference to pneumatology. Third, there is of course ample literature on reconstruction and (sustainable) development but this is regarded as matters of ethics, not doctrine, so that not only the pneumatological focus but also the theological orientation is often underplayed. Fourth, in contemporary ecotheology there is very little attention to classic pneumatological themes such as justification and sanctification.25 Fifth, the one exception may be discourse on climate change26 where themes such as climate debt, confessing guilt,27 climate justice,28 the role of indulgences, reconciliation29 and restitution are indeed discussed, albeit, again typically not with reference to pneumatology. Sixth, another exception is the widespread recognition of the need for ecological conversion, not least in Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’.30 How such conversion is to come about is of course through the work of the Spirit and this is indeed recognised if somewhat underplayed by Pope Francis (see §80). The Church in the Power of the Spirit The Holy Spirit not only effects God’s work of salvation but also provides the means for doing that. The church may be regarded as the primary instrument through which this is accomplished. The Spirit works through Christ’s church in God’s world. In missiological debates this is admittedly contested and many would recognise that the Spirit also works independently of the church, without the church and often despite the church. Nevertheless, Christianity cannot be understood without recognising the church as a sign, an instrument and a sacrament of God’s presence in the world.31 Either way, at least from a Protestant perspective, the church is itself not the primary instrument for salvation since the establishment and formation of the church depends on means of salvation that are provided by the Spirit. The primary instruments used by Holy Spirit to bring salvation to the world is of course Scripture (and the proclamation of the good news of the gospel) and the sacraments, especially those instituted by Christ, namely the Holy Communion and Baptism. Traditionally, each of these is understood pneumatologically, i.e. with reference to the

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inspiration of Scripture, the ministry of the Word of God through the power of the Spirit, the bonds of love in the communion of the saints and baptism with the Spirit. What is the state of the debate in contemporary ecotheology as far as the media salutis are concerned? Four comments may suffice, on each of the aspects mentioned above: First, there is virtually no interest in the inspiration of Scripture in the context of ecotheology. However, there is a very lively debate on an ecological biblical hermeneutics, with diverging schools of thought posed by a more traditional “cherry picking” use of the Bible to support an environmental ethos and praxis, the Earth Bible project and the Exeter project.32 One may say that the embarrassment with anthropocentrism found in the biblical witnesses (the so-called “grey texts”) has prompted an emphasis on human efforts to “save” the text from being discarded following an ecological critique of Christianity.33 It is not the Word that brings salvation; the word (frankly any word) is in need of salvation. It would indeed be hard to find any pneumatological reference in such forms of ecological hermeneutics.34 Second, there is a lively interest in an ecological renewal of Christian proclamation, and, especially in liturgical renewal. It is impossible to give an overview here or to offer any generalising comments, precisely because such contributions are typically embedded in particular confessional traditions. It is, for example, not very clear that such proclamation and liturgical renewal is understood pneumatologically. Third, numerous scholars working in the field of ecotheology, especially those in the Roman Catholic and Anglican traditions, have recognised that the Holy Communion can be extended towards a communion of all (living) things.35 Often this leads towards a discussion of the social analogy for the Trinity and rather elaborate speculations on the immanent Trinity. Fourth, rather few scholars working in ecotheology has paid attention to the “one baptism for the forgiveness of sin”, especially given the role of cleansing in baptism – and the question whether contaminated water can cleanse us of our sins.36 The notion of “Spirit baptism” is of course of crucial significance in various forms of Pentecostalism, but connections with ecotheology are hard to find – perhaps because of prevailing dualisms where it seems hard to connect “spirit” to water. The Spirit at Work In and through the Church In Africa there may still be faith in the ability of the church to make a difference in local communities and in the broader society – while such confidence Urheberrechtlich geschütztes Material! © 2021 Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn, ein Imprint der Brill-Gruppe

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in the church is being depleted elsewhere. Nevertheless, Christians do not believe in the church but in the ability of the Holy Spirit to unify, sanctify and spread the church everywhere (una, sancta, catholica). This Pneumatological focus is evident in the establishment of the church (arguably on the Day of Pentecost), the up-building of the church, the charismatic gifts of the Spirit, the various ministries within the church and the many missions of the church in society. There is ample material linking the ministries and missions of the church to ecological concerns – in discourse on practical theology, pastoral care, homiletics, liturgics and missiology. Some have focused on the social teaching of the church while others have recounted stories of the strengths and limitations of particular earthkeeping missions. By contrast, there is surprisingly little written on the very notion of the church from the perspective of ecotheology. The volume entitled The Church in God’s household forms one welcome exception in this regard.37 Consummation as the Work of the Spirit According to the Nicene Creed Christian hope is understood in terms of the resurrection of the dead and life in the world to come. This, too, is best understood as the work of the Holy Spirit who raised Jesus of Nazareth from the dead. The same applies to the hope for the coming of God’s reign, if not to the hope (not the fear) for a day of judgement and justice – which is associated with the coming of Christ. In Christian ecotheology there is considerable interest in the theme of (Christian hope) now understood as hope for the whole earth. This is hardly surprising since ecological despair is so rampant and since fear breeds apocalyptic images of (ecological) doom and destruction. It is especially climate change that elicits such discussions. There is an intuitive recognition that an earthkeeping ethos and praxis can only be sustained on the basis of a spirituality of hope. The sources of such explorations of hope are rather diverse but include Jürgen Moltmann’s theology of hope, various liberation theologies building on that, Teilhard de Chardin’s notion of an Omega point, Alfred North Whitehead’s process philosophy and contemporary cosmology with its recognition of the earth’s own limited lifespan. Each of these have a sizable corpus of literature that cannot be surveyed here.38 Although there is indeed widespread interest in such forms of hope, the debate in this regard remains in my view unresolved for one crucial reason, namely the ways in which the relationship between creation and eschaton is understood. Elsewhere I have identified four main options, namely restoration, Urheberrechtlich geschütztes Material! © 2021 Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn, ein Imprint der Brill-Gruppe

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elevation, replacement and ongoing recycling but each of these remain flawed (for diverging reasons) and no clear alternative has emerged as far as I can see.39 Here I need to add that the pneumatological orientation of such discussions on the content and significance of Christian hope is often underplayed, although admittedly not in a theology of hope. The Identity and Character of the Spirit On the basis of discerning such work of the Spirit, it also becomes possible to discern the identity and character of the Spirit who is the primary cause of the transformation that may emerge around us. Note the difference here between discerning the spirit of the time (what is going on around us), discerning the signs of the time (what is at stake at this moment in time), discerning the counter-movements of the Spirit (as described above), and ultimately discerning some divine agency behind such counter-movements.40 In Nicene Christianity the identity of the Spirit is described in four distinct ways. First, this is a Spirit who proceeds from the Father, i.e. who receives instructions from the Father. Second, this is the same Spirit who spoke through a lineage of prophets, implying the need to discern false from true prophets and to judge any claims for the identity of the Spirit against that. Third, this Spirit is also called “Lord” and is to be worshipped and glorified with the Father and the Son. Fourth, this Spirit is named “Holy” in order to capture something of the holy character of this Spirit and the sanctifying presence of the Spirit in the temple of the Spirit. The addition of the term filioque in the Latin version of the creed led to considerable controversy and still divides Christian in two halves, but there is nevertheless consensus in Nicene Christianity that this Spirit is best understood as the Spirit of Christ, i.e. that many rival claims to discern the Spirit may be tested against the identity and character of Jesus as the Christ.41 It is hard to capture and assess the state of the debate in contemporary ecotheology on this point. This is where the diversity of claims for the presence of the Spirit is most evident. As mentioned above there are some who emphasise continuity with Nicene Christianity in this regard, while others emphasise creative ways of finding continuity with other religious traditions and forms of spirituality. This must be a false dichotomy if the biblical witnesses are taken as cue, but this tension remains obvious in Christian ecotheology. Perhaps this is where Sigurd Bergmann’s contributions on pneumatology are so refreshing.

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So, What Kind of Thing is a Spirit? In “modern” theology this question is regarded as necessary prolegomena to pneumatology. In other words, one first need to gain clarity on what kind of category a spirit is before one can even begin to speak of the Holy Spirit. One needs to banish all talk of ghosts, including ghosts in a machine, before any Ghost can be called Holy. The correct answer to the question what kind of thing a spirit may be, is of course that a spirit is precisely not a thing, that any attempt to hypostasise a spirit would render it into a ghost. But then “spirit” is at least a category – which still requires an answer. This may be a question of what comes first: the chicken or the egg, with dangers both ways. One can treat Christian confessions of faith in the Holy Spirit as primary and unique, without tracing its continuity with other pre-Israelite and pre-Christian forms of spirituality. But one may also predetermine the shape of any pneumatology by adopting a particular view on what a “spirit” entails. Throughout the history of Christianity the influence of Platonism, neo-Platonism, Aristotelianism, Cartesian dualism, idealism, Hegelian dialectics and Marxism has held Pneumatological discourse captive. Clearly, language differences play a role here – especially on ‫ּוח‬ ַ ‫ ֫ר‬, πνεύµα, spiritus, esprit, spirit and Geist – and their associated connotations in various philosophical schools. In each language it is necessary to juxtapose the term “spirit” (or its equivalents) to related or contrasted concepts, including (in English) matter, energy, soul, body, person, character, movement and the like. When the Bible is translated in a colonial context this poses intractable problems wherever the vernacular term for spirit is adopted (in the African context e.g. sunsum in Akan, mzimu in Chichewa or umoya in isiZulu) and then adapted to explain the particular character of the Holy Spirit. In each case a distinct anthropology and cosmology is at play so that the term for spirit is juxtaposed to a different set of categories.42 In Akan anthropology, for example, sunsum (spirit/character/personality?) is contrasted with okra (living being / soul / spark of divinity?), ntoro (personal characteristics / predispositions?) and mogya (blood / genes, inherited traits?).43 It is fair to say that in contemporary ecotheology such divergent assumptions are as much at play as may be the case elsewhere. This depends very much who the implied conversation partners for ecotheology may be. The spectrum of options in the available literature include anything from quantum mechanics, force fields, cultural anthropology, the history of ideas, ideology criticism, ecofeminism, other religious traditions, animism and the full range of philosophies. In my own contributions I have suggested, following

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Moltmann’s notion of a hermeneutics of nature,44 that the category of spirit may be used for “that which makes matter move”.45 The question is not whether matter moves or even how it moves but to discern the direction of such movements – and then to set one’s sails according to the direction of that Wind. In this sense the Spirit is immanent in God’s creation, especially but not only in the church. Transcendence is understood as transformation, as the movement of matter. To discern in such movements the presence of God’s Spirit is the task of Pneumatology.46 A Few Concluding Comments I have argued elsewhere that ecotheology entails a fourfold task, namely a twofold critical and a twofold constructive task.47 It entails both a Christian critique of ecological destruction and an ecological critique of Christianity. It offers a contribution to Christian authenticity and, on that basis, also a contribution to the transformation of the world. If this arguments holds, more or less, where does that leave discourse on pneumatology and ecology? Let me offer a few brief concluding comments in this regard: First, the ecological critique of Christianity often focuses on the set of interlocking dualisms, including that of spirit and matter. Ecological pneumatology is a resilient response to that by resisting any suggestion that spirit can be equated with idealism. Instead, the creative impetus of the Spirit in the material world is emphasised. Second, a pneumatological critique of ecological destruction rightly focuses on a critique of fetishes that reduces what is best understood as a dynamic movement to a static thing, which is then treated as a value in itself (e.g. money). One may say that the “spirit of capitalism” amounts to “killing the spirit”.48 Third, the contribution of an ecological pneumatology to Christian authenticity is probably located in the retrieval of the Creator Spirit, the Giver of Life. The renewal that this may bring depends on whether creation as work of the Spirit can be held together with the aspects of salvation, church and consummation. The difficulty of holding together faith in God as Creator and as Saviour, the tension between the first and the second article of the Christian creed, can only be addressed through the third article. Again, this is where the promise of Sigurd Bergmann’s oeuvre may be found. Finally, none of this would help to address ecological destruction, especially not in the Anthropocene, without an ability to discern the counter-movements of the Spirit in the contemporary context. It is not the task of Christianity,

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certainly not of Christian theology to save the world. It depends upon the gift to discern whither the Wind is blowing. This is therefore not a hard task, but it carries dangers – that those who discern the Spirit will be ridiculed, marginalised or silenced. References Agyarko, Robert Owusu. “God’s unique priest (Nyamesofopreko): Christology within an Akan context”, Ph.D. thesis. University of the Western Cape, 2010. Arpels-Josiah, Ariane. “Justification by Grace through Faith from an Ecological Perspective: Reformed Theology, Environmental Ethics, and Social Justice”, Ph.D. thesis, Princeton Theological Seminary, 2005. Aulén, Gustaf. Christus Victor: An Historical Study of the Three Main Types of the Idea of Atonement (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2002). Ayre, Clive W. and Ernst M. Conradie (eds). The Church in God’s Household: Protestant Perspectives on Ecclesiology and Ecology (Pietermaritzburg: Cluster Publications, 2016). Bergmann, Sigurd. “Fetishism Revisited: In the Animistic Lens of Eco-pneumatology”, Journal of Reformed Theology 6 (2012), 1-21. Bergmann, Sigurd. “Life-giving Breath: Ecological Pneumatology in the Context of Fetishization”, The Ecumenical Review 65:1 (2013), 114-128. Bergmann, Sigurd. “The Spirit and Climate Change” in Ernst M. Conradie and Hilda Koster (eds), T&T Clark Handbook on Christian Theology and Climate Change (London et al: T&T Clark, 2019), 497-508. Bergmann, Sigurd. “Where does the Spirit ‘Take Place’ Today? Considerations on Pneumatology in the Light of the Global Environmental Crisis”, in Ernst M. Conradie, Sigurd Bergmann, Celia Deane-Drummond and Denis Edwards (eds), Christian Faith and the Earth: Current Paths and Emerging Horizons in Ecotheology (London: T&T Clark, 2014), 51-64. Bergmann, Sigurd. and Mika Vähäkangas (eds), Contextual Theology Skills and Practices of Liberating Faith (London and New York: Routledge, 2020). Bergmann, Sigurd. Creation Set Free: The Spirit as Liberator of Nature (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005). Bergmann, Sigurd. God in Context: A Survey of Contextual Theology (London: Routledge, 2003). Betcher, Sharon. “Grounding the Spirit: An Ecofeminist Pneumatology”, in Lauren Kearns & Catherine Keller (eds): Ecospirit: Religions and Philosophies for the Earth (New York: Fordham University Press, 2007), 315-336.

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Birch, Bruce C. and John B. Cobb (Jr). The Liberation of Life (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981). Birch, Bruce C., William Eakin, and Jay B. McDaniel (eds). Liberating Life: Contemporary approaches to Ecological Theology (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1990). Boff, Leonardo. Ecology and Liberation (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1995). Bosch, David J. Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1991). Castro, Emilio (ed.). To the Wind of God’s Spirit: Reflections on the Canberra Theme (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1990). Castro, Emilio (ed.). “Come, Holy Spirit – Renew the Whole Creation; Giver of Life – Sustain Your Creation!”, Ecumenical Review 42 (1990), 89-174. Clinebell, Howard C. Ecotherapy: Healing Ourselves, Healing the Earth (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1996). Conradie, Ernst M. “Confessing Guilt in the Context of Climate Change: Some South African Perspectives”, in Sigurd Bergmann and Heather Eaton (eds), Ecological Awareness: Exploring Religion, Ethics and Aesthetics (Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2011), 77-96. Conradie, Ernst M. Hope for the Earth – Vistas on a New Century (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2005). Conradie, Ernst  M. “How Could Baptism Cleanse us with Polluted Water?” (forthcoming). Conradie, Ernst M. “Pneumatology and Ecology”,  Journal of Reformed Theology 6 (2012), 189-305. Conradie, Ernst  M. (ed.). Reconciliation as a Guiding Vision for South Africa? (Stellenbosch: Sun Press, 2013). Conradie, Ernst  M. “South African Discourse on the Triune God: Some Reflections”, HTS Theological Studies 75:1 (2019), 1-11. Doi.org: 10.4102/hts.v75i1.5483. Conradie, Ernst M. (ed). South African Perspectives on Notions and Forms of Ecumenicity (Stellenbosch: SUN Press, 2013). Conradie, Ernst M. The Earth in God’s Economy: Creation, Salvation and Consummation in Ecological Perspective, Studies in Religion and the Environment Vol. 10 (Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2015). Conradie, Ernst M. “The Four Tasks of Christian Ecotheology: Revisiting the Current Debate”, Scriptura 119 (2020), 1-13. Conradie, Ernst M. “The Salvation of the Earth from Anthropogenic Destruction: In Search of Appropriate Soteriological Concepts in an Age of Ecological Destruction”, Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, Ecology 14: 2-3 (2010), 111-140. Conradie, Ernst M. “The UWC Reception of Gustaf Aulén’s Christus Victor Typology”, Svensk Teologisk Kvartalskrift 95 (2019), 79-92. Conradie, Ernst M. “What is God Really Up to in a Time like this? Discerning the Spirit’s Movements as Core Task of Christian Eco-Theology”, in Lukas Andrianos et al. (eds)

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Kairos for Creation: Confessing Hope for the Earth (Solingen: Foedus-Verlag, 2019), 31-44. Conradie, Ernst M. “What Makes the World Go Round? Some Reformed Perspectives on Pneumatology and Ecology”, Journal of Reformed Theology 6 (2012), 294-305. Conradie, Ernst M. “What on Earth is an Ecological Hermeneutics? Some Broad parameters”, in Horrell et al(eds), Ecological Hermeneutics, 295-314. Conradie, Ernst M. and Hilda P. Koster (eds). T&T Clark Handbook on Christian Theology and Climate Change (London et al: T&T Clark, 2019). Conradie, Ernst M. and Teddy Chalwe Sakupapa. “‘Decolonising the Doctrine of the Trinity’ or ‘The Decolonising Doctrine of the Trinity’?”, Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 161 (2018), 37-53. Daneel, Marthinus. African Earthkeepers: Wholistic Interfaith Mission (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2001). Edwards, Denis (ed.). Earth Revealing – Earth Healing: Ecology and Christian Theology (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2001). Edwards, Denis. Breath of Life: A Theology of the Creator Spirit (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2004). Fox, Matthew. Whee! We, Wee All the Way Home  … A Guide to a Sensual, Prophetic Spirituality (Santa Fé: Bear & Co, 1981). Francis (Pope). Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home (Encyclical Letter) (Vatican City: Liberia Editrice Vaticana, 2015). Gebara, Ivone. Longing for Running Water: Ecofeminism and Liberation (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1999). Golo, Ben-Willie Kwaku. “Towards an African Earth Theology of Liberation: A Study of Deforestation in Ghana in a Globalised World”, D.Phil dissertation, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim. Grey, Mary C. Sacred Longings: The Ecological Spirit and Global Culture (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2004). Habel, Norman  C.  An  Inconvenient Text: Is a Green Reading of the Bible Possible? (Adelaide: ATF Press, 2009). Hart, John. The Spirit of the Earth: A Theology of the Land (New York: Paulist Press, 1984). Horrel, David et al. (eds), Ecological Hermeneutics: Biblical, Historical, and Theological Perspectives (London: T & T Clark, 2010). Johnson, Elizabeth A. Women, Earth, and Creator Spirit (New York: Paulist Press, 1993). Kim, Grace Ji-Sun. Embracing the Other: The Transformative Spirit of Love (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015). Kim, Grace Ji-Sun. Reimagining Spirit: Wind, Breath, and Vibration (Eugene: Cascade Books, 2020). Kim, Grace Ji-Sun. The Holy Spirit, Chi, and the Other: A Model of Global and Intercultural Pneumatology (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011). Kinnamon, Michael (ed.), Signs of the Spirit (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1991). Urheberrechtlich geschütztes Material! © 2021 Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn, ein Imprint der Brill-Gruppe

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Koster, Hilda. “God’s Work of Salvation in Us and through Us”. In Ernst M. Conradie and Hilda P. Koster (eds), T&T Clark Handbook on Christian Theology and Climate Change (London et al: T&T Clark, 2019)., 417-430. Limouris, Gennadios (ed.), Come, Holy Spirit – Renew the Whole Creation: An Orthodox Approach (Brookline: Holy Cross Press, 1990). Moltmann, Jürgen. Sun of Righteousness, Arise: God’s future for humanity and the Earth (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2010), 189-208. Moltmann, Jürgen. The Spirit of Life: A Universal Affirmation (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1992); The Source of Life: The Holy Spirit and the Theology of Life (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1997). Müller-Fahrenholz, Geiko. God’s Spirit Transforming a World in Crisis (New York: Continuum, 2009). Ruether, Rosemary Radford (ed.). Women Healing Earth. Third World Women on Ecology, Feminism and Religion (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1996). Ruether, Rosemary Radford. Gaia & God: An Ecofeminist Theology of Earth Healing (Harper & Collins, 1992). Ruether, Rosemary Radford. New Woman / New Earth: Sexist Ideologies and Human Liberation (New York: Seabury Press, 1975). Sakupapa, Teddy Chalwe. “Spirit and Ecology in the Context of African Theology: Christian Faith and the Earth”, Scriptura 111 (2012), 422-430. Sakupapa, Teddy Chalwe. “The Trinity in African Christian theology: An Overview of Contemporary Approaches”, HTS Theological Studies 75:1 (2019), 1-11. doi.org/ 10.4102/hts.v75i1.5460 Tinker, George. “The Full Circle of Liberation: An American Indian Theology of Place”, in David G. Hallman (ed.), Ecotheology: Voices from South and North (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1994), 218-225. Tinker, George. Spirit and Resistance: Political Theology and American Indian Liberation (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004). Wallace, Mark I. “The Green Face of God: Recovering the Spirit in an Ecocidal Era”, in Bradford E. Hinze and Lyle D. Dabney (eds), Advents of the Spirit: An Introduction to the Current Study of Pneumatology (Milwuakee: Marquette University Press, 2001), 442-462. Wallace, Mark I. Fragments of the Spirit. Nature, Violence and the Renewal of Creation (New York: Continuum, 1996). Wallace, Mark I. When God was a Bird: Christianity, Animism and the Re-enchantment of the World (New York: Fordham University Press, 2019). Welker, Michael. God the Spirit (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994). World Council of Churches, Confessing the One Faith, Faith and Order Paper  153 (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1991). Wright, Nancy G. and Donald G. Kill, Ecological Healing: A Christian Vision (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1993). Urheberrechtlich geschütztes Material! © 2021 Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn, ein Imprint der Brill-Gruppe

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Endnotes 1  2  3 

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8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15 

Sigurd Bergmann, Creation Set Free: The Spirit as Liberator of Nature (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005). See my editorial assessment in the volume of articles on “Pneumatology and Ecology”, Journal of Reformed Theology 6, 189-305. Four of these were in collections that I edited, namely Sigurd Bergmann, “Fetishism Revisited: In the Animistic Lens of Eco-pneumatology”, Journal of Reformed Theology 6 (2012), 1-21; “Life-giving Breath: Ecological Pneumatology in the Context of Fetishization”, The Ecumenical Review 65:1 (2013), 114-128; “Where does the Spirit ‘Take Place’ Today? Considerations on Pneumatology in the Light of the Global Environmental Crisis”, in Ernst  M.  Conradie, Sigurd Bergmann, Celia Deane-Drummond and Denis Edwards (eds), Christian Faith and the Earth: Current Paths and Emerging Horizons in Ecotheology (London: T&T Clark, 2014), 51-64; “The Spirit and Climate Change” in Ernst M. Conradie and Hilda Koster (eds), T&T Clark Handbook on Christian Theology and Climate Change (London et al: T&T Clark, 2019), 497-508. For Sigurd Bergmann’s own emphasis on contextual theology, see his God in Context: A Survey of Contextual Theology (London: Routledge, 2003), also Sigurd Bergmann and Mika Vähäkangas (eds), Contextual Theology Skills and Practices of Liberating Faith (London and New York: Routledge, 2020, forthcoming). See World Council of Churches, Confessing the One Faith, Faith and Order Paper  153 (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1991). See the provocative article that followed a course that my colleague Teddy Sakupapa and I offered at UWC, namely Ernst M. Conradie and Teddy Chalwe Sakupapa, “‘Decolonising the Doctrine of the Trinity’ or ‘The Decolonising Doctrine of the Trinity’?”, Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 161 (2018), 37-53. This is my argument in Ernst M. Conradie, The Earth in God’s Economy: Creation, Salvation and Consummation in Ecological Perspective, Studies in Religion and the Environment Vol. 10 (Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2015). See also Ernst M. Conradie, “South African Discourse on the Triune God: Some Reflections”, HTS Theological Studies 75:1 (2019), 1-11. Doi. org: 10.4102/hts.v75i1.5483; and Teddy Chalwe Sakupapa “The Trinity in African Christian theology: An overview of contemporary approaches”, HTS Theological Studies 75:1 (2019), 1-11. doi.org/10.4102/hts.v75i1.5460 Jürgen Moltmann, The Spirit of Life: A Universal Affirmation (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1992); The Source of Life: The Holy Spirit and the Theology of Life (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1997). Michael Welker, God the Spirit (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994). Denis Edwards, Breath of Life: A Theology of the Creator Spirit (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2004). Elizabeth A. Johnson, Women, Earth, and Creator Spirit (New York: Paulist Press, 1993). Geiko Müller-Fahrenholz, God’s Spirit Transforming a World in Crisis (New York: Continuum, 2009). See, e.g. Matthew Fox, Whee! We, Wee All the Way Home … A Guide to a Sensual, Prophetic Spirituality (Santa Fé: Bear & Co, 1981). See Mary C. Grey, Sacred Longings: The Ecological Spirit and Global Culture (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2004). See especially Mark I. Wallace, Fragments of the Spirit. Nature, Violence and the Renewal of Creation (New York: Continuum, 1996); also “The Green Face of God: Recovering the Spirit in an Ecocidal Era”, in Bradford E. Hinze and Lyle D. Dabney (eds), Advents of the Spirit:

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18 

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20  21  22  23 

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Ernst M. Conradie An Introduction to the Current Study of Pneumatology (Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 2001), 442-462; When God was a Bird: Christianity, Animism and the Re-enchantment of the World (New York: Fordham University Press, 2019). See Sharon Betcher, “Grounding the Spirit: An Ecofeminist Pneumatology”, in Lauren Kearns & Catherine Keller (eds): Ecospirit: Religions and Philosophies for the Earth (New York: Fordham University Press, 2007), 315-336. See Grace Ji-Sun Kim, The Holy Spirit, Chi, and the Other: A  Model of Global and Intercultural Pneumatology (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011); Embracing the Other: The Transformative Spirit of Love (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015); Reimagining Spirit: Wind, Breath, and Vibration (Eugene: Cascade Books, 2020). See Emilio Castro (ed.), “Come, Holy Spirit – Renew the Whole Creation; Giver of Life – Sustain Your Creation!”, Ecumenical Review 42 (1990), 89-174; Emilio Castro (ed.), To the Wind of God’s Spirit: Reflections on the Canberra Theme (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1990); Michael Kinnamon, (ed.), Signs of the Spirit (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1991); Gennadios Limouris (ed.), Come, Holy Spirit – Renew the Whole Creation: An Orthodox Approach (Brookline, Ma: Holy Cross Press, 1990). The biblical imagery is suggestive here. If Christ is the cornerstone of the house, the foundations are aligned with that, the walls are constructed following that pattern while the paradigm can be used for building similar structures, providing housing for all within the whole household of God. Gustaf Aulén, Christus Victor: An Historical Study of the Three Main Types of the Idea of Atonement (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2002). For an overview, based on a colloquium in Lund (with Sigurd Bergmann attending), see Ernst  M.  Conradie, “The UWC Reception of Gustaf Aulén’s Christus Victor Typology”, Svensk Teologisk Kvartalskrift 95 (2019), 79-92. See, especially, Ernst  M.  Conradie, “The Salvation of the Earth from Anthropogenic Destruction: In Search of Appropriate Soteriological Concepts in an Age of Ecological Destruction”, Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, Ecology 14: 2-3 (2010), 111-140. In addition to Bergmann’s Creation Set Free, see, e.g. Bruce  C.  Birch and John  B.  Cobb (jr), The Liberation of Life (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), Bruce C. Birch, William Eakin, and Jay  B.  McDaniel (eds), Liberating Life: Contemporary approaches to Ecological Theology (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1990), Leonardo Boff, Ecology and Liberation (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1995), Ivone Gebara, Longing for Running Water: Ecofeminism and Liberation (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1999), Ben-Willie Kwaku Golo, “Towards an African Earth Theology of Liberation: A Study of Deforestation in Ghana in a Globalised World”, D.Phil dissertation, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim (with Sigurd Bergmann as supervisor), Rosemary Radford Ruether, New Woman / New Earth: Sexist Ideologies and Human Liberation (New York: Seabury Press, 1975); George Tinker, “The Full Circle of Liberation: An American Indian Theology of Place”, in David G. Hallman (ed.), Ecotheology: Voices from South and North (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1994), 218-225; Spirit and Resistance: Political Theology and American Indian Liberation (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004). See, e.g. Howard  C.  Clinebell, Ecotherapy: Healing Ourselves, Healing the Earth (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1996); Denis Edwards (ed.), Earth Revealing – Earth Healing: Ecology and Christian Theology (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2001); Rosemary Radford Ruether, Gaia & God: An Ecofeminist Theology of Earth Healing (Harper & Collins, 1992), Rosemary Radford Ruether (ed.), Women Healing Earth. Third World Women on Ecology,

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Feminism and Religion (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1996); Nancy G. Wright and Donald G. Kill, Ecological Healing: A Christian Vision (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1993). For one exception, see Ariane Arpels-Josiah, “Justification by Grace through Faith from an Ecological Perspective: Reformed Theology, Environmental Ethics, and Social Justice”, Ph.D. thesis, Princeton Theological Seminary, 2005. See the volume edited by Ernst M. Conradie and Hilda P. Koster (eds), T&T Clark Handbook on Christian Theology and Climate Change (London et al: T&T Clark, 2019), especially the essay by Hilda Koster, “God’s Work of Salvation in Us and through Us”, 417-430. See my essay entitled “Confessing Guilt in the Context of Climate Change: Some South African Perspectives”, in Sigurd Bergmann and Heather Eaton (eds), Ecological Awareness: Exploring Religion, Ethics and Aesthetics (Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2011), 77-96. There is ample material on climate justice from an ethical perspective but this is hardly related, even within Christian ecotheology, to pneumatology in general or to justification in particular. Inversely, theological discourse on reconciliation is often anthropocentric. For an exploration, see Ernst M. Conradie (ed.), Reconciliation as a Guiding Vision for South Africa? (Stellenbosch: Sun Press, 2013). See Pope Francis, Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home (Encyclical Letter) (Vatican City: Liberia Editrice Vaticana, 2015). See the excellent discussion by David Bosch in Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1991), 374-376. In addition to the extensive literature on the Earth Bible, see David Horrel et al (eds), Ecological Hermeneutics: Biblical, Historical, and Theological Perspectives (London: T & T Clark, 2010). See, especially, Norman  C.  Habel, An Inconvenient Text: Is a Green Reading of the Bible Possible? (Adelaide: ATF Press, 2009). For one exception, see Ernst M. Conradie, “What on Earth is an Ecological Hermeneutics? Some Broad parameters”, in Horrell et al (eds), Ecological Hermeneutics, 295-314. The most creative work in this regard is on tree-planting Eucharists, as documented by Marthinus Daneel in African Earthkeepers: Wholistic Interfaith Mission (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2001). For a tentative gesture in this direction, see my essay “How Could Baptism Cleanse us with Polluted Water?”, submitted for a volume on disaster ritual, edited by Paul Koster. See Clive W. Ayre and Ernst M. Conradie (eds), The Church in God’s Household: Protestant Perspectives on Ecclesiology and Ecology (Pietermaritzburg: Cluster Publications, 2016). See the overview of eschatological approaches to ecotheology in Hope for the Earth – Vistas on a New Century (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2005). See Conradie, The Earth in God’s Economy, 247-302. For a discussion, see Ernst M. Conradie, “What is God Really Up to in a Time like this? Discerning the Spirit’s Movements as Core Task of Christian Eco-Theology”, in Lukas Andrianos et  al (eds), Kairos for Creation: Confessing Hope for the Earth (Solingen: Foedus-Verlag, 2019), 31-44. I have discussed the significance of the filioque controversy within the contemporary (South) African context in several publications, arguing that it splits Christianity in South Africa between those so-called mainline churches that emphasise that the Spirit works through Christ (the witnesses to Christ, the Petrine ministry, the body of Christ, the sacraments) and those that emphasise that the Spirit works independently of Christ – in politics, in nature, in dreams and illuminations and in ancestral spirits. See, e.g.

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Ernst M. Conradie Ernst M. Conradie, (ed), South African Perspectives on Notions and Forms of Ecumenicity (Stellenbosch: SUN Press, 2013), 13-76. For a discussion, see Teddy Chalwe Sakupapa, “Spirit and Ecology in the Context of African Theology: Christian Faith and the Earth”, Scriptura 111 (2012), 422-430. For an excellent discussion, see Robert Owusu Agyarko, “God’s unique priest (Nyamesofopreko): Christology within an Akan context”, Ph.D. thesis. University of the Western Cape, 2010. See Jürgen Moltmann, Sun of Righteousness, Arise: God’s future for humanity and the Earth (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2010), 189-208. See Ernst M. Conradie, “What Makes the World Go Round? Some Reformed Perspectives on Pneumatology and Ecology”, Journal of Reformed Theology 6 (2012), 294-305. See also John Hart’s play on the spirit of the earth versus the Spirit of the earth: “The spirit of the earth is the spirit of creation itself, the potential placed in it by God to evolve toward God. The spirit of the earth is a reflection of God’s immanence, of the Spirit of the earth; it is also an indication of God’s imminence as ages pass and creation strains towards God, strains to have the spirit taken up into the Spirit.” See Hart, The Spirit of the Earth: A Theology of the Land (New York: Paulist Press, 1984), 159. See Ernst M. Conradie, “The Four Tasks of Christian Ecotheology: Revisiting the Current Debate”, Scriptura 119 (2020), 1-13. This is Sigurd Bergmann’s argument in many of his contributions. See, e.g.; “Life-giving Breath: Ecological Pneumatology in the Context of Fetishization” as cited above.

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The Value of the Sensible World According to John of Damascus Filip Ivanovic In 726, Byzantine emperor Leo III (717-741) ordered the destruction of icons and holy images in the whole of the Byzantine empire, and thus started one of the most important controversies in history that lasted more than 100 years and took many lives. The initial reasons for Leo’s decision remain unclear – whether Leo was influenced by his Middle-Eastern origins and Monophysitism, Islam, and Judaism that were dominant in those regions, or whether an earthquake was interpreted as a sign of God’s rage against the veneration of icons, is still disputed.1 In any case, the emperor was eager to prove his position right by preaching to the people and trying to convince them that the veneration of icons was against Christian doctrines; he saw himself as the true protector of Christian faith – “I am both emperor and priest”, he wrote in a letter addressed to the Pope. The image he had of himself, however, was not perceived in the same way by his people – when the emperor ordered the icon of Christ to be removed from the Chalke gate, the rage of the citizens was such that the officer in charge of the removal was instantly killed. After four years of negotiations with the ecclesiastical authorities, Leo convoked an assembly of dignitaries in 730, who were supposed to promulgate an edict banning icons. The then patriarch of Constantinople, Germanos, however, refused to sign the document, and was hence immediately deposed. He was substituted with Anastasius, who followed imperial orders and thus gave legal basis to the systematic destruction of icons and the persecution of their venerators.2 The iconoclastic policies were reinforced by Leo’s son, Constantine, who organized debates between the two parties and finally convoked an ecumenical council that took place in the imperial palace in Hiereia in 754. The decisions of the council announced at the main square of Constantinople ordered the destruction of all icons, anathematized the exponents of the Iconodule party, and declared punishable every respect for icons. Iconoclasm suffered a brief remission from 786 to 815 – with the iconophile ecumenical council of Nicaea being held in 787 – but that remission only lasted until 843 when the veneration of icons was finally restored and an annual ceremony “Triumph of Orthodoxy” was established as the celebration of the iconophile victory.3

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The iconoclastic council of 754 in its decisions condemns a monk who would be one of the pioneers of the Byzantine defense of icons and one of the most prominent figures in Christian history: To Mansur, the one with a vile-sounding name and of Saracen opinion, anathema! To the worshipper of icons and writer of falsehoods, Mansur, anathema! To the insulter of Christ and conspirator against the Empire, Mansur, anathema! To the teacher of impiety and misinterpreter of the Holy Scripture, Mansur, anathema!4

The person in question is in fact John of Damascus, a Syrian monk and defender of icons, whom the council anathematized by his secular Arab name Mansur. According to the contemporary scholarship, John was already dead (749) when the council convened, but the rather extended anathema in the council of Hiereia’s decision implies that his ideas had quite antagonized Constantine V, the emperor behind the council. On the other hand, it seems that the council did not try to counter John’s arguments, and that most probably his works were not widely known in the Byzantine empire.5 In addition to the explicit mention in the council’s decisions, however, one should also bear in mind Theopanes’s testimony that Constantine called John “Manzeros”, which is Hebrew for “bastard”, a story that confirms the emperor’s animosity towards Damascene. Furthermore, Alexakis convincingly argued that “beyond any reasonable doubt, […] the text we read in the Mansi edition of the acts of Nicaea II is derived from the same source that provided the florilegia of John of Damascus”, i.e., that John’s florilegia were behind the council’s florilegium, although indirectly.6 Despite the uncertainties about the use of John’s writings during the dispute, he obviously saw iconoclastic practices and felt it necessary to respond to them, although he witnessed only the first years of iconoclasm. His Three Treatises on the Divine Images are in fact the first attempt of a Christian thinker to formulate a coherent theory of images,7 by responding to simple questions about the nature of images, their types and similar, in order to use scriptural and patristic doctrine with the goal of providing an efficient intellectual tool for the defense of icons. These, however, are not three independent, fully original treatises, but, as Louth points out, three versions of the same treatise – the second is a more simplified, while the third is a systematic version of the first treatise.8 The composition of the treatises is of course not academic nor too systematic, which comes from the fact that many patristic writers were not interested in intellectual exhibitions, but rather felt compelled to respond to a problem that threatened what they perceived as true orthodoxy. Thus John

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writes that he has always been aware of his unworthiness, but that he sees “the Church, which God built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Christ his Son being the head cornerstone, battered as by the surging sea overwhelming it with wave upon wave, tossed about and troubled by the grievous assault of wicked spirits”.9 Damascene then proceeds by discussing worshipping, but we will return to that at a later point. The core, in fact, of the discourse is to give a definition of image, and to define the meaning of image in order to develop his argument. Thus he writes: “An image (εἰκών) is a likeness (ὁµοίωµα) depicting an archetype, but having some difference from it; the image is not like the archetype in every way”.10 The definition seems to be quite simple and straightforward at first glance, but it also has two implicit characteristics – it is relational (likeness of something) and it is negative (is not like the archetype). To define something as “likeness” means to relate it to something – its model or prototype and the only way to define it is precisely in the context of that relation. That means that the image as likeness cannot have an existence which is independent of its archetype, but it owes its existence to the model. On the other hand, the archetype, the first type/model, exists independently from its image. The difference is essential as it stands upon the independence of being. From this relational definition follows the negative part – an image is not and cannot be identical to the archetype, since its very existence depends on the existence of the archetype. John explicates the same idea in one of the chapters of the third, more systematic, treatise: An image (εἰκών) is therefore a likeness (ὁµοίωµα) and pattern (παράδειγµα) and impression (ἐκτύπωµά) of something, showing in itself what is depicted; however, the image is certainly not like the archetype, that is, what is depicted, in every respect – for the image is one thing and what it depicts is another – and certainly a difference is seen between them, since they are not identical.11

Indeed, this definition is more systematic than the previous one. Here too Damascene is concerned with the ontology of the image by stating what it is and what it is not, but he adds another component to the definition – functionality. Namely, an image shows in itself what it depicts, its function is to represent the prototype, and it does so “in itself”, an expression that might even imply a certain affinity between the representation and the represented. On the other hand, John cannot stress enough that the image and its prototype are not identical and that the difference between them is always seen. Having in mind the already proclaimed ontological difference between an image and its prototype, then this affinity has to be in form, not in essence. This difference

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is exactly what Barnard sees as the crucial point of the disagreement between iconoclasts and iconodules: The difference between iconoclast and iconodule is fundamental to the understanding of the controversy. The iconoclasts held that a material object could be the habitation of a spiritual being – that the ousiai of both coalesced into one ousia – thus worship of any image was inevitably in the nature of idolatry. Against this the iconodules laboured to show that, however close the connection between image and original, their ousiai were different – hence the worship of images was legitimate, and this worship would be referred to the prototype.12

Thus, between an image and its prototype exists a clear similarity in shape, but there is also a clear dissimilarity in being, and this argument, which Barnard sees as fundamental, is precisely what John is trying to formulate. And he gives an example: “The image of a human being may give expression to the shape of the body, but it does not have the power of the soul; for it does not live, nor does it think, or give utterance, or feel, or move its members”.13 To put it in plain words, a portrait does not possess what a human being makes a human being, and therefore, any ontological similarity has to be excluded. Thus, an image is mimetic, its main function, or essence as it were, is to show that there can be no image that does not represent something or someone.14 The definition of image, for Damascene, can then only be relational and functional – the function is to represent, while the relation is to resemble, so that the meeting point between image and prototype is in the form, not in the being. The definition of the image, however, is not the whole of John’s argument – he actually makes a classification of different types of images, namely six of them: first, the natural image (the son is the image of the father); secondly, predeterminations or paradigms of God’s pre-eternal will; thirdly, humankind as God’s creation (in the image of God); fourthly, different images used in Scriptures to convey a conception of God and angels (bodily forms that depict incorporeal realities); fifthly, images of future events (the sea that prefigures the spirit in baptism), and finally, images that commemorate past events or virtuous people.15 This classification is actually not a simple enumeration in which order is of no importance; rather, it is a ladder or a hierarchy of different types of images, that has a twofold character: ascending and descending, that is, from creatures to God and from God to creatures.16 Such hierarchy is in full accordance with Damascene’s relational understanding of images – they establish and show relationships between realities, they connect the persons of the Trinity, the past with the present, the present with the past, God with humankind, and the visible with the invisible.17 Establishing relationships should

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be seen as paired with an image’s function of showing these relationships and “conveying understanding” of them.18 As a matter of fact, images do not exist only in the artistic expression of human creativity, but it is God himself who was the first to make images – most eminently, he created human beings in his own image. In addition, he created the visible world as the image of the invisible one – our senses are precisely the means through which we can grasp a glimpse of God. Images and icons are yet another vehicle of revealing God: “What the book does for those who understand letters, the image does for the illiterate”.19 Thus, images for John have anagogical and pedagogical purpose, which he clearly states: Every image makes manifest and demonstrates something hidden. For example, because human beings do not have direct knowledge of what is invisible, since their souls are veiled by bodies, or [knowledge] of the future events, or of things distant and removed in space, since they are circumscribed by space and time, the image was devised to guide us to knowledge and to make manifest and open what is hidden, certainly for our profit and well-doing and salvation, so that, as we learn what is hidden from things recorded and noised abroad, we are filled with desire and zeal for what is good, and avoid and hate the opposite, that is, what is evil.20

Such understanding of icons as educational tools was not John’s invention, but has been present in Christian literature as early as the fourth century, as Kitzinger sums it up: The defense of the visual arts, initiated by the Cappadocian Fathers in the second half of the fourth century, was based on their usefulness as educational tools. Imagery was γραφὴ σιωπῶσα, a means of instruction or edification, especially for the illiterate. The stress may be either on intellectual nourishment or on moral education.21

The icon then for Damascene does not have an autonomous aesthetic or artistic value, nor is he interested in any technical aspect of iconography. It may seem odd to the contemporary reader that he “does not seem to have known how a picture is made, and he apparently had no appreciation for artistic imagination and workmanship”.22 What preoccupies him, however, is the education and salvation of human beings, whose composite natures as body and soul, he strongly affirms. As a matter of fact, John does not fall into a kind of radical Platonism, which rejects the matter and sense perception, but, on the contrary, embraces senses as means towards true knowledge, as stated at the beginning of the Philosophical Chapters:

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Filip Ivanovic May those who happen upon this work have it as their purpose to bring their mind safely through to the final blessed end which means to be guided by their sense perceptions up to that which is beyond all sense perception and comprehension, which is He who is the Author and Maker and Creator of all.23

The anagogical value of sense perceptions is clearly stated here – they are the vehicles through which humans gain the knowledge of God. This is of course not Damascene’s invention, but it is part of a patristic tradition explicated in a number of John’s predecessors, one of the most eminent among them being Dionysius the Areopagite, perhaps the most “aesthetic” early Christian writer, whom John quotes extensively. To just give an example, John quotes24 a passage from Dionysius’s Divine Names, which reads: We now grasp these things in the best way we can, and as they come to us, wrapped in the sacred veils of that love toward humanity with which scripture and hierarchical traditions cover the truths of the mind with things derived from the realm of the senses. And so it is that the Transcendent is clothed in the terms of being, with shape and form on things which have neither, and numerous symbols are employed to convey the varied attributes of what is an imageless and supra-natural simplicity.25

John continues by offering a comment on the quoted passage and argues that if God’s philanthropy provides forms of the formless, then it should be quite understandable to create images of what is visible in forms and shapes in order to arouse memory and zeal.26 That bodies or other material objects can be depicted is rather reasonable because “we can make images of everything with a visible shape”, but what about incorporeal beings? Damascene’s answer is that they too can be assigned a form due to the divine providence’s decision to guide human beings to the partial knowledge of incorporeal realities: God, therefore, not wishing that we should be completely ignorant of the incorporeal beings, bestowed on them figures and shapes and images that bear some analogy with our nature, bodily shapes seen by the immaterial sight of the intellect, and we depict these beings and give them shapes.27

This is of course not a philosophical argument, but rather a theological one – John does not really explain how it is possible that something invisible and incorporeal can be made visible and corporeal in order to be depicted. Instead, he marks this possibility as a permission from God and work of divine providence, listing numerous examples from the Scriptures where incorporeal creatures were represented in shapes. Thus, the icon remains a paradox – it is a visible image of the invisible, a problem that is not solved philosophically, but

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“historically”, as John tends to demonstrate with the help of past incorporeal realities, including God and angels that appeared in forms and were seen by others. The basis for this transformation of formless into form is of course the Incarnation and the final justification for the making and venerating of icons is Christological. The Incarnation, meaning God’s humanization and descent into the realm of the corporeal and visible, is the ultimate indication that depiction of the invisible is possible and permissible. God himself took on human shape, was clearly seen by others and made himself available to sensory perceptions. As John exclaims: “I am emboldened to depict the invisible God, not as invisible, but as he became visible for our sake, by participation in flesh and blood”.28 The paradox of the icon is in fact the paradox of Incarnation, of hypostatic union between two natures, human and divine. This is where Christology comes into play – Christ is composed of both divine and human natures, which are united into one person, that person being human, not divine. This basis is so strong in the theory of the icon that Schönborn can rightly claim that “the theology of the image in the Eastern Church will remain incomprehensible without a reflection on the Christological underpinnings of the icon”.29 The question, however, remains how it is possible to depict Christ’s divinity if an icon shows his human person? Iconoclasts themselves dwelled on this issue and concluded that Christ means both God and man. Accordingly a painter depicting Christ commits one of the two blasphemies – he either includes the uncircumscribable God in the circumscription of the flesh or he confuses the unconfused union of two natures.30 John does not offer an argument against such accusations and it is only with Nicephorus (750-829) that the iconophiles would have an effective response to them.31 Be that as it may, the arguments deriving from Incarnation and Christology extend their importance beyond the concept of image – they encompass the whole matter, whose value John is quite set to defend: Of old, God the incorporeal and formless was never depicted, but now that God has been seen in the flesh and has associated with human kind, I depict what I have seen of God. I do not venerate matter, I venerate the fashioner of matter, who became matter for my sake and accepted to dwell in matter and through matter worked my salvation, and I will not cease from reverencing matter, through which my salvation was worked. I do not reverence it as God – far from it; how can that which has come to be from nothing be God? – if the body of God has become God unchangeably through the hypostatic union, what gives anointing remains, and what was by nature flesh animated with a rational and intellectual soul is formed, it is not uncreated. Therefore I reverence the rest of matter and hold it in respect that through which my salvation came, because it is filled with divine energy and grace. Is not the thrice-precious and thrice-blessed

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Filip Ivanovic wood of the cross matter? Is not the holy and august mountain, the place of the skull, matter? Is not the live-giving and life-bearing rock, the holy tomb, the source of the resurrection, matter? Is not the ink and the all-holy book of the Gospels matter? Is not the life-bearing table, which offers to us the bread of life, matter? Is not the gold and silver matter, out of which crosses and tablets and bowls are fashioned? And, before all these things, is not the body and blood of my Lord matter? Either do away with reverence and veneration for all these or submit to the tradition of the Church and allow the veneration of images of God and friends of God, sanctified by name and therefore overshadowed by the grace of the divine Spirit. Do not abuse matter; for it is not dishonorable; this is the view of the Manichees. The only thing that is dishonorable is something that does not have its origin from God […], that is sin.32

Damascene here painstakingly attests to the importance of matter by citing the wood of the cross, the rock of the holy tomb, the ink of the Gospel, and the body and blood of Christ as matter. Without falling into pantheism, John argues that matter is filled with the divine energy and grace, which affirms the importance of the whole sensible world. It might seem problematic at first sight, as some have argued, that Damascene in some way equalizes the body of Christ with the rest of matter by arguing for a diffusion of the holiness of Christ’s body with other materials.33 However, the idea of the positivity of matter does not come only from Incarnation, but from the very fact of creation as well. John argues that all that was created by God deserves honor and since matter is created by God, it should not be despised or abused, but honored. Matter is to be honored as God’s creation, not as a sort of substitute of God: “I reverence it not as God, but as filled with divine energy and grace”.34 The whole world, as a matter of fact, is to be regarded as union in which human beings have a special connection to both animate and inanimate things: For the bond of union between man and inanimate things is the body and its composition out of the four elements: and the bond between man and plants consists, in addition to these things, of their powers of nourishment and growth and seeding, that is, generation: and finally, over and above these links, man is connected with unreasoning animals by appetite, that is anger and desire, and sense and impulsive movement.35

In addition, human beings are connected to incorporeal intelligences through the faculty of reason, thus appearing as a recapitulation of the cosmos, or as John in line with Maximus the Confessor would say as a microcosm. Not only have all living beingsa link with human beings, but the entire matter, as created by God, is good and is to be reverenced. This essay departed from John Damascene’s defense of icons during the iconoclastic controversy, but its main aim, as I hope is clear by now, was to

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show how his ideas go beyond the mere polemic on an issue, no matter how important that issue may be. Indeed, John’s arguments have much more farreaching importance than if studied purely in the context of the history of ideas. What started with a definition of an image, ended with a much broader theme of matter and the unity of the whole world. Twelve centuries old ideas presented here affirm human being’s superiority, but do not sanction humanity’s disregard for the rest of the creation. On the contrary, humans, as microcosms recapitulate the entire universe and are inseparably bound to all other creatures as well as to inanimate objects. As created in the image of God, human beings are in the constant process of attaining likeness to him, a process accomplished by assimilation to God as much as possible, which is a concept well known in the Byzantine tradition and which implies love, care, community, and moral behavior. The creation in the image of God, however, is not an exclusivity reserved for human beings only. On the contrary, everything, as a matter of fact, is an image of God and that is one of the great testimonies laid down by John of Damascus: For we see images in created things intimating to us dimly reflections of the divine; as when we say that there is an image of the holy Trinity, which is beyond any beginning, in the sun, its light and its ray, or in a fountain welling up and the stream flowing out and the flood, or in our intellect and reason and spirit, or a rose, its flower and its fragrance.36

References Sources

Johannes von Damaskos, Contra imaginum calumniatores orationes tres, edited by P. Bonifatius Kotter, Berlin: De Gruyter, 1975. St John of Damascus, Writings, translated by Frederick H. Chase, Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1958. St John of Damascus, Three Treatises on the Divine Images, translated by Andrew Louth, Crestwood: SVS Press, 2003. Iohannes Damascenus, Expositio accurata fideo orthodoxae, in: J.P.  Migne (ed.), Patrologiae cursus completus. Series graeca, 162 vols, Paris: Migne, 1857-1886, vol. 94. Dionysius Areopagita, Corpus Dionysiacum, 2 vols, Ed. Beate Regina Suchla, Günter Heil, and Adolf M. Ritter, Berlin: De Gruyter, 1990-1991. Pseudo-Dionysius, The Complete Works, Transl. Colm Luibheid, New York: Paulist Press, 1987. J. D. Mansi, Sacrorum Conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, Florence, 1759 (1960), XIII, 1-491.

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Studies Alexakis, Alexander, Codex Parisinus Graecus 1115 and its Archetype, Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1996. Barasch, Moshe, Icon: Studies in the History of an Idea, New York: NYU Press, 1992. Barnard, Leslie, “The Theology of Images”, in: A. Bryer & J. Herrin (eds.), Iconoclasm: Papers Given at the Ninth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Birmingham: Centre for Byzantine Studies, 1977, 7-13. Besançon, Alain, The Forbidden Image: An Intellectual History of Iconoclasm, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2000. Grabar, André, L’iconoclasme byzantin: Dossier archéologique, Paris: Collége de France, 1957. Kitzinger, Ernst, “The Cult of Images in the Age before Iconoclasm”, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 8, 1954, 83-150. Louth, Andrew, St John Damascene: Tradition and Originality in Byzantine Theology, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. Ostrogorsky, Georges, “Le début de la Querelle des Images”, in: Mélanges Charles Diehl, 2 vols, vol. 1, Paris: Leroux, 1930, 235-255. ———, Istorija Vizantije, Belgrade: BIGZ, 1998. Schönborn, Christoph, God’s Human Face: The Christ-Icon, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1994. Strezova, Anita, “Relation of Image to its Prototype in Byzantine Iconophile Theology”, Byzantinoslavica, 66, 2008, 87-106.

Endnotes 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11 

See André Grabar, L’iconoclasme byzantine: Dossier archéologique, Paris: Collége de France, 1957, and Georges Ostrogorsky, “Le début de la Querelle des Images”, in Mélanges Charles Diehl, 2 vols, vol. 1, Paris: Leroux, 1930, 235. Georgije Ostrogorski, Istorija Vizantije, Belgrade: BIGZ, 1998, 172. Andrew Louth, “Introduction”, in St John of Damascus, Three Treatises on the Divine Images, Crestwood: SVS Press, 2003, 7-8. Mansi XIII, 356CD. Andrew Louth, St John Damascene: Tradition and Originality in Byzantine Theology, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002, 197. Alexander Alexakis, Codex Parisinus Graecus 1115 and its Archetype, Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1996, 227ff. Moshe Barasch, Icon: Studies in the History of an Idea, New York: NYU Press, 1992, 188. Louth, St John Damascene, 200. Or. I.1. Or. I.9. Or. III.16.

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Leslie Barnard, “The Theology of Images”, in: A.  Bryer & J.  Herrin (eds.), Iconoclasm: Papers Given at the Ninth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Birmingham: Centre for Byzantine Studies, 1977, 10. Or. III.16. See Barasch, Icon, 198. Or. III.18-23. Anita Strezova, “Relation of Image to its Prototype in Byzantine Iconophile Theology”, Byzantinoslavica, 66, 2008, 90-91. Louth, St John Damascene, 216. Or. I.17. Ibid. Or. III.17. Ernst Kitzinger, “The Cult of Images in the Age before Iconoclasm”, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 8, 1954, 136. Barasch, Icon, 204. Dial. I. In Or. I.30. DN I.4, 592B. Or. I.31. Or. III.25. Or. I. 4. Christoph Schönborn, God’s Human Face: The Christ-Icon, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1994, 46. Mansi XIII, 240. On Nicephorus’ defense of icons and his Christological argument, see Schönborn, God’s Human Face, 206-2019. Or. I.16. Alain Besançon, The Forbidden Image: An Intellectual History of Iconoclasm, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2000, 127-128. Or. II.14. Exp. II.12. Or. I.11.

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Liberation of Mother Earth? A Hindu Declaration on Climate Change Jon Skarpeid The Declaration – A Transnational Initiative The last few decades have seen several declarations that address climate change. Hinduism is no exception. A Hindu Declaration on Climate Change was written for the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015: it is an initiative started by the Oxford Centre of Hindu Studies (an independent research centre of the University) in collaboration with The Hindu American Foundation, GreenFaith, and OurVoices.1 The declaration is a part of a transreligious ecology movement comprised of a number of contributors. For example, GreenFaith, according to their webpage, is “a multi-faith climate and environment movement” (GreenFaith).2 Similarly, OurVoices is an “international, multi-faith climate campaign”.3 The interfaith aspect is emphasised by the fact that the first Hindu Declaration of Climate Change was written for the Parliament of the World’s Religions, Melbourne Australia, 8. December 2009.4 They bear the same title except for the year; some of the same people were involved in both versions and the content is to a large extent the same.5 It is the later version that I examine herein. It consists of 1068 words, plus seven footnotes with hyper links to websites that support their view, including NASA and New Scientist magazine. 39 organisations/groups and 21 individuals endorsed the declaration at the time of publishing. Some of the significant people involved are John Grim, coordinator of the Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale University and the episcopal priest Fletcher Harper, Green Faith. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar who signed the individual list is also the founder of Art of Living Foundation, one of the groups that endorsed the declaration. Most organisations endorsing the declaration are Hindus. Others are organisations without a connection to a temple, but have a Hindu-influenced view of the world, such as Wise Earth School of Ayurveda and Seed the World. There are also organizations from Bhutan, Indonesia, and the United Kingdom, alongside many American and Indian groups. Given that some of these are Hindu societies in the USA, we might call them diasporic based on the criteria of “longing for a homeland and culture”.6 However, as other countries are also represented, it would be prudent to use the term “transnational”.7 Victor Roudometof relates transnational to the experience of being “simultaneously embedded in two or more nation-states,”

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which is the case for some of the people involved in the Declaration.8 Finally, the declaration addresses the “members of the global Hindu community,”9 which foregrounds ideas and notions of globalization. We cannot put the initiators and supporters in one of these three categories, and to strictly differentiate between the concepts diasporic, transnational and global is not possible in any way. Transnational networks of organizations, groups, and individuals are typical for the globalized world, if we are to link economy to religion. According to William I. Robinson, “economic activity is characterized by decentralized webs of horizontally interlocked networks in distinction to the old centralized hierarchies based on vertical integration”.10 None of the large Indian temple organizations (sampradayas) are found on the endorsement list, which can be seen as an example of ‘the old centralized hierarchy.’ The groups and individuals behind the declaration represent ‘horizontal networks.’ Although a limited group of individuals and organizations have launched the declaration, the United Nations have it on their homepage with a link to the full version.11 In this paper I analyse some of the salient features of the declaration and compare them to traditional Hindu thoughts. In addition, I draw on the environmental discussion, in particularly to those parts that identify with Hinduism. What kind of Hinduism should we compare to? In this religion the canon is open, new texts can be added to the old ones. In contrast to Christianity, there has been no council defining dogmas. Thus, I can acknowledge Randolph Haluza-Delay who claims that Abrahamic religions “have a far greater degree of codified belief than most other”.12 However, also in Hinduism, some beliefs and practices have had a greater impact on the traditions than others, like the concept of monism. Monism – The Universe as God’s Body One of the few used quotations from Hindu scriptures in the declaration is from Bhāgavata Purāṇa (11.2.41): “Ether, air, fire, water, earth, planets, all creatures, directions, trees and plants, rivers and seas, they are all organs of God’s body.”13 The world as God’s body, is a common view in theistic Hinduism. The quoted text uses body (śarīram), but the Kashmir Shaivite Abhinavagupta describes the Universe both as the body/form (rūpa) and as the mirror (ādarṣaḥ) of Śiva. The latter – in Paramārthasāra kārikā 9 – may even offer some association to “the image of God” found in the Hebrew Bible, Genesis 1,27. In most of theistic Hinduism, God is not only the instrumental cause (nimitta) of the universe, but also the material cause (upādāna). The world is emanated from

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God. The Western terminology for this philosophy tends to be monism, but the Sanskrit word is advaita (‘without-two’), or non-dualism. One should be inclined to believe that this kind of monism would imply an eco-theology, but this has been disputed. According to Lance E. Nelson, this Hindu monism must be challenged. Firstly, Śaṅkara, one of the most influential philosophers in the Hindu tradition, claimed that the universe appears to be an illusion (maya). Thus, why should one care about the state of the world if it is just a product of our misconception?14 However, other philosophers such as Ramanuja and Madhva claimed that the universe was real, but this does not change the fact that the problem is not so much the ontology of the Universe but a lack of interest in its creation. Despite the monistic world view, a dualism is embedded between reincarnation (saṃsāra) and liberation (mokṣa). Consequently, Nelson used as the main title of one of his contributions “The dualism of nondualism”. Even in the beloved Bhagavadgītā, what matters is the soul (atman), not the nature.15 Knut A. Jacobsen points to the same in his interesting analysis of Deep Ecology and the Bhagavadgītā, in particular of the verses 6.29, “he sees himself as in all beings and all beings in himself, who himself is yoked in discipline, and who sees the same everywhere.”16 The Monastic Hinduism understands “freedom from saṃsāra, while the self-realization (mokṣa) for the environmental meant, merging oneself with saṃsāra and the preservation of saṃsāra” (Jacobsen, 1996, p. 233). The ecological interpretation of the Bhagavadgītā is a product of Gandhi’s activism and reform-Hinduism, possible under the influence of “a social[ly] conscious Christianity”.17 The Hindu Declaration of Climate Change calls for action and reflects reform-Hinduism with quotes from Gandhi such as “we need not wait to see what others do.”18 The declaration calls for “acting with an understanding of karma and the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth.”19 The focus is on reincarnation, not liberation. Leaving aside the dualism of saṃsāra and mokṣa for a moment, monism finds adherents in ecology literature. Vincent Blok, a Dutch philosopher, includes non-dualism as one basic element of ecology.20 According to Stefan Knauß, a German philosopher, “a metaphysical monism based on an ontology of process is seen as the novelty of the Rights of Nature debate after 2000”.21 Based on the reincarnation of Christ, Matthew Eaton favours “a limited, relational monism”.22 Furthermore, the concept of the world as God’s body has also gained support. Several decades ago, the Christian theologian Sallie McFague described the earth in these terms. She referred to Stoicism for inspiration linking her position with the Christian Eucharist and the church as the body of Christ. Interestingly, she believed that the metaphor God’s body would solve the dualism in Christianity, “between spirit and body, with salvation totally concerned with the former (except for the resurrected body)”.23 A

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later article bears the title “Intimate Creation: God’s body, our Home.” She drew upon Genesis and the recurring verse “God saw it was good.” The world is God’s body and the world is good, [and is] meant for humans.24 This resembles what we have seen in ecological Hinduism, where an emphasis is given to saṃsāra and not liberation. In his thesis, A Critical Analysis of Sallie McFague’s Body of God Model as a Resource for a Christian Ecological Theology, John William Frost claims that the ‘body of God model’ tends towards reductionism, because it does not appear to endorse a coherent and complex hierarchy.25 In the Hindu Declaration of Climate Change, a hierarchical attitude seems to be part of the problem, which leads us to the next section. Non-Hierarchical – No Distinction between Man, Animals and Plants Monism is a widespread concept in Hinduism, but it includes a hierarchy. As seen in the previous section, a dualism exists between this world and liberation, which holds for almost all kinds of Hindu thoughts, including non-theistic schools of Hinduism. Additionally, we encounter a hierarchy in the spiritual and material realm of reality. For example, Kashmir Shivaism explains reality existing of 36 categories (tattvas), the highest being Śiva. The highest level is pure consciousness and the idea of a subject and an object belongs to a lower mental level and is a prerequisite for the emanation of the material universe. At the end of the spectrum come the five categories of material experience: ether, air, fire, water, and earth.26 Paradoxically, a major focus in the declaration is the earth, although in the form of the Goddess Bhūmi. In fact, the declaration starts with a quotation from Atharva Veda (12.1.12) “Mātā Bhūmi putro aham pṛthivyāḥ – The Earth is my mother and I am her child.”27 This is perhaps the only hierarchy we find in the declaration, mother-child, and Bhūmi is the only deity which is mentioned. We get ‘Lord’ once and ‘Divine’ four times, but we do not see the two most important Gods in Hinduism, Śiva and Viṣṇu. It should be noted that Bhūmi is a wife of Viṣṇu. However, in popular Hinduism, local deities, and goddesses like Bhūmi seem to be closer to daily life praxis, while Viṣṇu and Śiva represent the care of the universe.28 Much of the declaration is concerned with “act[s] of worship to honour and protect Bhūmi Devi” and point de facto to non-anthropocentrism.29 It is also worth noting that Dr Karan Sing’s writing in the Assisi Declarations on Nature where humanity “is not seen as something apart from the Earth and its multitudinous life forms”.30 The declaration also uses ahimsa, non-violence, to argue for a minimizing of the harm we cause through our actions in our ordinary day-to-day lives. Since

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even vegetation has a soul, one may ask if eating plants is a sort of violence, but according to the Tamil reformer Ramalinga Swami (1823-1874) this is not the case as long as you don’t kill the plant but only produce food from “seeds, vegetables, fruit, flowers, roots, and leaves”.31 As to animal sacrifices, it has come under attack by both progressive Hindus who find it barbaric and conservative high casts who claim that animal sacrifices is incompatible with ahimsa. In several states animal sacrifices have almost disappeared, and the Coorg cast in Karnataka opposed a buffalo sacrifice on the ground that buffalos are similar to cows.32 If ahimsa was meant for the care of animals (and plants), has been disputed. Basant Lal claims that ahimsa “towards animals is based not on considerations about the animals as such but on consideration about how the development of this attitude is part of the purification steps that brings men to the path of mokṣa [liberation]”.33 To give the concept of ahimsa an ecological motivation, we witness the same shift in the analysis of monism, from mokṣa to saṃsāra, from liberation to the state of the material world. The declaration states that “climate change creates pain”.34 Monastic Hinduism would prescribe liberation from reincarnation as the cure, but the declaration calls “all Hindus to expand our conception of dharma. We must consider the effects of our actions, not just on ourselves and those humans around us, but also on all beings.”35 In order to build a Hindu argument regarding a care for all living beings, Christopher G. Framarin argues that “I might be reborn as plant, animal, human, ghost, or god … and the only thing that distinguishes each of these births is the merit or demerit”.36 Eliot S. Deutch, has used the concept of the interconnectedness of all beings and what “one does will have effects not only in the immediate present but in the long future as well: any act, in short, will have consequences that reach out far beyond the act itself”.37 The strongest action of a non-anthropocentric horizon, or service of Bhūmi Devi, was the March 20 2017 when the glaciers Gangotri and Yamonutri in India were declared “living entities” by the High Court of Uttarakhand. It is a very Indian way of acting and the two judges explained that “past generations have handed over the ‘Mother Earth’ to us in its pristine glory and we are morally bound to hand over the same Mother Earth to the next generation”.38 If this will help the glaciers remains to be seen. According to one rigorous study, such legal action can serve as a first step.39 The declaration does not address caste ( jati) or class (varṇa), but if there are no differences between man and animals, why should divisions exist among human beings? Again, this would be a shift from the traditional modus operandi. Although the Bhagavadgītā portrays devotion as an even higher form of practice than ritual or knowledge, it is socially conservative, not only when it comes to men and women, but also to the class system (varṇa). Reform

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Hinduism is skeptical of the social division. Reverend Pandurang Shastri Athavale, leader of the new religious movement Swadhyayis in Western India, had his own concept of ‘Indwelling God’ which “helps transcend the divisions of class, caste, and religion”.40 Since the cast system is related to professions and families, it is not easy to transfer it to societies outside of South-Asia. It is therefore not surprising that a blog on one of the organizations endorsing the declaration proposes that “the Caste system should be dismantled”.41 International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKON), or ‘Hare Krishna,’ amongst others, retains the four classes (varṇa), and offers descriptions of what kind of professions belong to the respective classes (see for example Back2Godhead). A non-hierarchy horizon is widespread also among ecology-minded scholars who do not deal particularly with Hinduism. According to Vincent Blok, a non-anthropocentric attitude is a core value for ecology. He highlights ecophilosophers like Arne Næss, George Sessions, and William B. Devall, who claim that our environmental crises is rooted in an “anthropocentric humanism”.42 Eaton, whom we saw advocating for a specific monism, is critical of a “metaphysical anthropocentrism” which “upholds a value hierarchy between creatures and elevate the human to quasi-divine status.” In his essay, he seeks to “re-image Christology apart from metaphysical anthropocentrism”.43 The ‘intrinsic value’ of nature has become a popular concept and is used in several of the contributions in Religion and the Anthropocene.44 Vegetarian Diet – Serving Mother Earth One action someone can implement to take care of the earth is that of the Bhūmi project. It is facilitated by the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, one of the initiators of the declaration. The Bhūmi project consists of five steps, the first suggesting that a person must “cut out red meat” from their diet and the second is to “Go Veg”.45 The declaration itself addresses the individual and the need to simplify “our lives and material desires;” the only defined action is changing to a plant-based diet which is “one of the single most powerful acts” an individual can do for the benefit of the environment.46 They amplify this argument by providing a link to an article in The Guardian, “giving up beef reduces [the] carbon footprint more than cars.” Many of the groups that have endorsed the declaration are also strong adherents of vegetarian food, for example ISKCON. Several texts in Hinduism are dedicated to food, for example the Taittirīya Upaniṣad 3, 1-2: “Brahman is food – for, clearly, it is from food that these beings are born … Food is Brahman because food circulates in the

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universe through bodies which in turn are food made of flesh and bone”.47 Nevertheless, tradition marks a differentiation when it comes to food, which “reflects one’s caste, moral character, homeland and sectarian affiliation”.48 Brahmins are supposed to be vegetarian, although the Bengali brahmins eat fish. There is always an exception to the rule. In the social hierarchy of the four classes (varṇa) that distinguish the warrior class (kṣatriya) from the Brahmins, it is their non-vegetarian diet. Contrary to what many Westerners believe, most Indians eat meat although not necessarily as much and as often as people do in the West. According to a study conducted by the Indian Government in 2006, “88 percent of India’s Hindus ate meat of some kind”.49 And surprisingly, India was the world’s largest exporter of meat in 2012, and in 2019 was only surpassed by Brazil (Statista). At the same time, as Vinay Lal emphasizes, India has the lowest per capita meat consumption.50 Many Indians admit that they eat meat, although the normal or standard would be a vegetarian diet, and while talking about food, they would ask “what vegetable did you eat today?”.51 Food is also a deep concern for many immigrants in the West. Some are eating meat, but only outside their home. Others have become dedicated vegetarians.52 The Jains advocate a vegan diet, habitually reminding us that ‘it is curel to the what is meant for the calf.’ Given this view, the preoccupation with one’s diet may consequently further increase in the North-American context.53 A vegetarian diet is normally advocated by Neo-Hindu movements operating on a global scale. The founder of ISKCON, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977) is no exception. He attacked the Western lifestyle and claimed that flesh-eating and cow-killing would cause tremendous bad karma; from the very start, a vegetarian lifestyle has been emphasized. New members “take a vow to abstain from non-vegetarian foods when they receive initiation” and focus on cow-protection which distinguishes them from “secular vegetarians”.54 The last decade’s focus on climate change, has provided new input and as a prominent member of ISKCON claims, “simply being vegetarian means we contribute a great deal less to toxic waste problems than nonvegetarians do”.55 One the one hand, ISKCON maintains the hierarchy of class, but on the other hand, removes one of the elements that distinguish them, namely the one of diet. The emphasis of vegetarianism, be it in a south-Asia or an international context, can be defined as a sort of ‘Sanskritization,’ a high cast practice made to a universal value, for example that can be seen in the case of Ramalinga.56 Still, Gandhi was a strong adherent of a vegetarian diet although he was not a high-class Hindu but belonged to the merchant class (vaiśa). Although food production has become a global concern, not many argue for a strict vegetarian

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diet. Still, the reduction of meat consumption is often mentioned.57 This notion can also be extended to religion. Some years back, Lynn and Ellie Whitney collected 32 faith-based statements on climate change. A search in the text gave me 14 hits for food, but only two related to a vegetarian diet, namely in the 2009 Hindu Declaration of Climate Change and in the Jain Faith Statement. The Buddhist Declaration speaks in favour of reducing meat consumption.58 Still, vegetarianism is advocated among believers from all faiths. In Genesis 1, it states that plants and fruits of the trees should be the food of man. The vegetarian argument suggests that only after the fall (post lapsum) man started to eat meat. Conclusion I suggest that the most important element in the Hindu Declaration on Climate Change 2015 is the change from a monism that focusses on the liberation of the soul to a monism that has the universe as its (ultimate) concern. Instead of the liberation of the soul, the declaration seems to advocate the liberation of Mother Earth. Once this shift has taken place, the next steps come naturally. When all creation is the body of God, a believer can do nothing but care for all creation and the killing of animals becomes indefensible. Some individuals play down or even annihilate divisions based on caste and class in their seemingly anti-hierarchical world view. The declaration demonstrates that Hinduism has the capacity to modify the tradition and creates new forms that adapt to the environment within a globalized and transnational context. Migrant communities are not only traditional but are also capable of transforming discourses and practices.59 The fact that the declaration might be said to be a product of a transnational elite does not change this fact. However, the activism and ecological concern does not date from the 21st century. Globalized Hinduism stands on the shoulders of reform-Hinduism that emerged in colonial India, Gandhi being the most famous individual proponent. At least two of the three main concerns raised in the declaration have widespread support. We have seen that a monistic oriented philosophy is common among people concerned with environmental care and I have provided examples from Christians and the secular scholarly community. Among the former, we even find supporters of the concept of ‘the world as the body of God.’ Although not too many seem to desire a vegetarian diet with its reduction in meat consumption, the influence of a vegetarian lifestyle is, nevertheless, increasing. When it comes to the demands of eco-philosophy, the declaration responds to all three elements. Firstly, it is indeed ‘non-dualistic.’

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There is no strict division between God and creation, at least not when the dualism between world and liberation is omitted. Secondly, the declaration advocates non-anthropocentrism. Not only human and animals have souls, but also flora and fauna. The last is wholly eco-centric and is perhaps not as easy to evaluate as the other two. Nevertheless, the declaration is eco-centric in its ethos and the focus on plant-based diets should provide significant evidence of an earth-centered progressive global movement. References Alley, K. D. (2019). River Goddesses, Personhood and Rights of Nature: Implications for Spiritual Ecology. Religions, 10(9), 1-17. Back to Godhead. Varnashramadharma. https://back2godhead.com/varnasramadharma/ Accessed June 25 2020. Blok, V. (2014). Reconnecting with Nature in the Age of Technology: The Heidegger and Radical Environmentalism Debate Revisited. Environmental philosophy, 11(2), 307-332. Carlsson-Kanyama, A., & González, A. D. (2009). Potential contributions of food consumption patterns to climate change [1704S-1709S]. Bethesda, Md. Deane-Drummond, C., Bergmann, S., & Vogt, M. (2018). Religion in the Anthropocene (1 ed.). Lutterworth Press. Deutsch, E.  S. (1970). Vedānta and Ecology. In  T.  M. P.  Mahadevan (Ed.), Indian Philosophical Annual 7 (pp. 1-10). Devi Dasi, K. D. (2019). Climate Change and the Ecology of our Hearts. ISKCON Desire Tree. https://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/climate-change-and-the-ecologyof-our-hearts Accessed May 21 2020. Eaton, M. (2018). Beyond Human Exceptionalism: Christology in the Anthropocen. In C. Deane-Drummond, S. Bergmann, & M. Vogt (Eds.), Religion in the Anthropocene (1 ed., pp. 202-217). Lutterworth Press. Flueckiger, J.  B. (2018). Gender and Genre in the Folklore of Middle India. Cornell University Press. Framarin, C.  G. (2014). Hinduism and Environmental Ethics: Law, Literature, and Philosophy. Taylor and Francis. Frost, J. W. (2006). A critical analysis of Sallie McFague’s body of God model as a resource for a Christian ecological theology. School of Religion and Theology, University of KwaZulu-Natal. Pietermaritzburge, South-Africa. Fuller, C. J. (2004). The Camphor Flame: Popular Hinduism and Society in India (Revised and expanded ed.). Princeton University Press.

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GreenFaith. https://greenfaith.org/index.html Accessed May 21 2020. Haluza-DeLay, R. (2014). Religion and Climate Change: Varieties in Viewpoints and Practices. WIRES Climate Change, 5(2), 261-279. Hedenus, F., Wirsenius, S., & Johansson, D. J. A. (2014). The Importance of Reduced Meat and Dairy Consumption for Meeting Stringent Climate Change Targets. Climatic change, 124(1-2), 79-91. Hindu Declaration on Climate Change. (2009). https://iefworld.org/hindu_cc Accessed May 21 2020. Accessed Hindu Declaration on Climate Change. (2015). http://www.hinduclimate declaration2015.org/english. Accessed May 28 2020. Jacobsen, K.  A. (1996). Bhagavadgītā, Ecosophy T, and Deep Ecology. Inquiry, 39(2), 219-238. Jain, P. (2016). Dharma and Ecology of Hindu Communities. Routledge. Johnson, P. C. (2012). Religion and Diaspora. Religion and Society: Advanced in Research, 3, 95-114. King, A. S. (2012). Krishna’s Cows: ISKCON’s Animal Theology and Practice. Journal of Animal Ethics, 2(2), 179-204. Knauß, S. (2018). Conceptualizing Human Stewardship in the Anthropocene: The Rights of Nature in Ecuador, New Zealand and India. Journal of agricultural & environmental ethics, 31(6), 703-722. Lal, B. K. (1986). Hindu Perspectives on the use of Animals in Science. In T. Regan (Ed.), Animal Sacrifices: (pp. 199-212). Temple University Press. Lal, V. (2015). Climate Change: Insights from Hinduism. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 83(2), 388-406. McFague, S. (1988). The World as God’s Body. Christian Century, 105(22), 671-673. McFague, S. (2002). Intimate Creation: God’s Body, our Home. Christian Century, 119(6), 36-45. Nelson, L. E. (1998). The Dualims of Nondualism: Advaita Vedānta and the Irrelevance of Nature. In  L.  E.  Nelson (Ed.), Purifying the Earthly Body of God: Religion and Ecology in Hindu India (pp. 61-88). University of New York Press. Nelson, L.  E. (2000). Reading the Bhagavadgītā from an Ecological Perspective. In M. E. Tucker & C. K. Chapple (Eds.), Hinduism and Ecology: the Intersection of Earth, Sky, and Water (pp. 127-164). Harvard University Press. Novetzke, C.  L. (2017). Non-Veg. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 40(2), 366-369. Parliament of the World’s Religion. (2015). Ourvoices and Green Faith Supporters on Getting Behind Pope Francis on Climate Change. Parliament of Religion. https:// www.parliamentofreligions.org/blog/2019-05-29-2323/ourvoices-and-green-faithsupporters-getting-behind-pope-francis-climate-change Accessed May 28 2020.

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Patrick, O. (1998). The Early Upanishads: Annotated Text and Translation. Oxford University Press. Robinson, W. I. (2012). Global Capitalism Theory and the Emergence of Transnational Elites. Critical Sociology, 38(3), 349-363. Roudometof, V. (2018). Glocal Religions: An Introduction. Religions, 9(10), 294-302. Saunders, J.  B. (2007). I don’t Eat Meat: Discourse on Food among Transnational Hindus. Contributions to Indian Sociology, 41(2), 203-223. Seed the World. https://www.seedtheworld.org/ Accessed June 8 2020. Singh, K. (1986). The Hindu Declaration of Nature. In The Assisi Declarations: Messages on Humanity and Nature from Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam & Judaism (Vol. WWF 25th Anniversary, 29. September.). https://www.silene.ong/en/ documentation-centre/declarations/the-hindu-declaration-on-nature Accessed May 21 2020. Skarpeid, J. (2015). Kosmologi i miniatyr? Narrativitet i hindustanimusikk sett i relasjon til indisk religion NTNU. Trondheim. Skarpeid, J. (2019). Globalization and religion: defining the contexts. In J. Skarpeid & B. E. Elness-Hanson (Eds.), A critical study of classical religious texts in global contexts: Challenges of a changing world (pp. 13-34). Peter Lang. Statista. Export volume of beef and veal worldwide from 2017 to 2020, by country (in 1,000 metric tons). https://www.statista.com/statistics/617458/beef-and-vealexport-volume-worldwide-by-country/ Accessed June 25 2020. The Bhūmi Project. Compassionate Living. http://www.bhumiproject.org/ compassionate-living/ Accesssed June 25 2020. United Nations. (2015). Hindu Declaration on Climate Change. Vallely, A. (2004). The Jain Plate: The Semiotics of the Diaspora Diet. In A. J. Knut & K.  Pratap (Eds.), South Asians in the Diaspora: Histories and Religious Traditions (Vol. 101, pp. 3-22). Brill. Veer, P. v. d. (2004). Transnational Religion; Hindu and Muslim Movements. Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies, 3(7), 4-18. Weiss, R. (2019). The Emergence of Modern Hinduism: Religion on the Margins of Colonialism. University of California Press. Whitney, L., & Whitney, E. (2012). Faith Based Statements on Climate Change. https:// canada.citizensclimatelobby.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/converted_files/ default/files/images/Faith%20Based%20Statements%20PDF%20for%20printing. pdf. Accessed June 25 2020.

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Endnotes 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20  21  22  23  24  25 

United Nations. (2015). Hindu Declaration on Climate Change. GreenFaith. https://greenfaith.org/index.html Accessed May 21 2020. The webpage “OurVoices.net” has been down while writing this article, but the description found at the world Parliament is given at several other webpages too. Hindu Declaration on Climate Change. (2009). https://iefworld.org/hindu_cc Accessed May 21 2020. The American Hindu Mat McDermott informed me in an email correspondence that he was the lead author of the 2015 Declaration, and “involved” in the 2009 version. Skarpeid,  J. (2019). Globalization and religion: defining the contexts. In  J.  Skarpeid & B.  E.  Elness-Hanson (Eds.), A critical study of classical religious texts in global contexts: Challenges of a changing world (pp. 13-34). Peter Lang, p. 22. Johnson, P. C. (2012). Religion and Diaspora. Religion and Society: Advanced in Research, 3, 95-114, p. 101. Roudometof, V. (2018). Glocal Religions: An Introduction. Religions, 9(10), 294-302, p. 298. United Nations. (2015). Hindu Declaration on Climate Change. Robinson,  W.  I. (2012). Global Capitalism Theory and the Emergence of Transnational Elites. Critical Sociology, 38(3), 349-363, p. 354. United Nations. (2015). Hindu Declaration on Climate Change. Haluza-DeLay,  R. (2014). Religion and Climate Change: Varieties in Viewpoints and Practices. WIRES Climate Change, 5(2), 261-279, p. 262. United Nations. (2015). Hindu Declaration on Climate Change. Nelson, L. E. (1998). The Dualims of Nondualism: Advaita Vedānta and the Irrelevance of Nature. In L. E. Nelson (Ed.), Purifying the Earthly Body of God: Religion and Ecology in Hindu India (pp. 61-88). University of New York Press. Nelson,  L.  E. (2000). Reading the Bhagavadgītā from an Ecological Perspective. In M. E. Tucker & C. K. Chapple (Eds.), Hinduism and Ecology: the Intersection of Earth, Sky, and Water (pp. 127-164). Harvard University Press, p. 140. Jacobsen’s own translation found in Jacobsen, K. A. (1996). Bhagavadgītā, Ecosophy T, and Deep Ecology. Inquiry, 39(2), 219-238. Ibid., p. 227. Hindu Declaration on Climate Change. (2009). Ibid. Blok, V. (2014). Reconnecting with Nature in the Age of Technology: The Heidegger and Radical Environmentalism Debate Revisited. Environmental philosophy, 11(2), 307-332. Knauß, S. (2018). Conceptualizing Human Stewardship in the Anthropocene: The Rights of Nature in Ecuador, New Zealand and India. Journal of agricultural & environmental ethics, 31(6), 703-722, p. 710. Eaton,  M. (2018). Beyond Human Exceptionalism: Christology in the Anthropocen. In  C.  Deane-Drummond, S.  Bergmann, & M.  Vogt (Eds.), Religion in the Anthropocene (1 ed., pp. 202-217). Lutterworth Press, pp. 205f. McFague, S. (1988). The World as God’s Body. Christian Century, 105(22), 671-673, p. 672. McFague, S. (2002). Intimate Creation: God’s Body, our Home. Christian Century, 119(6), 36-45. Frost,  J.  W. (2006). A critical analysis of Sallie McFague’s body of God model as a resource for a Christian ecological theology. School of Religion and Theology, University of KwaZulu-Natal. Pietermaritzburge, South-Africa.

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For an elaboration of the tattvas, see chapter 3 in Skarpeid 2015. Hindu Declaration on Climate Change. (2009). Fuller, C. J. (2004). The Camphor Flame: Popular Hinduism and Society in India (Revised and expanded ed.). Princeton University Press, p. 32. Hindu Declaration on Climate Change. (2009). Singh, K. (1986). The Hindu Declaration of Nature. In The Assisi Declarations: Messages on Humanity and Nature from Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam & Judaism (Vol. WWF 25th Anniversary, 29. September.). https://www.silene.ong/en/documentation-centre/ declarations/the-hindu-declaration-on-nature Accessed May 21 2020. Ramalinga qtd. in Weiss, R. (2019). The Emergence of Modern Hinduism: Religion on the Margins of Colonialism. University of California Press, p. 38. Fuller, 2004, p. 99. Lal, B. K. (1986). Hindu Perspectives on the use of Animals in Science. In T. Regan (Ed.), Animal Sacrifices: (pp. 199-212). Temple University Press, p. 200. Hindu Declaration on Climate Change. (2009). Ibid. Framarin, C. G. (2014). Hinduism and Environmental Ethics: Law, Literature, and Philosophy. Taylor and Francis, p. 230. Deutch, E. S. (1970). Vedānta and Ecology. In T. M. P. Mahadevan (Ed.), Indian Philosophical Annual 7 (pp. 1-10), pp. 2f. Knauß, S. (2018), p. 713. Alley, K. D. (2019). River Goddesses, Personhood and Rights of Nature: Implications for Spiritual Ecology. Religions, 10(9), 1-17. Jain, P. (2016). Dharma and Ecology of Hindu Communities. Routledge, p. 18. Seed the World. https://www.seedtheworld.org/ Accessed June 8 2020. Blok, V. (2014), p. 309. Eaton,  M. (2018). Beyond Human Exceptionalism: Christology in the Anthropocen. In  C.  Deane-Drummond, S.  Bergmann, & M.  Vogt (Eds.), Religion in the Anthropocene (1 ed., pp. 202-217). Lutterworth Press, p. 202. Deane-Drummond,  C., Bergmann,  S., & Vogt,  M. (2018). Religion in the Anthropocene (1 ed.). Lutterworth Press. The Bhūmi Project. Compassionate Living. http://www.bhumiproject.org/compassionateliving/ Accesssed June 25 2020. Hindu Declaration on Climate Change. (2009). Patrick,  O. (1998). The Early Upanishads: Annotated Text and Translation. Oxford University Press, p. 309. Saunders, J. B. (2007). I don’t Eat Meat: Discourse on Food among Transnational Hindus. Contributions to Indian Sociology, 41(2), 203-223, p. 212. Novetzke, C. L. (2017). Non-Veg. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 40(2), 366-369, p. 367. Lal, V. (2015). Climate Change: Insights from Hinduism. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 83(2), 388-406, p. 402. Flueckiger, J. B. (2018). Gender and Genre in the Folklore of Middle India. Cornell University Press, p. xvii. Saunders, 2007, pp. 212f. Vallely,  A. (2004). The Jain Plate: The Semiotics of the Diaspora Diet. In  A.  J.  Knut & K. Pratap (Eds.), South Asians in the Diaspora: Histories and Religious Traditions (Vol. 101, pp. 3-22). Brill, p. 13.

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King, A. S. (2012). Krishna’s Cows: ISKCON’s Animal Theology and Practice. Journal of Animal Ethics, 2(2), 179-204, p. 180. Devi Dasi, K. D. (2019). Climate Change and the Ecology of our Hearts. ISKCON Desire Tree. https://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/climate-change-and-the-ecology-of-ourhearts Accessed May 21 2020. Weiss,  R. (2019). The Emergence of Modern Hinduism: Religion on the Margins of Colonialism. University of California Press, p. 38. Carlsson-Kanyama, A., & González, A. D. (2009). Potential contributions of food consumption patterns to climate change [1704S-1709S]. Bethesda, Md; Hedenus, F., Wirsenius, S., & Johansson, D. J. A. (2014). The Importance of Reduced Meat and Dairy Consumption for Meeting Stringent Climate Change Targets. Climatic change, 124(1-2), 79-91. Whitney,  L., & Whitney,  E. (2012). Faith Based Statements on Climate Change. https:// canada.citizensclimatelobby.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/converted_files/default/ files/images/Faith%20Based%20Statements%20PDF%20for%20printing.pdf. Accessed June 25 2020. Veer, P. v. d. (2004). Transnational Religion; Hindu and Muslim Movements. Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies, 3(7), 4-18.

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Politics

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The Sustainable Development Goals, the Club of Rome and Naming the Beast: Capitalism Ulrich Duchrow The starting point of dealing with the present crises must be the fact that if the present economic system, the current thinking and behavior patterns, meaning the dominant civilization as a whole, persist, the living conditions for humanity on this planet will be destroyed. Accordingly, it is not just a question of morality and ethics in the traditional sense, but also a question of life and death to overcome the dominant model of civilization. Everything we say today must reflect this extreme urgency and the faith to cope with it. The driving force of this civilization is compulsive and limitless growth – growth of production, growth of consumption, growth of resource extraction, growth of pollution, growing extinction of species, a growing climate catastrophe. But the root cause of this compulsory growth is the systemic fact that capital must grow. This is why this civilization is rightly called capitalist. Two recent major documents composed by institutions with high authority address the question of global crises and a possible way out: The Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations (SDGs)1 and the Report of the Club of Rome (2018), called “Come On! Capitalism, Short-termism, Population and the Destruction of the Planet”.2 Let us see whether they live up to the magnitude of the challenge. 1.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

The 17 SDGs were set by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015. They were to follow-up the Millennium Goals (MDGs). The following was decided: 1. No Poverty, 2. Zero Hunger, 3. Good Health and Well-being, 4. Quality Education, 5. Gender Equality, 6. Clean Water and Sanitation, 7. Affordable and Clean Energy, 8. Decent Work and Economic Growth, 9. Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, 10 Reducing Inequality, 11. Sustainable Cities and Communities, 12. Responsible Consumption and Production, 13. Climate Action, 14. Life Below Water, 15. Life On Land, 16. Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions, 17. Partnerships for the Goals. The Goals are subdivided in targets which are to be evaluated with the help of indicators. In 2030 the goals are to be reached.

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Everybody will agree that most of the goals are extremely important for the future of humanity. However, problematic is that they are full of contradictions. The main contradiction exists between goal 8 (economic growth) and the ecological goals (12-15). Goal 8 is built on the illusion of green capitalism assuming that the destruction of creation and growth can be decoupled. The overall goal is: “Promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all”. This is followed by 10 targets. Target  8.1 reads: “Sustain per capita economic growth in accordance with national circumstances and, in particular, at least 7 per cent gross domestic product growth per annum in the least developed countries”. Undoubtedly, poor countries need economic growth even in ecological perspective. But a critical analysis of the whole question of growth is completely absent from the SDGs. Target  8.4 suggests: “Improve progressively, through 2030, global resource efficiency in consumption and production and endeavour to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation, in accordance with the 10-year framework of programmes on sustainable consumption and production, with developed countries taking the lead”. Accordingly, target 8.4 highlights a problem that cannot be solved, namely the decoupling of “economic growth from environmental degradation”. It cannot be solved in a capitalist civilization due to the motor of capital accumulation creating compulsory economic growth beyond sufficiency and feedback processes: once there is a progress in the green technology the consumption increases (rebound-effect). Ulrich Brand puts it succinctly: “The capitalist imperative for growth and the dominance of the profit principle, as well as the related powerful interests, constantly thwart the lofty goals. The Green Economy promises to modernise capitalism through ‘greening’. The capitalist logic of competition, or the relations of power that benefit business, are left untouched. Consumers are called on to act with greater ecological awareness, yet the anti-ecological principles inherent to the capitalist mode of production are supposed to remain. The Green Economy – in its currently promoted form – does not reconcile capitalist companies and the climate, or the rich and the poor classes in society, neither locally nor globally. Such a one-sided project cannot work, it’s more like trying to have your cake and eat it too.”3 Yet, how can the following happen without challenging the capitalist order: “By 2030, ensure that all men and women, in particular the poor and the vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance natural resources, appropriate new technology and financial services, including microfinance” (goal 1.target 4)? How can this happen without limiting the holy, nearly absolute right to private property in all bourgeois constitutions,

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especially regarding land? What about the flow of over-accumulated capital used to privatize goods and services of basic needs: water, energy, housing, transport, education, health etc.? What about the dominating financial system? Already the creation of money by bank credits is linked to interestbearing debt. All this is simply left out from the reflections of the SDG’s. On this basis they produce illusions. The Club of Rome seems to see this. They realize the contradictions between the social and ecological goals on the one side and the economic concepts on the other.4 They ask for a fundamental economic change. What do they mean concretely? 2.

The State of the World and the Response of the Club of Rome

The report of 2018 “Come on!…” has three parts: 1. “Don’t Tell Me the Current Trends Are Sustainable!” 2. “Don’t Stick to Outdated Philosophies”. 3. “Join us on an Exciting Journey Towards a Sustainable World”. Part 1 starts with the shocking figures of the ecological crisis: “Science tells us that almost half of the top soils on earth have been depleted in the last 150 years; nearly 90% of fish stocks are either overfished or fully fished. Climate stability is in real danger …; and the earth is now in the sixth mass extinction period in history”5. At the same time the report points to the growing inequalities between rich and poor and to “the irrational belief that physical economies can grow for ever”. The result is a multiple ecological, social, political, cultural and moral crisis as well as a crisis of the global capitalist system which has “moved from furthering the economic development of countries, regions and the world towards maximizing profits, and then to a larger extend profits from speculation”6 – in short what is called neoliberalism. As a reaction to the fear of the middle-classes of losing social status right wing populism is on the rise – a rise also fueled by the number of refugees. The central cause for all this is the financialization of the economy. The European Enlightenment came at a time of an empty world. Today we have a full world – a world filled to the limits. Accordingly, we need a “new Enlightenment for a full World”7 which as its main principle has to limit growth. A central contribution to this came from the Encyclical “Laudato sí” of Pope Francis. The full world is characterized by the following boundaries: resource scarcity, food per person, industrial output per person, pollution, population. They relate to the nine “planetary life support systems”8 (Stratospheric ozone depletion, loss of biodiversity and extinctions, chemical pollution and the release of novel entities, climate change, ocean acidification, land system

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change, freshwater consumption and the global hydrological cycle, nitrogen and phosphorus flows to the biosphere and oceans, atmospheric aerosol loading). According to the report this situation is the basis for the concept of Anthropocene for the present geological era. Especially the climate change is dramatic and will lead – according to recent studies – to a temperature plus of 3 degrees with unknown catastrophic consequences. The report asks for a crash plan. A Marshall Plan could help, but given the actions of US-President Trump such a plan seems unlikely. There are other disasters ahead9: Synthetic biology creating viral and bacterial organisms with novel and deadly characteristics, which could be even more devastating than the Corona virus Covid-19; geoengineering; advances in artificial intelligence matching or surpassing human intellectual capabilities. Well known are the dangers of industrial agribusiness, biological and nuclear weapons, over-population and growing urbanization. But also free trade with its main actors, the Transnational Corporations (TNCs) and WTO, has negative consequences for the environment and consumers. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN are very welcome. But without a fundamental transformation of the economy the socio-economic and ecological SDGs are contradictory10. They can only succeed if they are a harmonic whole. Furthermore, the Digitization will only reinforce the negative trends, if there is no basic change in the economy. “In the full world, ‘externalities’ are not external but affect people and planet alike”11. Still private owners of production move their costs to the general public. The instrument to hide this is the concept of GDP which measures economic success only in terms of the growth of money and not in terms of gains and losses for the welfare of people and earth. All this is a sign of a deep “philosophical crisis” which is dealt with in part 2. Part 2 has the title “C’mon! Don’t Stick to Outdated Philosophies”12. It starts with an eulogy of Pope Francis who has already demonstrated the necessary new thinking in his encyclical “Laudato sí” (2015).13 It is very interesting to see that those natural scientists, editing the report of the Club of Rome underline especially the highly theological sentence: “Nature is usually seen as a system, which can be studied, understood and controlled, whereas creation can only be understood as a gift. …” The report is also aware of the fact that the World Council of Churches worked along the same lines already since its 1983 Assembly in Vancouver when the process on Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation was launched. It was later reconfirmed in a global convocation in Seoul in 1990.14 Also the 2015 Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change is quoted.15 So all major religions are allies for the new thinking against the

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short range logic of the market. However, we have to still overcome the wrong conclusions of the misunderstandings of the dominium terrae (Gen 1:26-28). “Come on!” quotes a report given to the Club of Rome by the US development economist David Korten. In this report, he proposes to replace the old narrative by a new one – or at least modify it in order to fit the full world16. He starts from the center of the religions, the concept of God. In the Abrahamic religions Judaism, Christianity and Islam he sees the “distant patriarch” as the leading image. This leads to the trust in military might, contempt and oppression of women and a dogma which is unable to learn. Of course, there were resistance movements against this, but often they also reflected the same logic like the European Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries. Their great narrative invented the story of the “Grand Machine” cosmology, in which money got a sacred character – up to our time, in which the world is controlled and dominated by “money seeking robots”.17 Here we are reminded of monsters, born from a purely calculating reductionist reason as painted by Goya.18 Korten contrasts this nightmare with the new narrative and cosmology of “Sacred Life and Sacred Earth”. He highlights already emerging movements of a “Living Economy”, thereby overcoming “sacred money”. Here I point to Kairos Europa, the ecumenicl grass roots organization, which for about 20 years has published a series of brochures, offering ecumenical processes, examples and declarations under the motto “Economy of Live”.19 Here we can see what the report states: “It should be stressed that addressing today’s challenges … will necessarily involve a spiritual dimension, a moral vantage point. To address the daunting issues before us, it is simply not acceptable that selfishness and greed continue to enjoy positive social connotations as supposed drivers of progress. Progress can flourish just as well in a civilization that fosters solidarity, humility and respect for Mother Earth and for future generations”20. Then follows a critical assessment of capitalism21 – however with an understanding which we have to consider in more detail later. It starts from the assumption that after World War II we had a “social market economy”, but after the break-down of Soviet Communism in 1989 capitalism became “arrogant”, prepared by Pinochet, Thatcher and Reagan. During its globalization the balance between markets and state broke down. The solution for this is described in the following way: The agenda of rebalancing the public with the private good may take a whole generation, some 30 years. In this agenda, the intellectual and political weaknesses and strengths contained within markets and states should be identified. Neither purist market ideology nor pure state dominance will be acceptable, but very considerable energies between the two can emerge from suitable and

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The report also looks at the prehistory of the neoliberal market dogma, especially the leading role of the Mont Pèlerin Society with its protagonists Friedrich August Hayek and Milton Friedman23 in order to understand today’s dominance of the financial markets via speculation and tax havens. According to the report, the original concepts of liberalism were changed and became destructive. Adam Smith’s understanding of the market as being guided by an “invisible hand” was taken out of its contextual framework (morality and state24). David Ricardo’s “comparative advantage” in international trade only functions under the condition that capital is controlled nationally, not able to globally play all actors against one another. And Charles Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” meant local competition, not global trade. Philosophically speaking the problem is methodological reductionism25. Classical and neoclassical economy functions according to the reductionist and mechanistic ideas of Descartes and Newton. Yet Heisenberg’s uncertainty relation and Niels Bohr’s complementarity withdrew the basis of reductionism. This new thinking opened the way for a new philosophy of life and thinking in open systems – Gregory Bateson, Fritjof Capra and Pier Luigi Luisi being examples. They discovered Asian religions, philosophies and spirituality as source for our search of balance between seeming opposites. With their help we can overcome the world view that everything – especially in science, technology and management – follows the laws of the machine with all its disastrous consequences for humanity and the earth. Reductionist philosophy also led to the separation of theory, education and social reality. The holistic view got lost. It would also be important to develop a new order of laws and rules under the leadership of the UN. This is why we need a new enlightenment in a full world (rather than a new rationalism with an unlimited individualism26) along the lines of Pope Francis who, in “Laudato si”, recognized the suicidal characteristics of modern capitalism. This new Enlightenment will not be Eurocentric, but instead learn from indigenous and Asian cultures. They know concepts of complementarity and balance (Yin and Yang), humans and nature, short and long range, speed and stability, private and public, women and men, equality and incentives, state and religion. Here we can also learn from the dialectics of Hegel.27 This kind of approach demands urgent action, what is unfolded in part 3. Part  3 is entitled “Come On! Join Us on an Exciting Journey Towards a Sustainable World28. It starts with the sentences: “Humanity is racing with catastrophe. Total system collapse is a real possibility”. For a response it is central

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to regain a “regenerative economy”, which overcomes the growth ideology in the sense of the Earth Charta. What does this mean? “Disciplines like positive psychology and humanistic management have leading business thinkers speaking of flourishing, of Conscious Capitalism, of Natural Capitalism, of Regenerative Capitalism and the need for a Big Pivot”29. The transition to the new system (Arc of Transition) is called “Natural Capitalism”. It is characterized by various marks: “Use all resources dramatically more productively …; redesign how we deliver energy, feed ourselves, and make and deliver the services we desire, using such approaches as biomimicry30 and the Circular Economy …; manage all institutions to be regenerative of human and natural capital”31. This regenerative capitalism has eight principles: 1. Right relationship; 2.  Innovative, adaptive and responsive; 3. Views wealth holistically; 4.  Empowered participation; 5. Robust circular flow; 6. ‘Edge effect’ abundance; 7. Seeks balance; 8. Honours community and place. One example is regenerative agriculture, e.g. the Gandhi methods in India. Another example appears to be Günther Pauli’s “Blue Economy” with its 21 principles.32 The core of it is that the economy concentrates on needs. A further possibility and necessity is the farewell to fossil energy by decentralized production of ecological energy. There are several success stories in ecological agriculture as well as in regenerative urbanization along the line of the model of ecopolis. There are even good news concerning stopping the climate catastrophe, e.g. CO2-Budgets. The report calls the alternative economic model “Circular Economy”33. Concretely this means: fivefold resource productivity, steering the IT revolution in the right direction, improving the public power of intervention by a Bit Tax, reforming and taxing the financial sector, reforming the economic system (Doughnut Economics, common good economy, sustainable investments, measuring well-being with alternative indicators rather than GDP, more involvement of civil society and collective leadership, worldwide rules, using some elements of China and Bhutan as good examples). Crucial is education for a sustainable development. Therefore, the conclusion is the call to civil groups to start moving: Come on! Conclusion: The Report of the Club of Rome, shortly summarized here, is an excellent contribution to the understanding of the state of the planet – particularly in ecological terms. It also shows new ways of thinking and succeeding examples of alternative structures and ways of acting. All the more it is difficult to understand why it sticks to the taboo of not touching the issue of capitalism as such. So both, the UN with its SDGs and also the Club of Rome shy away from naming the beast. It is true that several times in the Club of Rome report capitalism is named as cause of the problem. But in reality it only criticizes a certain form of capitalism, what they call “arrogant” capitalism or

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financial capitalism. They spare what is called “social market economy”, with the addition of “social-ecological”. This produces the perception that these terms do not refer to capitalism. In reality, however, this form of capitalism requires maximum profit and, therefore, growth. It is a form of capitalism under special historic conditions, e.g.: making some social concessions due to the competition with “real socialism”; strong unions due to Fordistic modes of production, i.e. allowing for higher salaries in order to sell mass products; the possibility of high growth rates because of missing ecological consciousness etc. All these historic conditions are gone. So this model appears no longer viable today. Compulsory growth, produced by the compulsory dynamics of capital accumulation, is unsustainable. As Marx formulates the law of capitalism: “Accumulate, accumulate! This is Mose and the prophets!”34 In an industrialized economy this capitalist – and not only financial capitalist – compulsory growth leads to limitless consumption of resources and energy as well as to limitless pollution, waste, poisoning, carbon dioxide etc. The consequences are climate change, dying of species and all what everybody knows as the result of this mode of production and consumption. And exactly this is, what the earth cannot absorb any more.35 The climate catastrophe proves this. If the life conditions for humanity are to be saved capitalism has to be overcome. However, what does this mean in view of the fact that capitalism is only the climax of a nearly three thousand years old civilization? What are its deep historic and systemic structures which we must understand and deal with if we want to overcome the obstacles to overcoming it? 3.

Phases and Structures of the Money-driven Civilization

Recent studies suggest that money did not enter daily use as a neutral means of exchange – rather it was used in the context of emerging wage labor, especially in the form of mercenaries in the 8th century BCE.36 Before this time – as of about 3000 BCE – money was only used as a unit of account and in long distance trade. With the professionalization of armies, mercenaries had to be paid. The first form of pay was the spoils (or booty), particularly precious metal, but then people were paid in coins, after their introduction around 600 BCE. The social consequences of the introduction of money into daily life were enormous. Free peasants, after having a bad harvest, could borrow seed only by paying interest and giving their land as pawn. When they could not pay back their loans, they lost their land, their means of production, and the family had to work as debt slaves. We have a detailed description of this in the biblical

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book of Nehemiah, chapter 5. On the other hand, large-scale landed property emerged. One of the first historical witnesses of the new situation was the prophet Amos in the second part of the 8th century BCE (cf. e.g. Amos, 2:6-8). Through the daily use of money with its new mechanisms of debt and slavery, the societies not only increasingly split into those impoverished and those enriched but also the mentality and attitudes of people underwent a deep transformation. With money, calculating thinking spreads.37 Solidarity decreases. The money subject as such is the tyrant who assumes to be autonomous through the power of money – the great theme of the Greek tragedy.38 Through economic activity by individuals, not as a community, insecurity entered the scene. The only security for participating in the market was having as much money as possible. This was the objective base for greed, the striving for unlimited accumulation of money. Greed became institutionalized in the form of interest. It is also important to understand that with the use of money private property emerged beyond the personal ownership of useful things. Money gave property rights to the means of production. So, money allowed a more effective appropriation of surplus labor and surplus value. It also transformed slaves into impersonal commodities. Also, the patriarchy was re-enforced because only men were allowed to be property owners. Finally, we have to realize that, from the beginning, the expansionism of money is linked to the expansionism of the empires through mercenaries.39 Mines had to be conquered. They were staffed by war slaves to extract the metal to transform it into coins to pay the mercenaries. David Graeber calls this vicious cycle the “military-coinage-slavery-complex”.40 The first climax of the emerging money civilizations can be seen in the Hellenistic empires and the Imperium Romanum. The second phase of the money-driven imperial civilization started in the 11th century in the upper Italian city states Venice, Milan, Florence and Genoa – at the same time as the beginning of the crusades. Their official aim was to free the Holy Land from Muslim control. But there was a more mundane reason. Starting already in antiquity, money-accumulation in the first place is linked to long distance trade. At that time it was Venice which wanted to open the trade route to India, controlled by the Muslim world, and therefore, pushed for the crusades. Venice also profited a lot from the crusades by equipping the crusaders with weapons and the necessary articles for traveling to Palestine. Florence was the banker of the Popes, which made them the specialist for financial instruments. It was in these contexts that money was transformed into capital. What does this mean? Money can be a useful instrument for exchange etc. It also can become the goal of economic activities, a means to create more

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money. In antiquity this developed up to treasure building. But now profits had to be reinvested immediately to create more profit. So the economy became a functional mechanism, a machinery for the purpose of limitless accumulation. In the beginning this happened only in the realms of commercial and usury capital, not yet in the form of industrial capital. This is why it is called early capitalism. It is also here where the typical European linkage of capital accumulation and military empire began. In order to understand this we can refer to the book of the most sophisticated theorist of this development, Giovanni Arrighi. It is entitled The Long Twentieth Century: Money, Power, and the Origins of Our Times.41 He makes a distinction between governments as power-oriented and business enterprises as profit-oriented42. Understanding the relation between both is crucial for the understanding of imperial capitalist history. There is always a “space-of-places” that defines the process of territorial state formation (or formation of inter-state systems) and there is a “space-of-flows of capital” that defines the process of capital accumulation43. This happened at the end of a tremendous accumulation of capital in the hands of the merchant elites of the northern Italian city-states. Around the beginning of the 14th century accumulation through trade stagnated. This created “cut-throat competition” between the city-states in Renaissance Italy, a “war of all against all”44. This is what Marx called the “over-accumulation crisis”. Instead of investing in production and trade, which would not acquire the expected return in that particular development model, capital was first invested in war-making. The second feature in this situation is that the moneyed interests politically took over the city-states. Three consequences could already be seen at this early stage: public debt, job losses and wage cuts. Surplus capital was not being reinvested in production and trade but in financial speculation and lending, particularly for war-making, to make a bigger profit. Some of the moneyed elites of the city-states developed for the first time a Europe-wide network of banking and diplomacy beyond their own territory, later called “high finance”. This was originally a Florentine invention by the Medicis. But as they had put all their eggs into one basket to assist England in fighting France in the Hundred Years War and England could not repay the loan, they failed. Not so the Genoese high finance, which invested in Spain’s state-making, war-making and the conquista of South America. In doing so, they controlled the first “long century”, the first accumulation from the middle of the 15th to the middle of the 17th century. This cycle – for the first time showing this structure of capitalist accumulation – had three distinct sub-phases: from the middle of the 14th to the middle of the 15th century the financial expansion, from the middle of the 15th to the middle of the 16th century a new period

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of material expansion (through production and trade, then under Spanish hegemony) followed again by financial expansion in a time of competition and wars in which the next hegemonic power, the Dutch United Provinces, emerged. Their “long century” was rooted in the crisis of the previous hegemonic system of capital accumulation45. The bankers all over Europe had organized into “nations” and earned a lot of money through exchange between the many currencies. The Genoese in addition had financed the Spanish war against the Dutch rebels. When Spain lost the financial center moved from Antwerp and Seville to Amsterdam. The Dutch built their wealth and power on the “control over supplies of grain and naval stores from the Baltic”. The key feature of the Dutch hegemonic regime was to combine money and power in the form known as mercantilism, combining the strategies of Genoa and Venice. This combination had three characteristics: “transforming Amsterdam into the central entrepot of European and world commerce” and “the central money and capital market of the European world-economy” as well as “launching large-scale joint-stock companies chartered by the Dutch government to exercise exclusive trading rights over huge overseas commercial areas. These companies were business enterprises supposed to yield profits and dividends but also to carry out war-making and state-making activities on behalf of the Dutch government”46. This is the time of the famous triangle trade which deeply affected the global south: robbing the slaves from Africa for the slave work in the plantations of the Americas and the Caribbean, transporting the cotton and other raw materials from there to the European countries, processing especially the cloth with stolen technologies from India, back to Africa with weapons and kitsch. When other nations imitated the successful model of the Dutch, creating a self-sufficient national economy with overseas companies, competition started and the Dutch withdrew into financial expansion. But siding with France in the British-French wars they lost everything. The world financial center moved from Amsterdam to London. So the third, the British, cycle of capital accumulation started again during the final stage of financial expansion of the previous hegemonic power.47 British capital grew through the debt incurred by the British government when waging war against France. This capital, together with the profits from slave trade, was invested in the iron industry (railways and ships) as wel1 as in the mechanization of the textile industry. At the same time capital was 1inked to the British Empire in the form of free-trade imperialism. The financial houses, especially the Rothschilds, became the “governors or the imperial engine”. When again this model of capital accumulation through material expansion began to stagnate and competition started to grow (this time with Germany),

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finance withdrew again into speculation and credit. The Great Depression from 1873 to 1896 signaled this financial expansion: this time the USA started to emerge as the hegemonic power of the next cycle of capital accumulation. But before this happened Germany tried to become the hegemonic power, which failed as everybody knows and cannot be described in detail here. But it is important to realize that moving to fascism is one form of linking capital accumulation and imperialism in a time of crises for capital accumulation – like in the time of the great recession around 1929. Meanwhile there are many studies on the connection between capitalism and fascism. Peace researcher Johan Galtung coins the formula: “Nazism is occidental civilization in extremis.”48 Concretely this means: always, when capital comes to the conclusion – by whatever reasons – that the profit rate is too low, it uses fascist instruments to increase it again. It introduces an economic regime in which the rights and the claims of the working populations are curtailed in order to increase the profits. As a matter of fact, the USA themselves used fascist methods in building up their hegemonic model and later neoliberlaism. Starting in 1953 in Persia when the democratic prime minister Mosaddegh was deposed by CIA and the British intelligence service, the USA in conjunction with former European colonial powers organized military coups with local elites in many countries of the global south in order to make or keep these countries dependent on western economic and geopolitical interests and structures (e.g. Brazil in 1964, Congo 1965 where the African charismatic leader Lumumba was killed by CIA and the Belgian intelligence, Indonesia in 1965-67 where thousands were massacred, up to Chile in 1973 and Argentina in 1975). Besides enabling these open military dictatorships, the USA entertains more than 800 military bases around the world in order to advance the capital accumulation interests. In the 1980s the neoliberal and financial form of capitalism took the lead, beginning to be implemented by the Chilean dictator Pinochet together with Milton Friedman from Chicago already in 1975. But the key feature was the deregulation of the globalized financial markets after delinking the dollar from gold (1971/3), thus giving the markets the power to determine the currency exchange rates. In this way a new globalized capitalist class took over the hegemony: the investment companies, capital managing firms who started to take over the companies and the banks.49 The richest one today is BlackRock & Co, but there are also the private equity investors like Blackstone and the Hedgefunds. They press companies to release workers, press governments to lower the taxes and hold private armies besides cooperating with military and intelligence services. During the hegemony of the Netherlands and the British empire the economic model of capital accumulation moved from the sphere of circulation

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(trade and usury in early capitalism) to the sphere of production (industrial capitalism). Nobody offered a more precise analysis of this model than Karl Marx. 4.

Karl Marx’ Analysis of (industrial) Capital: Fetishism and the Destruction of Life

Industrial revolution deepened the division of labor and widened the gap between the classes. The division of labor now entered production itself. In factory production workers produced only a small part of the product for themselves, the rest was surplus value for the owner of the means of production. The key goal of this way of producing and of this capitalist relation of production was to lower the costs of material and labor in order to generate maximum profit for the capital owner. Everything was subordinated to this goal, especially the welfare of the working people and the integrity of creation. In this way Manchester Capitalism developed, the original capital of which stemmed from the stolen wealth of Latin America and India and also from the profits from the Liverpool slave trade. Social and ecological destruction accompanied this sort of division of labor and market coordination. Marx put the consequences of industrial-capitalist way of production in a nutshell by writing: Capitalist production, therefore, develops technology, and the combining together of various processes into a social whole, only by sapping the original sources of all wealth-the soil and the labourer.50

After Aristotle Karl Marx was by far the sharpest analyst of “greedy money” and capital – now on a further developed period of the money-private property market economy, called industrial and later finance capitalism. He developed the still relevant formula: – The relations commodity-commodity (C-C) and Commodity-MoneyCommodity (C-M-C) of the utility economy are being transformed to – Money-Commodity- (more) Money (M-C-M1) in the commercial trading or productive industrial capitalism and also transformed to – Money-(more) Money (M-M1) in usury and finally financial capitalism. Aristotle called the relations commodity-commodity (C-C) and CommodityMoney-Commodity (C-M-C) natural economy.51 Here we are dealing with use value goods and services. This implies that money can also be used in a noncapitalist way as a pure unit of account, as a means of exchange and payment for use value products and services, and for interest-free loans. But as soon as

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money within the framework of trading or industrial or financial capitalism is invested for the purpose of making more money out of money, this money mutates into capital driving towards accumulation. Aristotle calls the preform of this chremastics and claims that it destroys the polis communities. He postulates that the polis prohibits the institutionalization of greed, interest, and also the monopoly as result of accumulation. Similar measures are prescribed by the Torah in Israel, often referred to by Martin Luther. Karl Marx builds on Aristotle in a critical way. He deciphers the mechanism of money accumulation – which he calls the “mystery of making a surplus” – in the economic development until the time of industrial capitalism with three fundamental insights: – He makes understandable the rape of the real world through the abstraction of the accumulation mechanism with his analysis of the fetishism of commodities, money and capital. All rules and institutions of this system, remaining invisible but deciding over life and death, serve accumulation and are kept sacrosanct. – Marx refines the Aristotelian distinction between money as money (in the sense of means of exchange for the use value of commodities for the satisfaction of vital needs), and money as capital (in the sense of limitless and greedy augmentation of money as end in itself). – Also he presents the fundamental analysis of the insight – already foreshadowed in Luther’s works – that the increase, the accumulation of commercial, industrial or interest-bearing capital, i.e. the surplus value, results from nothing else than exploited labor (today we would add exploited nature, already mentioned by Marx). Referring to Adam Smith he describes that only as much of the created value goes into the reproduction of the laborers as is absolutely necessary. People and human needs beyond the pure reproduction or nature are not interesting for the self-increasing capital – which is the reason for the processes of pauperization and destruction of people and the earth. What does Marx understand by fetishism? Here we can learn from Franz Hinkelammert’s interpretation in his book “The Ideological Weapons of Death”.52 Marx analyses the rules, institutions and domination structures, according to which the division of labor and the distribution of goods are organized. Especially in the capitalist society these rules are kept invisible, because they hide in the relations of the commodities. With this insight Marx aims at the demonstration that in the modern bourgeois money-accumulating market society the surplus value within the movement from money via commodity to money is exploited labor. The wage laborers can no longer market their own products, in which their labor is materialized, but they have to carry their labor

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force, their own skin – themselves – to the market. This is because the capital owner has the means of production, the machines etc. in his hands. He also owns the products, i.e. the means of life for all who do not own capital – including the peasants without land, the unemployed and other marginalized people. So, capital owns the keys of life and death. In other words, by striving for maximum accumulation it “secures only the life of those workers it needs for its own process of ‘life’”.53 Marx shows how capital is constantly trying to replace workers through machines and quotes Shakespeare saying: “You take my life When you do take the means whereby I live”54 – a very vital issue in the new wave of digitization. The misery of unemployment has no place in the calculation of capital – the same as child labor in Marx’ time – as long as there is no, or too little, countervailing power. In its own logic it projects the impression it is the source of all life but in reality it is the source of death. The relations of capital assume their most externalised and most fetish-like form in interest-bearing capital. … Capital appears as a mysterious and self-creating source of interest – the source of its own increase. The thing (money, commodity, value) is now capital even as a mere thing, and capital appears as a mere thing. The result of the entire process of reproduction appears as a property inherent in the thing itself. It depends on the owner of the money, i.e., of the commodity in its continually exchangeable form, whether he wants to spend it as money or loan it out as capital. In interest-bearing capital, therefore, this automatic fetish, self-expanding value, money generating money, are brought out in their pure state and in this form it no longer bears the birth-marks of its origin. … This, too, becomes distorted. While interest is only a portion of the profit, i.e., of the surplus-value, which the functioning capitalist squeezes out of the labourer, it appears now, on the contrary, as though interest were the typical product of capital, the primary matter, and profit, in the shape of profit of enterprise, were a mere accessory and by-product of the process of reproduction. Thus we get the fetish form of capital and the conception of fetish capital. In M – M’ we have the meaningless form of capital, the perversion and objectification of production relations in their highest degree, the interest-bearing form, the simple form of capital, in which it antecedes its own process of reproduction. It is the capacity of money, or of a commodity, to expand its own value independently of reproduction – which is a mystification of capital in its most flagrant form.55

So Marx concentrates mainly on the murderous consequences of fetishism for working people – an echo of former statements of Luther, whom he quotes extensively.56 The fetish requests human sacrifice. For Aristotle this was not a problem because he was of the opinion that the slaves are slaves by nature and therefore not interesting as humans. By contrast, Marx understands that the value of commodities and money is working time, and this precisely means working life-time, which is siphoned and even destroyed for the purpose of

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extracting surplus value. He says: “The consumption of labour-power is at one and the same time the production of commodities and of surplus-value.”57 Adam Smith thought that, in spite of the superiority of the entrepreneur, it seems that the wages cannot be pushed under the subsistence level for workers and their families over a long period (he includes 50% child mortality in the calculation!). Only under especially favorable circumstances might it be better: “There are certain circumstances, however, which sometimes give the labourers an advantage, and enable them to raise their wages considerably above the subsistence level); evidently the lowest which is consistent with common humanity”.58 In countries and periods with shrinking economy hunger and death will haunt the underclasses until the demand for labor will rise again: “It is in this manner that the demand for men, like that for any other commodity, necessarily regulates the production of men (sic!).59 The hope and prognosis of Karl Marx that the working class, in view of its immiseration, would emerge as the historic subject to create the new postcapitalist, peaceful civilization of communism failed. But here we have to be careful. The normal ideological conclusion claims that in the case that socialism has failed there is no alternative to capitalism. But existing socialism was not the socialism/communism Marx had intended, i.e. the free association of free producers where the freedom of one person was the precondition of the freedom of all, where everybody contributed to the community according to his/her potential and got what he/she needed. Rather like in capitalism also here political and economic power got concentrated at the top. Also, the growth fetish led to even worse ecological destruction etc. Really existing socialism did help during a certain time to socially tame capitalism. But after its breakdown, brutal capitalism in its neoliberal form took over more fiercely than ever before. What can be done in this situation? 5.

Alliance Building between Social and Religious Movements for a New Culture of Life

Karl Marx saw that capitalism did not only exploit labor but also destroyed nature. However, what he elaborated most was the labor issue. This is historically understandable because only in the 20th century did human industry visibly start to change the history of planet earth. So we have to look at the geological era. The time after the neolithic revolution, the period of human settling and beginning agriculture, we call Holocene. Beginning with the 16th

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century, the time of the Reformation, we talk about the Anthropocene. Now scholars are starting to talk about the present time as Capitalocene.60 The reason for this is that the humans according to the fetishism analysis have given up being a protagonist. Rather they follow the automatism of capital accumulation. Capital has subsumed the earth. This is why people speak about natural capital or nature as capital. Transforming nature into capital is only possible by extracting the wealth of the earth, using a lot of energy, producing carbon dioxide and polluting the earth with all the effects we know. Unlike the exploited workers, destroyed nature cannot itself become the actor to overcome capitalism. But the writing on the wall is mobilizing people, latest the youth movement “Fridays for Future”. So ecological besides social and peace movements are springing up. All people affected by the devastating effects of capitalist civilization together have to assume the classical role of the Marxian proletariat. But as all of this contains a spiritual crisis we have to also look again at the role of religions and wisdoms. What is the role of faith communities in this situation? The basis of the response lies in the ancient scriptures of the period that was called Axial Age by the philosopher Karl Jaspers. From China to Greece via India, Persia and Ancient Israel all religions and philosophies, in all cultural diversity but with a common thrust, responded to the emerging civilization driven by greedy money, greedy individuals and empires.61 The prophets, from Amos on, called for justice, later put into social laws of the Torah; the Buddha identified the poisons creating suffering as greed, violent behavior and illusion; Laotse, the founder of Daoism, tried to overcome violent and possessive male behavior by using the symbol of water to promote humble, soft, nurturing and sustainable ways of life; Confucius worked at restoring social relationships;62 Socrates, Plato and Aristotle developed ethical and political rules to overcome what Aristotle called chremastics, an economy responding to greed, not to needs and, therefore, geared to accumulating limitless money. Later, within the Roman Empire, the first climax of the money-driven civilization, Jesus called for a basic faith decision between the God of justice and the accumulation idol Mammon. The Prophet Muhammad, building on the Hebrew and the Christian Bible, confronted the rich traders in Mecca in his faith-based struggle for justice. So we have an intercultural and inter-religious pool of wisdom and spiritual power to overcome the dominating, death-bound civilization, driven by capital accumulation. Within the Christian ecumenical movement of the recent past we drew water from this well, particularly starting with the Conciliar Process for Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation (JPIC) at the 6th WCC Assembly in Vancouver in

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1983. In the course of this process, all Christian communities, in official decisions at international level, formally rejected imperial capitalism and started to work for alternatives: – In 2003 the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in Winnipeg, calling the ideology behind the Washington Consensus idolatry;63 – In 2004 what was then called the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC), in Accra, rejecting imperial capitalism in the form of a confession, drawn up in the form of the Barmen Theological Declaration – the basis of the Confessing Church against National Socialism;64 – In 2013 the WCC in Busan Assembly in various documents. The (adopted) Bogor Statement promises to “build a prophetic movement for an Economy of Life for all”; the Mission Declaration says: “Mission spirituality resists and seeks to transform all life-destroying values and systems”.65 – Two weeks after Busan Pope Francis issued his Apostolic Letter “Evangelii Gaudium” summarizing the 30 years of ecumenical work in the famous words: Just as the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say ‘thou shalt not’ to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills.… No to the new idolatry of money … No to a financial system which rules rather than serves … No to the inequality which spawns violence  … No to selfishness and spiritual sloth.…66

It is a unique event in church history that – after 500 years of division – all Christian churches have rejected imperial capitalism and its thinking patterns and embarked on the search for alternatives. However, we have no reason to feel triumphalist about the ecclesial state of affairs. Not only have very few member churches implemented this systemic critique and transformation-oriented work. There are also growing numbers of faith communities, calling themselves Christian, however, following the prosperity gospel, thereby completely assimilating to capitalism – think of the election behavior of these groups in the USA or Brazil. This means that while revitalizing the Axial Age religions and philosophies we have to also engage in the critique of religion. The way out is alliance building with all transformation forces: e.g. the groups of Jewish and Muslim liberation theology and action, the International Network of engaged Buddhists, but also, and foremost, with the struggling victims of the dominating systems organized in social, environmental and peace movements. The ecumenical organizations WCC, LWF, WCRC and CWM, gathering in São Paulo already in 2012, started a process for NIFEA,

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a New International Financial and Economic Architecture.67 They developed an action plan and already underlined the necessity to cooperate with social movements. Pope Francis together with Cardinal Turkson, then President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace that was merged with the newly formed Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, even organized annual meetings with social movements fighting together the idolatry of Mammon and the fetishism of commodities, money and capital.68 It is hoped that the (Protestant/Orthodox/Episcopal) ecumenical organizations under the leadership of the WCC approach the Pope in order to promote an alliancebuilding if not a merger of both the NIFEA process and the Vatican meetings and cooperation with the social movements. This would enable local congregations and base groups as well as regional and national ecumenical networks to work again within a global ecumenical framework for systemic critique and transformative action. What are some of the crucial issues? There are three structural pillars on which capitalism is built: the property order, the money order and wage labor. The absoluteness of private property has to be overcome by a property order from below (meaning not just state property) based on the commons and geared at the common good.69 Money has to be liberated from being a commodity for the sake of accumulation and turned into a public good to fulfill necessary functions for the real economy as e.g. exchange, buying and credit.70 We do not need only more money for development, but a new post-capitalist finance order (starting with a strong regulation, SDG  10.5). Especially the banks have to be stopped to create money on the basis of credits linked to interest, because with this already the money itself contains the drive to grow. This new financial order would also include the closure of tax havens (technically possible through taxing at the world’s central clearing institutions). This would help in implementing SDG 17.1, rightly calling for the improvement of “the domestic capacity for tax and other revenue collection”. Finally labor must be re-linked to the means of production, e.g. in the form of cooperatives or workers’ participation. And greater appreciation has to be shown for the work of carers.71 Besides these structural issues there is a need to re-direct thinking, feeling and attitudes. When money started to stimulate calculating thinking (“what’s in it for me?”), competition and loss of solidarity religions and philosophies responded with engagement for justice, community and solidarity (agape). This indicates two things: 1. The civilization driven by limitless accumulation of money is nearly 3000 years old as shown above. It is impossible to change it and the attitudes determined by it overnight. Overcoming it must be the long-range perspective,

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but there must also be short-range and middle-range steps and intermediate strategies to achieve it, e.g. developing a new property order we can start with basic goods and services like water, energy, transport, education, health. They must be public but are under constant attack by those who want to privatize them, i.e. make profits with them – the results of which could be studied during the Corona crisis. Faith-Based Organizations should strictly campaign to fight privatization in the field of SDGs 1-4 and 6-7. Regarding these aims, there should be even no Public-Private-Partnerships. Meanwhile many people have negative experience with privatized services and can be mobilized for public services, financed by an improved tax system and controlled democratically because people are directly affected. Another key area of financing for development is stopping subsidies for capital-intensive agribusiness and, instead, supporting small-scale organic food producers (SDG 2 b). 2. Faith communities can revitalize the message of their original sources, promoting the common good, justice and solidarity – not just by words but by practice. They have community structures to renew and present an alternative model to society, and they can strengthen people’s movements struggling for the economy for life, justice and peace. Here it is particularly interesting to rediscover the apocalyptic writings in the Hebrew bible and the Second Testament in their original historical and political meaning. Bourgeois society and church understands them as speaking about the end of the world – normally drawing the consequence: you cannot do anything. The contrary is true for the original sources. The Book of Daniel, chapter 2 and 7, says: The empires of the past and the present are like greedy, voracious beasts. The present monster, seemingly invulnerable, has clay feet, a stone from the mountains can make it crush. So be resilient, the humane order of God’s world is not only possible. It will come. And on the basis of the coming of the “Human One”, Jesus, the Book of Revelation, chapter 13 relates this message to the totalitarian Roman Empire and adds: there will be a new earth (Revel. 20f.).72 So today the reality of the beast, imperial capitalism, is catching up – the “selfburning of humanity”, the dying of species, the destruction of social cohesion, the dismantling of democracy, the resulting (civil) wars and forced migration to name but a few systemic consequences. The UN Agenda 2030 with its Sustainable Development Goals and the Report of the Club of Rome are to a certain extent helping to analyze the status quo and also pointing to concrete alternatives. But they shy away from analyzing the deep systemic root cause of the crisis. So we have to overcome their fear of touching the taboo of capitalism. Marx and interreligious liberation theology can free us from the fetishism of the system in order to counteract the reality with clay feet by also naming the beast, by rejecting its “There is no alternative” (TINA) and by saying and

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practicing “There are hundreds of alternatives” – not yet for the perfect world but for the beginnings of humanness, solidarity and good life for all within the gift of the whole creation. We are in the middle of a great civilizational crossroads: either towards the catastrophe of the dominating death-bound system or a post-capitalist new order. For the churches, this is a Kairos moment – a Kairos moment even more fundamental than National Socialism in Germany and Apartheid in South Africa. The integrity of the church is at stake when the dominant system is driving humanity into the abyss. No ambiguity is allowed any more, to quote the international ecumenical decisions. When has it ever been more urgent for faith communities at all of their levels to resist and stand up for a new culture of life united with those people who are primarily affected, namely “the lowest of the low“ (Mt 25:40) and their movements and organizations? References AKADEMIE SOLIDARISCHE ÖKONOMIE (ed.), Harald Bender, Norbert Bernholt, Klaus Simon: Das dienende Geld. Die Befreiung der Wirtschaft vom Wachstumszwang [The Serving Money. The Liberation of the Economy from Compulsary Growth]. München: oekom, 2014. ALTVATER, Elmar: Rationale Naturzerstörung. Der Mensch lebt im “Anthropozän” – oder eher im “Kapitalozän”? Zum Streit um einen Namen für das Zeitalter eines kaputten Planeten [Rational Destruction of Nature. Humans Live in Anthropocene or rather in Capitalocene?]. In: Junge Welt, 1.2.2016. ARRIGHI, Giovanni: The Long Twentieth Century: Money, Power, and the Origins of Our Times. London/New York: VERSO, 1994. BRAND, Ulrich: Brave Green World The Green Economy myths. Luxemburg Argumente no. 3, updated edition, Berlin: Rosa-Luxemburg-Foundation, 2015, 47. BRODBECK, Karl-Heinz: Die Herrschaft des Geldes. Geschichte und Systematik [The Dominance of Money. History and systematics]. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, (2009) 2012. DUCHROW, Ulrich: Global Economy: A Confessional Issue for the Churches?. Geneva: WCC, 1987. DUCHROW, Ulrich: Alternatives to Global Capitalism – Drawn from Biblical History, Designed for Political Action. Utrecht: International Books with Kairos Europa (1995), 1998 2nd ed. DUCHROW, Ulrich / Hinkelammert, Franz  J.: Property for People, Not for Profit: Alternatives to the Global Tyranny of Capital. London and Geneva: Zed Books in

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association with the Catholic Institute for International Relations and the World Council of Churches, 2004. DUCHROW, Ulrich/Hinkelammert, Franz: Transcending Greedy Money: Interreligious Solidarity for Just Relations. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2012. (in German: http://ulrich-duchrow.de/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/0000-Buch-Gieriges-Geldkomplett-9783466370696.pdf). DUCHROW, Ulrich: Mit Luther, Marx und Papst den Kapitalismus überwinden [Overcoming Capitalism with Luther, Marx and Pope]. Hamburg u. Frankfurt/Main: VSA und Publik-Forum, 2017. DUCHROW, Ulrich: Taoismus und Konfuzianismus als frühe Gegenkulturen zur beginnenden Herrschaft des Geldes [Daoism and Confucianism as Early Countercultures to the Starting Dominance of Money]. In: GRAUPE, Sija/ÖTSCH, Walter Otto/ ROMMEL, Florian (Hrsg.): Spiel-Räume des Denkens. Festschrift zu Ehren von Karl-Heinz Brodbeck. Marburg: Metropolis, 2019. GRAEBER, David: Debt. The First 5,000 Years. New York: Melville House, 2011. HINKELAMMERT, Franz: The Ideological Weapons of Death: A Theological Critique of Capitalism. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1986. KAIROS EUROPA: Das Zachäus-Projekt der weltweiten Ökumene [The Zacchaeus Project in the international ecumenical movement]. Wirtschaft(en) im Dienst des Lebens – Heft 9. Heidelberg: https://kairoseuropa.de/veroeffentlichungen/ bestellungen-shop/, 2019. MARX, Karl: Das Kapital. Kritik der politischen Ökonomie. Erster Band, Karl Marx/ Friedrich Engels, Werke (MEW), Bd. 23. Berlin: Dietz Verlag, 1969. MOORE, Jason  W.: Capitalism in the Web of Life: Ecology and the Accumulation of Capital. Verso, 2015. MOORE, Jason W. (ed.): Anthropocene or Capitalocene. Nature, History, and the Crisis of Capitalism. Oakland: PM Press, 2016. PAULI, Gunter: The Blue Economy. 10 Jahre, 1000 Innovationen, 100 Millionen Jobs. Bericht an den Club of Rome. Berlin: Konvergenta, 2012. PAULI, Gunter: The Blue Economy Version 2.0. 200 projects implemented. USD 4 billion invested. 3 million jobs created. Academic Foundation, 2015. RICHARD, Pablo: Apokalypse – Das Buch von Hoffnung und Widerstand. Luzern: Exodus, 1996. RIEGER, Jörg/Henkel-Rieger, Rosemarie: Unified We Are a Force. How Faith and Labor Can Overcome America’s Inequalities. St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2016. RÜGEMER, Werner: Die Kapitalisten des 21. Jahrhunderts. Gemeinverständlicher Abriss zum Aufstieg der neuen Finanzakteure [The Capitalists of the 21st Century. Popular Sketch of the Rise of New Financial Actors]. Köln: Papyrossa-Verlag, 2018. SCHEIDLER, Fabian: Das Ende der Megamaschine. Geschichte einer scheiternden Zivilisation [The End of the Megamachine. History of a Failing Civilization]. Wien: Promedia, 2015. Urheberrechtlich geschütztes Material! © 2021 Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn, ein Imprint der Brill-Gruppe

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SCHELLNHUBER, Hans Joachim: Selbstverbrennung. Die fatale Dreiecksbeziehung zwischen Klima, Mensch und Kohlenstoff [Self-burning.The Fatal Triangel beteen Climate, Humans and Carbon]. München: Bertelsmann, 2015. SEAFORD, Richard: Money and the Early Greek Mind. Homer, Philosophy, Tragedy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. SEAFORD, Richard: The origins of philosophy in ancient Greece and ancient India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. SMITH, Adam: An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations, 2 volumes. Indianapolis: Liberty Press, 1979. WEIZSÄCKER, Ernst Ulrich von/Wijkman: Come On! Capitalism, Short-termism, Population and the Destruction of the Planet. Berlin: Springer, 2018.

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https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300. download June 6, 2020. WEIZSÄCKER, Ernst Ulrich von/Wijkman: Come On! Capitalism, Short-termism, Population and the Destruction of the Planet. Berlin: Springer, 2018. BRAND, Ulrich: Brave Green World The Green Economy myths. Luxemburg Argumente no. 3, updated edition, Berlin: Rosa-Luxemburg-Foundation, 2015, 47. (https://www.rosalux.de/ fileadmin/rls_uploads/pdfs/Argumente/lux_argu_GreenEconomy_engl_11-2015.pdf). WEIZSÄCKER, 1.10, 38ff. Ibid., 1. Ibid., 2. Ibid., 9ff. Ibid., 14ff. Ibid., 22ff. Ibid., 38ff. Ibid., 52. Ibid., 63ff. The full document is available here: http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/ encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html, download June 6, 2020. Cf. https://www.worldcat.org/title/now-is-the-time-final-document-other-texts-worldconvocation-on-justice-peace-and-the-integrity-of-creation-seoul-1990/oclc/907380102, download 6 June, 2020. http://www.ifees.org.uk/declaration/, download 6 June, 2020. WEIZSÄCKER, 66f. Cf. SCHEIDLER, Fabian: Das Ende der Megamaschine. Geschichte einer scheiternden Zivilisation [The End of the Megamachine. History of a Failing Civilization]. Wien: Promedia, 2015; see also DUCHROW, Ulrich/Hinkelammert, Franz: Transcending Greedy Money: Interreligious Solidarity for Just Relations. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2012. (in German: http://ulrich-duchrow.de/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/0000-Buch-GierigesGeld-komplett-9783466370696.pdf). Cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sleep_of_Reason_Produces_Monsters. Cf. https://kairoseuropa.de/veroeffentlichungen/bestellungen-shop/.

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WEIZSÄCKER, 67. Ibid., 69ff. Ibid., 70f. Ibid., 71ff. Ibid., 75f. Ibid., 83ff. Ibid., 92ff. Interestingly enough Karl Marx is not mentioned here, see below. WEIZSÄCKER, 101ff. Ibid., 103. Imitating nature. WEIZSÄCKER, 104. PAULI, Gunter: The Blue Economy. 10 Jahre, 1000 Innovationen, 100 Millionen Jobs. Bericht an den Club of Rome. Berlin: Konvergenta, 2012; PAULI, Gunter: The Blue Economy Version 2.0. 200 projects implemented. USD 4 billion invested. 3 million jobs created. Academic Foundation, 2015, 113ff. Ibid., 140ff. MARX, Karl: Das Kapital. Kritik der politischen Ökonomie. Erster Band, Karl Marx/ Friedrich Engels,Werke (MEW ), Bd. 23. Berlin: Dietz Verlag, 1969, 621 [my translation, UD]. Vgl. SCHELLNHUBER, Hans Joachim: Selbstverbrennung. Die fatale Dreiecksbeziehung zwischen Klima, Mensch und Kohlenstoff [Self-burning.The Fatal Triangel beteen Climate, Humans and Carbon]. München: Bertelsmann, 2015. See SEAFORD, Richard: Money and the Early Greek Mind. Homer, Philosophy, Tragedy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004; id.: The origins of philosophy in ancient Greece and ancient India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020; GRAEBER, David: Debt. The First 5,000 Years. New York: Melville House, 2011; DUCHROW, Ulrich/ Hinkelammert, 2012; SCHEIDLER, 2015. Cf. BRODBECK, Karl-Heinz: Die Herrschaft des Geldes. Geschichte und Systematik [The Dominance of Money. History and systematics]. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, (2009) 2012 ; idem,http://khbrodbeck.homepage.t-online.de/crisis.pdf. See Seaford, 2004. The whole complex of metallurgy in the context of money-driven economies has been particularly researched by Scheidler, op.cit. Graeber; Op. cit., 229 ARRIGHI, Giovanni: The Long Twentieth Century: Money, Power, and the Origins of Our Times. London/New York: VERSO, 1994. Ibid., 85. Ibid., 84. Ibid., 90ff. Ibid., 127ff. Ibid., 138f. Ibid., 159ff. In an unpublished paper in Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin,1983, 4. He continues: “Nazism in particular and Fascism in general is a phenomenon that comes into being when capitalism is in crisis and is no longer capable of operating (meaning giving adequate returns for investment) smoothly or softly”, 9. Cf. DUCHROW, Ulrich: Global Economy: A Confessional Issue for the Churches?. Geneva: WCC, 1987, 114ff.

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Cf. RÜGEMER, Werner: Die Kapitalisten des 21. Jahrhunderts. Gemeinverständlicher Abriss zum Aufstieg der neuen Finanzakteure [The Capitalists of the 21st Century. Popular Sketch of the Rise of New Financial Actors]. Köln: Papyrossa-Verlag, 2018. Marx, Capital, https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/CapitalVolume-I.pdf, p. 330 (MEW 23, 529f.). Aristotle, Politics, I, 8-13. Cf. DUCHROW, Ulrich: Alternatives to Global Capitalism – Drawn from Biblical History, Designed for Political Action. Utrecht: International Books with Kairos Europa (1995), 1998 2nd ed., 20f. HINKELAMMERT, Franz: The Ideological Weapons of Death: A Theological Critique of Capitalism. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1986. Hinkelammert, 1986, 39. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/Capital-Volume-I.pdf, p. 354 n 227 (MEW 23: 511, note 307). MARX, Karl, Capital Vol. III, https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/ pdf/Capital-Volume-III.pdf, p. 366f. (MEW, Bd. 25, 404f.) Cf. DUCHROW, Ulrich: Mit Luther, Marx und Papst den Kapitalismus überwinden [Overcoming Capitalism with Luther, Marx and Pope]. Hamburg u. Frankfurt/Main: VSA und Publik-Forum, 2017. Marx, Capital vol.1, https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/CapitalVolume-I.pdf, p. 123 (MEW, Bd. 23, 189). SMITH, Adam: An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations, 2 volumes. Indianapolis: Liberty Press, 1979, I,8 § 16. Ibid. I,8 §40. MOORE, Jason W.: Capitalism in the Web of Life: Ecology and the Accumulation of Capital. Verso, 2015.; idem (ed.): Anthropocene or Capitalocene. Nature, History, and the Crisis of Capitalism. Oakland: PM Press, 2016; ALTVATER, Elmar: Rationale Naturzerstörung. Der Mensch lebt im “Anthropozän” – oder eher im “Kapitalozän”? Zum Streit um einen Namen für das Zeitalter eines kaputten Planeten [Rational Destruction of Nature. Humans Live in Anthropocene or rather in Capitalocene?]. In: Junge Welt, 1.2.2016. This and the following we have worked out in detail in: DUCHROW, Ulrich/Hinkelammert, op.cit. 2012, indicating the socio-economic context of the Axial Age, normally interpreted in an idealistic way. Cf. DUCHROW, Ulrich: Taoismus und Konfuzianismus als frühe Gegenkulturen zur beginnenden Herrschaft des Geldes [Daoism and Confucianism as Early Countercultures to the Starting Dominance of Money]. In: GRAUPE, Sija/ÖTSCH, Walter Otto/ROMMEL, Florian (Hrsg.): Spiel-Räume des Denkens. Festschrift zu Ehren von Karl-Heinz Brodbeck. Marburg : Metropolis, 2019, S. 463-478. http://lwf-assembly2003.org/lwf-assembly/htdocs/PDFs/LWF_Assembly_Message-EN. pdf, p. 17 http://warc.jalb.de/warcajsp/news_file/The_Accra_Confession_English.pdf. http://archived.oikoumene.org/fileadmin/files/wcc-main/2012pdfs/Mission_statement_ approved_10_09_2012_final.pdf; http://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/ wcc-programmes/public-witness-addressing-poweraffirming-peace/povertywealth-and-ecology/financespeculation-debt/sao-paulo-statement-international financial-transformation-for-the-economy-of-life http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papafrancesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.html.

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Cf. https://www.cwmission.org/3rd-meeting-of-the-ecumenical-panel-on-a-newinternational-financial-and-economic-architecture-nifea/; https://www.cwmission.org/ wp-content/uploads/2018/10/NIFEA-GSes-meeting-wcc-wcrc-cwm-lwf-joint-statement. pdf. Cf. KAIROS EUROPA: Das Zachäus-Projekt der weltweiten Ökumene [The Zacchaeus Project in the international ecumenical movement]. Wirtschaft(en) im Dienst des Lebens – Heft 9. Heidelberg: https://kairoseuropa.de/veroeffentlichungen/bestellungenshop/, 2019. Cf. e.g. http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2014/october/documents/ papa-francesco_20141028_incontro-mondiale-movimenti-popolari.html; http://popular movements.org/about/; http://popularmovements.org/; Cf. DUCHROW, Ulrich / Hinkelammert, Franz  J.: Property for People, Not for Profit: Alternatives to the Global Tyranny of Capital. London and Geneva: Zed Books in association with the Catholic Institute for International Relations and the World Council of Churches, 2004, chapter 7. Cf. DUCHROW, Ulrich/Hinkelammert, Franz, op.cit. 2012, and AKADEMIE SOLIDARISCHE ÖKONOMIE (HRSG.), Harald Bender, Norbert Bernholt, Klaus Simon: Das dienende Geld. Die Befreiung der Wirtschaft vom Wachstumszwang [The Serving Money. The Liberation of the Economy from Compulsary Growth]. München: oekom, 2014. Cf. RIEGER, Jörg/Henkel-Rieger, Rosemarie: Unified We Are a Force. How Faith and Labor Can Overcome America’s Inequalities. St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2016. Cf. RICHARD, Pablo: Apokalypse – Das Buch von Hoffnung und Widerstand. Luzern: Exodus, 1996.

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Political Theologies in the Anthropocene Peter Manley Scott 1.

Introduction

In this essay1, I offer an historical presentation of the emergence of ecological theology in interaction with political theology. My account focusses on five book-length treatments of ecological theology that span the period 1997-2019 and use the term ‘political theology’ in their titles.2 In this retracing of steps, I want to explore the shifts in the meaning and scope of political theology, especially as the engagement with the political theology of Carl Schmitt intensifies through this period. What we encounter, I argue, is a shift in the construal of politics in political theology through an increasing reference to sovereignty. This is correlated with – but not, I would argue, conceptually required by – increasingly immanentist construals of divinity. What emerges as deeply problematic is the re-emergence of the theme of apocalyptic that is enabled by the turn to Schmitt in political theologies of the Anthropocene. This has an impact on the turn from redemption to creation that has characterised ecotheology and raises complex interpretative issues regarding the relation between nature and violence. At the conclusion, I offer a commentary on this combination of unstable elements for the future of political theology in the Anthropocene.3 In earlier work, I have argued that the doctrine of creation is central to political theology. To quote directly, I argued that “… the turn to creation identifies theological issues central to the truth of human life: What is the creaturely context in which humans (and otherkind) are placed? What is human society in Christian perspective and what is its relationship to other ecological communities? Are there normative aspects to be derived from human nature or from human relations to animals?”4 By way of an initial orientation, we might expect a convergence of ecological theology and political theology to explore the relationship between different sorts of society: a plurality of orders in what I have recently called a “greater society”.5 We might also expect such an account of order to raise political issues that require moral consideration. Such a framing is more than the claim – nowadays common in theology – that creation must not be severed from redemption. In such recent consideration, redemption does not mean being saved from creation but instead refers to the fulfilment of creation. Yet, in turn, such a conclusion raises the difficult matter of order in theology. More precisely, the matter of order presents us with issue of the perspectives from which order is to be criticised and of the

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possibilities of change. I have previously summarised this issue as the relation between “order and its norms of judgment”. Or, put differently, we have here “… the theological problem of political and natural order in the ordering of creatureliness”.6 Indeed, on reflection, it might be better if I revised this claim to read the theological problem of political and natural orders in the ordering of creatureliness. We should expect any ecological theology interacting with political theology for the Anthropocene to ask a double question: what should be the ordering of creatureliness, and how are the interactions of orders – political and natural, among others – to be understood? As I have said, I intend to appraise five self-declared English-language political theologies published between 1997 and 2019. So, I begin this enquiry by posing the question: how shall we define political theology, in a preliminary way? In an important essay, Michael Hoelzl draws attention to distinctions made by German legal scholar and judge on Germany’s federal constitutional court, Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde.7 For Hoelzl, “Political theology has always been understood and conceptualized either from the political or the theological side of the compound noun. Subsequently two types of political theology emerged: a political ‘political theology’ and a theological ‘political theology’. Therefore, any analysis of political theology is determined by the political or the theological nature of its discourse.”8 At this point, Hoelzl refers to Böckenförde’s analysis “between three types of political theology: juridical, institutional and appellative …”.9 Juridical relates to political political theology; institutional and appellative relate to theological political theology. As examples, Carl Schmitt is associated with the juridical form; Augustine’s ‘city of God’ with the institutional; and Johann Baptist Metz with the appellative.10 If we follow Böckenförde’s distinctions, we are presented in consideration of the five political theologies of the Anthropocene discussed in this essay with a journey from the appellative to the juridical. That is, our five texts are all firmly in the appellative style, united in their attention to what we might describe as Christian practice or discipleship. Yet, attention is also paid in three of the texts to Schmitt’s work and thus to the juridical style of political theology. This, as we might expect, leads us towards the consideration of sovereignty. Other aspects of Schmitt’s thought also receive attention in our texts, as we shall see: the foundation of politics in the friend/enemy distinction, and the power of the sovereign to declare a state of exception/emergency. In sum, we have a critical engagement with order in the appellative style of political theology and a concern with the conflictual basis of political order and issues concerning sovereignty according to the juridical style of political theology. Such an unstable mixture raises, as we shall see at the conclusion,

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difficult questions about human orders and natural orders and the aesthetics of violence. 2.

Foraging

In Redeeming the Time: A Political Theology of the Environment (1997), Stephen Bede Scharper articulates his political theology in relation to Latin American liberation theology. The analysis proceeds through a consideration of various significant developments in green thinking: the Gaia hypothesis, process theology, the new cosmology, ecofeminism, and liberation theology. The last is a methodologically curious item in that liberation is an object of the enquiry and also frames the discussion.11 Schmitt is absent from the argument. Scharper introduces the discussion by reference to two stories: the opening chapter of the book of Genesis and a 1992 newspaper story that cites a UN report of the number of children dying of environmentally-related diseases such as water pollution. This pairing gives us our first glimpse of what is meant in this text by political theology. Later, this approach is elaborated as follows: “With the reading assistance of liberation theology from Latin America, with its emphasis on solidarity, a preferential option for the destitute and downtrodden, and societal transformation, this work raises the possibility of a political theology of the environment”.12 The emphasis here is on the human as an active subject or, as Scharper summarises, his analysis proceeds from “a liberationist paradigm, one that takes a preferential option for the poor seriously, emphasizes solidarity and praxis as much as theory, and argues that the call to justice in personal and societal relations is a ‘constitutive’ dimension of being Christian”.13 What is central here is praxis and social transformation. The horizon against which this needs to be thought is also forcefully presented by Scharper: “… our new behaviour must be grounded in new values, a new understanding of the self, and a fundamentally altered understanding of our relationship with our environment if we are to have a sustainable future. We are being summoned … to a new ontology, a novel way of being human and relating to the nonhuman world”.14 This is in line with the point I made in the previous section: to develop a political theology with reference to creation is to address the issues of orderings. The aim here, as Scharper adverts, is “… a more explicitly political, transformative expression of ecological theology”.15 In action, what does this approach look like? At the conclusion of his discussion of Gaia, Scharper stresses that his approach foregrounds “social justice” and that in turn the world must be viewed as “a political economy”.16

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Gaia is helpful in advancing a political theology, Scharper contends, by its reference to life as vital and energetic, and for stressing the planetary context in which theology must be done. Yet, in other ways it is unhelpful: in Gaia’s ahistoricity, lack of attention to power structures, and inadequate attention to human capacity for ecological destruction, for example. We may appreciate that for Scharper, Gaia makes a helpful contribution to thinking of ecological universality but is less sophisticated in its treatment of different orders and their intersection. A similar complaint is made against the ecological reframing in process theology: Scharper argues that the “richness of experience” criterion developed by process theology leads to an anthropocentric hierarchy in which almost any social situation can be justified. He concludes that a more adequate “relational” perspective must in turn identify structural inequalities: “While ‘richness of being’ denotes a natural, ontological order of being, a ‘preferential option’ points to an unjust human order, embedded in ‘sin,’ with the human agent responsible for and at the centre of social transformation.”17 We can now begin to see two interpretative principles emerging: the concern for a universal ecological order but also a commitment to seeing that order made by human activity and thereby as moral – or, at least, as morally considerable. After the consideration of five areas of ecological enquiry, what conclusions does Scharper draw? These are three: we require a new theological anthropology, a new ontology, and a new integrated praxis. We are invited to consider in theological anthropology the concept of “person-in-community” as one that affirms the relational aspects of human being and questions theological investment in anthropocentrism. A new ontology points us towards “a new way to be human”: a new understanding of relationality will inform fresh action, revised values and a different account of the relationships between humanity and the environment. This new ontology will have a “moral dimension” vested in the “dialectical contingency” that exists between humanity and creation. A new praxis of integration in which “the importance of identifying a context and the importance of adopting a distinctive vantage point” is commended. Although not explicitly stated, I think we can deduce that the context identified is planetary, and a political theology of the environment examines structural systems of oppression in both socio-political and ecological terms.18 We are now able to identify critical issues in the development of political theology in the Anthropocene. Scharper’s passing reference to “political economy” indicates the issue – and difficulty – of integrating our understanding of the interrelationships of humanity and world. This integration refers us also to the identification of the planetary context of political theology. Identified thereby is the importance of moral perspective and the requirement for

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normative judgements. An account of agency follows from such a position: a preferential option for the poor indicates both perspective and place of action. In this account, “theology” seems to refer us to a new anthropology and ontology; “political” identifies the structures governing human-nature relationships, the importance of a perspective from the underside, and deliberative human action to address sin. My A Political Theology of Nature (2003) is the next source for consideration. Although it is clear from the text that I have read Scharper, there is no sustained interaction with his work. Indeed, looking back, my comments on his work seem rather ungenerous. There are important similarities between my work and Scharper’s, and I shall return to these at the end of this section. Certainly, one point of overlap is that there is no discussion of Schmitt. The centre of my study bears a passing resemblance to Scharper’s. I offer four analyses of political ecologies: deep, social, and socialist ecology, and ecofeminism. However, I treat these as external to theology and thereby my argument proceeds methodologically in sustained interaction with these “non-theological” sources. Furthermore, I spend more time than Scharper in trying to develop a theological framework that is subsequently amplified in conversation with these non-theological sources. Some preliminary specification is given early on as regards a theological anthropology and an ecological materialism. At the conclusion, these themes are reconsidered. Along the way, I am forced to clarify what I mean by political theology. Whereas Scharper begins his study by analysing the various stances of ecotheology towards various critiques (especially that provided by Lynn White), my argument proceeds historically: I am concerned with the “disgracing of nature” through modernity and thereafter a reconstructive effort to relate humanity and nature in a theological thought. It is clear, as I hope to show, that my political theology also includes a theological anthropology, an ontology (what now we would call a materialism), and an emphasis on praxis – and so overlaps with Scharper’s position. The meaning of political theology is elaborated by stressing that the focus of a political theology of nature is the relations between human and nature in terms of their “fragmentation and disintegration” and “wholeness, diversity and integrity”. Or, as I say: a political theology of nature “directs theological attention not to the natural sciences nor to the ‘value’ of nature but instead to the interaction between un/natural humanity and a socialised nature”.19 As will now be evident, there are some differences between my position and Scharper’s: I develop much earlier in the analysis an account of the relationship between humanity and nature based in the metaphor of sociality.20 In stressing social interaction, I also claim that “A political theology of nature

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is thus an exercise in theological anthropology in a liberative key … a political theology of nature invites both the transformation of theology itself and the presentation of a theological concept of nature which affirms the reality of natural conditions of human life in ways which foster unity and solidarity between creatures”.21 The accounts of theological anthropology and theological concepts of nature are the topics of the remainder of my argument. A complex set of proposals, covering three levels, then emerges: (1) the transcendentals of unity, sociality, openness and becoming, as presented in a trinitarian, theological thought; (2) an ontology of the ecosocial, featuring the heuristic concepts of sociality, spatiality and temporality; and (3) a level concerned with “ordering” or “organisation”, which assist in thinking about “historical-natural emergence” by reference to “movement, structure and tendency”.22 A effort is made to develop a new ontology to which a theological anthropology is constitutive. Moreover, this anthropology is proffered for reasons with which Scharper would agree: a praxis-based critique of idolatry. The ways our arguments proceed are a little different. I draw into conversation a number of theories of political ecology in order to refine and amplify the three proposals set out in the previous paragraph whereas Scharper enters into conversation with some theological movements in order to establish how these movements might contribute to his broadly liberationist perspective. Additionally, my analysis concludes with a fuller account of the ecosocial ontology that, I argue, is central to a political theology, with reference to Christ and Spirit. Moreover, I then construe “political” in a more humdrum way by reference to the practice of democracy and the action of the Church. This is, if you will, the praxiological aspect of my political theology, and also the appellative dimension. In a proposal that tries to elaborate on what friendship with nature might entail, I commend a democracy of the commons, in which the extension of democratic rather than moral considerability is proposed. As I develop this position, I note that such a democracy, although it identifies non-human actors as political actors, will be decided upon by human beings. Moreover, it is unlikely that such democratic activity can operate except that human actors act in equitable ways in such a democracy: “Commonality with nature cannot be secured without the achievement of commonality among those sharing a human nature”.23 In a context in which I argue that nature is everywhere subject to, borrowing a phrase from Frederic Jameson, “ideological strategies of containment”, a democratic pedagogy of the commons is required as part of the response. Moreover, in such democratic negotiation, a theological anthropology once more is affirmed: “The redistribution of agency and the

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reconfiguration of power are ways of securing the subjectivities and histories of those who have been placed on the underside of history and thereby had their cultures subjugated or denigrated”.24 At this point, I deploy the conceptuality of historico-natural emergence to indicate that such a pedagogy is a movement in and through democratic structures that supports a tendency of the affirmation of humanity and nature. If there is then some agreement between Scharper and myself on the matter of anthropology and ontology, our common concern for praxis makes for a greater divergence. For Scharper, what marks the discussion of anthropology and ontology as less abstract than might appear is “a praxis, a program of action and reflection as developed in liberation theology”.25 Thereafter the implications for the church are identified: it takes the side of the poor, practising a preferential option after God’s lead. In sum, “a political theology of the environment examines structural systems of oppression in both socio-political and ecological terms” – this is to “witness a dual oppression, both of the poor and vulnerable natural ecosystems”.26 My argument concludes differently in that with reference to praxis my attention turns to the Church. Strangely, I do not follow through on this claim for the praxis of the Church but instead return to the consideration of place in a political theology of nature. Whereas for Scharper, in contrast, the commitment required by the Church on account of his understanding of praxis is clear and yet he gives little detail of which actors and institutions are to undertake which tasks. It is almost as if the liberation theology perspective is part of a larger praxis-oriented movement and we do not require an independent agenda for the Church for action to be established. My position is clearer in the identification of the action and responsibility of the Church but much less expansive on how the Eucharist is the performance of a liberative pedagogy of the commons. For example, I make no reference to the democracy of the commons argued out at great length earlier and how a Eucharistic pedagogy might relate to this. Despite these differences, our respective proposals occupy the same – broadly, appellative – ground. That is, if we are to divide political theology into two streams, one post-Marxist and the other post-Hobbesian, both our proposals float in the post-Marxist stream. That is, our proposals – notwithstanding their differences – are not concerned with the relationship between society and political authority. To invoke the matter of political authority is to invoke the state. Neither of us explore the role of the state and the conclusion must be drawn that we are concerned with civil society – and also possibly the economy, although Scharper is more emphatic on that than I am. It is also clear that we operate across the distinction “politics/political”: practical/political deliberation vs the exercise of political authority through structures.27 Neither of

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us carefully distinguishes these matters and neither do we pay attention to the ecological dimensions of either of these. (My discussion of democracy is a partial exception here.) Our concern then is not the criticism of the state but rather the interface of nature and society: how society produces itself ecologically. Given the discussion so far, what preliminary conclusions do we reach as regards the operations of theology in political theology in the Anthropocene? Scharper’s detailed examination of “apologetic”, “constructive”, and “listening” styles in ecological theology disguises the fact that he pays scant attention to the task of a political theology of the environment. Certain themes emerge clearly: for example, the vocation of the human. Moreover, a political theology must be political and transformative. Yet, there is little discussion of what political means and how theology, either in this case or more generally, is to be understood as transformative. (Nor is there any discussion as to whether theology must also be concerned with how to transform itself, and how it might do that.) In my contribution, I am deeply concerned to demonstrate that the conversation with a range of political ecologies is conducted theologically. Having said that, there is little discussion as to what makes these conversation partners political – such a discussion would have helped to illuminate how a political theology proceeds. Moreover, the relation between theology and ecology is understated. The power and scope of theological concepts to clarify or supplement ecological conceptualities remain unclarified. It is true that the dynamic of my theological thinking is a trajectory from salvation to power. Yet, despite this commitment, I draw no general or structural similarities between theological and ecological concepts. Scharper and I share a commitment to anthropology, ontology, and praxis. My proposal is more advanced as regards the first two but Scharper is clearer and sharper as regards praxis. Neither of us elaborate adequately on the political – the structures by which political power is exercised – and thereby we pay less attention than seems persuasive to the State. Moreover, and which is nearly the same thing, we do not discuss Schmitt. 3.

Segue

Michael Northcott’s 2013 A Political Theology of Climate Change is a significant contribution to political theology in the Anthropocene, and in the context of this essay an important transition text, in that he offers an extended discussion of Schmitt.28 One of the concerns of this essay is to track the growing influence of the work of Schmitt in political theologies of the Anthropocene and Northcott offers our first substantial engagement.

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To begin, I note that one reason to designate this text as a transition text is because although Northcott provides an extensive discussion of Schmitt his argument is not framed by a Schmittian analysis. Instead, the following persistent theme in Northcott’s writing structures the analysis: a deep relationship between injustices in the human sphere and violent distortions in human relations with nature. This thematic has been important in Northcott’s work since at least his landmark The Environment and Christian Ethics.29 Moreover, a metaphysical “picture” is certainly presupposed which is used as the basis for important analyses of coal, oil and carbon. Additionally, the response to these three accounts is similar: what is required is a fresh metaphysical synthesis, a renewed marriage of heaven and earth in which human and natural activities and God’s purposes in creation and redemption align more fully. It is only towards the end of the argument that we arrive at a discussion of Schmitt. At this point in Northcott’s argument, he argues that Schmitt is helpful for advancing an analysis based in the claim that “the political is enclosed within and hence interacts with the natural on terms the political does not control”.30 This enclosure generates a profound tension between the preferences expressed by individuals and corporations on the one hand and ecological limits on the other. Preferences, it turns out, have ecological costs and thereby some preferences are to be preferred to others. So, a difficult question emerges: who decides among preferences? For Northcott, a political theology must attend to “the nations, and hence … the citizens, corporations, cities, and villages which constitute them” as mediating locations to “restrain their pursuit of goods which are incommensurable with the common good of generations, nations, and species on a finite planet”.31 At the point of the consideration of the nations, Northcott contends, the work of Schmitt is relevant. We may now appreciate that Northcott is able to affirm the importance, as he sees it, of Schmitt’s political theology by a route other than beginning from Schmitt’s critique of political liberalism. What is valuable – indeed prescient – about Schmitt’s position is that both a global-scale economy and a planetaryscale climate change present a challenge to borders, and the bordered nature of human living. In other words, economy and climate change in their different ways dissolve the political into global trade deals and international agreements to resist climate change. In its inability to register the tension between borders and the global and the planetary, the vacuity of liberalism is exposed. Such vacuity will not, however, stop political liberalism trying to engage these efforts in which, in its failure to affirm the significance of borders, it will be doomed to fail. Indeed, according to Northcott, this vacuity and failure is recorded in the responses of nation-states to climate change. On the one hand, we have the

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de facto acknowledgement of borders seen in the increased security arrangements some nations are making. On the other hand, we have the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties process that seeks to secure international agreement on efforts to reduce CO2 production. As Northcott puts the matter: “Judgements about climate migrants reveal climate politics as the politics of the exception, while social scientific and philosophical commentary on climate politics focuses instead on discussions in conference chambers about national greenhouse emissions”.32 In this way, the politics of climate change is disclosive of both an ideological “democratic” response and a more defensive response designed to secure the territorial integrity of nation-states. It is the disjunctive character of this double response, according to Northcott, that political liberalism cannot own – at least, not without declaring itself to be politically bankrupt. So however much borderless concerns – global economy, planetary climate change – assert themselves, a response is always in part based in borders, so to speak. Why does Northcott finds this Schmittian point valuable? In the first theological discussion known to me, Northcott draws upon Schmitt’s The Nomos of the Earth (1950, trans. 2003). In other words, Northcott moves beyond the standard discussions of Schmitt’s Political Theology and The Concept of the Political. In a typical move, The Nomos of the Earth permits Northcott to explore one of his abiding themes: the theological relationship between humanity, nature and the Divine, a theme that he traces back to a cosmopolitical feature in the covenant of ancient Israel. Northcott has consistently argued that when a covenant goes awry this leads to perturbations in human society and in nature. What he finds attractive about Schmitt’s discussion of nomos – which translates as “law of the land” – is that it enables a deepening of the critique of politics as a universal discourse that is in turn easily deconstructible into economics. That is, the genuinely political – located, and founded in the friend/enemy distinction – also has a natural basis. As Northcott writes, “… alone among twentieth-century political theorists, Schmitt locates the political in the interstices between air, earth, and sea, and in the agential role of earthly forces in the formation of the borders and laws of the nations, and hence of the political”.33 Whether or not this is accurate as an interpretation of Schmitt, it leaves Northcott able to present Schmitt as follows: “For Schmitt, the ground of the state is a physical ground – literally a space in which people have evolved a culture of artefacts, customs, and propertied holdings. A people can function politically only in a shared space, when a people has defined others who are not their people and hence has designated others as outsiders.”34 Such a view was achieved in a medieval synthesis in Europe, although with many complexities,

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but comprehensively broke down from the late medieval period. Following Schmitt, Northcott concludes: The root of the contemporary collapse of the political is therefore the breakdown of the relation between land and law that had been so important to the ecclesial body politic of the medieval synthesis, and earlier to the Hebrews, but which is absent from most Classical and modern conceptions of law. Modern political theory in effect excludes land as its source and fosters instead a bureaucratic idea of legality arising from a centralised state which is self-referential and lacks the foundational nomos of the ordering of fields and pastures, and hence of a terroir or terrain shaped by generations of a people.35

Congruent with his reading of the Hebrew covenant, and following Schmitt, Northcott is able to develop an account of the political in which land is constitutive and the foundational place of the state is bracketed. Rule is derived thereby not from abstract law but from “a bounded space of political cohabitation”, and so from living places.36 Northcott summarizes thus: “Rule which is derived from nomos is a kind of rule that is oriented to both space and time, geography and the generations, nature and culture, and is therefore ecologically situated in deep time, both human and more than human”.37 It is not difficult to see that such an account also raises issues about moral formation in a period after nomos, so to speak, and sharp questions are raised about the role of the Church under present conditions of sovereignty. Northcott’s introduction of Schmitt into the discussion of political theologies in the Anthropocene is revealing. Northcott, Scharper and Scott are all concerned to connect theology and politics in an appellative key. It is now clearer, however, that more than one meaning of “political” is at stake in this discussion and therefore there is more than one way of relating theology and politics and, further, more than one way to relate ecology and political theology. What is at stake is the range of ways “… of transcribing the theological into the political”.38 One way of getting preliminary purchase on the difference here would be to refer to a distinction made by William T. Cavanaugh and I in our attempt to characterise the styles of political theology. We draw a contrast between post-Hobbesian and post-Marxist approaches in political theology. Perhaps Schmitt’s attractiveness to appellative political theology is because in his juridical approach he traverses these two approaches.39 With the Hobbesians, he stresses the centrality of the political but then denies its social contract basis; with the Marxists, he affirms the locatedness of the political but then argues against any sort of economic reduction and the state as the expression of a prior social state. Instead, the political is based in the friend/enemy distinction created by the collecting of a people in and through

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its nomos and a subsequent affirmation of boundaries. We may rightly identify this as a “state of nature” but not that of a suspicion of all by all – that is, not Hobbes’ individualised violence of “what stops my neighbour from killing me?” – but the externalisation of violence by a nomos-united people by reference to the enemy beyond. For the ecological political theologian, the reference to earth, sea and sky has obvious – at least superficially so – attractions. Whereas for Scharper and Scott, political theology in the Anthropocene means a broadly liberationist stance and attending to the ways that theology contributes to a liberatory politics, for Northcott, political theology means attending to the construction of politics itself: bounded peoples, whose borders encircle a landed way of life, over against other ways of life. And yet, as we shall see in the next section, Schmitt makes a further appearance in this story, and differently. 4.

Exception

In Catherine Keller’s brilliant A Political Theology of the Earth, we see a further shift in the meaning of political theology in the condition of the Anthropocene. If Scharper and Scott are concerned with the political in the sense of power and theology, the issue for Northcott, at least in part, is how politics is generated. For none of these three theologians is the key issue that of Schmittian exceptionalism. With Keller, that changes, and her political theology is, of the four considered so far, interacts more fully with Schmitt – strictly, the refusal of Schmitt – yet in a way that enables a constructive new departure in theology. Although she references both Scott and Northcott, and notes the latter’s “intense engagement” with Schmitt, the sources of her political theology are different. As such, I shall be arguing that Keller’s position is less framed by Schmitt’s political theology than Northcott’s and that she also makes a creative anti-use of his position. After some general discussion about how theology is always political – theology always addresses a polis – Keller poses the question as to whether the political is always theological, and that proves the point of entry for a discussion of Schmitt.40 Having said that, there is a sense in which Keller locates political theology outside Schmitt: in the political progressivism of the mainline denominations in the US, the theological movement of Metz, Moltmann and Sölle, and other liberationist theologies. In this wider framing, the engagement with Schmitt permits a consideration of a range of exceptionalisms, as we shall see.41

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For Keller, it is not quite adequate to define the political as a “gathering for the common good”. Such a position is, for her, insufficiently dynamic and she prefers to interpret the political as “struggles with acute difference”. That leads her into conflict with, although also having some agreement with, Schmitt’s more conflictual account of how the political subject is generated. While not quite rejecting Schmitt’s friend/enemy distinction and also having some sympathy with the way in which a liberal consensus may obscure deep differences, she follows Chantal Mouffe in refusing a choice that Schmitt seems to offer between the strong unitary subject vs the weak collective of diversity. So, if the Schmittian production of the political is not correct, where does that leave us in the discussion of the one who is sovereign over the unitary subject? As I have already noted in my reading of Northcott, Schmitt is associated with the concept of the political vested in the friend/enemy distinction. A second key idea is that political ideas are secularized theological ideas. Moreover, that an excellent example of such a transcription is the sovereign: the one who decides on the state of exception (or emergency); the lawgiver who may suspend the law and thereby place themselves above or before the law. For Schmitt, this emergency-granting sovereign is a transcribing of the divine and omnipotent lawgiver from the theological to the political. In granting the exception, the granter of the exception is themselves “exceptionalised”. Keller objects to this manoeuvre and the reference to the omnipotent sovereign allows her to repeat her criticism of the creatio ex nihilo protocol to which she thinks the concept of an omnipotent sovereign is fused. Does political theology need to operate with such a sovereign? – the answer is no, according to Keller. In refusing such a sovereign, hermeneutical space is opened for Keller to develop the notion of exception as theo-political critique. Exploring the etymology of the word, exception, Keller notes its origins in the Latin word, excipere, to “take out”. Developing this idea, she notes that by the exception the sovereign takes themselves out of the social, the lawful; they become the lawgiver who precedes the law and is thereby somehow unconstrained by the law. Secondly, the sovereign is thereby able to “take out” or remove whatever is in the way of securing the state of emergency.42 The sovereign thereby secures a position above the law and as the arbiter of the friend/enemy distinction decides also who falls outside the protection of the law. The one who is above the law decides who are below the law.43 This critique enables Keller to identify a series of exceptions in which a group or agent are above the law and also are able to decide who/what are below the law. A series of exceptions can be identified: imperial supremacism, Christian exclusivism, Jesus Christ as supernatural exception, and an

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anthropocentric exception. Moreover, we may in consequence identify those groups that are to be understood as below the law or outside of society: those who must be civilised/democratised, other religions, unruly human bodies, and nature. Although this is not the constructive part of her political theology, we may now see how the deployment and elaboration of Schmitt’s political theology permits a sustained critique of “take out” actions. What is instructive about Keller’s position is that in her basic political theology, she is probably not that far from Scharper and Scott – although perhaps she is more engaged with process theology as political theology than the latter. However, in terms of critique, she has found a way of utilising Schmitt not in diagnoses of liberal politics – although that is not quite absent – but in terms of insightfully revealing that Schmitt’s call for the exception has already been heeded. Indeed, the exception-al “taking-out” is already being practised. 5.

The Supper of the Lord

My fifth and final example of a political theology of the Anthropocene is Edible Entanglements: On a Political Theology of Food (2019) by S. Yael Dennis. I shall discuss this enquiry more briefly than the previous four enquiries on the ground that the basic position in political theology presented here is in its essence, Keller’s.44 There is, however, a discussion of Schmitt’s work and in turn of the central issue of sovereignty. As I say, Dennis’ argument is broadly about sovereignty: the sovereignty of global food production. How is such super-sovereignty to be understood, and is opposition to such super-sovereignty, based in national movements and so presumably an account of national sovereignty, well founded and likely to be effective? The conclusion of the argument is arrived at through a double move. First, can the concept of sovereignty, a secularized theological concept, be in some way re-theologised (by drawing heavily on Keller)? Second, could such a concept of sovereignty be understood in a more popular way that in turn might function as a critique of the super-sovereignty of global food production and of the national sovereignty associated with Schmitt? The argument proposed by Dennis is thereby a theological and political development of sovereignty, in the context of food in/security. Her argument therefore accepts the Schmittian point about the relation between the theological and the political and seeks, by drawing on Keller, to develop an alternative interpretation of the sovereign exception. This alternative is slightly more restricted than Keller’s in that Dennis wishes to give a place for national food sovereignty. As she writes, “Perhaps something akin to ‘strategic sovereignty’ based upon an iterative

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model of ‘people as process’ might strike the balance required [between sovereignty based in the nation-state and its disbandment]”.45 Moreover, and interestingly, part of the reason given for the rejection of Schmitt’s absolute sovereignty is that this “metaphysical image” relates poorly to the nature of the world disclosed by science studies. Differently from Northcott and Keller, Dennis seeks to contextualise Schmitt’s political theology in inter war Germany, not least by exploring the differing accounts of sovereignty that emerged in the writings of Schmitt and Walter Benjamin. Nonetheless, despite the setting in historical context, her concerns are present and contemporary: is food security best thought in relation to a sovereign – which will in turn mean reference to nation-states – or by reference to multiple sovereignties?46 I should also add that Dennis presses the matter of metaphysical image further than either Northcott or Keller. Indeed, she quotes Schmitt directly on the relationship between “metaphysical image” and an appropriate “form of political organisation”.47 She refers to “metaphysical image” at the end of a discussion of Bruno Latour and she clearly finds Latour’s presentation congenial in the development of a non-dualist “metaphysics”. However, in neither case is it clear what these metaphysical images are. We may now appreciate the range of ways in which Schmitt’s political theology is drawn from in political theologies in the Anthropocene. For Northcott, Schmitt is helpful in establishing the boundaried placedness of politics; attention here is focussed on the pessimistic political anthropology of the friend/ enemy distinction. For Keller, although mindful of this matter, attention shifts to the state of exception or emergency, and the metaphorical extension of the exception provides the basis for a wide-ranging critique. For Dennis, attention shifts one more time to the matter of sovereignty: in the context of the global production of food, how is sovereignty in support of food production and consumption to be thought? 6.

Apocalyptic Revisited

At the beginning of this essay, I drew on Michael Hoelzl’s discussion of Böckenförde’s characterization of political theology. In the context of the present essay, our journey has been from a theological political theology towards political political theology. That is, if there has been a transition in these five political theologies, presented according to their dates of publication, it is from the appellative to the juridical. As the interest in Schmitt has grown in the wider academy (for reasons that have little to do with political theology

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of ecology, except as in so far as ecotheology is part of a wider modernity critique), the same trajectory can be detected in theological political theology. In considering this interaction between the appellative and the juridical, what do we learn about political theology in the Anthropocene? To respond to this question, I turn to the provocative analysis offered by Kyle Gingerich Hiebert in The Architectonics of Violence.48 Although not using Böckenförde’s adjectival terms, Gingerich Hiebert detects deep continuities between the juridical political theology of Schmitt and the appellative political theology of Metz. This is provocative because, as is widely known, in taking up the task of renewing political theology, Metz sought to dissociate emphatically his work from Schmitt’s.49 A commitment to democracy distinguishes the appellative from the juridical, at least according to the proponents of the appellative, and this commitment accounts for Metz’s aim to dissociate the “new” political theology – developed by himself, Jürgen Moltmann and Dorothee Sölle, among others – from Schmitt’s Nazi leanings. In considering the relationship between the juridical (Schmitt) and the appellative (Metz), Gingerich Hiebert argues that an “apocalyptic tone” or an “apocalyptic element” joins these two thinkers. With regard to Schmitt, Gingerich Hiebert detects “an apocalyptically inflected aesthetics of violence”; Schmitt is an “‘apocalyptician of counterrevolution’”.50 On this reading, Schmitt is concerned to address the issue of chaos in a “catechontic impulse” (Jacob Taubes). Gingerich Hiebert summarises thus: “Schmitt’s emphasis on the exceptional need for decision, his reliance on Hobbes and the conservative Catholic authors of the counterrevolution, his friend/enemy distinction and his advocacy for a pluralism of Großräume to combat the real possibility of global civil war all reflect this underlying [catechontic] principle.”51 Metz’s appellative theology also enjoys an apocalyptic tone, according to Gingerich Hiebert, yet the underlying principle is different: what is required is attention to the “wreckage of history” and the interruption of suffering rather than a catechontic principle.52 For Metz, the issue is suffering rather than chaos; the apocalyptic principle is the interruption of suffering rather than the restraint of chaos. Thus, where Böckenförde separates, Gingerich Hiebert sees deep continuities. Is a similar case to be made with reference to different political theologies in the Anthropocene? It is not difficult to detect an “apocalyptic tone” in the political theologies that I have been discussing in this essay, all of which refer to suffering in an appellative key. Scharper’s use of a UN report that references the suffering of children, Scott’s report on the dimensions of ecological crisis, Northcott’s concern for the costs of oil and coal production for creatures, Keller’s enquiry opening with a consideration of time and its contraction, and Dennis exploring the

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suffering created by food precarity and “abundance” refer us to the apocalyptic. All five political theologies thereby wish us to pay attention to suffering, human and non-human. Moreover, these five political theologies invite us to consider and work for the interruption of such suffering. What the turn to the juridical in political theology also invites us to consider is the issue of order: how is it to be established – through whose action? – and what will be its content? Scott might, I suppose, be understood as trying to address the issue of action by reference to a “democracy of the commons”. Dennis is perhaps most explicit in exploring the content of order through her differentiation between different sorts of food sovereignty. By contrast, Northcott’s account does indeed – as Gingerich Hiebert would predict – seem quite formal: what needs incorporating into political theology in the Anthropocene is the principle of the nomos rather than any detailed discussion about content. Yet, the issue that Schmitt presses is the apocalyptic in the mode of preservation whereas the appellative recruits the apocalyptic in the mode of disruption.53 In the contrast between political “political theology” and theological “political theology” is presented different understandings of order and of the response commended by an apocalyptic tone. The contrast in political theology between the juridical and appellative seems to be joined by an “apocalyptically inflected aesthetics of violence”. In addition, this contrast between preservation and disruption takes on a new meaning in political theologies of the Anthropocene. How does the contrast between the chaotic and suffering, and between preservation and disruption, figure in such political theologies? To think of nature in relation to violence, and to think of violence as generative of chaos or suffering – how helpful is that in the context of political theologies of the Anthropocene? So, we need to ask whether for political theologies of the Anthropocene the “apocalyptic tone” is helpful. The difficulty with both options, in my view, is that they risk turning nature into either the source of chaos or the source of suffering. Now, nature is arguably both these things. First, nature is locally chaotic, to be sure, and threatens human, and other, societies and thereby threatens orders. Nature, second, is also the source of suffering – as in predation – and, in a rather different way, death. Nature thereby seems to be both threatening and tragic. Yet, threat and tragedy are two angles on nature and it is not obvious that we should construct a politics either on the basis of nature as threat to which human society functions as katechon or on the basis of nature as the source of suffering, a tragic – possibly metaphysical – condition. Even if the contrast between chaos and suffering and also order and interruption is a helpful way of engaging politically with the human sphere it is not clear for the political theologies under

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discussion that an aesthetics of nature relates well to these contrasts. Nor is it clear that there is a restricted human sphere to which these contrasts apply. I am writing during a corona pandemic. In that condition, an aesthetics of violence privileges either chaos or suffering. If we stress corona as chaos, and the appropriate response to be one of the building of order, we can, I suppose, think of the state of “lockdown” as a determined effort to impose an order over against corona chaos. Yet, if we think only along the lines of “locking down” we shall miss the way in which the corona virus is not a violent other to “our” (human) order but has in effect been generated without our human food economy and has spread at great speed along routes of human communication. The juridical perspective is helpful here in understanding how we have created a lockdown order over against the virus. However, as we now see in second waves of infection, the virus cannot at present be othered and expelled in any finally effective way. If, by contrast, we stress corona as suffering, we surely arrive at an important truth: corona illness and awareness of death are sources of suffering. There is also the financial, emotional and mental health suffering generated by the experience of lockdown. Yet, we might wish to be cautious about any temptation to be attentive solely to the suffering as that would detract from efforts to predict, plan, and organise to mitigate the effects of Covid-19. The appellative perspective is helpful here in understanding how suffering will continue despite our best efforts in a lockdown order yet we also require confidence in our efforts to disrupt the effect of the virus, to build a different, more secure order. In sum, neither the imposition of order and the expelling of the other nor the disruption of suffering seem adequate on their own. These options point to apocalyptically inflected aesthetics of violence but it is not clear that separately they are adequate for an ecological context. The following questions are thereby raised: In the context of a political theology of the Anthropocene, what are the differences between an apocalyptically inflected aesthetics of violence and an apocalyptically inflected aesthetics of nature? Is an apocalyptically inflected aesthetics of nature best interpreted by reference to violence? For an apocalyptically inflected aesthetics of nature, it seems unlikely that nature can be understood as katechon and disruptor. If we deploy the trope of nature as katechon and thereby as preservative, we would also need to affirm that there is no ‘outside’ to nature. Moreover, it is not only violent. So, we would only use a term such as krisis with some caution. We cannot therefore easily transfer to nature that pessimistic political anthropology with which Schmitt works. If we deploy the trope of nature as disruptor, we would also need to affirm that nature is not external, and it cannot be parsed as present only as the cause of suffering. There may be a tragic element in human-nature

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relations but this acknowledgement can be generalised only with great care. The themes of apocalyptic preservation and apocalyptic disruption may not transfer simply into an aesthetics of nature. In the light of this analysis, the task for political theologies in the Anthropocene will be less concerned with the relation between theological and political concepts and thereby the matter of sovereignty but instead more concerned with how natural orders call into question received ways of constructing “the political”. If nature cannot be folded into the friend/enemy contrast, then how a true politics is founded will need re-thinking. If nature cannot be figured in a political theology only by reference to suffering, how praxiologically such suffering can be interrupted requires exploration. Thereby, an agenda for political theologies in the Anthropocene emerges. References Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde, “Politische Theorie und Politische Theologie: Bemerkungen zu ihrem gegenseitigen Verhältnis”, in Revue européenne des sciences sociales 19, 54-55 (1981), pp. 233-243. William T. Cavanaugh and Peter Manley Scott, “Introduction to the Second Edition”, in W.  T.  Cavanaugh and P.  M.  Scott, The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Political Theology 2e (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2019), pp. 1-11. Celia Deane-Drummond, Sigurd Bergmann and Markus Vogt, “Introduction” in DeaneDrummond, Bergmann and Vogt (eds.), Religion in the Anthropocene (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2017) Hent de Vries, “Introduction”, in Hent de Vries and Lawrence E. Sullivan (eds.), Political Theologies: Public Religions in a Post-secular World (New York: Fordham, 2006), pp. 1-88. S.  Yael Dennis, Edible Entanglements: On a Political Theology of Food (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2019) Kyle Gingerich Hiebert, The Architectonics of Hope: Violence, Apocalyptic, and the Transformation of Political Theology (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2017) Michael Hoelzl, “Dispositives of Political Theology: Analyzing non-discursive elements of the Josephinian dispositive of pastoral power”, in Dennis Vanden Auweele and Miklós Vassányi (eds), Past and Present Political Theology: Expanding the Canon (London: Routledge, 2020), pp. 154-175. Catherine Keller, Political Theology of the Earth (New York: Columbia, 2018) Johann Baptist Metz, “Political Theology”, in K.  Rahner and A.  Darlap (eds), Sacramentum Mundi volume V (New York: Herder and Herder, 1970), pp. 34-38.

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Michael S. Northcott, The Environment and Christian Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008) Michael  S. Northcott, A Political Theology of Climate Change (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2013) Stephen Bede Scharper, Redeeming the Time: A Political Theology of the Environment (New York: Continuum, 1997) Carl Schmitt, Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985); translation of Politische Theologie. Vier Kapitel von der Lehre der Souveränität, (1922/1970) Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996); translation of Der Begriff des Politischen (1932) Carl Schmitt, The Nomos of the Earth in the International Law of the Jus Publicum Europaeum (New York: Telos Press, 2003); translation of Der Nomos der Erde im Völkerrecht des Jus Publicum Europaeum, 1950 Peter Scott, A Political Theology of Nature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003) Peter Manley Scott, “Politics and the new visibility of theology”, in Graham Ward and Michael Hoelzl (eds), The New Visibility of Religion (London: Bloomsbury, 2008), pp. 170-186. Peter Manley Scott, “Creation”, in W. T. Cavanaugh and P. M. Scott, The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Political Theology 2e (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2019), pp. 376-388. Peter Manley Scott, A Theology of Postnatural Right (Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2019)

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It is a great honour to contribute to this liber amicorum for Sigurd Bergmann and to celebrate his contribution to constructive theology. His is an important voice in ecological theology, and it is a great pleasure to honour his contribution in this way. S.  Yael  Dennis, Edible Entanglements: On a Political Theology of Food (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2019); Catherine Keller, Political Theology of the Earth (New York: Columbia, 2018); Michael Northcott, A Political Theology of Climate Change (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2013); Stephen Bede Scharper, Redeeming the Time: A Political Theology of the Environment (New York: Continuum, 1997); Peter Scott, A Political Theology of Nature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003). The Anthropocene refers to an epoch “in which the collective imprint of human activities is so pervasive that the Earth System, most notably that associated with climate change, is destabilised”, Celia Deane-Drummond, Sigurd Bergmann and Markus Vogt, “Introduction” in Deane-Drummond, Bergmann and Vogt (eds.), Religion in the Anthropocene (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2017), p. 1. Peter Manley Scott, “Creation”, in W. T. Cavanaugh and P. M. Scott, The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Political Theology 2e (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2019), pp.  376-388, here. p. 376.

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Peter Manley Scott, A Theology of Postnatural Right (Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2019), p. 7. Scott, “Creation”, p. 377. Michael Hoelzl, “Dispositives of Political Theology: Analyzing non-discursive elements of the Josephinian dispositive of pastoral power”, in Dennis Vanden Auweele and Miklós Vassányi (eds.), Past and Present Political Theology: Expanding the Canon (London: Routledge, 2020), pp. 154-175. Hoelzl, “Dispositives of Political Theology”, p. 154. Hoelzl, “Dispositives of Political Theology”, p.  173, citing Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde, “Politische Theorie und Politische Theologie: Bemerkungen zu ihrem gegenseitigen Verhältnis”, in Revue européenne des sciences sociales 19, 54-55 (1981), pp. 233-243. The examples are from Böckenförde. Hent de Vries also uses ‘appellative’ in this way but then links together “institutional-juridical” as the “descriptive-reconstructive” approach in political theology to be contrasted with the “normative-constructive”. See de Vries, “Introduction”, in Hent de Vries and Lawrence E. Sullivan (eds.), Political Theologies: Public Religions in a Post-secular World (New York: Fordham, 2006), p. 48. See Scharper, Redeeming the Time, p. 52. Scharper, Redeeming the Time, p. 18. Scharper, Redeeming the Time, p. 19. Scharper, Redeeming the Time, p. 19. Scharper, Redeeming the Time, p. 51. Scharper, Redeeming the Time, p. 73. Scharper, Redeeming the Time, p. 106. Scharper, Redeeming the Time, pp. 186-191. Scott, A Political Theology of Nature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), p. 4. The adjective “un/natural” in my work has now been superseded by “postnatural”. More recently, I have tried to set this out in more detail: see Scott, A Theology of Postnatural Right, pp. 19-24. Scott, A Political Theology of Nature, p. 5. Scott, A Political Theology of Nature, pp. 43-52, 52-55, 59-60. Scott, A Political Theology of Nature, p. 224. Scott, A Political Theology of Nature, p. 228. Scharper, Redeeming the Time, p. 190. Scharper, Redeeming the Time, p. 190. Peter Manley Scott, “Politics and the new visibility of theology”, in Graham Ward and Michael Hoelzl (eds), The New Visibility of Religion (London: Bloomsbury, 2008), pp. 170186 (here p. 171). Michael S. Northcott, A Political Theology of Climate Change (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2013). Michael  S.  Northcott, The Environment and Christian Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008). Northcott, A Political Theology of Climate Change, p. 208. Northcott, A Political Theology of Climate Change, p. 210. Northcott, A Political Theology of Climate Change, pp. 212-213. Northcott, A Political Theology of Climate Change, p. 219. Northcott, A Political Theology of Climate Change, p. 220. Northcott, A Political Theology of Climate Change, p. 223. Northcott, A Political Theology of Climate Change, p. 224. Northcott, A Political Theology of Climate Change, p. 224.

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W. T. Cavanaugh and P. M. Scott, “Introduction”, in W. T. Cavanaugh and P. M. Scott, The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Political Theology 2e (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2019), p. 10. Cavanaugh and Scott, “Introduction”, p. 8. Keller, A Political theology of the Earth, pp. 7-8. Keller, A Political theology of the Earth, p. 16. Keller, A Political theology of the Earth, p. 48. Keller, A Political theology of the Earth, p. 50. S. Yael Dennis, Edible Entanglements: On a Political Theology of Food (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2019), pp. 209-222. She also finds Scharper’s work more indebted to process thought than in my reading: see Dennis, Edible Entanglements, p. 201, fn. 6. Dennis, Edible Entanglements, p. 20. Dennis, Edible Entanglements, pp. 59-63. Dennis, Edible Entanglements, p. 196. Kyle Gingerich Hiebert, The Architectonics of Hope (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2017) Gingerich Hiebert, The Architectonics of Hope, p. 14. Gingerich Hiebert, The Architectonics of Hope, p. 26; the phrase is from Jacob Taubes. Gingerich Hiebert, The Architectonics of Hope, pp. 26-27. Gingerich Hiebert, The Architectonics of Hope, p. 28. Gingerich Hiebert, The Architectonics of Hope, p. 53.

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A Religious Symbol for a Sustainable Practice? The Hope Cathedral from a Pragmatist Perspective Jan-Olav Henriksen From ‘Acts of God’ to the Anthropocene In earlier times, when natural disasters happened, when drought caused famine and flooding caused destruction, or when tsunamis hit, such events or situations were called ‘Acts of God.’ The description suggests that these phenomena were outside of human control, and not possible to deal with through human agency. The natural tendency of humans to ascribe such events to a personal cause or intention led to this description: God was behind; they were interpreted as the punishment of God. Today we know that it is not exclusively forces or powers outside human control in general that cause many of the afflictions that affect human life and nature. E.g., the disaster caused by hurricane Kathrina had such a great impact because of a lack of human response, bad planning, etc. The introduction of the notion of the Anthropocene suggests that the present era in the history of the earth is one in which human activities have an impact on both environment and climate to such extent that it is considered constituting a distinct geological age.1 Accordingly, the notion ‘acts of God’ is not only inadequate, but it may also serve as a means for not placing the responsibility for the present situation at the correct addressee.2 All the sources, notions, narratives, and symbols at the heart of Christianity were developed well before the era of the Anthropocene. This fact might be one of the reasons why Christian theology has a deficit with regard to appropriate symbols for dealing with, interpreting, and responding to climate change as a consequence of human agency. Given that this claim is correct, we need to ponder how to find an exit from this predicament, and how to develop symbols that can help people to acknowledge the spiritual or religious significance of the present situation. Theology is a practice. It is not only about peoples’ beliefs, but it is a reflective practice that considers what practices are the best for humans in order to orient themselves, and what in their lives and their social and political environment requires change and transformation. In order to do this, theological practices need to identify and make use of specific symbols or representations. My aim in this article is to reflect on what could be adequate theological

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symbols for orientation and transformation, given the climate crisis by which we are now challenged. Then, theology can fulfill its task, namely to employ the Christian tradition to make sense of human experiences and to provide opportunities for chances for new experiences. Two Experiences that Mirror the Present Situation Let me start by reporting two recent experiences of mine. Within the timespan of a few days, in November 2019, as I started pondering what to write about in this article, two things happened that made a profound impression on me: After a lecture I gave in Bergen, one young woman in the audience asked: “How can we still have hope? Should we continue to bring children to the world? It looks so dark, so grim.” Although I had not been especially pessimistic in what I spoke about, her response was a significant indication as to what young people are concerned about – even when other topics are under discussion. Climate impact is not far away even in one of the wealthiest countries in the world – it also affects people in the Western part of Norway, with flooding and landslides. A few days later, I had an email from an old Australian friend, as a response to my query about how they were doing in the midst of the current wildfires there during their summer 2019-20. He wrote: “We seem to be living through apocalyptic times here at the moment. There has been an extended drought this year, and now for the first time ever, we are subject to severe water restrictions, which means saving the soapy bath water for rinsing and other purposes. We have been surrounded by massive bushfires – none really close to Armidale, but we have had a lot of smoke drifting over us. Some people have been very damaged by the fires, many of them just to the north and east of us. Our garden has no grass, just brown impacted dirt.” Let us for a moment to consider these experiences: thanks to contemporary means of communication, I am connected to my friend at the other side of the Globe and may know in almost real-time what happens to him and his family. How climate change affects him is something I am immediately confronted with. As for the young woman asking about the possibility for hope: although she is living under conditions that might protect her from drought and famine in the foreseeable future, she knows – and feels – that changes are underway that need to be taken into consideration, and which will have an impact on how she and her potential children will have to live their lives. Both instances suggest how deeply interconnected all parts of the world are with each other, and how little we can ignore what takes place elsewhere.

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It is of vital importance that Christian theology addresses climate change from the point of view of concrete experiences, and not from the point of view of abstract concepts and theories. The main element in facing this task is to allow the concrete experiences to speak to us and see what they can tell us in terms of what is urgent to do, say, think, or make. Therefore, I will offer one example of a symbolic response to the present situation. An analysis of this response may, in turn, help us identify some main elements that Christian theology needs to take into consideration. The Hope Cathedral In Fredrikstad, a middle-size town in the Southeastern part of Norway, the Lutheran Diocese has taken up an initiative to build a cathedral on the shores – close to the ocean that is filled with plastic waste. This plastic waste is the material for building the Cathedral. On the website of the initiative, it reads: “We need a common expression of hope – a symbol to unite us. Across differences of age, nationality, and religion. That’s why we are building Hope Cathedral.”3 There is a considerable amount of elements to reflect on in this initiative. Even more so in the present, as Greta Thunberg and others have argued that what we need in order to overcome the climate crisis is a Cathedral builder attitude; an attitude that acknowledges that this is a task only possible to realize in common action by all of humanity over several generations.4 Then a cathedral can manifest and symbolize this attitude, as well as motivate other practices and common efforts in order to save oceans from pollution and the world from the disastrous effects of climate change. The construction process implies the partaking of volunteers, artists, and professional constructors, and it also includes unemployed people and some who are socially marginalized. As mentioned, the Cathedral attitude implies a perspective that stretches over several generations. In the Hope Catherdral project, this perspective is enhanced by the fact that the Cathedral is built by using the techniques of traditional crafts, including notching, the method used in the medieval Stave-Churches in Norway, tree-plugs, timbering by hand and transportation by horse. The fleet on which the Cathedral is built is a traditional trade-pram. The initiative is important also because it represents a response to a given situation, manifest in how the shorelines along the coast of Norway are filled with waste from the oceans. As pragmatist philosophy teaches us,5 human practices and actions are usually best understood as responses to challenges, problems, needs, and difficulties. Such a response would not be possible unless there also was some kind of hope involved – hope for a better world, for

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overcoming quandaries, for finding solutions to the problems facing us.6 One would not engage in building a cathedral unless one hoped that it would lead to something better for all those who were able to build it, observe it, or worship in it. Thus, the building of the Cathedral is a practice that counters the attitude of those who say that it is no use and that there is nothing we can do to overcome contemporary predicaments related to the climate and the environment. A cathedral unites the people who build it and those who worship in it. Interestingly, the Hope cathedral is an interreligious initiative, which also can serve as an indication that the Earth on which we worship the divine is something we share, regardless of our different denominations and religious traditions. There can be no boundaries when it comes to our common effort to save the planet. Likewise, the ocean by which the Cathedral is located is part of the large ecological system that connects and serves not only all of humanity but also many other living beings in the ocean, in the air, and by the shores. Boundaries cannot play a role when facing the challenges at hand.

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A cathedral is not what it is unless it also connects heaven and earth. Its steeple points towards the sky, and you can hardly imagine any cathedral in the world that does not – from an architectonic point of view – both direct your attention toward the sky and manifest itself in a strong visual sense in the world. Thus, the Cathedral manifests the relationship between God and the world and is the site where it is possible to contemplate upon this relationship. By building a cathedral of plastic waste, one can also say that this symbolizes human repentance and acknowledgment of their own abuse of the natural resources they are called to steward to the benefit of all of creation. The transformation process that the plastic undergoes in order to become roof tiles is the one used in recent innovative technology of recirculation of such materials. To gather plastic and transform it into beauty is a concrete means for developing other practices in handling waste than those which led to throwing waste in the ocean in the first place. Waste is ugly, but a cathedral of transformed waste can be a site of beauty. Beauty is among the incitements for worship and for glorifying the Creator. As for the concrete practices of repentance, these are enabled in a specific and concrete manner: a smaller model of the Cathedral is already built. It is large enough for one person to enter and sit and write down reflections about one’s own contributions to pollution and deterioration of the climate, and leave these reflections in a box. Thus, the model functions as a Confessional. The Hope Cathedral as a Symbol in a Pragmatist Perspective A strong symbol has the power to orient and transform those who engage it, and is able to engender reflection as well. Thus, symbols open up to various forms of practice, all of which are important for how people live their lives and understand their world. However, in order to be a religious symbol, it also needs to refer to or relate to some ultimate, something that is more important and unconditional to human life than anything else.7 Robert C. Neville suggests that we understand religion as “the human engagement of ultimacy, which requires harmonizing semiotic cultural systems, aesthetic achievements, social institutions with their own dynamics, and psychological structures, along with intentional relations with what is ultimate.”8 This is a good background for understanding and interpreting the Hope Cathedral – as it may point to all of these elements: It is pointing toward something ultimate (God or the divine), it has a clear aesthetic dimension, and it exists within social institution frameworks that all may contribute to

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and convey to it different layers of meanings. Furthermore, it has more than a cognitive impact; they affect the emotional and embodied human being and shape intentions that, in turn, may have an effect on what acts and practices to engage in. Neville’s understanding of religion is strongly dependent on elements in American pragmatism. He is also open to how people may understand the ultimate in different ways, and relate to it in a wide variety of ways. When I interpret the Hope Cathedral in light of his definition, I have a specific aim in mind nevertheless. The aim is that this building is one that is able to provide an interpretation of the present situation, as well as suggest or guide human action for transformation, and relate to the ultimate. The ultimate is here not only God but also all of God’s creation, as it carries and sustains us. Another thinker in the pragmatist tradition can help us further in this regard. In his Varieties of Religious Experience, William James argues that under every religious creed, there is a basic experience or sense that something is wrong about us as we naturally stand. The solution to this predicament is that “we are saved from the wrongness by making proper connection with the higher powers.”9 James’ claim sheds light on the role of religion in several ways. First, religious symbols and practices can contribute to identifying, articulate, and even enhance the sense of there being something wrong with humans or what they do. Moreover, the possible access to solutions to this predicament, namely the connection with higher powers necessary for solving it, is never established directly. It is always mediated by practices in which others are involved and the symbols they rely upon. Hence, the one who wants to overcome religiously mediated experiences of wrongness needs to relate to practices that facilitate such overcoming, and these practices may be of a different kind, depending on how the “wrongness” is understood. If we understand the practices involved in overcoming wrongness as providing different types of predicament, there are, of course, considerable differences. The diversity of religious traditions deals with the human predicament in equally diverse ways. However, in every religious tradition, human engagement of ultimacy is expressed in cognitive articulations – but not only that. They are also providing the chances for existential responses to ultimacy that give ultimate definition to the individual and suggests patterns of life and ritual in the face of ultimacy.10 We can interpret The Hope Cathedral with reference to James’ interpretation of religion as well: It is definitely based on an experience of “wrongness” – the deeply troublesome situation in which the Earth exists on the conditions of the Anthropocene. However, as is clear in the quote from James above, the experience of wrongness alone is not sufficient to constitute a religious experience. It is the connection to the “higher powers” that make such experience

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possible. And it is here that the Cathedral takes on its meaning as more than a building of plastic: it exists for the sake of mediating this connection with “higher powers.” How are we to understand higher powers within the semiotic context of the Cathedral? Such powers are primarily to be understood as powers that transcend the individual’s ability to achieve transformation and change in order to overcome “wrongness.” One can argue that one of the Cathedral’s significant contributions is that it suggests that these powers are several – given that it will be under construction for a long time. It is the power of God, but it is also the power of the intergenerational human community engaged in saving the planet, and it is the renewing powers and capacities of nature itself, which are supported by viable action on the part of wise human action. An important element that underlies this is the implicit critique of modern Western individualism. To counter the contemporary crisis is not possible to achieve only by the effort of a few individuals acting on their own: It requires common and coordinated effort over a long time-span. Thus, the hope for the future, which was expressed as a problem by the woman referred to above, cannot rely on what one a few people or politicians can do – it relies on the common and coordinated effort of all of humankind. This effort is also part of that which can be thought of as “higher powers” if we try to utilize James’ definition for present purposes. Humans are, therefore, as Theresa Avila is ascribed to claiming, the hands and feet of God in righting the wrongs of this world. Another scholar in the pragmatist tradition, sociologist Martin Riesebrodt, contributes further to a possible interpretation of the Hope Cathedral when he looks at the ways in which different religious traditions develop their notions of overcoming “wrongness.” He indicates that the “wrongness” as well as its overcoming, which he calls “salvation,” despite the fact that it may vary considerably, can be found in three domains: nature, the human body, and social relations.11 The hope that the Cathedral represents is related to all these three domains: Most obvious in nature, expressed in the way it is both situated as well as in the way it represents attempts to overcome practices of pollution and waste. Moreover, in the social realm, the interreligious character of the Cathedral suggests that the plastic crisis in the oceans, as well as the climate crisis, faces all of humanity, irrespective of to which religious tradition they belong. What then about the human body? Is there anything in this symbolic Cathedral that suggests some kind of “salvation”? Yes, it is. The more we know about micro-plastic and its impact on the human organism, the more important it becomes to establish practices that can counter these effects and provide opportunities for stopping its further proliferation in the oceans. The

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Fig. 12.2 (Ill.: Helen & Hard and Viz Studio. Used with permission)

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building of the Cathedral is a concrete and symbolic action that points in that direction. A Peircean-Inspired Analysis of the Hope Cathedral In C.S. Peirce’s semiotics, a major claim is that everything that exists has a semiotic character – it is a sign. Peirce’s semiotics may also provide an opportunity for identifying and analyzing the different realms of signification that artwork like the Hope Cathedral represents. In his theory, two layers appear as especially relevant. Both provide fruitful tools for analyzing the various elements inherent in human experience and do so in ways that allow for reality to manifest itself in ways that relate humans intrinsically or internally to the rest of reality. The fact that the world is full of signs and that we relate to it as such does not mean that its material and real character are abolished – to the contrary, it is because the world is permeated with signs that it can appear as real to us. The first layer is Peirce’s distinction between Firstness, Secondness, and Thirdness in what constitutes an experience. The hard reality of the building (Secondness) appearing for us as a Cathedral, implies that we interpret that which is in front of us as that (a cathedral, thirdness). The building (Secondness) has a significance for someone (Thirdness) because it points to something for which it is a sign (Firstness). However, we would not perceive the Secondness as a Cathedral unless it first had been manifested as a sign of something prior to it (Firstness) and for someone to whom it appeared as such a sign about something (Thirdness).12 In more ordinary terms, this means that the Cathedral takes on its significance because it mediates a specific experience of the relation between those who experience it as a Hope Cathedral (us, Thirdness) and the reality to which it points (the hope for a reality affected by climate change, which is not immediately present at hand as such (Firstness). My intention of pointing this out is to show that because all elements of reality are related to each other internally in terms of semiotic reference, this interrelatedness is mediated in a specific and concrete manner by what the Cathedral represents as a sign. Moreover, it also means that the interpretation of a building made of plastic (Secondness) as a Hope Cathedral is dependent on a semiotic system that allows it to appear as such. This semiotic system is given with the Christian tradition, and thus, this tradition allows for something to be interpreted as a specific something and thus to be experienced thus: The manifestation of the building as a Hope Cathedral is made possible by the semiotic system that the Christian tradition,

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including its architectonic elements, represents. Hence, the Cathedral also mediates the elements of the Christian tradition. Thus, the artist who came up with the idea of building the Hope Cathedral makes use of a specific tradition in order to mediate an experience of hope that would not have been there if it had not been for the presence of the building itself. We can specify this experience further by contemplating on the different types of signs that Peirce distinguishes. He makes a distinction between signs as symbols, as icons, and as indexes. Indexes point to something directly, e.g., by some type of causal connection (as thunder suggesting lightning or rain), whereas symbols are established by means of conventions that determine how this stands for that; and icons, work as signs in their capacity of resemblance.13 These distinctions do not mean, however, that there cannot be different dimensions of these semiotic types involved in the same sign. There may be elements in the Hope Cathedral that have a clear symbolic character based on the conventions for making such artwork. If I can interpret these symbols, I will have to have taken part in practices of learning and communication beforehand. Unless the symbolic meanings of the signs had been pointed out to me, I would not have been able to identify them as such. Hence, the various elements in the architectonic construction that symbolize different elements (such as the altar faced towards the east) takes on a symbolic character due to already established patterns of symbolic signification. Again, we see that the significance of the building at hand relies on knowledge about the tradition. This fact may be somewhat complicated by the fact that although cathedrals traditionally are representations of the Christian community and the place where the Bishop resides, in the case of the Hope Cathedral, it is depicted as a representation of hope across different religious traditions. Hence, it expands, and thereby also destabilizes, the already existing semiotic framework that allows for the interpretation of it as a cathedral. When we consider the Hope Cathedral from the point of view of an icon, it is an icon insofar as it refers to something not present (Hope in the face of the climate crisis) and can make it present by the capacity of its likeness. It can do this in spite of the fact that the reality it points to, or is a depiction of (from an indexical point of view), is not in any way directly accessible. This understanding requires activating memory of knowledge that I know from beforehand – if I had no recollection of what this was an icon of, I would not know who or what it was. The only possibility for me to understand the icon is if I can use it as something that stands in for me as a representation of something that I know. To function in this way, I have to engage in interpretative practices. The icon has no meaning in itself, apart from such practices.

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However, the resemblance of an icon or image need not be accurate to function well as a sign. Although “an iconic sign is a sign that represents its object by resembling it in some way,”14 icons are useful far beyond their capacity to be aesthetically pleasing. An important function of icons is that they can bring some specific aspect of the object in question to the forefront of attention. Since icons and symbols can both open up our experience to something beyond our experiential present, they allow us to see ourselves and the world within a wider framework and in relation to something more than what is present-athand – but we can still experience this “more” as present and contribute to our orientation in the world. In his work on Peirce’s semiotics, Andrew Robinson writes: “An icon, then, has the capacity to bring to our attention certain features of the thing represented, often by excluding aspects of the object that are less relevant for the particular purpose in question. More generally, I think we could say that icons make things, or aspects of things, ‘present’ to us.”15 Finally, we can identify the indexical element in the Hope Cathedral in terms of its location: It connects sea and shore, heaven and earth, and its steeple points towards the sky that surrounds all that exists. In all of this, it points to different elements needed for life to emerge and be sustained. The implications we can draw from this example are the following: No sign functions as a sign unless it is used by someone for that purpose. So also for the Hope Cathedral. Furthermore, all human activity that is related to meaning has some semiotic character, because it presupposes that we can interpret something as something. Two further elements follow from the considerations above. The first is Wittgenstein’s remark about how the meaning of a word (sign) is constituted by how we use it.16 Hence, he as well points to how meaning is pragmatically established. Signs such as the Cathedral are not simply defined by the meaning we attribute to them but by how they are used. To use a Cathedral designated for hope entails that the practice of using the Cathedral may engender hope in a time where one is more likely to despair. Hence, the Cathedral challenges our ability to use it for specific purposes. Wittgenstein thereby also points to the other feature I want to highlight, namely, the deeply relational character that is displayed in the way humans make signs: nothing is meaningful in and of itself, but only in relation to something else. This is a point that the Cathedral manifests vividly and materially, by relating sea and shore, heaven and earth, the human and the divine, and the hope we still need to nourish when facing the present predicaments. From a distance, the above analysis also entails that all religions appear as results of specific ways of relating to the world that are mediated by (material

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or immaterial) signs that are interpreted as religious. There are no religious objects as such – only signs used within contexts that determine something as a religious object. To define what is specific to Christianity, we, therefore, have to determine contexts of use, and the actual use, in relation to the symbols or signs at work. However, we have to note that the same goes for all that we can consider meaningful in the world of human existence – every action and practice is dependent upon semiosis. Religion originates from how humans relate to and respond to the world in general. The Hope Cathedral is a concrete manifestation of such a response. Is also illustrates how religious practices presuppose, build on, and modifies already existing human practices that are related to and articulated within the boundaries of ordinary life. In turn, it means that such material manifestations of meaning may mediate different types of access to orientation and transformation relevant in the present situation. A final remark follows from this analysis. The contextual character of the challenge, as well as the practices that allow for hope must be recognized. Pragmatists underscore that there exists no “God’s eye view” or any independent and non-contextual positions. Hence, the situatedness of the Cathedral as a sign at the shoreline suggests that this is a symbol of hope for these people who live in this situation and in this place. However, despite this contextual character, the Cathedral can nevertheless also point to elements of hope for other people in other contexts. Conclusion Symbols and religious representations cannot save the world. They are nevertheless not without worth or significance. It is still possible to consider religious traditions and representations as important factors that can motivate humans to act in ways that may promote sustainable practices and help overcome the present climate crisis. In the following, I have tried to develop an understanding of the Hope Cathedral as an artwork that can mediate action and point to the hope that can nourish action and shape, orient and transform the will of humans, in order to overcome despair and resignation. I have developed the different strands in this article with an eye on Sigurd Bergmann’s interests and contributions. Sigurd’s concern for nature and the environment, for landscapes, for art and architecture, all of which are connected with his theological convictions, has benefited and inspired many theologians in the Nordic countries for decades.17

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References Deane-Drummond, Celia, Sigurd Bergmann, and Markus Vogt. Religion in the Anthropocene. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2017. Ekjord, Oksana, Signe Bjotveit og Anna Ovesdatter Søvik. Håpets Katedral – der veien du går er det viktigste. En analyse av samarbeid i en ideell prosjektorganisasjon med bærekraft som formål, og hvordan ledere kan fasilitere dette. University of Oslo 2020. Henriksen, Jan-Olav. “Hope – a Theological Exploration.” Studia theologica 73, no. 2 (2019): 117-33. ———. Life, Love, and Hope: God and Human Experience. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2014. ———. Religion as Orientation and Transformation: A Maximalist Theory. Religion in Philosophy and Theology. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017. James, William, The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature. New York; London: Penguin Books, 1985. Neville, Robert C. Defining Religion: Essays in Philosophy of Religion. Albany, NY: State University of New York, 2018. Ricœur, Paul. The Symbolism of Evil. Religious Perspectives. New York: Harper & Row, 1967. Riesebrodt, The Promise of Salvation: A Theory of Religion. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2012. Robinson, Andrew. God and the World of Signs: Trinity, Evolution, and the Metaphysical Semiotics of C.S.  Peirce. Philosophical Studies in Science and Religion. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2010. ———. Traces of the Trinity: Signs, Sacraments and Sharing God’s Life. London: James Clarke & Co, 2014. Sen, Amartya. “Why Half the Planet is Hungry”. See https://www.globalpolicy.org–/ component/content/article/211/44284.html. Smith, Christian. Religion: What It Is, How It Works, and Why It Is Still Important. Princeton: Princeton University Press 2017. Thunberg, Greta. Speech to the European Council in April 2019. See https://www.the– guardiancom/–environment/2019/apr/23/greta-thunberg-full-speech-to-mps-youdid-not-act-in-time. Vetlesen, Arne Johan. Cosmologies of the Anthropocene: Panpsychism, Animism, and the Limits of Posthumanism. Morality, Society, and Culture. New York: Routledge, 2019. Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Philosophical Investigations. 3rd ed. New York: Macmillan, 1971.

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Endnotes 1 

2  3 

4  5  6 

7 

8  9 

10  11 

Cf. Celia Deane-Drummond, Sigurd Bergmann, and Markus Vogt, Religion in the Anthropocene (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2017). See also Arne Johan Vetlesen, Cosmologies of the Anthropocene: Panpsychism, Animism, and the Limits of Posthumanism, 1 edition . ed., Morality, Society, and Culture (New York: Routledge, 2019). Cf. for how also hunger catastrophes are related to human misconduct, “Why Half the Planet is Hungry” by Amartya Sen. https://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/ article/211/44284.html. Accessed Dec. 12,2019. See https://www.hopecathedral.no/. An presentation and evaluation of the project can be found in Oksana Ekjord, Signe Bjotveit og Anna Ovesdatter Søvik, Håpets Katedral – der veien du går er det viktigste. En analyse av samarbeid i en ideell prosjektorganisasjon med bærekraft som formål, og hvordan ledere kan fasilitere dette. University of Oslo 2020. Cf. Thunberg’s speech to the Euorpean Council, in April  2019. See https://www. theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/23/greta-thunberg-full-speech-to-mps-you-didnot-act-in-time The classical representatives of pragmatism (Dewey, Peirce, James), all underscore that we develop our knowledge as the result of practices established for problem-solving. I return to some elements in pragmatism below. For the role of hope in human experience and human action, as it is related to Christian theology, see Jan-Olav Henriksen, Life, Love, and Hope: God and Human Experience (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2014); and “Hope – a Theological Exploration,” Studia theologica 73, no. 2 (2019). Further on this approach, see my Religion as Orientation and Transformation: A Maximalist Theory, Religion in Philosophy and Theology (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017). Cf. also the famous quote from Paul Ricoeur: “The symbol gives rise to thought, and thought returns to the symbol” in Paul Ricœur, The Symbolism of Evil, 1st ed., Religious Perspectives, (New York: Harper & Row, 1967), 348. Robert  C.  Neville, Defining Religion: Essays in Philosophy of Religion (Albany, NY: State University of New York, 2018), 1. William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature, Penguin Classics (New York; London: Penguin Books, 1985), 508. I do not think that James is right in claiming that this is something that lies under every religious experience, but he might be right in pointing to it as one of the elements in such experience. The experience of nature’s beauty and the awe in facing newborn child may also be considered to be a religious experience, without having the quality of “wrongness” as a constitutive element. Cf. Neville, Defining Religion: Essays in Philosophy of Religion, 9. See Riesebrodt, The Promise of Salvation: A Theory of Religion. 90. Cf. also the discussion in Smith, Religion: What It Is, How It Works, and Why It Is Still Important, 14f. Robert C. Neville is among those who would object to this position. He writes: “To think that there is just one thing religion pursues, ‘salvation,’ as it is put in the terms of Western religions, is a mistake. To think that each religion has its own particular kind of salvation to pursue is also a mistake.” Neville sees the main problem with this position in that it downplays the radical differences between ways of dealing with the conditions of human existence from the point of view of ultimacy. See Neville, Defining Religion: Essays in Philosophy of Religion, 41.

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For a more nuanced presentation of Peirce’s categories, see Andrew Robinson, God and the World of Signs: Trinity, Evolution, and the Metaphysical Semiotics of C.S.  Peirce, Philosophical Studies in Science and Religion (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2010). Ibid., 31f. Andrew Robinson, Traces of the Trinity: Signs, Sacraments and Sharing God’s Life, 14. Ibid., 15. Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, 3rd ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1971). In addition to expressing my gratitude to Sigurd Bergmann for our cooperation over decades, and for his scholarly contributions, I would also express my gratitude to Bishop Atle Sommerfeldt, Diocese of Borg, who has provided me with details about the Hope Cathedral project.

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Rethinking Inclusive Education: What Can Be Learned from an Ecological Theology of Liberation? Thor-André Skrefsrud Introduction In this chapter, I explore the relationship between two specialised and rarely compared fields of knowledge: inclusive education and eco-theology. Taking inspiration from Bergmann’s research on the religious dimensions of ecological concerns, as well as his innovative ability to create dialogues between disciplines, the chapter investigates what can be learned from an ecological theology of liberation when rethinking the concept of inclusive education. How can Bergmann’s eco-theological work contribute to a deeper and more profound understanding of the contemporary claim that schools and education should be inclusive? For decades, Bergmann has been a pioneer with regard to facilitating interdisciplinary encounters and conducting research, combining perspectives from religion, theology, environment, arts, architecture and culture. As Bergmann’s master’s-level student and later PhD-level student at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, I was given the opportunity to participate in cross-disciplinary research seminars at the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies. Bergmann invited scholars representing a wide range of specialties and research traditions to discuss and reflect upon interdisciplinary issues, such as place and space, indigenous art and power, autonomy and lived religion. As a PhD student working with intercultural education, Bergmann also constantly encouraged and challenged me to investigate the relationships between education and other fields of knowledge, such as philosophy and theology. Drawing on this inspiring and formative experience, I have tried to integrate the interdisciplinary challenge from Bergmann into my teaching and research within the fields of pedagogy and religious studies in my daily work in teacher education. I can think of no better way to honour Bergmann than to investigate the interrelationship between two separated fields of knowledge and ask how pressing issues in one field may facilitate reflection and challenge the thinking in the other. While acknowledging that the fields of education and theology are separate areas of inquiry with their own history, theoretical frameworks and methods,

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it is important to note that these areas have often been integrated. Historically, in many countries – also in Norway – the school system was religiously based and closely related to the state and the state church. In the Norwegian context, Christian the 6th’s state reform in 1736 formed the basis for compulsory schooling.1 The purpose of the school aimed to prepare children and adolescents for confirmation, which meant that children should learn to read so they could learn the catechism and read the Bible. Thus, school served a socially integrative function at that time by giving all children the same opportunities to receive the necessary instruction and knowledge be confirmed and become a full citizen in the community. However, the 19th century became a time of struggle between Christianity and the general subjects in the school, where Bible history, church history and Christian faith were in constant tension with other literary texts. With the School Act of 1860, the church’s control of the school was weakened. This development continued throughout the 1900s and, with the 1959 school laws, religions other than Christianity were introduced. Despite this change, Christian theology still had a dominant place in schools; for example, at issue was whether other religions should be presented from the perspective of Lutheran Christianity. Although Christian theology gradually lost its influence in schools, it still had an often unacknowledged, yet pervasive role. In principle, this was the case until the introduction of the new subject, Christianity Knowledge with Religious and Life-Orientation (Kristendomskunnskap med religions- og livssynsorientering), more than 250 years after the introduction of public schools.2 Over the last 20 years, many studies have focused on the intersection of religion and education, both with regard to schools’ educational programs to teach about religion as well as legal, social and political debates about religion and education3 In the European context, the work of Jackson4 has made a major contribution to this field of study, and it has had an impact on educational recommendations in Europe. The Council of Europe has used Jackson’s work to support policy-makers, schools and teacher educators across Europe in utilising the recommendation on how to approach the religious dimension of intercultural education. From this perspective, one could say that the areas of education and theology are highly integrated, primarily in relation to debates on how religion should be taught and which models of intersection between religion and education are possible and desirable in a multicultural society. However, my intention with this chapter is not to argue for ways to present and introduce perspectives of theology or religion in education, or to discuss the relationship between religion and education on a political or social level. Instead, I ask how perspectives from an eco-oriented theology may contribute to deepening our understanding of what has been one of the comprehensive

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ideals in education the last 25 years: that schools should provide equal opportunities and participation for all students through inclusive education.5 Thus, I aim to see how an openness of listening to and analysing crucial understandings in one domain can help us produce constructive insights within another domain. As I will show, I find the eco-theological work of Bergmann very relevant for reflecting upon what it means to promote the ideal of an inclusive school, in particular, his call to incorporate silenced and marginalised voices in our interpretation of life and reality in schools. The chapter is structured as follows. In the first part, I present and elaborate on what I see as the main challenges with regard to the notion of inclusive education. In the second part, I turn to Bergmann’s eco-theological work and his call to incorporate suppressed and invisible experiences as part of the interpretations of traditions.6 I ask what can be learned from integrating voices from the margins when rethinking inclusive education. I end the chapter by highlighting some key themes and issues for further research in this area. Why Reflect upon Inclusive Education? Most European schools and communities have experienced a demographic shift with regard to the composition of students and other members of the community. Driven by changing patterns of migration and processes of globalisation, many schools are now characterised by super-diversity7 in which ethnicity and increasing cultural, linguistic and religious complexity influence teachers’ work. Hence, schools have become a central site for cultural, linguistic and religious diversity as students bring a variety of experiences, histories, knowledge and competencies to the classroom. In these changing conditions, the ideal of inclusive education has remained central to national and international educational polices8 The idea of inclusive education could be seen as an extension of the comprehensive ideal in education, which is that schools should provide equal opportunities and participation for all students.9 According to Haug, inclusion implies a sensitivity for diversity in the sense that the pedagogy of teaching is designed to meet a variety of needs within an increasingly diverse population to strengthen belonging, mutual understanding and trustful relationships.10 Thus, teachers’ competencies within this field include an affirming view of students from different backgrounds and the ability to design a pedagogy that builds on the students’ cultural and linguistic resources.11 For teacher education – which is the daily context for my work on these issues – the challenge is to educate teachers who see themselves as capable of bringing about equitable change in

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the educational system. Therefore, inclusive education moves beyond understandings of integration – or assimilation – of outsiders into an already existing community. As Thomas and Loxley have emphasised, inclusion is about “providing a framework within which all children – regardless of ability, gender, language, ethnic or cultural origin – can be valued equally, treated with respect and provided with real opportunities at school”.12 Within this frame of understanding, the principle of inclusion encompasses more than incorporating students with special needs into the mainstream classroom. Rather, it challenges schools and authorities to implement practical and strategic changes that make inclusion part of an overall educational strategy, an understanding that resembles a broad definition of the term in line with the Salamanca Declaration.13 In 1994, more than 300 participants representing 92 different governments formed the World Conference on Special Needs Education, which was held in Salamanca, Spain. They agreed on an international document – UNESCO Salamanca Statement – arguably the most significant document in the field of special education, which has had a powerful influence on international perspectives on inclusion. The Declaration stated that inclusive education should not be seen as something for the few; rather, it calls for major reform of traditional schools: “All concerned must now rise to the challenge and work to ensure that education for all effectively means for all, particularly those who are most vulnerable and most in need”.14 However, according to Kiuppis, there are different ways of understanding inclusive education that do not necessarily correspond with this broad perspective.15 One way to understand it would be to use a categorical approach, directing the idea of inclusion towards children with disabilities. Another parallel perspective would be to see inclusion as restricted to vulnerable groups, such as disabled children, children from linguistic, ethnic or cultural minorities or children from other disadvantaged or marginalised areas or groups. These two approaches correspond with what Haug has framed as a narrow understanding of the concept, underlining the need to integrate someone into an already-existing community. Both approaches have also been found to be highly questionable because they may label certain groups in contrast to the perceived normality of mainstream society. Moreover, by restricting inclusion to a specific group of students, a narrow understanding may fail to discover the need for practical and strategic changes on an organisational level.16 Different understandings of inclusion mean that educators may struggle to implement initiatives. Therefore, it is important to critically reflect upon the concept. We also know that the field of education is struggling with appropriate ways to approach the increasing amount of cultural and linguistic diversity, despite governmental initiatives to develop an overall policy on inclusion.17 On the

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one hand, existing curricula, at least explicitly, expect schools and teachers to chart equitable educational opportunities for all children. On the other hand, the educational system clearly needs to challenge the devaluation of identity that many students still experience in school and society, and instead affirm the value of complexity and encourage students to take pride in their cultural background. Because education is often charted primarily for mainstream students and mainstream classrooms, less attention is paid to how the variety of needs in a diverse group of learners alter the mainstream. Therefore, one may also overlook the fact that a diverse student population has ramification for every aspect of teachers’ professional work, permeating the content of input, assessment, teaching approaches and other areas of professional teacher practice. Hence, a majority perspective is often taken for granted without reflecting upon how specific norms remain dominant. Thus, critically reflecting upon a concept such as inclusive education may contribute to challenging the tendencies of hidden cultural assimilation in the mainstream classrooms. A third and final reason for reflecting upon inclusive education is the way schools engage with practices and the pedagogy to enhance inclusion. Aiming to realise the ideal of inclusion, schools often turn to practices of multicultural education, which emerged during the civil rights movement of the 1960s and which grew stronger throughout the subsequent decades.18 Thus, multicultural education can be seen as a critical alternative to an assimilation approach to education that gradually adapts the minority culture to the mainstream. It aims at a pedagogy that is more sensitive to students’ cultural identity and heritage, and it argues that a variety of perspectives, histories and experiences should be included in the curriculum. However, applying a multicultural approach to realise the idea of inclusive education has often proven to be difficult. While multicultural education has provided a pioneering and valuable framework for recognising and including cultural differences in schools and society, critics have also emphasised the limitations of a multicultural approach due to its focus on surface-level inclusion and superficial aspects of culture (Hoffman, 1996; May & Sleeter, 2010).19 Despite its best intentions, multicultural education can easily be reduced to an uncritical, cosmetic appreciation and celebration of cultural differences, highlighted through isolated events that do not reflect the day-to-day activity of the school. Hence, although a multicultural education approach seeks to transform a prevailing majority-oriented perspective and ensure the recognition of equal rights for all students, it runs the risk of maintaining the supremacy of the dominant majority group. With this in mind, critically reflecting upon inclusive education may help us see beyond the understandings that may be counterproductive with regard to

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the proclaimed aim of equal opportunities and participation for all students. Based on this background, I now turn to Bergmann’s eco-theological work and ask how a green theology of liberation may shed light on the concept of inclusive education. An Ecological Theology of Liberation According to Bergmann, “theology in the late modern ecological challenge ought to be designed as ecological liberation theology”.20 What does he mean by that? An important insight for Bergmann is that the contemporary context of ecological destruction is changing religion, an insight that “pushes us to ask what change religion can make to climatic and environmental change”.21 Within this contextual understanding of religion, the human interpretation of God does not occur in a vacuum. Rather, theological reflection interacts with a large number of factors in the context. While Christian theology is shaped and formed in relation to social conditions and surroundings, the context is also influenced by theological reflection. For Bergmann, theology is challenged and shaped by climate change; simultaneously, it can impact climatic and environmental change. Thus, ecological liberation theology offers both an ecological critique of Christian theology and a theological critique of environmental destruction. This way of approaching theology can also be found in Bergmann’s work on the Spirit as the liberator of nature.22 Bergmann asks: “if God is the Creator of all between heaven and earth and the Spirit is the giver of life and the world to come, where is the Trinitarian Spirit to be found in global and environmental change today?”.23 Moreover, he challenges theology to reflect upon and consider where “does the Spirit, who liberates nature, take place today?”24. In this way, Bergmann reclaims the classical understanding of Christian theology. Doing theology is not an abstract, intellectual activity; it is reflection that is nourished by, and responsive to, experiences in, and with, life itself.25 In developing this understanding of theology, Bergmann has drawn attention to the spatiality of faith. Taking inspiration from Soja’s work26 on space and social justice, Bergmann shed light on the spatial turn in Christian theology and explored what this means for human beings facing increasingly “demanding experiences of change in a common planetary space”.27 According to Soja, the spatial turn implies a contextual awareness that does not regard space and place as a neutral horizon for social action:

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Thor-André Skrefsrud Rather than being seen as a significant force shaping social action (and hence influencing the search for social justice), the spatial dimension has traditionally been treated as a kind of fixed background, a physically formed environment that, to be sure, has some influence on our lives but remains external to the social world and to efforts to make the world more socially just .28

As seen from the quote, Soja criticised ways of seeing space and place merely as empty containers that can be filled with social practices.29 In contrast, Soja argued for a multi-dimensional understanding of space and place – what he calls a “socio-spatial dialectic”30 – that focuses on how social processes shape geographies and how geographies actively affect social processes. Bergmann used this insight to argue for understanding religion as the skill of makingoneself-at-home.31 Thus, in Christian theology, the spatial turn will imply the need “to explore and interpret how the life-giving and all-embracing space of the Creator is a gift to his/her creatures”.32 It is also a reminder that “believers inhabit a global space where risks and damages are socioeconomically distributed in a violent and unjust way”.33 This contextual awareness implies a “commitment to contributing to an environment that is worth living in for all human and other beings”.34 With this perspective, striving for justice becomes an important theological task. Inspired by the environmental movement’s vision of a common sympathetic natural space characterised by justice, Bergmann has drawn attention to the concept of ecojustice in environmental ethics35, and he has incorporated it into his theological thinking to argue for a common moral space to which all organisms and their environments belong. According to Bergmann, the spatial turn in Christian theology encourages us to raise a critical voice, asking questions such as: Will God’s good all-embracing space turn into a catastrophic space where some are victimized for the survival of others? How does God’s love to the poor relate to situations where the most vulnerable become the most victimized? What does climate justice imply and how can it turn into a global and local spatial justice?36

In this regard, one of Bergmann’s major contributions is his attention to the voices from the margins. According to Bergmann, a liberation theology should strive to give voice to both marginalised people’s experiences and suppressed organisms in the ecosystem.37 Similar to remembering the suffering of the poor, the ecological victims of cultural violence should be included in the writing of our common history.38 In a beautifully written paragraph, Bergmann

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explained what this would mean for Christian theology, with regard to both its own understanding and the challenge for social action: With such an outlook the liturgical formation of religious communities would be able to make biological species visible and their agony in the fight for survival. They would be able to interpret the memory of species that perished in the cultural colonial history in the light of Paul’s speech about the created beings partaking in human suffering and liberation. These species have, in common with the martyrs, suffered for the sake of their Saviour. The memory of their fight for survivals gets an important function in the ecological theology of liberation. The hope of rising from the dead also applies to them.39

Forming the idea of including the oppressed and subjugated voices of suppressed and invisible organisms, Bergmann turns to Benjamin40 and his reflections on the interpretation of history. In the essay “Über den Begriff der Geschicte”, originally published in 1940, Benjamin argued that the notion of history should be revised in light of the traditions of the suppressed. While history traditionally is written based on experiences inherited from white, male, elite voices, a new notion of history should be open to a wide range of experiences. In this sense, interpreting tradition implies including the experiences of silenced voices and critically assessing the structures and practices that prevent their experiences, knowledge, perspectives and histories from being heard. In a world that “no longer knows how its modernization affects future biological life processes”41, experiencing voices from the margins – the poor, in both culture and nature – remind us of our “common biospherical history, which encompasses both suppressors and victims in cultural and natural history”42. Drawing attention to our common life conditions, this perspective alters our understanding of tradition, in the sense that a wider range of voices is included, voices that have been suppressed and marginalised. By including voices from the margins, theology is being restructured, revised and reconstructed. This gives a new meaning and new content to the understanding of Christian theology. It also lays the foundation for a theological critique of oppressive and unjust practices in whatever contexts they may occur. In Bergmann’s research, the suppressed voices of organisms in the ecosystem, as well as the ecological victims of cultural violence, encourage an ecological reformation of the Christian tradition for the sake of the whole Earth. The inclusion of side-lined, disregarded and banished voices turns classical theology into an ecological theology of liberation, which speaks out against ruthless colonial exploitation of humans and ecosystems.

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Implications for Inclusive Education What can be learned from Bergmann’s approach to Christian theology when reflecting upon the concept of inclusive education? Applying Bergmann’s claim to embrace voices from the margins and to reinterpret tradition in light of this widened perspective, we see that inclusion is not about incorporating an outsider into an already existing community. Rather, by listening to voices that, for different reasons, have become peripheral and downplayed, a new community is created that radically differs from the old one. In contrast to an assimilation approach, which aims to adapt groups or individuals to the practices and thinking of the prevailing culture, Bergmann’s way of approaching tradition implies that voices from the margins bring something qualitatively new to the table; this alters old understandings and allows redefining the existing community. In this perspective, inclusive education is not a claim to incorporate or be incorporated in an existing order; rather, it seeks to establish a different order. This understanding it not new; it corresponds with how the Salamanca Declaration frames inclusive education as an overall educational strategy that calls for a major reform of traditional schools as well as a broad understanding of inclusion, the way it has been articulated by Haug and Thomas and Loxley. Nevertheless, in light of Bergmann’s contribution – in particular his perspectives of liberation and justice – we are challenged to reflect more deeply upon the process of creating inclusive communities. What does it actually mean to listen to voices from the margins? Who are the marginalised voices within the context of education today? How may silenced voices contribute to rethinking the mainstream classroom? To elaborate on Bergmann’s challenge to the field of inclusive education, I discuss the concept of voice. I also identify the vulnerable and victimised voices in today’s education and address the contributions these alternative voices may bring to mainstream classrooms. The Concept of Voice The concept of voice has become very visible and influential in current discussions on education.43 The act of bringing forward student voices in schools and the field of education is seen as a way of downsizing the hierarchical relationship between teachers and students and providing all students with the opportunity to participate fully and equally. Thus, the concept adheres to a critical paradigm shift in youth- and childhood education, which takes exception to

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the conception of young people as passive receivers of adult input and views the child as an active agent capable of constructing his or her own identity.44 According to Blommaert, voice is “the capacity to make oneself understood in one’s own terms, to produce meanings under the conditions of empowerment”.45 Thus, discourses on voice are often targeted toward individuals from disadvantaged and subordinated groups, “whose voices have been silenced or distorted by oppressive cultural and educational formations”.46 Within education, individuals from these groups are seen as empowered when teachers help students express their subjugated knowledge and skills. Facilitating a space for the marginalised student to share his or her experiences of oppression is believed to break down the culture of silence of the marginalised and to counteract the existence of unequal power relations in the classroom and elsewhere.47 However, concept of voice can also be highly problematic. As Ellsworth and Jones have shown, strategies for making marginalised students’ voices heard may paradoxically reproduce the privileges enjoyed by the majority. Well-intended strategies as “dialogue and recognition of difference turns out to be access for dominant groups to the thoughts, cultures, lives of others”.48 Often, dialogical initiatives are not a call for voices to speak, but for voices to be heard. The absence of marginalised voices in the mainstream discourse is constructed as a problem in the sense that the powerful majority is excluded from hearing the voices from the margins. Without access to these voices, the majority is unable to gain knowledge of the marginalised, and the voiceless minority becomes a lost opportunity for the majority to learn about the other and itself. Bhahba has framed “the coloniser’s demand for narrative”49 as one of many strategies for surveillance, control and exploitation. Giving space for voices from the margins always runs the risk of defining and explaining the other in ways that counteract the intentions of empowerment and autonomy. This includes the risk of victimizing the other because discourses of voice often presuppose the assumption that silence from an individual indicates the lack of ability to make one’s voice be heard.50 Bergmann’s perspective of an ecological theology of liberation may help us reflect on what this critique would mean for education. If tradition in Bergmann’s sense, or the learning community in an educational sense, should be liberating, hierarchies should be altered and broken down. This may happen when voices from the margins are allowed to be heard, rather than silencing marginal groups that have been the victims of negative stereotyping due to their cultural and linguistic repertoire and dismissing their ways of speaking and living as being irrelevant, irrational and illegitimate.51 Moreover, reflecting on education from this perspective also implies a critical awareness of the

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hidden and non-reflected perspectives of the cultural majority that often characterises the mainstream classroom, threating to explain, define and control the other in a subtle and elusive way. Voices from the Margins in Today’s Education The lack of understanding of nature’s experiences in theology that Bergmann emphasises, also challenges educators to ask whose voices are being listened to. Who are included and who are excluded in the mainstream classroom? Historically, in many countries, the lack of cultural and linguistic recognition in schools has been part of the wider society’s devaluation of languages and cultures that differ from the dominant group.52 This has been the case for indigenous peoples who often have been disparaged by colonial power and exposed to a pedagogy that failed to recognise the cultures and languages of these students. For example, in the Norwegian context, from 1800 until the post-World War II era, the Sami population was subject to stringent assimilation policies.53 Moreover, groups and communities that now are recognised as national minorities, such as the Tater/Romani and the Roma people, have been seen as a threat to the national school system and never considered to be part of the school culture.54 Gradually, after World War II there was a shift in political attitudes all over Europe, resulting in a number of international commitments on the protection of minorities. This included a greater awareness of the need to advance the academic performance of minority language students, and facilitate greater participation in school and education. Nevertheless, there are reasons to believe that the voices of minority students are still being excluded, but in a more concealed manner than before. Researchers within the field of education claim that schools – despite governmental initiatives to implement an overall policy of inclusion – seem to chart education primarily for the mainstream student and the mainstream classroom.55 As school authorities all over Europe aim to increase academic performance through a prescriptive curriculum policy focusing on aims and objectives, control and evaluation, efficacy has seemed to become a primary goal. Combined with a strong focus on the assessment of skills through national and international testing, attention has been diverted from discussions on how the experiences and knowledge of minority students could be seen as a resource in teaching. By increasing standardisation, the contemporary test-oriented discourse promotes a curriculum aimed at the middle-class and the dominant culture, concealed behind the aim to increase students’ standards of content and performance.

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Moreover, in many parts of Europe, there is evidence of increasing xenophobic attitudes and bigotry directed against immigrants, ethnic and national minorities and even indigenous people.56 The current anti-immigration discourses in many European countries similarly illustrate this pattern.57 Within these discourses, minority students’ home cultures and languages are constructed as barriers to learning the new language and to integrating them properly into the new country of residence. Minority students and their families are seen as culturally-, linguistically- and socially-deprived and in need of repair (Baker & Wright, 2017).58 This could pave the way for a pedagogy that primarily sees differences as interfering with the process of learning, not as something that should be acknowledged and recognised, both as a value in itself, and for playing a central role as an intellectual starting point for learning. Inspired by Bergmann’s call to make the most vulnerable visible in their fight for survival, educators should recognise that histories of exclusion and marginalisation continue to shape opportunities for access in education and society, and they should structure curricula and pedagogical practices to reflect that reality. Instead of pursuing standardisation, Bergmann’s liberating focus challenges educators to move beyond a deficit model of student achievement and make visible in the classroom the often-hidden richness of the resources and competencies of minority children and youth.59 How Silenced Voices may Contribute to Rethinking the Mainstream Classroom An important point for Bergmann is that tradition is altered when marginalised voices are being heard and paid attention to. In an educational context, this implies that silenced voices bring something qualitatively new to the existing community, which challenges established routines, practices and ways of thinking and seeing.60 This corresponds to how Latour described politics as a continuous process of formation of the collective, which should always expand the number of voices.61 For Latour and Bergmann, organisms in the ecosystem are representatives of voices from the margins. Hence, nature is no longer a silence, inactive background from which resources are extracted for human activities. Rather, the planet has reclaimed its role as an active voice in the fate of its future. In the context of education, the incorporation of silenced and marginalised voices entails that majority practices and content are being critically assessed and challenged; these practices and content are often taken for granted and left unquestioned. This approach encourages teachers and school authorities

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to integrate a critical awareness of existing power-relations in the classroom, and critically assess prevailing perspectives. It also challenges schools to continuously ask how being sensitive to the many silenced voices in the world may affect educational practices and mind-sets: from suppressed organisms in the ecosystem to marginalised student voices. Therefore, in the classroom, facilitating inclusive education implies a pedagogy and didactic approach that aim at seeing the world from a point of view other than one’s own. The ability to take the perspective of another facilitates compassion and empathy in our relationships, cultivating the depth and awareness needed to understand and sympathise with the situation of the other. However, pedagogical thinking that builds on an alternation of the mainstream would not merely see the wider spectrum of voices as a motivational starting point for learning; it would also facilitate the potential to examine experiences and prior knowledge in a wider social and historical perspective, which allows for a perspective of emancipation and transformation that transcends the given. This corresponds with Freire’s call for changing the context: “Indeed, the interests of the oppressors lie in ‘changing the consciousness of the oppressed, not the situation which oppresses them’”.62 Acknowledging the values, experiences and perspectives that a diverse range of voices bring to the mainstream classroom creates a new community that calls for a new order. Inspired by Bergmann’s thinking, this awareness may create a pedagogical space for liberation and transformation, giving marginalised beings (human and non-human) an empowered voice. Concluding Remarks The scope of this chapter has been to investigate the relationship between ecological theology and inclusive education. In combining knowledge resulting from the two distinct areas, it becomes clear that they are closely connected. However, as we have seen, an ecological liberation theology does not exclusively concentrate on the excluded and suppressed voices of organisms in nature, and inclusive education does not focus solely on humans. If so, Bergmann’s eco-theological thinking could be seen as a parallel to that area of education in the sense that it speaks of something that is similar to inclusive education, but that only concentrates on non-human voices. Rather, it is worth noting that the two areas of knowledge strive to give voice to beings at the margins – whether humans or organisms in the ecosystem. Hence, the two areas share a common way of viewing and encountering the world. While an ecological theology of liberation calls for including all ecological victims of cultural violence

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in the understanding of a common history, inclusive education also implies attentiveness towards a wider range of silenced and exposed voices. In the case of an ecological theology of liberation, the call for change is explored by asking what religion can do to make the world a better place for all beings. Within inclusive education, the call for change is explored by asking how teachingand learning-practices can contribute to justice, empathy and a responsible lifestyle. How do we understand ourselves as human beings and part of nature within a diverse ecosystem? What do our patterns of consumption and exploitation reveal about us? What resources do our cultural and religious traditions provide when reflecting upon how we should live in our societies, our environment and our world? These and many more questions need to be addressed in an age of environmental change. Thus, future research could learn from Bergmann’s idea of trans-contextualisation, which “is the transfer of ideas from one context to another and their critical and experimental application to new situations”.63 Moreover, Bergmann has reminded us that the “paths to our common future cannot in such a way appear by simple reproduction, but by complex and creative reconstruction”.64 Hopefully, comparisons like the one explored in this chapter may contribute to shedding light on this future road. References Backes, U., & Moreau, P. (Eds.). (2012). The extreme right in Europe: Current trends and perspectives. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht. Baker, C., & Wright, W. E. (2017). Foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism (6th ed.). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. Banks, J. A., & Banks, C. A. M. (2004). Handbook of research on multicultural education (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Bartolo, P., & Smyth, G. (2009). Teacher education for diversity. In  A.  Swennen & M. Klink (Eds.), Becoming a teacher educator. Theory and practice for teacher educators (pp. 117-132). New York: Springer. Benjamin, W. (1991). Über den Begriff der Geschichte. In  R.  Tiedemann and H. Schweppenhäuser (Eds.). Gesammelte schriften, Bd. 1, 2: Abhandlungen (pp. 693704). Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. Bergmann, S. (1995). Geist der Natur befreit. Die trinitarische Kosmologie Gregors von Nazianz im Horizont einer ökologischen Theologie der Befreiung. Mainz: Grünewald. Bergmann, S. (1997). Geist der lebendig macht. Lavierungen zur ökologischen Befreiungstheologie. Frankfurt am Main: IKO – Verlag für Interkulturelle Kommunikation.

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Bergmann, S. (2003). God in context. A survey of contextual theology. Aldershot: Ashgate. Bergmann, S. (2012a). Fetishism revisited: In the animistic lens of eco-pneumatology. Journal of Reformed Theology, 6, 195-215. Bergmann, S. (2012b). Theology in built environments. Exploring religion, architecture, and design. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers. Bergmann, S. (2014). Religion, space and the environment. New Brunswick and New York: Transaction Publishers. Bergmann, S. (2015). The legacy of Trinitarian cosmology in the Anthropocene. Transcontextualising late antiquity theology for late modernity. Studia Theologica, 69(1), 32-44. Bergmann, S. (2017). Developments in religion and ecology. In W. Jenkins, J, M. E. Tucker, & J. Grim (Eds.), Routledge handbook of religion and ecology (pp. 13-21). London and New York: Routledge. Bhabha, H. K. (1994). The location of culture. London: Routledge. Blommaert, J. (2009). Ethnography and democracy: Hymes’s political theory of language. Text & Talk, 29(3), 257-276. Cummins, J. (2001). Negotiating identities: Education for empowerment in a diverse society (2nd ed.). Ontario: California Association for Bilingual Education. Darling-Hammond, L., & Lieberman, A. (2012). Teacher education around the world. Changing policies and practices. New York: Routledge. Darnell, F., & Hoëm, A. (1996). Taken to extremes. Education in the far north. Oslo: Scandinavian University Press. Ellsworth, E. (1989). Why doesn’t this feel empowering? Working through the repressive myths of critical pedagogy. Harvard Educational Review, 59(3), 297-324. Engen, T. O., & Lied, S. (2010). RLE-faget og dobbelt kvalitativ differensiering [The subject of RLE and double qualtitative differentiation]. In J.-O. Henriksen & A. O. Søvik (Eds.), Livstolkning i skole, kultur og kirke. Festskrift til Peder Gravem (pp.  33-44). Trondheim: Tapir Akademisk Forlag. Freire, P. (2005) [1970]. Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum. Gravem, P. (2004). KRL–et fag for alle? KRL-faget som svar på utfordringer i en flerkulturell enhetsskole [The subject of KRL – a subject for everybody. The subject of KRL as an answer to challenges in a multicultural common school]. Vallset: Oplandske Bokforlag. Haug, P. (2017). Understanding inclusive education: Ideals and reality. Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research, 19(3), 206-217. doi:10.1080/15017419.2016.1224778 Hoffman, D. M. (1996). Culture and self in multicultural education: Reflections on discourse, text, and practice. American Educational Research Journal, 33(3), 545-569. Jackson, R. (1997). Religious education. An interpretive approach. London: Hodder and Stoughton.

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Jackson, R. (2004). Rethinking religious education and plurality. Issues in diversity and pedagogy. New York: Routledge. Jackson, R. (2014). Signposts: Policy and practice for teaching about religions and nonreligious worldviews in intercultural education. Strasbourg: Council of Europe. Jones, A. (1999). Pedagogy by the oppressed: The limits of classroom dialogue. Paper presented at Aare-Nzare Conference. Kiuppis, F. (2014). Why (not) associate the principle of inclusion with disability? Tracing connections from the start of the ‘Salamanca’ Process’. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 18(7), 746-761. doi:10.1080/13606116.2013.826289 Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal, 32(3), 465-491. Latour, B. (2018). Down to earth. Politics in the new climate regime. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Martínez-Ariño, J., & Teinturier, S. (2019). Faith-based schools in contexts of religious diversity: An introduction. Religion and Education, 46(2), 147-158. May, S., & Sleeter, C. E. (Eds.). (2010). Critical multiculturalism: Theory and praxis. New York: Routledge. Meissner, F., & Vertovec, S. (2015). Comparing super-diversity. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 38(4), 541-555. doi:10.1080/01419870.2015.980295 Moen, B. B. (2009). Taterne og skolen – et asymmetrisk møte [Romani and the school – an asymmetrical encounter]. Norsk Pedagogisk Tidsskrift, 3, 226-237. Moltmann, J. (2000). Experiences in theology: Ways and forms of Christian theology. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. Muis, J., & Immerzeel, T. (2017). Causes and consequences of the rise of populist radical right parties and movements in Europe. Current Sociology, 65(6), 909-930. doi:10.1177/0011392117717294 OECD. (2014). Education at a glance. Paris: OECD. Skeie, G. (2009). Religion i skolen – om idealer og realiteter i et mangfoldig Europa [Religion in school – on ideals and realities in a plural Europe]. In O. K. Kjørven, B.-K. Ringen, & A. Gagné (Eds.), Teacher diversity in diverse schools. Challenges and opportunities for teacher education (pp. 309-325). Vallset: Oplandske Bokforlag. Skrefsrud, T.-A., & Østberg, S. (2015). Diversitet i lærerutdanningene – bidrag til en profesjonsorientert forståelse av fag og kunnskapsområder [Diversity in teacher education – a contribution to a profession-oriented understanding of subjects and areas of knowledge]. Norsk Pedagogisk Tidsskrift, 99(3), 208-219. Soja, E.  W. (1996). Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and other real-and-imagined places. Cambridge, Mass: Blackwell. Soja, E. W. (2010). Seeking spatial justice. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Soto, L. D., & Swadener, B. B. (2016). Power and voice in research with children. New York: Peter Lang.

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Taguma, M., Shewbridge, C., Huttova, J., & Hoffman, N. (2009). OECD reviews of migrant education. Paris: OECD. Thomas, G., & Loxley, A. (2001). Deconstructing special education and constructing inclusion. Philadelphia: Open University Press. UNESCO. (1994). The Salamanca statement and framework for action on special needs education. Paris: UNESCO. Villegas, A.  M., & Lucas, T. (2007). The culturally responsive teacher. Educational Leadership, 64(6), 28-33.

Endnotes 1 

2 

3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11 

12  13  14 

Skeie,  G. (2009). Religion i skolen – om idealer og realiteter i et mangfoldig Europa [Religion in school – on ideals and realities in a plural Europe]. In  O.  K.  Kjørven, B.-K. Ringen, & A. Gagné (Eds.), Teacher diversity in diverse schools. Challenges and opportunities for teacher education (pp. 309-325). Vallset: Oplandske Bokforlag. Cf. Engen,  T.  O., & Lied,  S. (2010). RLE-faget og dobbelt kvalitativ differensiering [The subject of RLE and double qualtitative differentiation]. In J.-O. Henriksen & A. O. Søvik (Eds.), Livstolkning i skole, kultur og kirke. Festskrift til Peder Gravem (pp.  33-44). Trondheim: Tapir Akademisk Forlag.; Gravem, P. (2004). KRL–et fag for alle? KRL-faget som svar på utfordringer i en flerkulturell enhetsskole [The subject of KRL – a subject for everybody. The subject of KRL as an answer to challenges in a multicultural common school]. Vallset: Oplandske Bokforlag. Cf. Martínez-Ariño, J., & Teinturier, S. (2019). Faith-based schools in contexts of religious diversity: An introduction. Religion and Education, 46(2), 147-158. See his work done in 1997, 2004, 2014. Thomas, G., & Loxley, A. (2001). Deconstructing special education and constructing inclusion. Philadelphia: Open University Press.; UNESCO. (1994). The Salamanca statement and framework for action on special needs education. Paris: UNESCO. Bergmann, S. (2003). God in context. A survey of contextual theology. Aldershot: Ashgate, p. 58. Meissner, F., & Vertovec, S. (2015). Comparing super-diversity. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 38(4), 541-555. doi:10.1080/01419870.2015.980295. OECD. (2014). Education at a glance. Paris: OECD.; UNESCO. Thomas, G., & Loxley, A. Haug,  P. (2017). Understanding inclusive education: Ideals and reality. Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research, 19(3), 206-217. doi:10.1080/15017419.2016.1224778. Cf. Bartolo,  P., & Smyth,  G. (2009). Teacher education for diversity. In  A.  Swennen & M. Klink (Eds.), Becoming a teacher educator. Theory and practice for teacher educators (pp. 117-132). New York: Springer; Darling-Hammond, L., & Lieberman, A. (2012). Teacher education around the world. Changing policies and practices. New York: Routledge; Villegas,  A.  M., & Lucas,  T. (2007). The culturally responsive teacher. Educational Leadership, 64(6), 28-33. Thomas, G., & Loxley, A., p. 119. UNESCO. Ibid., p. iv.

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Kiuppis, F. (2014). Why (not) associate the principle of inclusion with disability? Tracing connections from the start of the ‘Salamanca’ Process’. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 18(7), 746-761. doi:10.1080/13606116.2013.826289. Cf. Haug; Thomas & Loxley. Cf. Skrefsrud,  T.-A., & Østberg,  S. (2015). Diversitet i lærerutdanningene – bidrag til en profesjonsorientert forståelse av fag og kunnskapsområder [Diversity in teacher education – a contribution to a profession-oriented understanding of subjects and areas of knowledge]. Norsk Pedagogisk Tidsskrift, 99(3), 208-219; Taguma, M., Shewbridge, C., Huttova, J., & Hoffman, N. (2009). OECD reviews of migrant education. Paris: OECD. Cf. Banks, J. A., & Banks, C. A. M. (2004). Handbook of research on multicultural education (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass; Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal, 32(3), 465-491. Cf. Hoffman, D. M. (1996). Culture and self in multicultural education: Reflections on discourse, text, and practice. American Educational Research Journal, 33(3), 545-569; May, S., & Sleeter,  C.  E. (Eds.). (2010). Critical multiculturalism: Theory and praxis. New York: Routledge. Bergmann, S. (2003), p. 58. Bergmann,  S. (2015). The legacy of Trinitarian cosmology in the Anthropocene. Transcontextualising late antiquity theology for late modernity. Studia Theologica, 69(1), 32-44, p. 32. Cf. Bergmann, S. (1995). Geist der Natur befreit. Die trinitarische Kosmologie Gregors von Nazianz im Horizont einer ökologischen Theologie der Befreiung. Mainz: Grünewald; Bergmann, S. (1997). Geist der lebendig macht. Lavierungen zur ökologischen Befreiungstheologie. Frankfurt am Main: IKO – Verlag für Interkulturelle Kommunikation. Bergmann, S. (2015), p. 32. Bergmann,  S. (2012a). Fetishism revisited: In the animistic lens of eco-pneumatology. Journal of Reformed Theology, 6, 195-215, p. 197. Cf. Moltmann,  J. (2000). Experiences in theology: Ways and forms of Christian theology. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. Cf. Soja,  E.  W. (1996). Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and other real-and-imagined places. Cambridge, Mass: Blackwell; Soja, E. W. (2010). Seeking spatial justice. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Bergmann, S. (2017). Developments in religion and ecology. In W. Jenkins, J, M. E. Tucker, & J. Grim (Eds.), Routledge handbook of religion and ecology (pp. 13-21). London and New York: Routledge, p. 19. Soja, E. W. (2010), p. 2. Cf. Bergmann, S. (2012b). Theology in built environments. Exploring religion, architecture, and design. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, p. 12. Soja, E. W. (2010), p. 4. Cf. Bergmann,  S. (2014). Religion, space and the environment. New Brunswick and New York: Transaction Publishers. Bergmann, S. (2017), p. 19. Ibid. Bergmann, S. (2014), p. 14. Cf. Bergmann, S. (2012a). Bergmann, S. (2017), p. 19. Bergmann, S. (2003), p. 58. Bergmann, S. (2012a), p. 202.

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39  40 

Bergmann, S. (2003), p. 60. Benjamin,  W. (1991). Über den Begriff der Geschichte. In  R.  Tiedemann and H. Schweppenhäuser (Eds.). Gesammelte Schriften, Bd. 1, 2: Abhandlungen (pp. 693-704). Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. Bergmann, S. (2003), p. 58. Ibid. Cf. Blommaert, J. (2009). Ethnography and democracy: Hymes’s political theory of language. Text & Talk, 29(3), 257-276. Cf. Soto, L. D., & Swadener, B. B. (2016). Power and voice in research with children. New York: Peter Lang. Blommaert, J. (2009), p. 271. Ellsworth, E. (1989). Why doesn’t this feel empowering? Working through the repressive myths of critical pedagogy. Harvard Educational Review, 59(3), 297-324, p. 309. Cf. Jones, A. (1999). Pedagogy by the oppressed: The limits of classroom dialogue. Paper presented at Aare-Nzare Conference. Ibid., p. 3. Bhabha, H. K. (1994). The location of culture. London: Routledge, p. 98. Ellsworth, E. (1989), p. 312. Cf. Blommaert, J. (2009). Cf. Cummins, J. (2001). Negotiating identities: Education for empowerment in a diverse society (2nd ed.). Ontario: California Association for Bilingual Education. Cf. Darnell,  F., & Hoëm,  A. (1996). Taken to extremes. Education in the far north. Oslo: Scandinavian University Press. Cf. Moen, B. B. (2009). Taterne og skolen – et asymmetrisk møte [Romani and the school – an asymmetrical encounter]. Norsk Pedagogisk Tidsskrift, 3, 226-237. Cf. Bartolo & Smyth, 2009; Darling-Hammond & Lieberman, 2012; Haug, 2017. nicht bold Cf. Muis,  J., & Immerzeel,  T. (2017). Causes and consequences of the rise of populist radical right parties and movements in Europe. Current Sociology, 65(6), 909-930. doi:10.1177/0011392117717294. Cf. Backes, U., & Moreau, P. (Eds.). (2012). The extreme right in Europe: Current trends and perspectives. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht. Cf. Baker, C., & Wright, W. E. (2017). Foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism (6th ed.). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. Bergmann, S. (2003), p. 60. See Bergmann’s scholarly contributions of 003, 2012(a) and 2017. Cf. Latour,  B. (2018). Down to earth. Politics in the new climate regime. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Freire, P. (2005) [1970]. Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum, p. 75. Bergmann, S. (2015), p. 41. Ibid.

41  42  43  44  45  46  47  48  49  50  51  52  53  54  55  56  57  58  59  60  61  62  63  64 

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Nature and Praxis

Theological and Phenomenological Remarks Hans-Günter Heimbrock 1.

Nature – a lacuna in Practical Theology

These days in May 2020 when I write this article any Christian congregation all over Europe would be happy to have a green church yard where they might celebrate an open air Sunday service, since having the service inside church buildings is still forbidden Moreover, they would be most happy to do so after two months of lockdown of all cultural events. General assembly restrictions in times of Corona allow only for this solution of coming together and attending worship, thereby caring for hygienic rules and for the prescript distance of 1,50 meter. People nevertheless are happy to feast outside, pray and listen to the sermon. To sing together, unfortunately, is still forbidden due to a high infection risk. However, people enjoy listening to the hymn tunes played perhaps by the local trombone band and to the blackbirds in the trees around accompanying the music in their God given way. This manner of doing a service is not completely uncommon, many pastors and leaders of the congregation are used to do it in that way from time to time. Problems arise perhaps in connection with sound techniques. For their way to celebrate and for their understanding of the worship they wouldn’t care for the green surrounding, it’s just in fresh air, no big theological problem. I chose this example deliberately as an introduction to this article. Despite the peculiarities of Corona times it highlights a general blind spot of protestant pastoral theology, as well as an age old one: to deal with natural phenomena as valuable element to understand and to shape religious practice, professional practice of pastors and teachers, and life in general. Reflection on pastoral practice developed gradually. Scholars working in the field might have reasons to notice with pride a continuous enlargement and theoretical deepening of the discipline from its origins in Schleiermacher’s first outline coming down to a “theory of practice”.1 This was the first major shift in Practical Theological theory. Consequently, Practical Theology changed its self-understanding and actual function from a naïve pastoral orientation with pure applicative goals, and grew out of the stage of a “marketing department”2. It was no longer bound only to illustrate or to apply biblical or dogmatic issues to praxis, but rather started to reflect on the relation between religious practice

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and the overall theological intention to organise such a practice within church groups. Schleiermacher’s impulses were picked up in European as well as US theological faculties. Nevertheless, it was still for this type of reflection to relate to practice and religious life within congregations, though it did not simply affirm or double, what was going on there. A second major shift in academic reflection on practice of Christian church emerged through the 60ies and 70ies of last century picking up this time elements of the methodology of the social sciences. If the essence of religious practice is not only about understanding the gospel but also about people’s religiously motivated activities (in Sunday services, at home, in schools, in parliament, and in Christian social welfare) the theoretical means of reflection practice had to consequently be enlarged. Next to the classical hermeneutical paradigm of understanding Christian traditions a new task became the starting point and aim of the practical branch of theology: i.e. the empirical analysis and interpretation of actual Christian practice, practice of individual believers as well as the Christian church. However, one cannot deny that the interpretation of Christian practice dominantly followed social scientific patterns, taking religious practice as human social praxis. A characteristic is the dominant role of Jürgen Habermas’s theory of communicative action3 for the theoretical foundation of the renewed discipline.4 To complete the sketchy overview of the discipline: during the last decades also Practical Theologians picked up the “cultural turn” first developed in the humanities. The overall aim was to take up religious behavior and religious experience as a field to shape forms of life, to clarify religion in general and in concrete field studies as expressions of individual as well as collective processes of meaning giving. This again broadened the perspective on religion and opened for studying relevant elements beyond church bound practice, e.g. in media, in movies, in everyday life. Accordingly, prominent models of Practical Theology elaborated on a theory of religious practice as “theological hermeneutics of culture”5. And given the growing dependency of economic and cultural intertwinement of regional affairs all over the globe and especially in times of huge migration and to match the challenges of post-colonial theories also Practical Theology was forced to enlarge this model towards an intercultural shape of theology. It is not do diminish the impressive and fruitful progress achieved within practical theological reflection through the last two centuries if one notes a particular one-sidedness when it comes to the principal orientation. The natural, the material substrate of religion, culture and life was overlooked by and large. It didn’t play any major role in Practical Theology. A glimpse at

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prominent handbooks and famous introductory compendia will quickly prove that neither in Europe nor in the US6, neither in the English nor the French speaking branch7 exists any care for nature. Religion, culture, and life were almost exclusively perceived as social phenomena. One could object that is might be a fairly generalized judgment. As it comes to special pastoral tasks there is growing attention to be found during the last decennia regarding the bodily and physical basis of speech, and preaching, the importance of bodily gestures in liturgy and so on. However, no principal theological orientation for preaching or pastoral care show any interest in light, air, or anything the like. To deal with people’s experience with nature, with sun and sea, with garden and flowers is rather a rare business in contemporary Practical Theology.8 Corresponding to this lacuna is another circumstance. After an age old struggle and fight of concurrence between sciences and theology about the scientific value of each other for insight in the physical world and the dynamics of living during the last 50 years there is a growing and mutually fruitful dialogue between scholars in astrophysics, biology, ecology and some colleagues in theology, anthropology and metaphysics. Due to several reasons however, there is almost no practical theological contribution to these discourses to be found. Systematic theologians elaborating on contemporary problems that explain the notion of creation are deeply involved in emergence models and in process theory. Likewise, in order to give up to date interpretation regarding the fundamental problem of human free will and evil they will need to relate their own ideas to contemporary neuro-scientific research. Practical Theology as fifth discipline within academic theology is silent on all these issues, it stood and stands rather aside of discourses relating their own business to natural sciences. 2.

A Strange Experience

Is there any need to change this silence? Why should an understanding of religious practice get involved in reflecting on nature and related phenomena? To follow this track it might be helpful to take up a particular memory of somebody who actually did an activity related to religion, and nature. Following this incident, we might get a first idea of what Practical Theology so far has missed neglecting to deal with culture and nature. Some years ago the catholic diocese in the German city of Aachen organised an exhibition titled “What is holy to me?”9 They chose a very open approach by asking young people to react to this question in any way they would like: with

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a shorter or longer text, with a poem or a letter, but also non-verbally. Thus, many rare and even funny things were delivered, a teddy, a guitar, a cross, even one provocative commentary: “There is nothing holy to me!” It is important that the organisers did not ask: “Give me your definition of religion or your definition of holy!” They just chose this open stimulus “What is holy to me?” Let me focus now on an instructive answer one young man gave in reaction to the invitation. A person of whom we only know his name, Jürgen, gave expression to an astonishing discovery. In reaction to the invitation of the exhibition he presented a stone and an empty slide, next to these things a short comment: “5 years ago during a holiday together with friends it came up to our mind: certain things and impressions you simply cannot photograph. This piece of stone is from a fjord in Norway. We memorized that particular moment intensely. And we never will forget that ‘picture’ (= slide of soul)”10. Although it was neither Jürgen’s intention to give a contribution to the problem of perceiving religion, nor to make scientific or philosophical statements about the environment or nature, the result he delivered to the exhibition seems to be of great significance to our issue. Evidently his answer is related to nature, to religion and to perception as well. However, his way to contribute to all three is rather indirect, because he is not using theoretical language. In his short description he does not give definitions or propositions. He is telling the reader a most intense experience in such a way that immediately an inner image of a scene occurs in our inner eyes. What does Jürgen mean, when he denies taking a picture of certain experiences? His comment is about a certain way of encountering nature, and about a certain way to deal with nature by taking photos. Nevertheless, this insight is closely connected to a sensual and most sensitive way to get in touch with a particular natural environment in a Norwegian landscape. No religious term is used in this expression, not even the key word of the exhibition, the word “holy” is repeated, but only two simple objects of everyday life, a stone and a slide and some very short explanatory comments. He puts forward a distinct natural object, a simple stone. But at the same time he is symbolising an insight about life, makes a value loaded statement. What does that say about his thoughts what is holy, about his way to understand religion? In an indirect way he is dealing with a matter, some people might call “religious”. And some of them might even have an intuitive idea that Jürgen’s statement resembles a theological notion about life and nature, resembles the biblical commandment ‘thou shalt not make any image of God!’. Of course, this example displays a particular perspective chosen on religion and on the environment. Other people would interpret other perceptions of their actual surrounding with a different judgment of life view. Suffering under

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extremely hot climate in many European countries during summer, as we are used to for several years, induces perhaps less feelings of confronted towards a grandiose nature, rather a sense of helplessness and ultimate dependency on the conditions of bodily human existence. And a Norwegian tourist traveling to Frankfurt finds himself sooner or later back in a scenery that definitely will not make him or her get images of paradise, but rather of ‘paradise lost’. Think of the perception of tall sky scrapers in the inner city, or of being surrounded by anonymous masses of thousands of people hurrying to their business. Or think of long queues in front of a counter at the departure halls of Frankfurt Rhein-Main airport. Thus Jürgen’s experience is obviously connected to a certain contingent cultural framing. Also being on holiday tour in Norway is related to a cultural context, to cultural patterns of tourism, to people’s yearnings to go beyond the noisy and ugly smelling traffic in metropolis. It is important not to generalise Jürgen’s example as the whole picture, and we should likewise resist the tendency to glorify nature in a romantic and naïve mode, a tendency that is cultivated somewhere even on religious grounds. Jürgen’s intensive encounter with nature reveals something existential to him, yet it is not connected to any formal religious activity stimulated by a religious group. Nevertheless, one would assume, that this experience is most important for Jürgen’s religious orientation. Yet it is not easy to get an appropriate answer to the analytic question: what is the particular experience in that very moment all about? And what is the religious quality? Using action theory to answer the question, one would miss the fascinating element in the experience, because Jürgen did not intentionally looked for “a holy moment”. And this path likewise would not provide insight into the effect or better: into the affection the unique natural surrounding provoked in Jürgen and his companion. Taking up Jürgen’s and his companion’s experience in a Norwegian countryside as relevant for theological understanding of religion and nature, is not without risks and complications. There is heavy debate if human’s encounter with nature anyhow could lead to valuable theological truth. Considered the limitations of my chosen example, however it seems useful to broaden the perspective by looking for more elaborated ways of theology to study the interrelation of perception, religion and nature. 3.

“The eyes of faith”

Theology of revelation in its classical models claims that there is a qualitative difference between the human insight into world and reality based on sensual perception of the world around on the one side and the inner light of Christian

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faith enlightened by God’s supernatural light on the other side. And from this perspective the only source for true and valid enlightening is the testimony of the bible taken as God’s revealed word. A methodical consequence out of this theological claim especially in Protestantism was and is to focus on biblical texts, at the same time a decline of interest in dealing with phenomena of physical nature outside. To take this dogmatic opposition of perception and faith has been held even by those theologians in the 20th century, who said farewell to the medieval doctrine of verbal inspiration and followed a historical critical approach to biblical texts. One of the most prominent figures among them was the famous Marburg New Testament scholar Rudolf Bultmann, who tried to develop a theology that met the challenges of a modern secular world view. His program to interpret ancient biblical myths from a modern theological interest tried to distinguish between historically based assumptions and categories to deal with miraculous events in the past and the rationally based insight of faith at present about the stories of the gospel. Bultmann asked: How is it possible to perceive God’s activity in nature under modern epistemological conditions? Is it possible to see God’s hands at work out in reality even in modern times, after the ancient mythological language lost its plausibility? By answering these questions Bultmann perceived a qualitative difference between “the eyes of faith” and “the natural eye”. He concluded: “Der Gedanke des Handelns Gottes als eines unweltlichen und transzendenten Handelns kann nur dann vor Missverständnissen bewahrt werden, wenn es nicht als Handeln gedacht wird, das sich zwischen weltlichem Handeln oder weltlichen Ereignissen abspielt, sondern als eines, das sich in ihnen ereignet. Der enge Zusammenhang zwischen natürlichen und geschichtlichen Ereignissen bleibt unberührt, so, wie er sich dem Beobachter darbietet. Das Handeln Gottes ist jedem Auge verborgen außer dem Auge des Glaubens. Nur die sogenannten natürlichen, weltlichen Ereignisse sind für jedermann sichtbar und dem Beweis zugänglich. In ihnen aber findet Gottes verborgenes Handeln statt.”11 The prevalent interest in nature in his statement is obvious: Modern theology accepts its incompetence to get scientific insight into affairs of nature in order to avoid misunderstandings about the meaning of Christian faith. Considering the centuries old competition between theology and the natural sciences this position was obviously a relief and an intellectual progress. The consequences however for 20th century theology in many respects remain problematic, and this is particularly true for our issue. The price theology is forced to pay is rather high. The sharp conceptual distinction between a scientific and a religious

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perspective meets perhaps a modern secular world view but has some typical modern back sides. Firstly, theology follows a concept of nature that is fixed on the rationale of cause and effect, in other words, a very narrow concept of nature, which has been criticised in the meantime by empirical as well as philosophical arguments. Taking up new research on nature beyond classical dissolution according to Dilthey’s famous dual between ‘explaining nature’ and ‘understanding human psychic life’ opens up theology, especially protestant theological anxiety to return to the pitfalls of an old ‘theologia naturalis’. The alternative goes beyond Dilthey and has strong explanatory capacity: “culture, and lived religion, as well as our thinking, always remain natural processes”12. Secondly, we might ask: how ‘natural’ is Bultmann’s natural eye? In other words, we should argue that his implicit concept of perception is all too simple and therefore could not be maintained today, also on empirical as well as on epistemological reasons. Nevertheless, it must be admitted that even two generations after Bultmann contemporary theology often deals with perception as if it were a simple matter that people just open their eyes to. The opposite is presumed only to shut one’s eyes. However, this assumption must be contested. A profound historical study by the Canadian art historian Jonathan Crary about theories of seeing and related industrial exploitation during the 19th century has shown that sensual perception has been interpreted in many different ways during the centuries13. Human senses are not just functioning “naturally” but the way how this is described in theory is always dependent on collective theoretical plausibilities. The Greeks believed that light is responsible for the active part, modernity from Descartes onwards believed it to be the other way round14 . And to conceive seeing is also dependent on industrial models, a circumstance that sometimes is even leading to distortions of perception, e.g. through the systematic channelization of one’s seeing, through an inflationary increase of constraints being executed on one’s seeing customs. That means there is considerable need to be suspicious about the simple equation “to see is to see”. Moreover, this indicates to have a look at the familiar act of seeing, and especially to do so from a theological perspective. Relating back to the example of Jürgen the question arises, if people do not only look at different objects in reality, but if they consider them in different ways, as I mentioned above. A more complex and more appropriate theological approach to perception than Bultmann was developed by the Danish theologian Svend Bjerg in his book about theology of the senses15, picking up central arguments of reformation theology. Based on an elaborated concept of perception he starts again the discussion about the interest of faith in sensual perception. His program

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indicated in one sentence: “The senses open to talk about God. Talking about God opens the senses”.16 From Wittgenstein’s seminar writings Bjerg takes up the epistemological insight that seeing is not just seeing, we have to distinguish between a simple way of perception (‘seeing something’), a more precise perception (‘seeing something as’), and a ‘metaphorical seeing’ (‘seeing something within something’). Different to Bultmann he insists that the eye of faith has the same metaphoric structure as the ‘natural eye’. In this project he develops a threefold task: Firstly, a theology of the senses has to develop a theology of creation, which opens our eyes to perceive the world as God reality. The problem is how to combine this task with the Christological notion of limited, and even distorted access to the world and reality. Secondly, it should design a poetic theology, which develops a new perspective upon the world from the gospel, which is more than just to state the mystery of faith. Thirdly, it should nevertheless insist upon a theology of revelation stressing the point of the invisibility of the world and particularly God’s invisibility. Despite all effort to finally re-establish the value of the senses in Bjerg’s theology, God’s hidden presence remains as a last point, beyond all human acts of perception, but also beyond all intellectual activities; sticking to Luther’s dialectical model of ‘deus relevatus’ and ‘deus absconditus’ it is not dissolved through faith. So finally also Bjerg is suspicious about the senses. Faith sees more than the senses – if mankind is listening to God’s word. And that is because “Within faith we are seeing with our eyes”.17 The program “The senses open to talk about God” finally comes down to a recommendation for a particular Christian practice: not to look around but to read. Nobody will be surprised that Bjerg is not talking about perceiving nature. 4.

On Perception

Bultmann and Bjerg try to open up theological reflection on faith for sensual perception. Beyond theological attempts to focus on the metaphorical eye there might be a different way at hand to conceive human perception, an epistemological alternative which likewise allows for another approach to nature. Human beings are equipped with five senses. The human capacity to use visual perception is one of the fundamental means to get into contact with life and world, yet it is multilayered. There is an affectionate grace of the mother’s eyes towards her baby, but we know also about an “evil eye”, a surgeon is trained

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to practice “the clinical view”, there is even a “tyranny of the eye”. Philosophical Phenomenology, which I pick up in my next passage, does not focus on action, but rather on perceptive behaviour and its basic function for human cognition. It remains to be seen if this is also a possible access to understand experience and encounter, as we talked about in the example of Jürgen. Phenomenology was developed first by Edmund Husserl in the early 20th century18. It insists on the primacy of sensual perception to all human activities related to outer reality, might it be scientific discovery, technical constructive behaviour, philosophical or religious ideas and theories. In difference to a Cartesian split of mind and body and in difference to 18th century sensualistic options this kind of epistemology conceives human relations towards the world as a constant interplay between the process of sensual perception (‘noesis’) and the objects of perception (‘noema’). Phenomenological epistemology deepened further into the specific relation between knowledge about “data” and human beings as knowing subjects. Husserl’s perceptual approach to reality implied a heavy critique of the intellectualistic and dualistic model common in his time – a model that posited “objective data” on one side and a perceiving subject on the other. Nevertheless, Husserl’s approach remained dominantly consciousness-centered. After Husserl, the phenomenological concept of perception was deepened by many followers. The French phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961) elaborated a broader and less idealistic concept of human existence, including especially its bodily rootedness19. Based on philosophical as well as empirical arguments, Merleau-Ponty drew on a specific concept of human perception as bodily perception: The elementary way in which humans become aware of the world is bound to the complexity of bodily, coen-aesthetically mediated perception. “The perceiving mind is an incarnate mind.”20 Specifically, human perception does neither happen in an abstract, intellectualistic way nor in a causal-mechanistic way, but in a situated connection to a finite bodily subject of perception. Formation of the senses happens according to phenomenology by way of mediation through sense perception as an intentional meaningful act by way of perception of the other which/who is that which/who is given sensually. The specifically human, i.e. subject-oriented, way of perceiving another human takes place on the ground of a certain focussing: my turning to an other – by way of bodily gestures – does disclose the intentionality of the other. Perceptions grounded in the body, as meaningful gestures, are, like myself, to be understood through my body, even though these meaningful gestures are in situations of daily life not results of previously taken conscious decisions to act.

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Merleau-Ponty also described the specific ambiguity of simultaneously having a body and being a living body. This suggests a conceptual distinction between the body as object (in German, “Körper”) and the body as a living subject (in German, “Leib”), the latter implying that the body is also the subject of perception. Perception always takes place in fields, or horizons of perception. Out of this follows the perspectivity and ‘unfinishedness’ of the perception of any given object. Every world-view (“Welt-Anschauung”) is being formed perspectively, i.e. out of certain indistinguishable standpoints. In sense perception I do not produce reality because I relate to something other which is already pregiven. But I approach reality in an intentional way because it is an I who listens, and looks at, who examines, who tries to grasp meaning and understanding of a particular something. There is no perception without elementary human activity, e.g. in the form of paying attention. Perceptions lead to a certain mood (feelings, emotions) because humans are open to be touched not only mentally but at the same time emotionally by what they perceive. And simultaneously, beneath deliberate action and the conditions of the present situation, also preconscious and unconscious parts of my person enter into these acts of perception. Only seldom we are totally turned over to reality, and we never have full control over reality. Rather, one can say: reality does disclose itself anew in intentional acts of perception in which humans take steps towards the foundation of orientation, on which the decision making of reason build upon. Finally, a phenomenological concept of perception, leads to an open concept of experience that is not fixated towards facts like a positivistic model does. Reality is conceived differently. In this theoretical interpretation there is heavy stress on the possibility that perceptive activities lead to the awareness of limits and irritation of regular seeing. This model of understanding perception might be used to study a human being’s encounter with distinct phenomena in nature, might it be other human beings, might it be a tree, a stone, or the particular light of the sun going down on the sea side. However, phenomenology all the way and in a fundamental way is relating to nature, starting from a bodily basis of all our senses and emphasising the carnal aspect in Merleau-Ponty’s “incarnate mind”. In that sense the stress on embodied perception in phenomenology might be called a “carnal” theory of perception.21 However, acts of perception and perceptively grounded formations of meaning are not to be misunderstood as being naturalistic, because they are always pre-formed through social codes and superimposed by unconscious desire.

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Taking Nature as Life-world

Corresponding to the notion of perception is the phenomenological way to perceive and conceive of reality from a life-world perspective. In Husserl’s sense, this aims at a pre-scientific encounter with the world, “the world in which we are always already living and which furnishes the ground for all cognitive performance and all scientific determination”22. To indicate the benefit of a phenomenological approach to perception for the issue of nature, it is of utmost importance to relate to Husserl’s idea of a “science of the life-world” – an idea that first gained prominence in his later writings. Life-world precedes any conceptual structuring of reality by naming this reality with human language. In this way, reality appears to us first as a whole, as a “gestalt,” before we distinguish different pieces in conscious mental activities. Husserl’s programmatic call “Back to the things themselves!” was intended to criticise to overall problematic tendencies of late nineteen centuries dominant scientific models: Husserl aimed at tendencies like objectivism and historicism of science, his diagnosis was that they lost contact to the phenomena of life world, because getting knowledge is bound to artificially construct pure concepts that lose contact to reality and perception of everyday life. Life-world in Husserl’s sense does not mean a separate region in reality nor does it mean objects “out there”. Rather the concept tries to grasp how individuals perceive reality in the most elementary way, in its pre-given familiarity. Based inter alia on this approach of the concept of life-world the German Systematic theologian Michael Moxter, in his brilliant contribution to theology of culture has elaborated on “culture as life-world”.23 It is my argument in this passage to apply this perspective likewise to nature in order to elaborate on the pre-given familiarity of nature. However, a wording like “Taking nature as life-world” needs further clarification. You might perceive a particular gull flying above your head. “Nature” in a way is not something to be perceived by senses as a distinct object of perception, likewise “life-world”. Thus “life-world” is a conceptual tool to better understand human relations in reality. This concept does not primarily aim at ontology. It aims at the understanding of the formation of perception. And it aims especially at the pre-scientific encounter with the world. It precedes any conceptual structuring of reality by way of naming this reality with human language. And it opens up especially for the irritating and unplanned elements in perceiving reality. One gets aware of the strange within the familiar, think of Jürgen’s experience on their walk alongside the fjord. And sometimes one discovers thing as new and puzzling which in fact have always been there.

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There is an excellent narrative told by the famous video artist Bill Viola, which illustrates this moment of perplexity: Ich erinnere mich, dass mein Großvater einmal von Florida gekommen ist, um uns in Queens, New York, einen Besuch abzustatten. Er schaute sich das Zimmer an, das ich mir mit meinem Bruder Bob teilte, begutachtete unser Spielzeug und verbrachte etwas Zeit mit uns. Ich muss ungefähr elf Jahre alt gewesen sein. Wir hatten das Fenster geöffnet – es war Sommer. Er lehnte sich hinaus und sagte: ‘Was ist das für ein Geräusch?’ Ich fragte: ‘Welches Geräusch?’ Und er antwortete: ‘Dieses Geräusch. Ist denn das Meer in der Nähe?’ Ich wusste, dass wir weit weg vom Meer wohnten. Als ich zu ihm hinüber lief, um zu lauschen, hörte ich zum ersten Mal in meinem Leben die Geräuschkulisse der Stadt – diese Anhäufung von Verkehr und dem Hin und Her der Leute, dieses tiefe, dumpfe Grollen. Obwohl es ständig zu hören war, hatte ich es noch nie bewusst wahrgenommen. Es ist das Geräusch, das man hört, wenn man auf einer Brücke steht und über die Stadt blickt, abends, wenn es still wird und sich nichts um einen herum bewegt. Diese Geräuschkulisse ist immer da – selbst weit draußen in der Wüste. Und nachdem ich sie einmal gehört hatte, war sie für mich immer präsent. Inzwischen ist sie Teil meines Lebens, und ich habe sie oft in meinen Arbeiten eingesetzt.24

Reflecting on the life world means to come back to the self-evident basis experience of our world, our familiar surroundings with its well known people, houses, places, colours, atmospheres, thus all human as well as natural elements – all this however in the way stepping back from the self-evident. To think in the life-world perspective, thus from a subject-thinker is not to forget about the context, as a horizon or as a form of praxis of life, nor does it restrict thinking in a narrow, circumspect way. As the German philosopher Hans Blumenberg (1920-1996) has showed in detail, reflecting on one’s life-world means stepping back from the self-evident and basic givens of life25. Neither does this approach restrict thinking in a narrow, circumspect way. Rather, reflecting on life-world stimulates further knowledge by encouraging people to reflect on the blind spots of their perceptions. Inasmuch as the unusual and extraordinary is grounded in the usual, in the everyday life, in theology we also have to take serious ‘life-world’ as a basic of meaning-giving processes and as a universal horizon, to which meaning is aiming at. Phenomenological epistemology connects sensual perception with a certain type of experience, focussing on its pre-scientific roots. The empirical approach to reality in social scientific research usually follows the experiential ideal in terms of collecting data as detached objects, which are gained independently from the researching subject. Referring back to the world of

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experience in the life-world approach relates to the self-evidences and prereflexive familiarities in everyday life described by late Husserlian theory. The life-world perspective emphasizes the relational aspect of experience. In the relational approach to the empirical way of focusing on “lived experience” there is a more open and more contextual understanding of reality. Reality is not to be described without the individual’s involvement on the level of experience, as well as on the level of theoretical description. Furthermore, it contains ab ovo elements, which are spontaneous, irregular, faults and slips, unexpected, and even strange. Similar to the detached model of experience, “lived experience” as a theoretical construct, converges in the non-positivist stance that states that reality is not simply that ‘which is the case’. However, “things look rather different when we get to the roots of experience where things become what they could be”26. In the relational approach, the empirical basis is conceived of as something “given” from beyond the perceiving individual, and only accessible through sensual experiences of a human subject, being involved in the experiential process. However, a life world oriented perspective is aiming at the primacy of perception for knowledge, it contributes to a socio-ecological understanding of environment. It presents a strict anti-Cartesian model, and this on empirical as well as normative arguments: Human beings do not fall apart into inner mental and outer material parts, but rather live a coherent wholeness. Our body is the first and inevitable environment, the outer natural and cultural contexts beyond our bodily boundaries form a second environment. This also contains a critical impulse not to reduce the concept of environment to the mere understanding of a surrounding (cf. the German expression of “Drumherum”) to an object of human exploitation. Phenomenology leads to an understanding of environment as qualitative experiential space. It is also about value oriented perceptions looking for a world that is worth living in. However, this view does not support a romantic idea of a harmonious nature or natural state of human affairs beyond cultural developments. Phenomenology resists and destroys the illusion of an initial unmediated contact to an “original” environment beyond culture as well as to authentic life beneath reflexion. A life world perspective contains both permanent perceptive participation in life as it is experienced in everyday life and also initially normative elements. Life world is a critical and a double concept starting with the natural prereflexive basis of the most familiar behaviour, but including also normative elements. Finally, life world is the ultimate horizon, against which we see everything in reality.

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Natural Dimensions in Praxis

I started my reflection admitting to the oversight of Practical Theology concerning a substantial interest in nature. The concentration on church bound religious practice as well as the strong focus on the cultural and communicative side in effect lead to a lacuna. In return, having a closer look at a particular encounter with nature taken as a sort of disclosure experience for religion (the case of Jürgen) gave us a strong hint to follow human perception in theological models as well as in philosophical phenomenology. As result, we got to know about an “embodied” concept of sensual approach to reality putting heavy stress on the natural, the “carnal” basis of human beings perception. If the diagnosis about the left-outs is fitting by and large, coming to the end of my essay I would like to follow the reverse idea and address briefly the question how Practical Theology can benefit from dealing with nature. How can the discipline benefit from dealing with the phenomenological approach to sensual perception of reality and nature? How can it acquire an understanding of nature following “lived experience” on environment? In answering these questions I will describe in a sketchy way a threefold task. The first is with reference to several objectives of practical theological research, the second picks up the spatial dimension of religious practice, the third aims at methodology, at a renewed way to conceive the category of “praxis”. Regarding the first aspect: Following a broader perspective on religion and on religious experience in everyday life, as done in the last decennia, opens up also for a wide range of nature related phenomena connected to religious practice inside and outside the frames of “official” religious practice. In the meantime one could note a growing set of issues which Practical Theology should pay more attention to, e.g. spiritually loaded movements to prepare food, healing services27, rituals of blessing including bodily contact, sound healing and many other objectives. Noting this growing plurality I would like to draw especially on a recently published study which for the first time explicitly addresses the issue. Jan-Peter Grevel in his brilliant analysis of “green religious practice” studied in depth religious or religiously related experiences of nature and tried to interpret them beyond old pitfalls of a former “theologia naturalis”.28 Acknowledging the growing mechanisation of life he recommended in his study to realise the increasing needs of people to temporarily withdraw from late modern civilization and to vitalize contact with nature. This does not only happen in spiritually charged exercises. Beyond and underneath deliberate ecological and ethical reflection described in “green theology”, Grevel discovered and studied

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a wide range of everyday attempts to escape culture in one’s backyard or allotment. To do so, he especially draws on extraordinary realms of experience. By means of four empirical phenomenological case studies Grevel did research into people’s experience of nature, starting with the “Oder flood” 1997, moving on to touristic perception of popular sites like sea and sundown, coming to participant observation at the culture of backyards (“Schrebergarten”), and finally accompanying people during high mountain hiking tours. It turns out that although people do not label these experience as being “religious”, if one invites them to talk about them, however the intense experiences get religious meaning for them, if the research cares for “lived experience”. As Grevel’s study on people’s experience of nature by analysing the most popular snap shot motives like the “view on the sea” or “sundown at seaside” has shown, looking at nature and enjoying the view and taking these pictures does not stand isolated from everyday life. It is reflecting cultural patterns and yearnings towards nature, even a crisis of perceiving nature. And taking photos is intertwined with a complex dynamic of ambivalent rituals of memory. Nevertheless, it leads to a religious primer, to experience of limits of everyday life, although according to Grevel it would be rather inappropriate to call this simply “religion in nature” in an essentialist way. This way to study religiously related experience of nature is an excellent example to show the benefit from phenomenological oriented practical theology to get a new understanding of natural phenomena. Simultaneously and by way of a qualitative empirical approach it leads theology to doubt if the traditional distinction between “culture” and “nature” really is working – if it ever fitted. Regarding the second aspect: Language, time and body are dimensions of any religious practice, of any human practice. Likewise any practice takes place somewhere, is located and situated at a specific place, might it be a pastoral counseling conversation in a hospital room, might it be in the service room of the refugee camp within the transit area of Frankfurt international airport29, or might it be just a Sunday service in an average church building. The phenomenological approach to perception and life-world as described above opens up for the spatial condition of practice, which evidently is shaped by natural and material elements. For half a century especially protestant practical theology in Germany due to the Barthian bias against any “religious experience” was rather clueless about the relevance of the architectural surrounding in the service, fixed more or less on the verbal content of what should be proclaimed or communicated in this celebration. However, during recent decennia pastoral theological reflections on the particular homiletic and liturgical tasks gradually took up the implications of the spatial dimension for practical improvement, but also for a

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renewed theological understanding of the service itself. To celebrate God and to care for human feelings and resonance towards the material surroundings were no longer at any rate taken contradictory. The “spatial turn” in cultural studies, as well as in philosophy, historiography, literature was also picked up by theology. This provided a considerable shift from older focusing on “time” as dominant axis to the topological axis. Likewise it aimed at a shift from taking social activity in a restricted perspective to merely human inter-subjective interaction. It enables a refreshed understanding of how meaning making evolves and develops through cultural and nature related processes. Subsequently space should be taken not only as a geometric but as a cultural phenomenon.30 “Space” is inseparable from human experience based on bodily existence, mediated and produced to a great extent through individual decisions and actions. “Places and spatial relations as well as their meaning are constructed, reproduced and changed within the pragmatic context of performed action.”31 This concept of space displays a new attentiveness on “lived experience”. We remember intense moments of life, and well in connection with an inner image of the particular spatial scenery, with a particular personal relation to this or that place. These theoretical instruments were introduced to theology in general, to a renewed encounter of theology with aesthetics and arts, and also to theory and practice of liturgics. In consequence, people care next to the verbal content of a Sunday service also for elements like the atmosphere and tuning people get in touch when entering a certain room where they gather for the service. In theological education students are trained more and more to be aware of natural bound elements of a church building like stones, walls, light and glass, and the particular gestalt of the floor. The socio-ecological turn in theory of architecture as well as a new openness towards spiritual dimensions of buildings32 supported this new openness. What had been banned formerly by a purist ideology, has been discovered again. In a “post-secular age” (Habermas) people re-gain access to formerly forbidden sacral qualities of the church architecture. Saying all this about new interests in the spatial dimension of religious practice is not to assume uncritically for all encounter situations a harmonious experience, that material set-up of the building and experience of people are always in in mutual positive resonance. Jonas Bauer in his analysis of the experience of the spatial dimension in concrete sections of pastoral practice by means of Foucault’s concept of “heterotopia” proved the possible contradiction between conscious intention of a professional and the perception of the spatial arrangement at stake. “However, this potential contradiction is not one between a spatial surrounding and its consequent interpretation. Rather it is one between two different kinds of spaces: It is space within an encounter of

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actors on the one hand and experiencing the space of a specific place on the other hand. Those two might concur or might cut across each other. If those perceived spaces cut across each other, it is especially apparent that spatial formations entail power structures: Our feelings, thoughts and behaviour resonate with spatial surroundings and may be counteracted by a space opened up in an intersubjective encounter – or vice versa.”33 To conclude my remarks on the rediscovery of spatial aspects in religious practice, it should be noted that it is not only a temporal coincidence. Indeed, systematic theology as well as theological ethics have a new interest in Paul Tillich’s theological understanding of nature, tracing back especially to his early essay on “Nature and Sacrament”.34 Regarding the third aspect, about methodology: Within academic theology surprisingly the discipline of practical theology in recent years has picked up the concurrence with science about valuable knowledge and started the attempt to give a refreshed understanding of one’s own task under the ambitious heading Practical theology as “Life-Science”35. This approach does not aim at a simple (and naïve) trial to overbid the intellectual performance of biosciences. Nevertheless, colleagues in Practical Theology pick up the formula ‘life-science’ to elaborate on a new understanding of what Practical Theology should care about. Following this programmatic line, some authors propose a dominant task of practical theology to support and promote a religion in service of the living. From the particular knowledge about life theology can relate on, this being the argument, should engage in a searching process “for better understanding of life resp. for an understanding of better life”36. There are strong arguments for this attempt to re-describe the task of Practical Theology as type of ‘life science’. However, some claims of the borrowed slogan ‘Practical Theology as life science’ seem to be rather too ambitious and need further critical discussion.37 It might be surprising that there is little reflection especially on the relation between life and praxis, the latter being the theoretical center of the discipline since Schleiermacher. It is precisely the issue of praxis, an “embodied” understanding of sensual approach to cultural and natural reality, I dealt with so far, might contribute to. It is rather unproblematic to say: Practical Theology has a strategic task to describe and reflect on religious praxis, and to give way to better praxis in accordance with the Gospel, might it be praxis of Christian believers committed to faith in general, might it concern specific practices of professionals. However, problems start when you ask what type of praxis are we talking about? The very concept of “praxis” was first set out by Aristotle in his “metaphysics”, distinguishing between “praxis”, “poiesis” and “theoria”. However, “praxis” in his view was dominantly human action prior to any reflective endeavour.

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Despite all fundamental differences about understanding political forces of society Karl Marx’s theoretical attempt to “praxis” run the same way: it is aimed at the social process to reform societal reality through human activity. And 20th century Practical Theology, when picking up the methodological line of contemporary sociological action theory and reformulating the whole discipline as “theory of action”38, in fact did not feel major problems in respect to the conceptualisation of “action”. In consequence especially religious practice of professionals was described dominantly as instrumental behaviour to reach certain goals, the goal to be more effective with one’s pastoral efforts. By taking up the phenomenological approach to perception and life-world and by considering ecological theories one discovers a certain one-sidedness in methodology. It might help broadening the understanding of “praxis”. These theories make us sensitive for the circumstance that human activities only sometimes follow the logic of aims and means. Human activities however are not always the results of previously and consciously taken decisions to act. Jürgen’s narrative is a very good illustration of this peculiarity. This perspective strongly suggests caring for those layers of reality, where the subject is inter-active, interwoven with reality, affected, touched, and perhaps even overwhelmed by things. There is a type of experience in human beings which goes beyond pure strategic activities. It sometimes includes even inactive, more passive elements, elements described by medical scholars like Victor von Weizsäcker and Frederik Buytendijk as “pathic behaviour”39. And this is highly relevant for a theological understanding of praxis. The notion of “pathic” behaviour has theological implications, and leads to new theological insight in dialogue with social sciences. Whereas in the Cartesian tradition human action, including religious praxis is usually conceived as being intended by a subject, and directed voluntarily towards an object, in lived experience we discover ourselves as being intertwined with reality. Some of these “actions” are going beyond active behaviour, let’s say in defining a frame of reference to attribute a religious meaning to objectives in reality in a transitive manner. To put it in Paul Tillich’s words: “The presupposition of theology is that there is a special way in which reality imposes itself on us.”40 And this mode of reality is not restricted to any segment of culture labelled in linguistic conventions as “religious” or “Christian”. However, related phenomena are important anthropological starting points to further theological interpretation. A concept of action in theology would need further clarification in order to distinguish and to relate anthropological insights about religion as human activity to the classical theological notion of God’s action, especially qualified in the horizon of God’s passion in Christ.41 The awareness of human beings interwoven with the active and re-active structure of life, with otherness, could

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serve as an understanding of reality in accordance with the dynamic and mysterious structure of life in theological interpretation inspired by the theology of Christ’s cross. References Sigurd Bergmann, Space and Spirit. Towards a theology of inhabitation, in: Bergmann (ed.), Architecture, Aesth/Ethics  6 Religion, IKO Verlag für Interkulturelle Kommunikation, Frankfurt/M 2005, 45-103. Sigurd Bergman, Religion, Space, and the Environment, Transaction Publishers New Brunswick/London 2014. Jonas Bauer, Dimension: Space, in: Trygve Wyller/ Hans-Günter Heimbrock, (Eds.) Perceiving the Other. Case Studies and Theories of Respectful Action, Göttingen 2010 Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 161-175. Svend Bjerg, Synets teologi, Fredriksberg 1999 [Theology of the senses]. Don Browning, A Fundamental Practical Theology. Descriptive and Strategic Proposals, 1991 Minneapolis. Rudolf Bultmann, Jesus Christus und die Mythologie (1958) GuV IV, Tübingen 1965, New York: Scribner, 1958 [Jesus Christ and Mythology,]. Hans Blumenberg, Theory of the Life-World, Berlin 2010 Suhrkamp. Bund der Deutschen Katholischen Jugend im Bistum Aachen (Hg.) „Das ist mir heilig“. Ausstellung Heiligtümer Jugendlicher, NEUE GALERIE – Sammlung Ludwig Aachen 1986. Frederik Buytendijk, Allgemeine Theorie der menschlichen Haltung und Bewegung. Berlin 1956 Springer. Karin Grau, Healing Power. Ansätze zu einer Theologie der Heilung im Werk Paul Tillichs. Münster 1999. Jonathan Crary, Techniques of the Observer, Boston MIT Press 1990. Karl-Fritz Daiber, Grundriß der Praktischen Theologie als Handlungswissenschaft. Kritik und Erneuerung der Kirche als Aufgabe, München/Mainz (Kaiser/Grünewald) 1977 [Introduction to Practical Theology as theory of action]. Michael F. Drummy, Being and earth: Paul Tillich’s theology of nature, Lanham 2000. Wilhelm Gräb, Praktische Theologie als Praxistheorie protestantischer Kultur, in: Wilhelm Gräb/Birgit Weyel (Hg.), Praktische Theologie und protestantische Kultur, Gütersloh 2002, 35-51 [Practical Theology als Praxis Theory of Protestant Culture]. Jan-Peter Grevel, Mit Gott im Grünen. Eine Praktische Theologie der Naturerfahrung, Göttingen 2015 (Research in Contemporary Religion Vol  17) [With God in green space. A Practical Theology of experience with Nature].

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Jürgen Habermas, Theory of Communicative Action, Vol 1 and 2, Boston Mass. Beacon Press. Eberhard Harbsmeier/H.R.  Iversen, Praktisk Teologi, Frederiksberg: Forlaget ANIS, 1995. Richard Kearney/Brian Treanor (eds.), Carnal Hermeneutics, New York: Fordham University Press. Hans-Günter Heimbrock/Trygve Wyller (Eds.) Perceiving the Other. Case Studies and Theories of Respectful Action, Göttingen 2010 Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. G. Hummel/Lax, Mystical Heritage in Tillich’s Philosophical Theology Frankfurt/M. 2000; Edmund Husserl, Logical Investigations  1, translated by John  N.  Findlay. London: Routledge. (1900) 1970. Edmund Husserl, The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology, Evanston, Il. (1936/1970) North-western University Press. Bernard Kaempf, Introduction a la Théologie Pratique, Strassbourg Presses Universitaires de Strassbourg, 1997. Thomas Klie, Martina Kumlehn, Ralph Kunz and Thomas Schlag (eds.), Lebenswissenschaft Praktische Theologie? Berlin 2011 de Gruyter. Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception. London 1962 Routledge. Dermot Moran, Introduction to Phenomenology, London New York Routledge 2000. Michael Moxter, Kultur als Lebenswelt. Studien zum Problem einer Kulturtheologie, Tübingen: Mohr, 2000 [Culture as life-world]. Helmut Peukert, Wissenschaftstheorie – Handlungstheorie – Fundamentaltheologie. Analysen zu Ansatz und Status theologischer Theoriebildung, Frankfurt/M. 1978. Andreas Pott, Neue Kulturgeographie in der Schule? Zur Beobachtung von Kulturen, Räumen und Fremden. In A. Budke, (Hrsg.), Interkulturelles Lernen im Geographieunterricht, Potsdam 2008, 33-47, Universitätsverlag. Thomas Schlag, “Um das Leben wissen. Praktische Theologie und die Verheissungen der Lebenswelten,” in: Thomas Klie, 97-112, 105. Friedrich Schleiermacher, Die Praktische Theologie nach den Grundsätzen der Evangelischen Kirche im Zusammenhang dargestellt (J. Friedrich 1850), Reprint Berlin 1983. Olav Skjevesland, Practical Theology in the Nordic Countries. A Survey, in: IJPT 1, 1997, 302-319. Gerard Simon, Le Régard, l’être et l’apparance dans l’Optique de l’Antiquité, 1988 Paris Edition du Seuil. Kerstin Söderblom, Between limitations and moments of transcendence – A case study on perceiving the other at the refugee camp of Frankfurt International Airport, in: Trygve Wyller/Hans-Günter Heimbrock, From Action to Lived Experience. Considering Methodological Problems of Modern Practical Theology, in: H. Streib (Ed.), Religion inside and outside Traditional Institutions Leiden 2007, 43-59.

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Hans-Günter Heimbrock, Religion and Knowledge, in: Lars Charbonnier et al (Eds.), Pluralisation and social change. Dynamics of lived religion in South Africa and in Germany, Berlin 2018 De Gruyter, 192-207. Bill Viola, Going forth by day, Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin, Berlin 2002. Bernhard Waldenfels, Bodily Experience between Selfhood and Otherness. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 3: 2004, 235-248. Lambert Wiesing, Philosophie der Wahrnehmung. Modelle und Reflexionen, Frankfurt/M. Suhrkamp, 2002. Victor v. Weizsäcker (1947), Der Gestaltkreis, Frankfurt/Main 1973. Paul Tillich, Natur und Sakrament, 1928 Ges. Werke Bd. VII, Stuttgart 1962, 105-123. Paul Tillich, The Problem of Theological Method II, in: The Journal of Religion Vol. 27 No.1 Jan 1947. J. D. Yunt, Faithful to Nature. Paul Tillich and Spiritual Roots of Environmental Ethics, Santa Barbara, CA 2017.

Endnotes 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8 

9  10  11 

Friedrich Schleiermacher, Die Praktische Theologie nach den Grundsätzen der Evangelischen Kirche im Zusammenhang dargestellt (J. Friedrich 1850), Reprint Berlin 1983. Olav Skjevesland, Practical Theology in the Nordic Countries. A Survey, in: IJPT 1, 1997, 317. Jürgen Habermas, Theory of Communicative Action, Vol  1 and 2, Boston Mass. Beacon Press. Helmut Peukert, Wissenschaftstheorie – Handlungstheorie – Fundamentaltheologie. Analysen zu Ansatz und Status theologischer Theoriebildung, Frankfurt/M. 1978. Wilhelm Gräb, Praktische Theologie als Praxistheorie protestantischer Kultur, in: Wilhelm Gräb/Birgit Weyel (Hg.), Praktische Theologie und protestantische Kultur, Gütersloh 2002, 35- 51. Don Browning, (1991): A Fundamental Practical Theology. Descriptive and Strategic Proposals, Minneapolis; E. Harbsmeier/H.R. Iversen, Praktisk Teologi, Frederiksberg 1995. Bernard Kaempf, Introduction a la Théologie Pratique, Strassbourg Presses Universitaires de Strassbourg, 1997. In correspondence it fits to this observation, that in prominent Journals profiling issues of religion and ecology like the Journal for the Study of Religion Nature and Culture, (Ed. Bron Taylor) Equinox Publishing, 2007ff. one hardly will find a practical theological contribution. Bund der Deutschen Katholischen Jugend im Bistum Aachen (Hg.) (1986), “Das ist mir heilig”. Ausstellung Heiligtümer Jugendlicher, NEUE GALERIE – Sammlung Ludwig Aachen. op. cit. 21. Rudolf Bultmann, Jesus Christus und die Mythologie (1958) GuV IV, Tübingen 1965, 173; [Jesus Christ and Mythology, New York: Scribner, 1958].

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S.  Bergman, Religion, Space, and the Environment, Transaction Publishers New Brunswick/London 2014, 285. Jonathan Crary, Techniques of the Observer, Boston MIT Press 1990. Gerard Simon, Le Régard, l’être et l’apparance dans l’Optique de l’Antiquité, 1988 Paris Edition du Seuil. Svend Bjerg, Synets teologi, Fredriksberg 1999 [Theology of the senses]; all quotations in my own translation. Ib.11. Ib. 227. Edmund Husserl, (1900) Logical Investigations 1, translated by John N. Findlay. London: Routledge. 1970. Maurice Merleau-Ponty, 1962. Phenomenology of Perception. London: Routledge; for a comprehensive introduction into this theory cf. Lambert Wiesing, Philosophie der Wahrnehmung. Modelle und Reflexionen, Frankfurt/M. 2002 (“248-292 “Die Unhintergehbarkeit der Wahrhehmung”). Ibid., 4. In difference e.g. to Richard Kearney/Brian Treanor (eds.), Carnal Hermeneutics, New York: Fordham University Press. Edmund Husserl, (1936/1970): The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology, Evanston, Il.: North-western University Press. Michael Moxter, Kultur als Lebenswelt. Studien zum Problem einer Kulturtheologie, Tübingen 2000 [Culture as life-world]. Bill Viola, Going forth by day, Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin, Berlin 2002, 90f. Hans Blumenberg 2010 Theory of the Life-World, translated by Berlin: Suhrkamp. Bernhard Waldenfels, 2004. Bodily Experience between Selfhood and Otherness. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 3:235-248. K. Grau, Healing Power. Ansätze zu einer Theologie der Heilung im Werk Paul Tillichs. Münster 1999. Jan-Peter Grevel, Mit Gott im Grünen. Eine Praktische Theologie der Naturerfahrung, Göttingen 2015 (Research in Contemporary Religion Vol 17) [With God in green space. A Practical Theology of experience with Nature]. Kerstin Söderblom, Between limitations and moments of transcendence – A case study on perceiving the other at the refugee camp of Frankfurt International Airport, in: Trygve Wyller/Hans-Günter Heimbrock, (Eds.) Perceiving the Other. Case Studies and Theories of Respectful Action, Göttingen 2010 Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 111-132. Bergmann, (2014). Landscape, Power, Climate, and the Sacred: Preliminary Reflections about Religion in Sacred, Medieval Nordic Geographies. In Bergmann, Religion, Space, and the Environment (pp. 221-241). Transaction Publishers New Brunswick/London. Andreas Pott, (2008). Neue Kulturgeographie in der Schule? Zur Beobachtung von Kulturen, Räumen und Fremden. In  A.  Budke, (Hrsg.), Interkulturelles Lernen im Geographieunterricht (pp. 33-47). Potsdam: Universitätsverlag, quotation 38. Sigurd Bergmann, Space and Spirit. Towards a theology of inhabitation, in: Bergmann (ed.), Architecture, Aesth/Ethics  6 Religion, IKO Verlag für Interkulturelle Kommunikation, Frankfurt/M 2005, 45-103. Jonas Bauer, Dimension: Space, in: Trygve Wyller/ Hans-Günter Heimbrock, (Eds.) Perceiving the Other. Case Studies and Theories of Respectful Action, Göttingen 2010 Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, (161-175; quotation 164f.).

13  14  15  16  17  18  19 

20  21  22  23  24  25  26  27  28  29 

30  31  32  33 

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35  36  37  38  39  40  41 

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Paul Tillich, Natur und Sakrament, 1928; on this issue cf. G.  Hummel/Lax, Mystical Heritage in Tillich’s Philosophical Theology Frankfurt/M. 2000; Drummy, M. F., Being and earth: Paul Tillich’s theology of nature, Lanham 2000; Yunt, J. D., Faithful to Nature. Paul Tillich and Spiritual Roots of Environmental Ethics, Santa Barbara, CA 2017. Thomas Klie, Martina Kumlehn, Ralph Kunz and Thomas Schlag (eds.), Lebenswissenschaft Praktische Theologie? (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2011). Thomas Schlag, “Um das Leben wissen. Praktische Theologie und die Verheissungen der Lebenswelten,” in op. cit., 97-112, 105. I discussed some of them in my article Heimbrock, Religion and Knowledge, in: Lars Charbonnier et al (Eds.), Pluralisation and social change. Dynamics of lived religion in South Africa and in Germany, Berlin 2018 (De Gruyter), 192-207. Cf. Karl-Fritz Daiber, Grundriß der Praktischen Theologie als Handlungswissenschaft. Kritik und Erneuerung der Kirche als Aufgabe, München/Mainz (Kaiser/Grünewald) 1977. Frederik Buytendijk (1956), Allgemeine Theorie der menschlichen Haltung und Bewegung. Berlin (Springer); Victor v. Weizsäcker (1947), Der Gestaltkreis, Frankfurt/Main 1973. Paul Tillich, The Problem of Theological Method II, in: The Journal of Religion Vol. 27 No.1 (Jan 1947), 20. H.-G.  Heimbrock, From Action to Lived Experience. Considering Methodological Problems of Modern Practical Theology, in: H. Streib (Ed.), Religion inside and outside Traditional Institutions Leiden 2007, 43-59.

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Bibliography of Sigurd Bergmann 1985-2021 1985 Sälj aktierna, skänk vinsten! Sydsvenska Dagbladet 25.10.1985. [Sell the stocks, give away the profit!]. Kristen i atomåldern, Svensk Kyrko Tidning 81, 46, 1985, 655f. [Being Christian in the Nuclear Age]. Som när ett barn kommer hem, S:t Johannes församlingsblad 90, Malmö 1985, 3. [As a child comes home]. 1986 Fred och skapelse, Svensk Kyrko Tidning 82, 12-13, 1986, 181f. [Peace and Creation]. 1987 Gudsbild och skapelsetro, Svensk Kyrko Tidning 83, 10, 1987, 134-136. [The image of God and faith in creation]. Vågar man hoppas? Fred & framtid 7, 1987. [May one hope?] 1988 Kyrkorna inför krig och fred/De lutherska och reformerta kyrkorna i Tyskland, in: Leif Herngren, Fred under korset, Stockholm 1988, 122-126. [The churches when faced with war and peace/The Lutheran and Reformed Churches in Germany]. Kan de kristna förenas för skapelsens framtid? Tidningen Broderskap 8-7, 1988. [Can Christians conjoin for the future of the creation?]. Världens dagordning är även kyrkans agenda, Tidningen Broderskap 36, 1988, 7. [The agenda of the world is even the agenda of the church]. Martyrium till synes meningslöst, St. Johannes församlingsblad 97, Malmö 1988, 4. [Martyrdom – apparently meaningless]. Motståndets teologi, [Review of] Manfred Hofmann, Bolivien und Nicaragua: Modelle einer Kirche im Aufbruch, Münster 1987, Kyrkfack 3, 1988, 118-120, and Svensk Kyrko Tidning 84, 46, 1988, 625-627. [Theology of resistance].

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1989 (Ed. with Gunborg Blomstrand),  Tiden är inne – ekumenisk teologi i uppbrott, (KISArapport 5/1989), Uppsala 1989, (181 pps.). [The time has come – Ecumenical theology awakening]. Andens liv vid Öresund, in: Tiden är inne, 96-108. [The life of the Spirit at Öresund]. Tid att se – tid att bryta upp, [with Per Håkansson], in: Tiden är inne, 170-174. [Time to see – time to break up]. [Co-author of] Kairos Sverige, in: Missionsorientering 143, 2, 1989, (64 pps.). (Engl. transl. Kairos Sweden: Invitation to a Swedish Kairos Process, Lund: Lunds stift och Institutet för kontextuell teologi 1991). Icke-våldets vägar i en splittrad värld, Svensk Kyrko Tidning 85, 6, 1989, 74f. [Paths of non-violence in a fragmented world]. Mot en asketisk världskultur, Tidningen Arbetet 4.9.1989. [For an ascetic world culture]. Kyrkomötet i Basel 1989 “Fred och rättvisa omfamnar varandra”, Fredsbulletinen, Lunds stift 1989, 11-13. [The Church Council in Basle 1989 “Peace and Justice Embracing Each Other”]. JPIC-konferens i Basel, Fred & framtid 7, 1989, 6f. I dialog med befriande teologi, [Review of] Per Frostin, Liberation Theology in Tanzania and South Africa: A First World Interpretation, Lund 1988, Svensk Kyrko Tidning 85, 16, 1989, 216f. [In dialogue with liberating theology]. Teologi underifrån utmanar västvärlden, [Review of] Per Frostin, Liberation Theology in Tanzania and South Africa: A First World Interpretation, Lund 1988, Tidningen Broderskap 36, 1989, 8. [Theology from below challenges the Western world]. 1990 Kyrkans diakoni i ortodox belysning – en utmaning till ekumenisk nyreflektion, Svensk Teologisk Kvartalskrift66, 3, 1990, 116-121. [Diaconia of the Church in the light of Orthodoxy – A challenge to ecumenical rethinking]. Bekännelsen och vårt ansvar för rättvisa, fred och skapelsens integritet, Svensk Kyrko Tidning 86, 19-20, 1990, 262-264. [The creed and our responsibility for justice, peace and the integrity of creation]. Bergen 1990: En enad ekologisk rörelse, Fred & framtid 6, 1990. [Bergen 1990: A united environmental movement]. Uppbrott mot en ny kultur? Tidningen Arbetet 31.12.1990, 3. [Breakup to a new culture?]. Teologiska samtal i ekologiska landskap, [Review of] Günter Altner (Hrsg.), Ökologische Theologie, Stuttgart 1989, Tro & Liv 2, 1990, 29-33. [Theological conversations in ecological landscapes]. Urheberrechtlich geschütztes Material! © 2021 Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn, ein Imprint der Brill-Gruppe

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Bibliography of Sigurd Bergmann 1985-2021

Vilken Gud trodde Lewi Pethrus på? [Review of] Carl-Gustav Carlsson, Människan, samhället och Gud: Grunddrag i Lewi Pethrus kristendomsupp¬fattning, Lund 1990, Tidningen Broderskap 39, 1990, 6f. Rättfärdigheten i Bibeln, [Review of] Bo Johnson, Rättfärdigheten i Bibeln, Göteborg 1985, Kyrkornas U-forum bulletin 6, 1990, Fred & framtid 8, 1990, 27. Allt eller intet, [Review of] Anne-Marie Thunberg, “Allt eller intet”? Människan i kosmos, Kyrkornas U-forum bulletin 6, 1990, Fred & framtid 8, 1990, 27. [Review of] Kari Elisabeth Børresen, Patristic Inculturation: Medieval Foremothers and Feminist Theology, in: Feministteologi idag, (Religio 30) Lund 1989, Meddelanden från Collegium Patristicum Lundense 5, 1990, 52-55. 1991 Kom Ande, vår syster – befria naturen, Tro & Liv 4, 1991, 12-15. [Come, sister Spirit, liberate nature]. Andliga är ondskans rot och rörelse – en detalj i änglaläran hos Gregorios av Nazianz i ljuset av det moderna förnuftets kris, in: Florilegium Patristicum: Festskrift till Per Beskow, Delsbo 1991, 19-39. [Spiritual is evil’s root and movement – A detail in Gregory of Nazianz’ doctrine of the angels in the light of the crisis of modern reason]. Att yla med vargarna eller beta med fåren, Kyrkornas U-forum bulletin 5, 1991, Fred & framtid 6-7, 1991, 10f. [Howling with the wolves or gazing with the sheep]. JPIC i Estland: Militarism och natur, skola och kyrka, Hela jorden 4, 1991, 6f. På de fattigas sida, [Review of] Deane William Ferm: På de fattigas sida – Befrielseteologier i Asien, Afrika och Latinamerika, Tro & Liv 5/6, 1991, 39-41. [On the side of the poor]. [Review of] Frederick W. Norris, Faith gives fullness to reasoning: the five theological orations of Gregory Nazianzen, (Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae XIII), Leiden 1991, Meddelanden från Collegium Patristicum Lundense 6, 1991, 26-29. 1992 (Ed.) De nedtystades Gud – diakoni för livets skull, Stockholm: Proprius 1992, (199 pps.). [The God of the Silenced – Diaconia for the sake of life]. De nedtystades kyrka, in: De nedtystades Gud, 71-97. [The church of the silenced]. Det osynliggjorda blir synligt: Om konsten, smärtan, sanningen och tron, in: De nedtystades Gud, 124-148. [What has been made invisible becomes visible: On arts, pain, truth and faith].

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(Ed. with Per Frostin, Christopher Meakin och Per Erik Persson), Ekumeniken och forskningen: Föreläsningar vid den nordiska forskarkursen “Teorier och metoder inom forskning om ekumenik” i Lund 1991, Nordiska Ekumeniska Rådet: Uppsala 1992, (251 pps.). [Ecumenism and Research]. Efterskrift, in: Ekumeniken och forskningen, 239-249, [with med Christopher Meakin]. [Postscript]. Administrationen i de heligas gemenskap – Kan kyrkans Gemeinschaft och kyrkans Gesellschaft bli en, helig, allmännelig och apostolisk? in: Sven-Erik Brodd (ed.),  Kyrkosyn och administration, (Tro & Tanke 1992:5), Uppsala 1992, 153-173. [Administration in the community of the saints]. Naturens rättigheter – teologiska perspektiv på naturens egenvärde i en rättsgemenskap av allt levande, Vår Lösen 6-7, 1992, 379-396. [The rights of nature – Theological reflections about the intrinsic value of nature in a legal community of all living]. Nordiska systematikerkonferensen 1992, Svensk Teologisk Kvartalskrift 1/1992, 47f. Kairos Europa – de nedtystades röst, En värld 3-4/1992, 23. Om att gå i ett mörker, [Review of] Thomas Bernhard, Helt enkelt komplicerat: Och andra texter, Översättning Daniel Birnbaum, Anders Olsson, Stockholm 1991, in:  Helig vrede: Årsbok för Kristen Humanism 1992, Stockholm 1992, 145f. [About walking in the dark]. Varje liv är värt att leva, [Review of] Günter Altner, Naturvergessenheit: Grundlagen einer umfassenden Bioethik, Darmstadt 1991, Social debatt 4/1992, 273-276. [Every life is worthy to live]. [Review of] Vappu Pyykkö, Die griechischen Mythen bei den großen Kappadokiern und bei Johannes Chrysostomos, (Annales Universitatis Turkuensis, Series B Tomus 193), Turku 1991, Meddelanden från Collegium Patristicum Lundense 7, 1992, 24-26. 1993 Gregory of Nazianzen’s Theological Interpretation of the Philosophy of Nature in the Doctrine of the Four Elements, in: Elizabeth A. Livingstone (ed.), Studia Patristica Vol. XXVII, Leuven 1993, 3-8. Bör naturen tillerkännas rättigheter? Rättsliga, etiska och teologiska aspekter i ljuset av ett konkret förslag, Retfærd 61, 2, 1993, 22-36. [Should one ascribe nature rights? Legal, ethical and theological aspects in the light of a concrete proposal]. Administration in the Communion of Saints: Can the Church as Gemeinschaft and as Gesellschaft become One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic? in: Sven-Erik Brodd

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(ed.), Stewardship: Management, Ethics, Ecclesiology, Church of Sweden Research Department: Uppsala 1993, 193-212. Varför bildkonsten och trostolkningen vet något om världen,  Vår Lösen  5/6 1993, 325-332. [Why visual art and theology know something about the world]. Die Welt als Ware oder Haushalt? Die Wegwahl der trinitarischen Kosmologie bei Gregor von Nazianz, Evangelische Theologie 53, 5, 1993, 460-470. Kärleken till den fattiggjorda naturen och miljödiakonin, Medlemsblad från Institutet för kontextuell teologi 2, 1993, 3-6. [Love to the impoverished natures and environmental diaconia]. Preface to: Ulrich Duchrow, Europa i världssystemet 1492-1992: Finns det en väg till rättvisa efter 500 år av plundring, förtryck, penningdyrkan och penningackumulation? (Skrifter från Institutet för kontextuell teologi 1), Lund 1993, 7-11. [Review of] Jürgen Moltmann, Der Geist des Lebens: Eine ganzheitliche Pneumatologie, München 1991 / Michael Welker,  Gottes Geist: Theologie des Heiligen Geistes, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1992 / Jon Sobrino,  Geist, der befreit: Lateinamerikanische Spiritualität, Freiburg 1989, Svensk Teologisk Kvartalskrift 69, 1, 1993, 40-42. Den sociala rättvisans kyrkohistoria, [Review of] Alf Tergel, Kyrkan och tredje världen, Tro & Liv 52, 6, 1993, 30-32. [Church history of social justice]. [Review of] Norbert Brox, Erleuchtung und Wiedergeburt: Aktualität der Gnosis, Meddelanden från Collegium Patristicum Lundense 8, 1993, 19f. [Review of] Carl  F.  Hallencreutz, Tredje världens kyrkohistoria,  Meddelanden från Collegium Patristicum Lundense 8, 1993, 30f. [Review of] J. Rebecca Lyman, Christology and Cosmology: Models of Divine Activity in Origen, Eusebius and Athanasius,  Meddelanden från Collegium Patristicum Lundense 8, 1993, 36-38. 1994 (Ed. with Carl Reinhold Bråkenhielm), Kontextuell livstolkning: Teologi i ett pluralistiskt Norden, (Religio 43), Lund 1994. [Contextual Life Interpretation– Theology in the Pluralist Nordic Countries]. “Landskapet har gått under i dammet” – Den moderna bildkonstens naturbild utmanar kulturteologin, in: Kontextuell livstolkning, 57-90. [“The landscape has perished by dust” ¬– The challenge of modern art to cultural theology]. Diskursiv bioetik – för offrens skull, in: Uno Svedin and Anne-Marie Thunberg (eds.), Miljöetik – för ett samhälle på människans och naturens villkor, Miljödepartementet/ Forskningsråds-nämnden: Stockholm 1994, 68-89. [Discoursive Bioethics – for the sake of the victims].

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Naturens värde och människans vördnad: Varför man bör tillerkänna naturen dess rättigheter, in: Retfærd 65, 2, 1994,76-86. [Nature’s value and humans’ dignity: Why one should ascribe nature its rights]. I förbund med processteologin? [Review of] Roald  E.  Kristiansen, Økoteologi, Fredriksberg 1993, Kirke og Kultur99, 1, 1994, 92-94. [Review of] Sallie McFague, The Body of God: An Ecological Theology, London 1993, Svensk Teologisk Kvartalskrift 70, 2, 1994, 85-87. Att genom bilder finna kors, [Review of] Friedhelm Mennekes/Johannes Röhrig (Hrsg.), Crucifixus: Das Kreuz in der Kunst unserer Zeit, Freiburg/Basel/Wien 1994, [and] Eugene Monick, Sexuality and Disease in Grünewald’s Body of Christ, Dallas 1993, Vår Lösen 6/1994, 447-455. Preface to: Per Frostin, Teologi som befriar – efterlämnade texter, (Religio 41), Lund 1994, 7f. Preface to: Ulrich Duchrow/Martin Gück, Att hushålla för livet: Efter 50 år med “Bretton Woods-systemet” som gjort de fattiga fattigare och de rika rikare, (Skrifter från Institutet för kontextuell teologi 2), Lund 1994, 7. Miljö i religionsvetenskap, in: Lillemor Lewan (ed.), Miljöaspekter: en antologi som underlag för integrering och vidare utveckling inom eget ämne i grundutbildningen vid Lunds universitet, (Miljövetenskapligt Centrum vid Lunds universitet), Lund 1994, 80-82. 1995 Geist, der Natur befreit: Die trinitarische Kosmologie Gregors von Nazianz im Horizont einer ökologischen Theologie der Befreiung, Matthias-Grünewald-Verlag: Mainz 1995, (522 pps.). (Ed. with Göran Eidevall), Upptäckter i kontexten: teologiska föreläsningar till minne av Per Frostin, (Skrifter från Institutet för kontextuell teologi 3), Lund 1995, (208 pps.). [Discoveries in the context: Theological lectures in memory of Per Frostin]. Preface to [with Göran Eidevall], Upptäckter i kontexten, 7-9. Natursyn och gudsbild: om teologins betydelse för miljövetenskapen, Tvärsnitt 17, 4, 1995, 40-51. [Image of nature and image of God: On theology’s significance for environmental science]. Ekonomi för offrens skull – de nedtystades Gud, in: Ad Lucem 5-6/1995, Tidskrift för kultur och livsåskådning utg. av Finlands Kristliga Studentförbund, 15-21. [Economy for the sake of the victims – the God of the silenced]. Gregory Nazianzen’s Trinitarian Cosmology in the Horizon of an Ecological Theology of Liberation, in: VIII International Congress “Interaction of science, philosophy and theology in the creation of a new ecological thinking,” St. Petersburg 1995, 105-108.

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Biblisk motmakt till världskapitalismen, [Review of] Ulrich Duchrow:  Alternativen zur kapitalistischen Weltwirtschaft: Biblische Erinnerung und politische Ansätze zur Überwindung einer lebensbedrohenden Ökonomie, Mainz 1994, Tro & Liv 54, 6, 1995, 25f. [Biblical countervailing power against world capitalism]. En teologi för vår tid? [Review of] Sallie McFague: Gudsbilder i en hotfull tid, Stockholm 1994, Tro & Liv 54, 6, 1995, 31-34. [A theology for our time?]. 1996 History of mission – history of liberation? in: Aasulv Lande and Werner Ustorf (eds.), Mission in a Pluralist World, (Studies in the Intercultural History of Christianity 97), Peter Lang: Frankfurt am Main 1996, 81-104. Världen som vara eller hushåll? Gregorios av Nazianz’ trinitariska kosmologi i ett vägval, Meddelanden från Collegium Patristicum Lundense 11, 1996, 19-28. Predikoutkast: Fastlagssöndagen, Svensk Kyrko Tidning 92, 5, 1996, 45f. Predikoutkast: Askonsdagen, Svensk Kyrko Tidning 92, 6-7, 1996, 60f. Predikoutkast: 1. Söndagen i Fastan, Svensk Kyrko Tidning 92, 6-7, 1996, 61f. Folkens plan för det 21. århundradet: en rapport från ett asiatiskt folkrörelsemöte i Kathmandu, Kontexten 3, 2/1996, 10-13. Naturens eller kyrkans överlevnad – eller både och? [Review of] David  G.  Hallman (ed.), Ecotheology: Voices from South and North, WCC: Geneva/Orbis: Maryknoll 1994, and Viggo Mortensen (ed.), Concern for Creation: Voices on the Theology of Creation, Svenska kyrkans forskningsråd: Uppsala 1995, (Tro & Tanke 1995:5), Tro & Liv 55, 2, 1996, 21-26. [Review of] Henning Thomsen (ed.), Du som går ud fra den levende Gud: Bibelteologiske og teologihistoriske overvejelser over helligånden, (Festskrift till Lars Thunberg), Århus 1993, Svensk Teologisk Kvartalskrift 72, 2, 1996, 88f. Den som tar boken till sitt hjärta, [Review of] Lena Johannesson and Birgitta Qvarsell (eds.), Den olydiga boken: Om lättläst-bokens kommunikativa rum, Tema Kommunikation: Linköpings universitet 1995, Vår Lösen87, 7/1996, 615f. “Niemand kann zwei Herren dienen  …” – Theologie der Natur zwischen Gott und Mammon: Zusammenfassung, in: “Schwarzbrot, Salz und Sahnehäubchen” – Anstösse zur Zukunft der Kirche aus der Festwoche vom 21.-27. April  1996, 30 Jahre Haus der Kirche, 20 Jahre Evangelisches Bildungswerk, Evangelisches Bildungswerk Berlin, Dokumentation 103/96, 73f.

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1997 Gud i funktion – en orientering i den kontextuella teologin, (167 pps.), Stockholm: Verbum 1997. (The book was also published by the Swedish Library Service as audiobook for visually impaired people). [God in Context – A Survey of Contextuel Theology]. Geist, der lebendig macht – Lavierungen zur ökologischen Befreiungstheologie, (336 pps.), Verlag für Interkulturelle Kommunikation (IKO): Frankfurt am Main 1997. “I viddas favn” – naturumgänget, gudsbilden och platsen i den regionala konsten, in: Eli Høydalsnes (ed.), Kunst og regional identitet, Tromsø 1997, 13-37. [“Embraced by wideness/tundra” – natur practice, image of God and place in regional arts]. Kulturmiljöetik – för de kommande generationernas skull, Nordisk arkitekturforskning, 3/1997, 10-34. [Ethics of cultural environments – For future generations]. Så främmande det lika: Den eko- och etnologiska utmaningen till bildkonsten och teologin, Kirke og Kultur6/1997, 519-541. [So strange the same: the eco- and ethnological challenge of visual art and theology]. Geist, der Natur befreit, (Summary), in: Fönster mot forskningen 3, (Tro & Tanke 1997:2), Svenska Kyrkans Forskningsråd: Uppsala 1997, 22-24. Gud ur funktion i etiken? [Review of] Göran Bexell/Carl-Henric Grenholm, Teologisk etik – en introduktion, Verbum: Stockholm 1997; Svein Aage Christoffersen, Handling og dømmekraft: Etikk i lys av kristen kulturarv,Tano: Oslo 1994; Göran Möller, Etikens landskap: etik och kristen livstolkning, Arena: Stockholm 1995, Kirke og Kultur 2/1997, 187-192. [Is God out of work in ethics?]. “Varje människa är en konstnär,” [Review of] Ann-Charlotte Weimarck, Joseph Beuys och sökandet efter den egent¬liga livskraften, Symposion: Stockholm/Stehag, 1995; Friedhelm Mennekes, Joseph Beuys: Christus DENKEN – THINKING Christ, Verlag Katholisches Bibelwerk: Stuttgart, 1996; Friedhelm Mennekes, Triptychon: Moderne Altarbilder, Insel: Frankfurt am Main/Leipzig 1995,  Vår Lösen  5-6/1997, 427-432. [“Every human is an artist”]. “Livet er for kort til at kredse omkring gamle sår,” [Review of] Lissi Rasmussen, Diapraksis og dialog mellem kristne og muslimer – i lyset af den afrikanske erfaring, Aarhus universitetsforlag: Århus 1997, Kontexten 8, 1997, 10f. [Review of] Hans Belting, Bild und Kult: Eine Geschichte des Bildes vor dem Zeitalter der Kunst, C.  H.  Beck: München 1990, 2nd ed. 1991,  Meddelanden från Collegium Patristicum 1997, 45f. 1998 Das Fremde wahrnehmen: Die öko- und ethnologische Herausforderung der Bildkunst und Theologie, in: Wolfgang Erich Müller and Jürgen Heumann (eds.),

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Kunst-Positionen: Kunst als gegenwärtiges Thema evangelischer und katholischer Theologie, Stuttgart: Kohlhammer 1998, 96-120. (Ed. with Carl Reinhold Bråkenhielm),  VARDAGSKULTURENS TEOLOGI i nordisk belysning, Stockholm: Nya Doxa 1998, (352 pps.). [Theology of ordinary life in a Nordic theological perspective]. “Cold Cradle of Stone, Warm Soft Arms” – Cultural Landscape in Sápmi, in: Sölve Anderzén and Roald E. Kristiansen (eds.), Ecology of Spirit: Cultural Plurality and Religious Identity in the Barents Region, (Alphabeta Varia: Album Religionum Umense 6), Umeå 1998, 100-109. Entry “Gustaf Aulén,” Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (RGG) Vol. 1, 4th ed. Erde, die sich erneuert oder Für eine kom-post-moderne Theologie, in:  BRIEFE zur Orientierung im Konflikt Mensch-Erde, hrsg.v. Kirchlichen Forschungsheim Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Heft 48, 1998, 6-11. [Review of] Lars Thunberg, Microcosm and Mediator: The Theological Anthropology of Maximus the Confessor, Second Edition, Open Court: Chicago and La Salle, Illinois, 1995, Svensk Teologisk Kvartalskrift 2/1998, 90-91. [Review of] Tiemo Rainer Peters, Johann Baptist Metz: Theologie des vermißten Gottes, (Theologische Profile), Mainz: Matthias-Grünewald-Verlag 1998,  Junge Kirche 6-7/1998, 404-406. Teologi i världssystemet? (Editorial), Kontexten 9/1998, 1. Om att bli en kyrka “med ögon att se,” in: Visby stifts tryck med bidragen till Visby stifts prästmöte 1997. 1999 Duch, osvobozdajuscij prirodu (Geist, der Natur befreit: Die trinitarische Kosmologie Gregors von Nazianz im Horizont einer ökologischen Theologie der Befreiung), in Russian, with a postscript by E. Arinin, I. Kanterov et alt., Pomor State University Press, Arkhangelsk, Russia 1999. “ … auf die Hoffnung hin, daß auch das Geschaffene selbst befreit werden wird …” – Die Erlösungs¬bedürftigkeit der Natur als Voraussetzung der Zusammen¬arbeit von Umwelt-wissenschaft und Theologie im Konflikt zwischen dem Optimismus und Pessimismus, in: Niels Henrik Gregersen, Michael Parsons and Christoph Wassermann (eds.),  The Concept of Nature in Science and Theology II, Studies of Science and Theology, vol. 4, 1996 (publ. 1999), Geneva: Labor et Fides, 144-153. “Ich bin hier mit ihnen, und dort” – Eine Verflechtung der samischen Bildwelt Ulrika Tapios mit der Reflexion der Ritualisierung, Hybridisierung und interkulturellen Kunsttheologie, in: Thomas Schreijäck (ed.),  Menschwerden im Kulturwandel: Kontexte kultureller Identität als Wegmarken interkultureller Kompetenz/Initiationen und ihre Inkulturationsprozesse, Luzern: Edition Exodus 1999, 474-512.

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[Review of] Johann Baptist Metz, Zum Begriff der neuen Politischen Theologie: 19671997, Mainz: Matthias-Grünewald-Verlag 1997; Lissi Rasmussen, Diapraksis og dialog mellem kristne og muslimer – i lyset af den afrikanske erfaring, Århus: Aarhus universitetsforlag 1997; Sturla J. Stålsett, The crucified and the Crucified: A Study in the Liberation Christology of Jon Sobrino, Dissertation vid Oslo universitet 1998; Elina Vuola, Limits of Liberation: Praxis as Method in Latin American Liberation Theology and Feminist Theology, (Suomalaisen Tiedeakatemian Toimituksia, Annales Academiae Scientiarum Fennicae, Humaniora Nr.  289), Helsinkin: Academia Scientiarum Fennica 1997, Svensk Teologisk Kvartalskrift 75, 2/1999, 90-92. [Review of] Robert  J.  Schreiter, The New Catholicity: Theology between the Global and the Local, Maryknoll: Orbis 1997, (Die neue Katholizität: Globalisierung und die Theologie, (Theologie Interkulturell  9), Frankfurt am Main: IKO – Verlag für inter¬kultu¬relle Kommunikation 1997, 226 sid.), Svensk Teologisk Kvartalskrift 75, 4, 1999, 174-175. 2000 Vid vilken Gud fäster vi vårt förnuft? Apofatiska och humanekologiska perspektiv på det religiösa språket, Svensk Teologisk Kvartalskrift 76, 1, 2000, 48-52. [Which God do we commit our reason to? Apophatic and human ecologic perspectives of religious language]. “I begynnelsen var bilden …” om bildkonst, religion och esteticering, in: Fyra dagar om bild och vetande i förändring 23-26 mars 1999, Konstfack, Institutionen för bildpedagogik, Rapport # 2/2000, Stockholm: Konstfack 2000, 27-41. [“In the beginning was the Icon” On visual arts, religion and aestheticization]. So fremd das Gleiche: Wie eine interkulturelle Theologie der Befreiung mit dem Fremden über die Alterität hinaus denken kann, in: Sybille Fritsch-Oppermann (ed.), Das Antlitz des Anderen: Emmanuel Lévinas Philosophie und Hermeneutik als Anfrage an Ethik, Theologie und interreligiösen Dialog, Loccumer Protokolle 54/99, Loccum 2000, 57-97. Vilken Gud? Jimmie Durhams “Jesus” och Iver Jåks’ “Homo Sapiens” i alienitetsteologisk belysning, in: Kropp og sjel: Festskrift til Olav Hognestad, Trondheim: Tapir 2000, 203-220. [Which God? Jimmie Durham’s “Jesus” und Iver Jåks’ “Homo Sapiens” in an alienation-theological perspective]. Entry “Nathan Söderblom”, in:  Metzler Lexikon christlicher Denker, ed. by Markus Vinzent, Stuttgart/Weimar: J.B. Metzler 2000, 636. Gud blir synlig i lidande och kors: bildlig empati i Bodil Kaalunds “Grønlands pietà”, in:  Tack och lov! Bodil Kaalund, (exhibition catalogue), Nordiska akvarellmuseet 22.11.2000-4.3.2001, Skärhamn 2000. [God becomes visible in suffering and the cross: educating empathy in Bodil Kaalund’s “Grønlands pietà”].

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[Review of] Miroslav Volf, Trinität und Gemeinschaft: Eine ökumenische Ekklesiologie, Mainz/Neukirchen-Vluyn: Grünewald/Neukirchener 1996, (After Our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity, (Sacra Doctrina  1), Grand Rapids: Eerdmans 1998), Svensk Teologisk Kvartalskrift 76, 2, 2000, 114f. Estetiken i rockfickan, [Review of] Julian Nida-Rümelin and Monika Betzler (eds.), Ästhetik und Kunstphilosophie von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, Stuttgart: Alfred Kröner Verlag 1998, Vår Lösen 91, 1/2, 2000, 139f. Varför krävs någonting? [Review of] Svein Aage Christoffersen, Etikk, eksistens og modernitet: Innføring i Løgstrups tenkning, Oslo: Tano Aschehoug 1999, Kirke og Kultur 105, 4, 2000, 382-384. Tecken och under – en luthersk semiotik, [Review of] Trond Skard Dokka, Som i begynnelsen – Innføring i kristen tro og tanke, Oslo: Gyldendal Akademisk 2000, Kirke og Kultur 105, 4, 2000, 379-381. 2001 (Ed.),  “Man får inte tvinga någon” – autonomi och relationalitet i nordisk teologisk tolkning, Nora: Nya Doxa 2001, (329 pps.) [“One must not force anyone” – autonomy and relationality in Nordic theological interpretations]. Rättvisan och de/t främmande: En konstteologisk betraktelse av Iver Jåks’ “nagler i rom” i ljuset av Theodor W. Adornos rättvise-estetik, in: “Man får inte tvinga någon,” 119-132. [Justice and the Strange/r]. “Ich kenne ihre Leiden. Darum bin ich herniedergestiegen …” – Das neue Paradigma der kontextuellen Theologie, Studia Theologica 55, 1, 2001, 4-22. Kristusbilden i kontext – och tvärsigenom: Något om att tolka bilder och om att tolka Gud i bild tvärsigenom Australien, Kina och Sápmi, in: Renate Banschbach Eggen and Olav Hognestad (eds.), Kristusbilder: Kristustolkninger i nyere bildende kunst, film og i klasserommet, (UniTRel studieserie nr. 31), Trondheim: Religionsvitenskaplig institutt 2001,7-36. Gottesliebe – Armenliebe: Zur Herausforderung der Globalisierung an die kontextuelle Theologie nach dem Colloquium 2000, Junge Kirche 2/2001, 65-70. Nidaros-Manifestet – Et utkast (with Lars Berge), (on behalf of the chairs of the national Norwegian regions of Sør-Trøndelag and Nord-Trøndelag and the Bishop of Trondheim for the regional environmental conference 2001), Kirke & Kultur 4/2001, 291-299. Transculturality and Tradition – Renewing the Continuous in Late Modernity, (Contribution at the Conference “2000 Years of Christian Culture and Ethnoses of the Barents Region”, Pomor State University 20.-24.9.2000, Arkhangelsk, Russia), (in Russian in the volume “Candle” ed. by Evgeny Arinin et alt, Arkhangelsk University Press 2001, 13-18).

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[Review of] Lars Thunberg, Människan och kosmos: Maximos bekännarens teologiska vision, Skellefteå: Artos 1999, Svensk Teologisk Kvartalskrift 77, 2, 2001, 87f. 2002 Raum und Gerechtigkeit: Ethische Perspektiven eines großräumigen Umweltschutzes, in: D.  Hahlweg/D.-P.  Häder/S.  Bergmann/O.  Seewald/J.  Bauer/O. Aßmann/ A. Sperling, Großräumiger Umweltschutz, hrsg. v. Verein für Ökologie und Umweltforschung, (Umwelt: Schriftenreihe für Ökologie und Ethologie 28), Wien: Facultas-Verlag 2002, 33-58. “Och Ordet blev konst …” – Transkulturellt bildskapande och kristendomens indigenisering i Peru, d i n – Tidsskrift for religion og kultur, 2-3/2002, 85-95, [“And the word becme art” – Transcultural production of art and Christianity’s indigenization in Peru]. Gudomliggörande visioner, [Review of] Lars Thunberg, Den gudomliga ekonomin: Fornkyrkliga perspektiv, Skellefteå: Artos 2001; Paul Evdokimov, Den dåraktiga gudskärleken, urval, översättning och efterord av Lars Thunberg, Skellefteå: Artos 2001; Lars Thunberg, Spanat och mottaget: Valda dikter 1957-1999, i urval och med efterord av Lennart Sjögren, Stockholm: Proprius 2001, Kirke og Kultur, 4/2002, 408-12. [Review of] Carl Reinhold Bråkenhielm and Torsten Pettersson (eds.), Modernitetens ansikten: Livsåskådningar i nordisk 1900-talslitteratur, Nora: Nya Doxa 2001,Kirke og Kultur, 4/2002, 412-414. [Review of] Halvor Moxnes (ed.), Jesus – år 2000 efter Kristus, Oslo: Universitetsforlaget 2000, Norsk Teologisk Tidsskrift 4/2002, 256-257. 2003 God in Context: A Survey of Contextual Theology, (with foreword by Mary  C.  Grey), Aldershot: Ashgate 2003, (155 pps.), [new ed. London: Routledge 2017]. I begynnelsen är bilden … – En befriande bild-konst-kultur-teologi, Stockholm: Proprius 2003, (233 pps., 61 ill.), [In the beginning is the Icon – A liberative theology of images, arts and culture], (The book was also published by the Swedish Library Service as audiobook for visually impaired people). Kan kyrkor flyga? Arkitekturens liturgi i estetisk och teologisk belysning, in: Å. Selander (ed.),  Liturgi och språk, (Årsbok för Svenskt Gudstjänstliv 78), Skellefteå: Artos/ Norma 2003, 88-110, [Can churches fly? Architecture’s liturgy in an aesthetic and theological perspective]. Rum och rättvisa, Kirke og kultur 2-3/2003, 273-278, [Space and justice]. Entry “Pneumatology” in: Encyclopedia of Science and Religion, ed. by J. Wentzel Vrede van Huyssteen, New York: Macmillan 2003, vol. 2.

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[Review of] Tuija Numminen, God, Power and Justice in Texts of Simone Weil and Dorothee Sölle, Åbo 2001, Åbo Akademis Förlag, 221, Norsk Teologisk Tidskrift 2/2003, 120. 2004 (Ed. with Cristina Grenholm),  MAKT – i nordisk teologisk tolkning, (Relieff no 44), Tapir Akademisk Forlag: Trondheim 2004, (292 pps.). [POWER – in Nordic theological interpretation]. Makt att se, synliggöra och bli sedd: Den visuella kulturens utmaning till teologin, in: MAKT, 99-130. [Power to see, to visualize and to be seen: The challenge of visual culture to theology]. Transculturality and Tradition – Renewing the Continuous in Late Modernity, Studia Theologica: Scandinavian Journal of Theology 58, 2, 2004, 140-156. Space and Justice in Eco-Spirituality, in: V. N. Makrides and J. Rüpke (eds.), Religionen im Konflikt: Vom Bürgerkrieg über Ökogewalt bis zur Gewalterinnerung im Ritual, Münster: Aschendorff 2004, 212-225. “… och de kände inte igen honom” Om förhållandet mellan de/t främmande och de/t egna i bildkonsten och teologin,  Norsk Teologisk Tidsskrift  105, 2, 2004, 100-118. [“ … and they did not recognise him” – On the relation between the strange/r and one’s own in visual art and theology]. Samisk bildkonst: Meddelande vid Det Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskabs akademimöte den 13. oktober 2003, in:  Det Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskab: Forhandlinger 2003, Trondheim: Det Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskab 2004, 127-131, [Sami visual art: Contribution to the session of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters (DKNVS)]. Nature, Religion and Worldview – Global, Aesthetical and Spatial Perspectives, (Russian text), in: E.  Arinin (ed.),  Science and Religion, Vladimir: Vladimir State University 2004, 43-59. Ånd, (Danish text), in: K. Busch Nielsen and C. Grenholm (eds.), Det virker alt den Ånd: Nordiske teologiske tolkninger, København: Anis 2004, 83-215. [Spirit]. Bör jag älska min nästa? Fem etiska problem i globaliseringen, in: May Torseth (ed.), Globalisering og etikk, Trondheim: Program for anvendt etikk, NTNU 2004, 33-45. [Should I love my neighbor? Five ethical problems in globalization]. Entry “Skandinavien, Theologie in: III. Norwegen,” in:  Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (RGG): Handwörterbuch für Theologie und Religionswissenschaft, 4th ed., Vol. 7, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2004, 1372-1375. Arbeitslos in Norwegen, Junge Kirche 65, 4, 2004, 31-31. [Unemployed in Norway].

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2005 Creation Set Free: The Spirit as Liberator of Nature, (Sacra Doctrina: Christian Theology Postmodern Age Vol.  3), Grand Rapids MN: William  B.  Eerdmans  Publishing Company 2005, (with a preface by J. Moltmann), (388 pps.). (Ed.), Architecture, Aesth/Ethics and Religion, Frankfurt am Main/London: IKO-Verlag für interkulturelle Kommunikation 2005, (230 pps.). Space and Spirit: Towards a Theology of Inhabitation, in: Architecture, Aesth/Ethics and Religion, 45-103. (Ass.ed.),  The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature, London/New York: Continuum 2005, 2 volumes, (1877 pps.). Four entries in Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature, ed. by Bron Taylor et al., London/ New York: Continuum 2005: Altner, Günter (1936-), in: The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature, 37. Architecture, in: The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature, 104-105. Christianity in Europe, in: The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature, 381-383. Composting, in: The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature, 407. “Space is Conceived in the Spirit,” Considerations of Space and Religion, Land and Indigenous Arts / Kulturnoe I prirodnoe nasledie Evropeiskogo Severa [Cultural and Natural Heritage of the European North], in: Sbornik/ Otv., N.M. Terebikhin, E.F.  Shatkovskaya; Pomorskiy gos. un-t. im. M.V.  Lomonosova, Arkhangelsk: Pomorskiy University 2005, 512-521. “Jorden är Herrens”: Spiritualitet, rättvisa och estetik i eko-teologisk belysning, in: A.  Runesson and T.  Sjöholm (eds.),  Varför ser ni mot himlen? Utmaningar från den kontextuella teologin, Stockholm: Verbum, 150-180. [“The Earth Is the Lord’s”: Spirituality, justice and aesthetics in the light of ecotheology]. Biblisch-theologische Annäherungen  … aus der Schöpfungsperspektive, in: Wirtschaft(en) im Dienst des Lebens: Leitfaden für ein künftiges Engagement für gerechten, lebensdienlichen Frieden, Optionen zur Umsetzung der Beschlüsse von Freising und Porto Alegre, Heidelberg: Kairos Europa 2005. Religion, Culture, and God’s Here and Now: Contextual Theology in Dialogue with Social Anthropology, Svensk Teologisk Kvartalskrift 81, 2, 2005, 67-76. “De har ögon och ser inte …” – Religionspedagogikens utmaning att tolka Gud i bild, in: Organ för RPI Arbetsgemenskapen för Religionspedagogik, Lund 2005. Ernst M. Conradie, Towards an Agenda for Ecological Theology: An Intercontinental Dialogue – A Response from Norway, Ecotheology 10, 315-317.

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2006 Atmospheres of Synergy: Towards an Eco-Theological Aesth/Ethics of Space, Ecotheology 11, 326-356. Editorial, Ecotheology 11, 261-267. Revisioning Pneumatology in Transcultural Spaces, in: Sturla J. Stålsett (ed.), Spirits of Globalisation: The Growth of Pentecostalism and Experiential Spiritualities in a Global Age, London: 2006, 183-197. Gott als Befreiungsbewegung der Schöpfung, Junge Kirche: Unterwegs für Gerechtigkeit, Frieden und Bewahrung der Schöpfung  67, 23-26. [God as Creation’s Liberation Movement]. Stiklestad – upplevelse av sig själv eller mötet med spåren av det förflutna? Est/ etiska och religionsvetenskapliga perspektiv, in:  Stiklestad og andre minnesteder. Foredrag i 2004 og 2005, Stiklestad: Stiklestad Nasjonale Kultursenter, 1936. [Stiklestad – experiencing oneself or encountering the traces of the Past? Perspectives from Aesthethics and Religious Studies]. 2007 God Taking Place in Urban Space: Revisioning Pneumatology in Atmospheres of Life-Giving Liberation, in:  Spirit and Spirituality: Proceedings of the 15th Nordic Conference in Systematic Theology, Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen 2007, 39-58. Andens ekologi – i teologisk och estetisk belysning, in: Baard Maeland and Tom Sverre Tomren (eds.), Økoteologi: Kontekstuelle perspektiver på miljø og teologi, Trondheim: Tapir 2007, 67-86. [The Ecology of the Spirit – in the light of theology and aesthetics]. Theology in its Spatial Turn: Space, Place and Built Environments Challenging and Changing the Images of God, Religion Compass 1, 3, 2007, 353-379. Technology as Salvation? Critical Perspectives from an Aesth/Ethics of the Spirit, European Journal of Science and Theology 4, 2007, 5-19. Att tolka Gud i bild: Bildkonstens utmaning till kyrkan och teologin, Tromsø: Praktisk kirkelig årbok 2007, 157-170. European Forum for the Study of Religion and the Environment,  Svensk Teologisk Kvartalskrift 83, 1, 2007, 41. (Rewiew of) Peter Hanns Reill, Vitalizing Nature in the Enlightenment, Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture 1, 4, 2007, 527-529.

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2008 (Ed. with Tore Sager), The Ethics of Mobilities: Rethinking Place, Exclusion, Freedom and Environment, Aldershot: Ashgate 2008, (292 pps). (Ed. with Thomas Hoff and Tore Sager),  Spaces of Mobility: The Planning, Ethics, Engineering and Religion of Human Motion, London: Equinox 2008, (274 pps.). The Strange and the Self: Visual Arts and Theology in Aboriginal and Other (Post-) Colonial Spaces, in: O. Bychkov and J. Fodor (eds.), Theological Aesthetics After Von Balthasar, Aldershot: Ashgate 2008, 201-223. “It can’t be locked in”: Decolonising processes in the arts and religion of Sápmi and aboriginal Australia, in: Sturla  J.  Stålsett (ed.),  Religion in a globalised age, Oslo: Novus Press, 2008, 81-101. Entry “Geertz, Clifford James,” in:  Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) Volume XXIX, Verlag T. Bautz 2008, columns 494-501. Lived Religion in Lived Space, in:  Lived Religion: Conceptual, Empirical and Practical-Theological Approaches – Essays in Honor of H.-G. Heimbrock, Leiden: Brill 2008, 197-209. Making Oneself at Home in Environments of Urban Amnesia: Religion and Theology in City Space, International Journal of Public Theology 2, 2008, 70-97. Eco-Citizenship, Technology and Aesth/Ethics,  Madang: International Journal of Contextual Theology in East Asia8, 2008, 131-161. Der Geist unserer Zeit: Zur Verwandlung von Schöpfung, Wissenschaft und Religion im Klimawandel, Salzburger Theologische Zeitschrift 1, 2008, 27-47. 2009 In the Beginning is the Icon: A Liberative Theology of Images, Visual Arts and Culture, London: Equinox 2009, (320 pps.). Så främmande det lika: Samisk konst i ljuset av religion och globalisering, Trondheim: Tapir 2009, (452 pps.). [So Strange the Same: Sami visual art in the light of religion and globalization]. (Ed.)  Theology in Built Environments: Exploring Religion, Architecture & Design, New Brunswick/London: Transaction 2009, (2nd edition 2011), (314 pps.). God’s here and now in built environments: Introductory remarks on architecture as theology, in: Theology in Built Environments, 9-22. Transfiguring Reality: Surfaces, signs and metamorphoses in Johannes Schreiter’s window in the Grunewald church, in: Theology in Built Environments, 209-222. Can Churches Fly? The liturgy of arcitecture: an aesthetic and theological perspective, in: Theology in Built Environments, 281-310.

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(Ed. with Kim, Yong-Bock), Religion, Ecology & Gender: East-West-Perspectives, (Studies in Religion and the Environment 1), Berlin: LIT 2009, (210 pps.). (With Kim, Yong-Bock), Environmental Change Changes Religion: Introductory Remarks, in: Religion, Ecology & Gender, 1-5. Ecological Geomancy: Earth Energy and the Wisdom of Spatial Design, in: Religion, Ecology & Gender, 147-174. (Ed. with P.  Scott et  al.),  Nature, Space & the Sacred: Transdisciplinary Perspectives, Farnham and Burlington VT: Ashgate 2009, (340 pps.). Editorial (with Peter  M.  Scott, Maria Jansdotter Samuelsson, and Heinrich BedfordStrohm), in: Nature, Space & the Sacred, 1-8. Introductory Remarks, in: Nature, Space & the Sacred, 9-16. Invoking the Spirit amid Dangerous Environmental Change, in: K. Bloomquist (ed.), God, Creation and Climate Change: Spiritual and Ethical Perspectives, Geneva: The Lutheran World Federation 2009, 159-174. Im Geist (v)ermessen wir den Raum: Streifzüge durch die Ästh/Ethik der Landschaft, in: Arnd Heling (ed.), Brot und Fisch: Leben für die Ostsee, (Schriftenreihe des Vereins zur Förderung der Sommeruniversität Ratzeburg für die nachhaltige Entwicklung im Ostseeraum), Schenefeld: EB-Verlag 2009, 232-244. Breathing Despair and Redemption: Towards a Trinitarian Aesth/Ethics of Lived Space, in: L. Adrianos, K. Kenanidis and A. Papaderos (eds.), ECOTHEE: Ecological Theology and Environmental Ethics: Proceedings, Kolympari, Crete, Greece, Orthodox Academy of Crete (OAC, June 2-6, 2008), Chania: Orthodox Academy of Crete (OAC), 2009, 23-32. Energie als Gabe oder Ware? Zur Ambivalenz von Wachstum, Markt und Technik im Klimawandel / Energy – Gift or Commodity? About the Ambivalence of Growth, Market and Technology in the Times of Climatic Change, in: Energy Talks Ossiach 2009, Liberalisation: Quo vadis? Sympos Veranstaltungsmanagement GmBH, Wien 2009, 32-40. Climate Change Changes Religion: Space, Spirit, Ritual, Technology – through a Theological Lens, Studia Theologica – Nordic Journal of Theology 63, 2, 2009, 98-118. Religion in dangerous environmental change, Presentation at the congress “CLIMATE CHANGE: GLOBAL RISKS, CHALLENGES AND DECISIONS”, 10-12 March 2009, Copenhagen, Denmark; IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science Volume 6 Session 57 IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci. 6 572019, 2009. I horisontens atmosfærer: En vandring i Hardy Brix’, Britta Marakatt-Labbas og Odd Marakatt Sivertsens levende landskab, (Exhibition catalogue), Lemvig: Museet for religiøs kunst 2009, Museet Holmen 2010, 26-37. [In atmospheres of the horizon]. Gelebte Religion im gefährlichen Umweltwandel, Arnoldshainer Akzente 2009. Teknologi som religion i klimaforandringen, Samtiden 2009.

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2010 Raum und Geist: Zur Erdung und Beheimatung der Religion – Eine theologische Ästh/Ethik des Raums, (Research in Contemporary Religion Vol. 7), Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2010, (240 pps.). (Ed.), Religion som rörelse: Exkursioner i rum, tro och mobilitet, Trondheim: Tapir 2010, (189 pps.). [Religion als Bewegung: Exkursionen im Raum, im Glauben und in der Mobilität]. I skärningen: En inledande navigation mellan rum, religion och rörelse, in: Religion som rörelse, 9-23. [At the intersection]. Accelerationens lag eller långsamhetens lov? Betraktelser över religion som rörelse, in: Religion som rörelse, 25-68. [The law of acceleration of the praise of slowness? Considerations of religion as movement]. (Ed. with Dieter Gerten),  Religion in Dangerous Environmental and Climate Change: Transdisciplinary Perspectives on the Ethics of Climate and Sustainability, (Studies in Religion and the Environment 2), Berlin: LIT 2010, (247 pps.). (With  D.  Gerten), Religion in Climate and Environmental Change: Towards a Symphony of Voices, Memories and Visions in a New Polycentric Field, in: Religion and Dangerous Environmental and Climate Change,1-12. Dangerous Environmental Change and Religion: How Climate Discourse Changes the Perception of our Environment, the Spiritual Fabrication of its Meaning and the Interaction of Science and Religion, in: Religion in Dangerous Environmental and Climate Change, 13-37. Life Breathing on Us: Three painted landscapes by Hardy Brix, in:  Religion and Dangerous Environmental and Climate Change, 57-59. Trinitarian Cosmology in God’s Liberating Movement: Exploring some signature tunes in the “opera of ecologic salvation”, Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology 14, 2-3, 185-205. In the Spirit through the Son to the Father  …: Four Considerations about the Trinity’s Space and Movement in a Creation to “be liberated from its bondage to decay,” International Journal of Orthodox Theology 1, 2, 2010, 18-28. Im Geist durch den Sohn zum Vater … Vier Überlegungen zum Bewegungsraum des Dreieinigen in einer Schöpfung, die auf ihre “Erlösung harrt,” International Journal of Orthodox Theology 1, 2, 2010, 29-39. Religion im Umweltwandel,  Junge Kirche: Unterwegs für Gerechtigkeit, Frieden und Bewahrung der Schöpfung 71, 1, 2010, 16-18. Religion im gefährlichen Umweltwandel: Zur Herausforderung der Beheimatung im Raum, in: Arnd Heling (ed.), Der Ostseeraum und seine Wälder: Nachhaltigkeit im Zeichen des Klimawandels, München: oekom 2010, 232-245.

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I tillitens väntrum: Människan som människans fascination i Roy Anderssons film “Du levande” och Tage Kurténs teologiska livstolkning, in: Mot bättre vetande: Festschrift till Tage Kurtén på 60-år-dagen, ed. by. M. Lindfelt et al., Åbo: Åbo Akademi 2010, 1-20. [In the Anteroom of Trust: The human as the human’s fascination in Roy Andersson’s film “You the Living” and Tage Kurtén’s theological life interpretation]. 2011 (Ed. with Dieter Gerten),  Religion in Global Environmental and Climate Change: Sufferings, Values, Lifestyles, New York/London: Continuum 2011, (269 pps.). Facing the Human Faces of Climate Change, (with D.  Gerten),in:  Religion in Global Environmental and Climate Change, 3-15. (Ed. with Heather Eaton),  Ecological Awareness: Exploring Religion, Ethics and Aesthetics, (Studies in Religion and the Environment 3), Berlin: LIT 2011, (263 pps.). Awareness Matters: Introductory Remarks about the Interwoven Gifts of Life and Belief (with H. Eaton), in: Ecological Awareness, 1-6. Aware of the spirit: in the lens of a trinitarian aesth/ethics of lived space, in: Ecological Awareness, 23-39. “I am the space where I was”: Design and Religion as Modes of Making-oneself-at-home in the Past and Future of Postmetropolis, in: Eva Löfgren (ed.), Kulturarvsdesign: Dokumentation av en temadag, Länsstyrelsen i Västra Götalands län, Kulturmiljöenheten 2011, Rapportnr. 2011:56. Preface, in: Tarjei Rønnow, Saving Nature: Religion as Environmentalism, Environmentalism as Religion, (Studies in Religion and the Environment/Studien zur Religion und Umwelt 4), Berlin: LIT 2011. 2012 “Now the Spirit dwells among us …”: The Spirit as Liberator of Nature in the Trinitarian Cosmology of Gregory of Nazianz, in: Ernst  M.  Conradie (ed.),  Creation and Salvation – Volume 1: A Mosaic of Selected Classic Christian Theologies, (Studies in Religion and the Environment/Studien zur Religion und Umwelt Vol. 5), Berlin: LIT 2012, 38-55. The Crystal of Salvation in Creation – A Postscript, in: Ernst M. Conradie (ed.), Creation and Salvation – Volume 2: A Companion on Recent Theological Movements, (Studies in Religion and the Environment/Studien zur Religion und Umwelt Vol. 6), Berlin: LIT 2012, 391-393. Religion in the Built Environment, in: Liliana Gómez and Walter van Herck (eds.), The Sacred in the City, London/New York: Continuum 2012, 73-95.

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Fetishism Revisited: In the Animistic Lens of Eco-pneumatology, Journal of Reformed Theology 6, 2012, 195-215. Entry “Scandinavia, Theology in – Norway”, in:  Religion Past & Present, Volume XI (Reg-Sie), ed. by H.D. Betz et al, Leiden: Brill 2012, 459-460. Entry “Environmental Theology”, in:  Encyclopedia of Sciences and Religions, ed. by Nina P. Azari and Anne Runehov, Dordrecht: Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2012, 744-751. Anden, som ger liv – motmakt till fetischismen, Kirke & Kultur 3/2012, 269-277. From Within and Without – Grete Refsum, The Golden Rule, 2008, in: ArtWay 2012, . (Review of) Markus Vogt. Prinzip Nachhaltigkeit: Ein Entwurf aus theologischethischer Perspektive, Munich: oekom 2009, Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture 6, 2, 2012, 238-239. (Review of) Birgit Cold, Her er det godt å være – om estetikk i omgivelsene, Trondheim: Tapir Akademisk Forlag og NTNU 2010, Nordic Journal of Architectural Research/ Nordisk arkitekturforskning 24, 2, 2012. (Review of) Ole Jensen, På kant med klodens klima: Om behovet for et ændret natursyn, København: Anis 2011, Teologisk Tidsskrift 4/2012, 447-448. 2013 (Ed. with Irmgard Blindow and Konrad Ott),  Aesth/Ethics in Environmental Change: Hiking through the Arts, Ecology, Religion and Ethics of the Environment, (Studies in Religion and the Environment 7), Berlin: LIT 2013, (210 pps.). (With Irmgard Blindow and Konrad Ott), The Sacred in and of Earth: Introductory Remarks on the Challenge of Integrating Aesthetics and Ethics for the Sake of Our Common Environment, in: Aesth/ethics in environmental change, 1-12. “… THE SPACE WHERE I AM” Decolonising, Re-sacralising and Transfiguring Landscapes through the Aesth/ethic Lens, in: Aesth/ethics in environmental change, 39-70. Raum, Gerechtigkeit und das Heilige: Skizzen zur Umweltästh/ethik, in: M. Vogt et al (eds.),  Wo steht die Umweltethik? Argumentationsmuster im Wandel, Weimar bei Marburg: Metropolis 2013, 227-234. “Life-Giving Breath: Ecological Pneumatology in the Context of Fetishization”, Ecumenical Review 65, 1, 2013, 114-128. Woran können wir glauben? Religiöse Praktiken im Anthropozän. Norddeutscher Rundfunk [Radio] 2013.

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2014 Religion, Space, and the Environment, New Brunswick/London: Transaction, (2nd edition 2016), (with a preface of Celia Deane-Drummond) (498 pps.). (Ed. with E. Conradie, C. Deane-Drummond and D. Edwards), Christian Faith and the Earth: Current Paths and Emerging Horizons in Ecotheology, London/New York: Bloomsbury 2014, (272 pps.). (With  E.  Conradie, C.  Deane-Drummond and D.  Edwards), Discourse on Christian Faith and the Earth, in: Christian Faith and the Earth,1-10. Where on Earth does the Spirit “take place” today? Considerations on Pneumatology in the Light of the Global Environmental Crisis, in: Christian Faith and the Earth, 51-64. The Raw Within: Tracing the Raw in Human Life Through Bricks, Roy Andersson’s You, The Living and Ernst Barlach’s Beggar on Crutches, in Solveig Bøe, Hege Charlotte Faber, and Brit Strandhagen (eds.), Raw: Architectural Engagements with Nature, Farnham: Ashgate 2014, 167-183. (Review of) Grace Ji-Sun Kim, Colonialism, Han, and the Transformative Spirit, New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2013, Studies in religion 43, 2, 2014, 337-338. 2015 (Ed. with C. Deane-Drummond and B. Szerszynski), Technofutures: Transdisciplinary Perspectives on Nature and the Sacred, Farnham: Ashgate 2015, (306 pps.). (With  C.  Deane-Drummond and B.  Szerszynski) Introduction, in:  Technofutures, Nature and the Sacred, 1-13. ‘Millions of machines are already roaring’: Fetishised technology encountered by the life-giving spirit, in: Technofutures, Nature and the Sacred, 115-137. (Ed. with M.  Luccarelli),  Spaces in-between: Cultural and Political Perspectives on Environmental Discourse, (Studies in Environmental Humanities  2), Leiden: Brill Rodopi 2015, (206 pps.). (With  M.  Luccarelli) Reconsidering Environment: Spatial Contexts and the Development of the Environmental Humanities, in: Spaces in-between, 3-23. Making Oneself at Home in Climate Change: Religion as a Skill of Creative Adaptation, in: Stanley Brunn (ed.), The Changing World Religion Map: Sacred Places, Identities, Practices and Politics, Heidelberg and New York: Springer 2015, (3936 pps. 889 illus., 677 illus. in color. With In 5-volumes), Vol. 1, 187-201. Sustainable Development, Climate Change and Religion, in: Emma Tomalin (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Religions and Global Development, New York/London: Routledge 2015, 389-404. “I Anden genom Sonen till Fadern …: Fyra reflektioner över den Treeniges rörelserum i en skapelse som väntar på sin befrielse”, in: Trinitarisk tro og tenkning: Festskrift

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till Svein Rise, ed. by Gunnar Innerdal and Knut-Willy Sæther, Kristiansand: Portal Forlag, 29-40. Places of Encounter with the Eschata: Accelerating the Spatial Turn in Eschatology, in: Embracing the Ivory Tower and Stained Glass Windows: A Festschrift in Honor of Archbishop Antje Jackelén, ed. by Jennifer Baldwin, (Issues in Science and Religion: Publications of the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology Vol. 1), Heidelberg: Springer 2015, 71-79. The Legacy of Trinitarian Cosmology in the Anthropocene: Transcontextualising late antiquity theology for late modernity,  Studia Theologica – Nordic Journal of Theology 69, 1, 2015, 1-13. Discerning the ‘Sacred Within’, Faith & Form: The Interfaith Journal on Religion, Art, and Architecture 48, 2, 2015, 32-32. (Review of) Forrest Clingerman and Mark  H.  Dixon (eds.), Placing Nature on the Borders of Religion, Philosophy and Ethics, Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2011, Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture 9, 1, 2015, 125-126. (Review of) Hans-Günter Heimbrock: Das Kreuz: Gestalt, Wirkung, Deutung, Teologisk Tidsskrift 1/2015, 112-114. (Review of) Jochen Ostheimer and Markus Vogt (eds.), Die Moral der Energiewende: Risikowahrnehmung im Wandel am Beispiel der Atomenergie, Stuttgart: Kohlhammer 2014, Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, Ecology 19, 1, 2015, 90-93. (Review of) Theo Sundermeier: Für ein offenes Jerusalem: Palästinensisch-christliche Kunst heute, Teologisk Tidsskrift 1/2015, 100-103. Religion as a Creative Skill in Environmental Change – Exploring the Entanglement of Images of God, Nature, and the Sacred, The Rachel Carson Center, Macking Tracks Series, 2015-02-08: . 2016 [Guest editor of] Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, Ecology, Special Issue “Spatial Turns,” Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, Ecology 20, 3, 2016, 215-323. Spatial turns in the study of religion and the environment: Impulses for the acceleration of a place-based discourse in the environmental humanities, Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, Ecology 20, 3, 2016, 215-224. Luce Nordica E Architettura Sacra: Uno Sguardo Attraverso Una Lente Teologica [Nordic light and sacred architecture – through a theological lens], in: E. Bianchi, S. Bergmann, S. Calatrava Valls, D. Coutagne, J. A. Felix de Carvalho, B. Daelemans, A.  Dall’Asta, D.  Forconi, A.  Gerhards, G.  Gresleri, A.  Lameri, Ph. Markiewicz, Á. J. de Melo Siza Vieira, J.-P. Sonnet, M. Struck, P. Tomatis, Architetture Della Luce: arte spazi, liturgia, Communitá di Bose, Magnano: Edizioni Qiqajon 2016, 143-161.

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296

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Beheimatung: Making-oneself-at-home with the Spirit, in: John Rodwell and Peter Manley Scott (eds.), At Home in the Future: Place & Belonging in a Changing Europe, (Studies in Religion and the Environment/Studien zur Religion und Umwelt  11), Berlin: LIT 2016, 65-79. Is there a future in the age of humans? A critical eye on the narrative of the anthropocene, Consortium for the Study of Religion, Ethics, and Society Forum Spring 2016, Indiana University, . Architectures of light – a conference report, Faith & Form: The Interfaith Journal on Religion, Art, and Architecture 49, 1, 2016. (Review of) George, Mark K. and Pezzoli-Olgiati, Daria (eds.): Religious Representation in Place. Exploring Meaningful Spaces at the Intersection of the Humanities and Sciences. New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2014, Theologische Literaturzeitung 141, 10, 2016, 1126-1128. (Review of) Christof Hardmeier and Konrad Ott, Naturethik und biblische Schöpfungserzählung: Ein diskurstheoretischer und narrativ-hermeneutischer Brückenschlag, (Nature ethics and biblical creation story: Bridging the gap through discourse theory and narrative hermeneutics), Stuttgart: Verlag W. Kohlhammer 2015, Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, Ecology 20, 3, 2016. 2017 (Ed. with C. Deane-Drummond and M. Vogt), Religion in the Anthropocene, Eugene: Wipf & Stock 2017, (338 pps.). The Future of Religion in the Anthropocene Era, (with C.  Deane-Drummond and M. Vogt), in: Religion in the Anthropocene, 1-15. Religion at work within climatic change: Eight perceptions about its where and how, in: Religion in the Anthropocene, 67-84. Der sakrale Ort als kritischer Ort: Skizzen zur befreienden Ästh/Ethik heiliger Räume und Atmosphären, in: Albert Gerhards und Kim de Wildt (eds.),  Wandel und Wertschätzung: Synergien für die Zukunft von Kirchenräumen, Regensburg: Schnell & Steiner 2017, 279-305. Developments in Religion and Ecology, in: Willis J. Jenkins, Mary Evelyn Tucker, and John Grim (eds.),  Routledge Handbook of Religion and Ecology, London and New York, Routledge 2017, 13-21. Sacred places as critical places, Faith & Form: The Interfaith Journal on Religion, Art and Architecture 50, 3, 2017, 24. Rituals as places and movements – fabricating meaning, making-oneself-at-home, encountering the sacred, in: iai news, Philosophy for our times: Incisive articles on cutting edge ideas, The Institute of Art and Ideas, London, Tuesday 5th December 2017.

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Religion in the Anthropocene – a comment on Geneviève Pigeon’s review, (with C. Deane-Drummond and M. Vogt), in: Reading Religion (RR), website published by the American Academy of Religion (AAR), November 27, 2017: . (Review of) Malte Dominik Krüger: Das andere Bild Christi, (Dogmatik in der Moderne 18), Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2017, Teologisk Tidsskrift 6, 4, 2017, 344-346. 2018 (Ed. with Forrest Clingerman), Arts, Religion and the Environment: Exploring Nature’s Texture, (Studies in Environmental Humanities, Volume 6), Leiden: Brill Rodopi 2018. Introduction: Exploring Nature’s Texture (with F. Clingerman), in: Arts, Religion and the Environment, 1-14. With-In: Towards an aesth/ethics of prepositions, in: Arts, Religion and the Environment, 15-42. (Ed.), Eschatology as Imagining the End: Faith between Hope and Despair, (Routledge New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology and Biblical Studies), London/New York: Routledge 2018. What Images of the Last Things Do to Us: Introductory Remarks on Why Eschatology Matters, in: Eschatology as Imagining the End, 1-29. Time Turned into Space – At Home on Earth: Wanderings in Eschatological Spatiality, in: Eschatology as Imagining the End, 88-112. At The Mercy of Sacred Waters: Sanctification, Fetishization, Permeation and Responsiveness, in: The Bloomsbury Handbook of Religion and Nature: The Elements, ed. by L. Hobgood and W. Bauman, London: Bloomsbury 2018, 219-234. Svenska Akademiens död och uppståndelse, in: Kyrkans Tidning, 18 April 2018, . [The Swedish Academy’s Death and Resurrection]. Kan någon avsluta detta löje? ETC Essä, in: ETC, 29 April 2018, . [Can anyone terminate this ridiculousness?]. Fem skäl att lägga ned Svenska Akademien, in: SVT Nyheter Opinion, 7 May 2018, . [Five reasons to depose the Swedish Academy]. [Review of] Joshua Coleman (ed.), Seeing and Being Seen: Aesthetics and Environmental Philosophy, Lanham: Hamilton 2018, in: Reading Religion published by the American Academy of Religion: .

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2019 The Spirit and Climate Change, in: T&T Clark Companion on Christian Theology and Climate Change, ed. by E. M. Conradie and H. Koster, London: Bloomsbury 2019, 497-508. WetterLagenWeisheit: Zu Kunst und Religion im Klimawandel, in: Kunst und Kirche 82, 1/2019, 30-35. I allmänhet eller i synnerhet? [Review of] Erik Blennberger, Carl Reinhold Bråkenhielm, Anders Jeffner (red.), Gudstro: Existentiella och intellektuella perspektiv, Stockholm: Verbum 2018, in: Jag kommunicerar – alltså finns jag, Förbundet Kristen humanism, Årsbok 81, Stockholm 2019, 117-118. Minnesord om Per Erik Persson, [Obituary], (with P. Bexell, C.G. Carlsson, B. Kristensson Uggla, C. Meakin, A. Rasmusson, B. Sandahl, O. Sigurdson, R. Spjuth), Sydsvenskan 12 November 2019. 2020 Rituals as Environmental Skills – Inhabiting Place, Fabricating Meaning, Enhancing Morality, in: Monika Kirloskar-Steinbach and Mădălina Diaconu (eds.), Environmental Ethics: Cross-cultural Explorations, Freiburg/München: Verlag Karl Alber 2020, 79-100. Fetishized Nature or Life-giving Breath? Religion as Skill in Climate Change, in: Consensus: A Canadian Journal of Public Theology 41, 1/2020, Sustainability and Religion, Article 3: . Omvändelse fullt möjligt post corona, in: Kyrkans Tidning, 30 March 2020, . [Conversion entirely possible post corona]. “You have to change your life!” Our Common Post-Corona Future through a Swedish Lens, in: Seeing the Woods: A Blog by the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society (RCC), Munich, 18 May 2020, . Byt ut ledningen för Folkhälsomyndigheten, in: Dagens Nyheter, 1 June 2020, . [Replace the Public Health Agency’s Leadership]. Sverige måste byta strategi mot viruset, in: Dagens Nyheter, 27 June 2020, . [Sweden must change its strategy against the virus]. Flockimmuniseringens oetiska experiment, in: Dagens Arena, (Arena Essä) 28 July 2020, . [The unethical experiment of herd immunisation]. Urheberrechtlich geschütztes Material! © 2021 Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn, ein Imprint der Brill-Gruppe

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Thou shalt not kill! The unethical experiment of herd immunization through a Swedish lens, forthcoming on the Religion & Ethics website of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), September 2020, . Weather, Religion and Climate Change, (Routledge Environmental Humanities), London and New York November 2020. Contextual Theology: Skills and Practices of Liberating Faith, ed. with Mika Vähäkangas, (Routledge New Critical Thinking in Religion Theology and Biblical Studies), London and New York November 2020. Doing Situated Theology: Introductory Remarks about the History, Method and Diversity of Contextual Theology, (with Mika Vähäkangas), in: Contextual Theology: Skills and Practices of Liberating Faith, 2020, 1-14. Theology in the Anthropocene – and Beyond? in: Contextual Theology: Skills and Practices of Liberating Faith, 2020, 160-180. Transkulturelle Bild-Räume: Zur raum-und zukunftschaffenden Macht der Bilder im dekolonialen und ökologischen Kontext, in: Thomas Erne und Malte Dominik Krüger (Hg.), Bild und Text, (Hermeneutik und Ästhetik 2), Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2020, 250-275. Foreword, in: Per Frostin, Liberation Theology in Tanzania and South Africa: A First World Interpretation, (Studia Theologica Lundensia 42), Lund: Lund University Press 1988, reprinted as e-book, edited in South Africa by Gerald West et al, forthcoming 2020. Att leva livet – mot eller i evigheten? [Review of ] Martin Hägglund, This Life: Secular Faith and Spiritual Freedom, New York: Anchor Books 2019, (Vårt enda liv, Stockholm: Volante 2020), forthcoming in: Förbundet Kristen humanism, Årsbok 82, Stockholm 2020. 2021 Wild Weather: Modes of Being-at-the-Mercy in Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind, Turner’s Snowstorm, and the Fiji House of the Spirits, in: Solveig Bøe, Hege Charlotte Faber and Eivind Kasa (eds.), Wild: Aesthetics of the Dangerous and Endangered, forthcoming London: Bloomsbury Academic 2021. Towards a contextual theopolitics of the earth as Ecocene, in: An Earthed Faith: Telling the Story amid the Anthropocene, Volume 1, ed. by Ernst M. Conradie with Lai PanChiu, forthcoming Oregon: Wipf and Stock / Cape Town: Aosis 2021. Religion as Skill in Climate Change (with Michael Northcott), (Background Paper for the European Commission/Devco Bruxelles 2019), forthcoming 2021. Naturens rättigheter – i en rättsgemenskap av allt skapat levande. En utredning på uppdrag av Svenska Kyrkans “Teologiska Kommitté”, 2020, forthcoming 2021. [Rights of Nature – In a Legal Community of All Created Living].

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Index

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Names Agyarko 131, 138 Albritton 86, 90 Alexakis 140, 148 Alley 158, 162 Altvater 187, 191 Andrianos 132, 137 Arendt XII, 19ff., 30ff. Arrighi 176, 187, 190 Aristotle 21, 30, 43, 45, 48, 53, 59, 179ff., 191, 267 Arpels-Josiah 131, 137 Athavale 137, 155 Aulén 131, 136, 282 Ayre 131, 137 Baigent 76, 86, 89 Backes 245, 250 Bak 61, 65ff., 71ff. Baker 243ff., 250 Bandler 86, 89, 250 Barasch 148f. Banks, C. 245, 249 Banks, J. 245, 249 Barnard 142, 148f. Barth 19f., 24ff., 30ff. Bartolo 245, 248ff. Bauer 266, 269, 272 Benjamin 207, 239, 245, 250 Berger 17ff., 25, 29ff. Berry 87, 89 Besançon 148f. Betcher 123, 131, 136 Bethesda 158, 163 Bhabha 96, 111, 115, 246, 250 Birch 132, 136 Bjerg 257ff., 269, 272 Blok 152, 155, 158, 161f. Blommaert 241, 250 Boff 132, 136 Böckenförde 194, 207f., 211, 213 Bosch, 132, 137 Brady 87ff. Brand 168, 187ff. Brodbeck 187f., 190f. Bryce 84

Brooke 55, 68, 70 Buckland 55 Bultmann 256ff., 269ff. Blumenberg 262, 269, 272 Burgess 37, 48f. Burke 76, 87ff. Buytendijk 268f., 273 Cantor 68ff. Caputo 60, 71f. Carlisle 77, 83 Carlsson-Kanyama 158, 163 Caspar 68ff. Castro 132, 136 Cavanaugh 203, 211ff. Clayton 68, 71f. Clinebell 132, 136 Cobb 132, 136 Coleridge 74, 77ff., 90 Conradie VI, XIV, 114, 121ff., 292ff., 298f. Cranz 87ff. Crary 257, 269, 272 Cronon 87, 90 Cummins 246, 250 Daiber 269, 273 Daneel 133, 137 Darling-Hammond 246ff. Darnell 246, 250 Darwin 54, 172 Davies 62, 68, 72 Deacon 68, 71 Deane-Drummond 68ff., 87ff., 131, 135, 158, 161ff., 211ff., 229, 294ff. Dennis 206ff., 211ff. Deutsch 158 Devall 155 Devi Dasi 156ff., 163 Don Browning 269ff. Draper 54 Drummy 269, 273 Duchrow XIV, 167ff., 278ff. Eaton, H. 132, 137, 292 Eaton, M. 158ff.

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Names

Edwards 123f., 131ff., 194 Eliade 85ff., 90 Elgvin 93, 111, 115f. Ellsworth 241, 246, 250 Engen 246ff. Flueckiger 158, 162 Fox, 123, 133ff. Framarin 154, 158, 162 Francis (Pope) XIII, 39f., 47ff., 125, 133, 137, 169ff., 184f. Franzén 112, 115 Freire 244ff., 250 Frost 153, 158, 162 Frostin IX, 5, 275ff., 299 Fuglestad 48f. Fuller 158, 162 Gebara 133, 136 Geertz 6, 17, 289 Gillespie 68ff. Golo 133, 136 González 158, 163 Goodenough 68, 71 Grabar 148 Graeber 175, 188ff. Grau 269, 272 Gravem 246ff. Gregersen 64, 68, 72, 282 Gregory 69f. Gregory of Nazianz XI, 74, 121, 276f., 279 Grevel 264f., 269 Grey 123, 133, 135 Griffiths 74, 87, 90 Grim 150, 246, 249, 296 Habel 133, 137 Habermas 5, 252, 266, 270f. Hafstad V, XII, 18ff., 34, 137 Hallencreutz 112, 115, 278 Haluza-Delay 151, 159ff. Harbsmeier 270f. Hart 133, 138 Haug 234f., 240, 246ff., 249f. Haught 61, 69ff. Häkli 112 Hämäläinen 93, 112, 115ff. Hefner 64, 69, 72 Heimbrock IX, 251ff.

Heith 94, 112, 115 Henkel-Rieger 188, 192 Henriksen VI, XV, 16f., 217ff. Hertzberg 7, 17 Hiebert 208f., 211, 214 Hill 76, 83f. Hoelzl 194, 207, 211ff. Hoëm 246, 250 Hoffman, D. 236, 246, 249 Hoffman, N. 248f. Horrel 133, 137 Hume 10 Hummel 270, 273 Husserl 259ff., 270ff. Hyde 87ff. Immerzeel 247, 250 Ivanovic VI, XIV, XVI, 139ff. Iversen 270f. Jackelén V, 53ff., 295 Jackson 233, 246f. Jacobsen 152, 159ff. Jain 155, 159, 162 James 222f., 229f. Jarvis 87, 90 Jaspers 183 Jeanrond 48f. Joensuu 94, 112, 115 John of Damascus 139ff., 147f. Johnson, E 60, 65, 69ff., 73, 123f., 133 Johnson, P. 159, 161 Jones 241, 247, 250 Jonsell 112, 115 Jonsonn 86, 90 Jüngel 30, 34, 61, 69, 71 Kant 46, 76, 87, 89 Kauffman, St 61, 69, 71f. Kaempf 270f. Kearney 270f. Keller 59ff., 65, 69ff., 131, 136, 204ff., 211ff. Kierkegaard 43 Kill 137 Kim 123, 133f., 136 King 159, 163 Kinnamon 133, 136 Kinnunen 112, 116 Kitzinger 143, 148f.

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Names Kiuppis 235, 247ff. Klie 270, 273 Korten 171 Koster 131ff., 298 Knauß 157ff. Kristeva 31, 34 Kumlehn 270, 273 Kurtén V, XII, 3ff., 292 Ladson-Billings 247, 249 Lal, B.K. 154, 159, 162 Lal, V. 156, 159, 162 Lane 87, 89 Larsson 113, 115 Latour 207, 243, 247, 250 Lee 37, 48f. Leer-Salvesen XIII, 35ff. Lepore 31, 34 Lévinas 42, 283 Lieberman 246, 248, 250 Lied 246, 248 Limouris 134, 136 Louth 147ff., 150 Lowth 78ff., 86f., 90 Loxley 235, 240, 248f. Lucas 248 Luckmann 17ff., 25, 29, 31 Læstadius XIII, 91ff. Løgstrup 12, 16f., 27, 38, 48 Madhva 152 Martínez-Ariño 247f. Marx 147, 176, 179ff. May 236, 247 McFague 152f., 158ff., 279f. Meindl 69f. Meissner 247f. Merleau-Ponty 259f., 270, 272 Metz 204, 282f., 294 Metzler 113, 117 Milton 77ff., 87f., 90 Moen 247, 250 Moltmann 27, 31, 34f., 36, 43, 46, 48f., 123, 127, 130, 134f., 138, 204, 208, 247ff., 278, 287 Moran 270 Moreau 245, 250 Morris 84 Moore 54

Muir  76f., 80, 88f. Muis 247, 250 Müller-Fahrenholz 123, 134f. Murphy 88ff. Nelson 152, 159ff. Neville 221f., 229f. Nesset 113, 115 Nicolson 77, 88ff. Nietzsche 22, 31f., 64f. Nilsson 113, 115 Nordenval 113, 115 Northcott V, XIII, 46, 48f., 74ff., 200ff., 207ff., 212ff., 299 Novetzke 159, 162 Nurmi 6ff., 16ff. Nussbaum 28, 31, 34 Næss 38f., 48f., 155 Orange 39f., 48f. Ostrogorsky 148 Outakoski 94, 113ff. Østberg 247, 249 Page 60, 69, 71 Patrick 160, 162 Pauli 173 Peacocke 64, 69, 72 Pederson 64, 69, 72 Peirce 225ff., 229ff. Pentikäinen 94ff., 113ff. Peukert 270f. Pope 80 Pott 270ff. Prabhupada 156 Prigogine 61, 69, 71 Pulkkinen 94, 113ff. Ramanuja 152 Ranlett 88, 90 Rawnsley 76, 80ff. Reusch 55, 57, 70f. Ricardo 172 Richard 189f., 270, 272 Richter 88f. Ricœur 229f. Rieger 188, 192 Riesebrodt 223, 229f. Rilke 13f.

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Names

Ritvo 88ff. Robinson, A. 227, 229, 231 Robinson, W. 151, 160 Roston 86, 88, 90 Roudometof 150, 160f. Ruether 69, 71, 134, 136 Ruskin 77ff., 82ff. Rupke 55, 70f. Rüpke 286 Russel 70 Sakupapa 133ff., 138 Saunders 160, 162 Scharper 195ff., 203ff., 212f. Schellnhuber 189f. Scheidler 188ff. Schlag 270, 273 Schleiermacher 251f., 267, 270f. Schmitt 193ff., 200ff., 212 Schönborn 145, 148ff. Scott VI, XV, 193ff., 290, 296 Seaford 189f. Shankar 150 Shivaismen 153 Siitonen 113, 116f. Simon.K. 187, 192 Simon, G. 270, 272 Skarpeid VI, XIV, 150ff. Skeie 247f. Skjevesland 270f. Skrefsrud VI, XV, 232ff. Sleeter 236, 247, 249 Smith, A. 180, 189, 191 Smith, Chr. 229 Smyth 245, 248, 250 Söderblom 270, 272 Soja 237f., 247, 249 Soto 247, 250 Stoll 88f. Strachan 88, 90 Strezova 149f. Sullivan 211, 213 Swadener 247, 250 Taylor 88f., 271, 287 Teinturier 247f.

Thomas 248f. Thunberg 219, 229 Tillich 271ff. Tinker 134, 136 du Toit 68, 72 Treanor 270, 272 Ulanowicz 70, 72f. Vallely 160, 163 Vähäkangas V, XIII, 91ff., 131, 135 Veer 157, 160, 163 Vertovec 247f. Vetlesen 40, 49, 229f. Villegas 248 Viola 262, 271f. Vogt 87, 89, 158, 161f., 293, 295 de Vries 211, 213 Wahlberg 114 Waldenfels 271f. Wallace 123, 134f. Weber 114, 118 Weiss 160, 162f. Weizsäcker, E. U. 189f. Weizsäcker, V. 268, 271, 273 Welker 123, 134f. Welzer 22, 31, 33 Wentzel van Huyssteen 63, 72, 285 White, G. 84 White, L. X, 46, 49, 75, 77, 85, 88ff., 197 Whitney 157, 160, 163 Wikmark 114, 116 Willamo 113, 116f. Winch 16f. Wittgenstein 12, 17, 227, 229, 231 Wright, H. von 16f. Wright, N. 134, 137 Wright, W. E. 245, 250 Wordsworth 74, 77ff., 87f., 90 Woese 70f. Yunt 271, 273 Zorgdrager 114f. Zöckler 55, 70

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Keywords aesthetics X, XII, 74ff., 87ff., 132, 137, 195, 208ff., 266, 287ff., 292, 297ff. Anthropocene VI, XI, XV, 7, 87ff., 130, 155ff., 170, 183, 187ff., 193ff., 217, 229ff., 246, 249, 295ff. Byzantine empire 139f. classroom 234ff., 240ff., 247 climate anxiety 42 climate ethics 40, 47 climate change 46ff., 57, 75, 87ff., 127, 131ff., 150ff., 169f., 174, 200ff., 212f., 217ff., 225, 237, 290 colonial hybritity XIII, 91ff. consummation 48, 123, 127, 130, 132 cosmos, cosmological XI, XIV, 65, 77, 85, 110f., 146 covid-19 XI, 3f., 10, 170, 210 creation XIIIf., 14, 26ff., 46, 53ff., 78ff., 121ff., 142, 146ff., 153, 157ff., 179ff. democracy 19, 29ff., 186, 198ff., 208f., 246, 250 dialogue XIII, 21ff., 55, 98, 241, 247, 250, 268 ecclesiology 131, 137, 278 ecology 121ff., 150ff., 188f., 197ff., 246, 253 economy 11, 42, 110, 135, 151, 168ff. ecological crisis IXff., 3ff., 47ff., 75f., 88ff., 169, 208 embodied XVI, 222, 264, 267 emergence 58ff., 66ff., 160f. empowerment 241, 246, 250 English Lake District V, 74ff. environment IXff., 4ff., 15, 25, 38, 60, 66, 74ff., 107f., 121, 132, 150f., 170, 195ff., 217f., 228ff., 238, 245, 254, 263f. eschatology 13, 48f., 61, 65, 295 ethics, environmental IX, 4ff., 36, 39ff., 131, 137, 158ff. ethics theological 3, 34, 125, 201, 267, 271 ethics, philosophical V, 295ff. evolution 47, 54, 58, 62, 67ff., 122, 229

experience 14, 23, 46, 60, 67, 84, 107, 150, 186, 196, 210, 222, 225ff., 232, 252ff., 273 feminist theory X, 7f., 69ff. food 42, 154ff., 169, 206ff., 264 freedom 7f., 29f., 57, 61, 64, 95, 152, 182, 289 goodness 28, 31f., 56, 59 habitat XII, 107 hebrew poetry 78ff. health XI, 3, 26, 38f., 167, 186, 210 holy 102, 105, 126, 139f., 146, 168, 175, 253f. Hope Cathedral 226ff. icon 139, 143ff., 226ff., 285 iconoclasm 139ff., 148f. image XIV, 14, 36, 46, 63ff., 99f., 124, 139ff., 151f., 171, 227, 254, 266, 274 inclusive education VI, XIV, 232ff. individual V, XII, 6ff., 18ff., 241, 252, 263ff. interreligious 186, 188f., 220 Laudato Si’ XIII, 40, 47, 49, 125, 133, 137, 169ff., 189 liberation 54, 96, 124ff., 150ff. liberation theology 184, 186f., 195f., 199, 232ff. life-world XVI, 261ff. lived experience 263ff. market 171ff. metanoia XII, 3, 13, 16 money XIVf., 11, 96, 130, 169ff. mountains XIII, 74ff. natural evil 65f. Nicene Creed 122ff., 127 ocean 169, 219ff. patristic philosophy XIV, 121, 140, 144, 276 pedagogy 98ff., 234, 242ff. pneumatology VI, XIV, 74, 121ff., 246, 285 plastic XV, 37, 219ff.

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Keywords

perception XV, 23, 39, 41, 79f., 143f., 174, 254ff. phenomenology 259ff. Pietism 109 planet 37, 40ff., 80, 84, 167, 170ff., 182, 189, 201, 220, 229 politics XIV, 36ff., 44ff., 87, 137, 193ff. political theology XV, 31, 34, 48, 134ff., 193ff. practice VI, XV, 35, 66ff., 76, 111, 122, 140, 151ff., 186, 217ff. praxis VI, 251ff. practical theology 251ff. religious studies IXf., XIII, 90, 232, 288 responsibility 8, 26f. revival movement XIII, 59, 91ff., 98ff., 105ff. romantics V, XIII, 74ff. sacraments 66, 123ff., 137, 229 sacred V, XIII, 6, 68, 74ff., 133f., 144, 171, 272

salvation 98ff., 106ff., 123ff., 130, 143ff., 152, 200, 223, 229, 288 semiotics XV, 160, 225ff. sensible world VI, XIV, 139ff. science and theology 53ff., 282 spatial 14, 53, 74, 198, 247 spatial turn X, 151, 237ff. Holy Spirit 6, 121ff., 127ff. spiritual/spirituality IXff., 6, 14, 46, 53, 66, 75ff., 83, 94ff., 123, 127f., 133, 142, 153, 158, 162, 171f., 183ff., 217, 264ff., 271ff. sustainability 53, 87ff., 291 symbol VI, XV, 8, 63, 74, 78, 85, 111, 122, 144, 183, 217ff., 254 theology of images 148f., 285 theory of action 268f. Trinity XIV, 65, 123ff., 142, 147, 229ff., 284 voice 59, 81, 134ff., 150, 159, 234ff.

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About the Authors Ernst M. Conradie is Senior Professor in the Department of Religion and Theology at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa where he teaches systematic theology and ethics. His recent monographs include Redeeming Sin? Social Diagnostics amid Ecological Destruction (Lexington Books, 2017) and Secular Discourse on Sin in the Anthropocene: What’ Wrong with the World? (Lexington Books, forthcoming). Ulrich Duchrow, Dr. theol. is Professor at the university of Heidelberg/Germany, systematic, esp. ecumenical and social theology, religion-economy issues. He was cofounder and honorary chair of Kairos Europa, an ecumenical grassroots network for economic and ecological justice; member of the Academic Advisory Council of the social movement Attac-Germany. His recent publications in English include Transcending Greedy Money: Interreligious Solidarity for Just Relations. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2012. (together with Franz Hinkelammert); bilingual: co-ed. 7 volumes “Radicalizing reformation”, 2015-2017: http://www.radicalizing-reformation.com/index.php/en/publications.html, especially vol 7: Interreligious Solidarity for Justice in Palestine-Israel – Transcending Luther’s Negation of the Other, ed. Ulrich Duchrow, 2017, free on internet: http://www. reformation-radical.com/files/RR-vol-7-Eng.pdf. Kjetil Hafstad, Senior Professor in Systematic Theology at the University of Oslo. Leader of Nordic network for Contextual Theology 1992-2003. Editor of Kirke og Kultur 1971-2016. He published on history and theology, sexuality, liberation, evil and ideals. Jan-Olav Henriksen, dr. theol & dr. philos., is Professor of Systematic Theology and Philosophy of religion at MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society in Oslo since 1994. Much of his research focuses on theological anthropology and the conditions for religion in the contemporary Western society. He has also been engaged in ecological theology, and is currently working on a Christian response to the climate crisis. Hans-Günter Heimbrock is Professor em. in Practical Theology and Religious Education at Department of Protestant Theology, Goethe-University Frankfurt, Germany. His main research issues are oriented to contextual and empirical theology. Besides he is engaged in homiletics and liturgics as well as in Religious Education. He is coeditor of the book series Religious Diversity and Education in Europe (Waxmann

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About the Authors

publishers, Münster) as well as co-editor of the series Research in Contemporary Religion RCR (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen). Filip Ivanovic is Assistant Professor of Philosophy of Culture and the University of Donja Gorica and director of the Center for Hellenic Studies (Podgorica, Montenegro). He holds Bachelor and Masters degrees from the Department of Philosophy of the University of Bologna, and a PhD from the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology Trondheim. He is the author of a number of books and papers on Greek and Byzantine philosophy, patristics, and aesthetics. Most recently he published Desiring the Beautiful: The Erotic-Aesthetic Dimension of Deification in Dionysius the Areopagite and Maximus the Confessor, Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2019. Antje Jackelén is Archbishop of the Church of Sweden. She has been Professor of Systematic Theology at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago. She has also been the director of Zygon Center for Religion and Science and president of the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology and she holds several honorary doctorates. Tage Kurtén is Professor em. in theological ethics and philosophy of religion. He studied in humanities, social sciences, theology and sociology of religion at Åbo Akademi Finland University. He was researcher at the Academy of Finland and at the Research Institute of the Lutheran church in Finland during 13 years and teacher in systematic theology at Åbo Akademi for many years. Among his English speaking publications are “På väg mot det postsekulära” (Approaching postsecularity – book of articles from the years 1996-2015, including many texts in English) Uppsala 2014, “Moralisk öppenhet” (Moral openness – book of articles from the years 1996-2015, including many texts in English) Uppsala, 2016. Paul Leer-Salvesen is Professor emeritus at Agder University in Kristiansand, Norway. He has published many books and articles in theology, philosophy, criminology and ethics. He has also written children’s literature and novels. He has worked as a free writer, prison chaplain and culture journalist before returning to the university as a professor. Michael Northcott is Professor of Religion and Ecology at the Indonesian Consortium of Religious Studies in Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia. He was Guest Professor at the Faculty of Theology of Heidelberg University in 2018, and from 2007-2017 was Professor of Ethics at the University of Edinburgh where he is now Emeritus Professor.

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About the Authors

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His most recent research monographs are A Political Theology of Climate Change (London 2014) and Place Ecology and the Sacred (London 2015). Peter Manley Scott is Samuel Ferguson Professor of Applied Theology and the Director of the Lincoln Theological Institute at the University of Manchester. He is the author of Theology, Ideology and Liberation (1994), A Political Theology of Nature (2003), Anti-Human Theology: Nature, Technology and the Postnatural (2010) and A Theology of Postnatural Right (2019), and co-editor of the Wiley Blackwell Companion to Political Theology (2e 2019). An Anglican priest, he serves in the Diocese of Manchester.  Jon Skarpeid is Associate Professor in religious studies, University of Stavanger, Norway. He submitted his PhD to NTNU in 2014, under the supervision of Sigurd Bergmann. Skarpeid is interested in religion and music and has also explored religion and globalization. His most recent contribution is co-editing of A Critical Study of Classical Religious Texts in Global Contexts: Challenges of a Changing World, and author in the same anthology of “Globalization and religion: defining the contexts” (2019). Thor-André Skrefsrud is Professor of Education and Religious Studies at the Faculty of Education at Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway. His research interests include intercultural education and educational philosophy. Mika Vähäkangas is Professor of Mission Studies and Ecumenics at Lund University, Sweden. He is also an adjunct professor (docent) in dogmatics at University of Helsinki, Finland, and research fellow in Missiology at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. He serves the World Council of Churches’ Commission for World Mission and Evangelism as an adviser. He is former president of the International Association for Mission Studies and lecturer of Makumira University College, Tanzania.

Urheberrechtlich geschütztes Material! © 2021 Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn, ein Imprint der Brill-Gruppe

Urheberrechtlich geschütztes Material! © 2021 Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn, ein Imprint der Brill-Gruppe