Political Spirituality in an Age of Eco-Apocalypse : Communication and Struggle Across Species, Cultures, and Religions

This book 'hunts and gathers' across different historical epochs and situations, juxtaposing biblical materials and hip-hop, Christian colonialism and vodou, personal experience and racial politics, poetics and high theory, in order to challenge the current crisis of sustainability from the perspective indigenous communities and deep ancestry. This book 'hunts and gathers' across different historical epochs and situations, juxtaposing biblical materials and hip-hop, Christian colonialism and vodou, personal experience and racial politics, poetics and high theory. It is compelled by a desire to challenge the current crisis of sustainability from the point of view of indigenous communities and deep ancestry. Author James W. Perkinson ably synthesizes material from a diverse range of fields, including anarcho-primitivism, biblical studies, and history of religions in order to argue for a 'turn to indigeneity.' The book's motive force is a deep concern for humanity's future in the face of eco-disasters like climate change and population overshoot as well as the compounding problems brought on by political economy calamities. Given the growing trend toward a turn away from institutionalized religious commitment and toward a more generalized and post-modern mix of practices and interests typically styled as 'spiritual, ' the work proposes 'political spirituality' as a theme for investigation. Throughout the book, Perkinson raises the question: What does it really meant to be a human being? This query is posed not merely as a philosophical inquiry or existential musing, but as a personal and political conundrum arising from the overwhelming crises now engulfing our global reality. The book constitutes a poetic 'walk about' across quite different historical epochs and disparate contexts. Creatively foraging for indigenous memories and insurgent energies to help us live and cope in our modern state of unsustainability, the work aims to re-animate love of the wild and 'interspecies listening' for the sake of survival. The text articulates a deep suspicion toward our growing fascination with a kind of 'techno-messianism, ' while nonetheless exploring some of the artistic innovations and meanings emerging from industrialization and digitalization "Cover"--"Half-Title" -- "Title" -- "Copyright" -- "Dedication" -- "Contents" -- "Acknowledgments" -- "Introduction: The Politics and Eco-Logics of â#x80;#x9C;Spiritualâ#x80;#x9D; Communication" -- "The Ensemble at the Crib" -- "An Ensemble of Reflections" -- "The Ensemble of Chapters" -- "1. From Sycamore Trees to Human Destiny: Reading the Wild at the Crossroads of Globalization and Apocalypse" -- "Planetary Extinction?" -- "â#x80;#x9C;Humanâ#x80;#x9D; Communication" -- "Dialectical Identification" -- "Personal Intimation" -- "Communal Privation" -- "Theoretical Reexamination" -- "Indigenous Recapitulation" -- "Part I: The Question in the Biblical Tradition: Communication and Resistance" -- "2. Cainâ#x80;#x99;s Offering and Abelâ#x80;#x99;s Cry: Reading Sabbath Jubilee at the Crossroads of Farming and Foraging" -- "Apocalyptic Reading?" -- "How Do We Read?" -- "From Where Do We Read?" -- "Reading the Biblical Tradition" -- "Reading the Cry" -- "Reading Sabbath-Jubilee" -- "Apocalyptic Reading" -- "3. Wild Weeds and Imperial Trees: Reading a Messianic Parable at the Crossroads of Settlement and the Wild" -- "Like a Mustard Seed" -- "Like a Tree?" -- "Like a Weed" -- "The Messianism of Mustard" -- "Part II: The Question and the Christian Tradition: Communication and Empire" -- "4. Sinai Bush and Jordanian Dove Meet Haitian Snake and Amazonian Vine: Reading Christology at the Crossroads of Empire and Ecology" -- "Reprise" -- "The Other World" -- "Linguistic Innovation" -- "Agro-Imperial Expansionism" -- "Techno-Digital Messianism" -- "Hunter-Gatherer Foraging" -- "Civilizational Criticism" -- "â#x80;#x9C;Christianâ#x80;#x9D; Indigeneity" -- "5. Christian Supremacy and Indigenous Savvy: Reading Race at the Crossroads of Europe and the Americas" -- "Katrina as Terror" -- "The History Left Behind" -- "The Whiteness On Top" -- "The Storm as Teacher" -- "The Wildness Underneath." Front Matter....Pages i-x Introduction The Politics and Eco-Logtcs of “Spiritual” Communication....Pages 1-16 From Sycamore Trees to Human Destiny: Reading the Wild at the Crossroads of Globalization and Apocalypse....Pages 17-32 Front Matter....Pages 33-33 Gain’s Offering And Abel’s Cry: Reading Sabbath Jubilee at the Crossroads of Farming and Foraging....Pages 35-52 Wild Weeds and Imperial Trees: Reading a Messianic Parable at the Crossroads of Settlement and the Wild....Pages 53-66 Front Matter....Pages 67-67 Sinai Bush and Jordanian Dove Meet Haitian Snake and Amazonian Vine: Reading Christology at the Crossroads of Empire and Ecology....Pages 69-86 Christian Supremacy and Indigenous Savvy: Reading Race at the Crossroads of Europe and the Americas....Pages 87-102 Front Matter....Pages 103-103 Underneath Guadalupe; Inside Ezili: Reading Possession at the Crossroads of Performance and Terror....Pages 105-122 Praying with the Corn/Playing on the Horn: Reading Jazz at the Crossroads of the Country and the City....Pages 123-145 Front Matter....Pages 147-147 DJ Qbert as Cyber-Mantac Shaman: Reading DJ-ing at the Crossroads of Tradition and Information....Pages 149-170 Grammar of Spirit Inside De-Industrial Ferment: Reading Hip-Hop Beats at the Crossroads of Blight and Order....Pages 171-184 Front Matter....Pages 185-185 Thinking from the Diaspora Back Toward the Homeland: Reading Humanity at the Crossroads of Solidarity and Extinction....Pages 187-201 Back Matter....Pages 203-228