Theology on a Defiant Earth: Seeking Hope in the Anthropocene (Religious Ethics and Environmental Challenges)

Humanity operates like a force of nature capable of affecting the destiny of the Earth System. This epochal shift profoundly alters the relationship between humankind and the Earth, presenting the conscious, thinking human animal with an unprecedented dilemma: As human power has grown over the Earth, so has the power of nature to extinguish human life. The emergence of the Anthropocene has settled any question of the place of human beings in the world: we stand inescapably at its center. The outstanding question—which forms the impetus and focus for this book—remains: What kind of human being stands at the center of the world? And what is the nature of that world? Unlike the scientific fact of human-centeredness, this is a moral question, a question that brings theology within the scope of reflection on the critical failures of human irresponsibility. Much of Christian theology has so far flunked the test of engaging the reality of the Anthropocene. The authors of these original essays begin with the premise that it is time to push harder at the questions the Anthropocene poses for people of faith. Theology on a Defiant Earth Contents Preface Introduction: Theology on a Defiant Earth Chapter 1: The Anthropocene Epoch and Its Meaning Chapter 2: A Rupture in the Earth: An Implicit Augustinian Theology of the Anthropocene Chapter 3: Is It Time for a Theological Step-Change? Chapter 4: Icarus Falling: Theological Anthropology and the Anthropocene Chapter 5: Thy Kingdom Come: Bonhoeffer’s Earthly Christianity as Theology and Ethic Chapter 6: Anthropocene and Ecclesia: The Church as a Political Swarm Chapter 7: Thinking Eschatologically in the Face of the Anthropocene Chapter 8: Apocalypse and the Anthropocene: A Biblical Resource for a New Global Epoch Chapter 9: Redeeming Eden: Biblical Ethics in the Anthropocene Chapter 10: The Serpent in the Garden—Sin and the Anthropocene Chapter 11: Defiant God: The Fate of Christianity’s Holocene Ontology in the Anthropocene Chapter 12: A Climate of Hope? Reflections on the Theology of the Anthropocene Bibliography Index About the Contributors "In this book, theologians and scholars of religion grapple with the political, philosophical, and ethical implications of a climate crisis provoked by one species, our own, serving its needs at the increasingly intolerable cost of all life on the planet"-- Provided by publisher "In this book, theologians and scholars of religion grapple with the political, philosophical, and ethical implications of a climate crisis provoked by one species, our own, serving its needs at the increasingly intolerable cost of all life on the planet"-- Résumé de l'éditeur