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Five hundred years ago the Protestant Reformation inspired profound theological, ecclesial, economic, and social transformations. But what impact does the Protestant tradition have today? And what might it have? This volume addresses such questions, focusing on the economic and ecological implications of the Protestant doctrine of grace. In the late twentieth-century, a number of Protestant scholars countered Max Weber’s famous work on Protestantism and capitalism by arguing that Calvin and Luther were prophetic critics of early capitalist practices. While acknowledging the importance of this scholarship, Terra Rowe argues that a more nuanced approach is necessary. This narrative tends to ...
"This book critically analyzes the ways that energy, extraction, and oil-in ancient to modern thought-have been entwined with Western gender ideals and Christian narratives of divinity, grace, and redemption. Given the urgency around energy shifts, the book also explores "alternative energies"-not of a technosavior incarnation, but in relics and queer margins of the Christian tradition that might inspire alternative desires, rhythms of life, and spiritual-psychic-embodied alliances. Rowe explores how, in the context of Western thought, energy has since ancient times been conceptualized in concert with spirituality and religion. In this historical-cultural scope it has also consistently been gendered. Arguing that when it comes to climate change, the need to fundamentally rethink energy policies, practices, values, and assumptions becomes urgent, this book examines how a consistent obstacle to making these key shifts is the fact that we have become unconscious of the ways religion and gender have formed our energy values and expectations-and so repeat the worst of our theologies and gender norms in our energy practices and policies"--
There is growing consensus that life on the planet is in peril if climate change continues at its current pace. At stake is not only the future of many species but of humanity itself. As an increasing number of ecological economists have emphasized, these problems will only be adequately addressed by re-examining economic systems from an ecological perspective, fundamentally calling into question assumptions of unlimited growth and the maximization of shareholder profit foundational to neoliberal capitalism. Religion and ecology scholars have also increasingly emphasized the ways climate change challenges assumed divides between nature and culture, religion and labor, economy and ecology, an...
The title of this book plays upon the central place a theology of the cross holds in Lutheran theologies, especially lucid in Luther's Heidelberg Disputation (1518). The 500th anniversary of this document coincided with the 70th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations wherein the preamble points to a global aspiration of a common good shaped by freedom, justice and peace. This book is located at the intersection of these two themes, asserting that the cross has material content in being the means by which Christ in suffering solidarity with individuals, communities, and the cosmos advances freedom, justice, and peace. Employing a variety of methods, and exploring a broad range of geographic locales, the contributors illumine the misuse of Reformation themes and offer a corrective in service of a common good that is publicly accountable and theologically sound. The book thereby explores how contemporary Lutheran theology has utility both for analyzing injustice and for advancing justice in local as well as global contexts.
In times of rising pressures and catastrophes, people yearn for alternatives. So does the planet. Protests are often a start, but rebellion is not revolution, nor does it always lead to transformation. In this incisive and compelling new book, Joerg Rieger takes a new look at the things that cause unease and discomfort in our time, leading to the growing destruction and death of people and the planet. Only when these causes are understood, he argues, can real alternatives be developed. And yet, understanding is only a start. Solidarity, and the willingness to work at the seemingly impossible intersections of everything--the triad of gender, race, and class, yes, but more beyond--must mark the work of theology. Without solidarities that match the complexities of our world, the best we can hope for is inclusion in the dominant system but hardly the systemic change and liberation we so desperately need.
Globalization and climate weirding are two of the leading phenomena that challenge and change the way we need to think and act within the planetary community. Modern Western understandings of human beings, animals, and the rest of the natural world and the subsequent technologies built on those understandings have thrown us into an array of social and ecological crises with planetary implications. Earthly Things: Immanence, New Materialisms, and Planetary Thinking, argues that more immanent or planetary ways of thinking and acting have great potential for re-thinking human-technology-animal-Earth relationships and for addressing problems of global climate weirding and other forms of ecologic...
Based on case studies, the book creates a multidisciplinary conversation on the gendered vulnerabilities resulting from extractive industries and toxic pollution, and also charts the resilience and courage of women as they resist polluting industries, fight for clean water and seek to protect the land. While ecumenical in scope, the book takes its departure from the concept of integral ecology introduced in Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si'. The first three sections of the book focus on the social and ecological challenges facing minoritized women and their communities that are related to mining, pollutants and biodiversity loss, and toxicity. The final section of the book focuses on the ...
Predominant climate change narratives emphasize a global emissions problem, while diagnoses of environmental crises have long focused a modern loss of meaning, value, and enchantment in nature. Yet neither of these common portrayals of environmental emergency adequately account for the ways climate change is rooted in extractivisms that have been profoundly enchanted. The proposed critical petro-theology analyzes the current energy driven climate crisis through critical gender, race, decolonial, and postsecular lenses. Both predominant narratives obscure the entanglements of bodies and energy: how energy concepts and practices have consistently delineated genres of humanity and how energy systems and technologies have shaped bodies. Consequently, these analytical and ethical aims inform an exploration of alternative embodied energies that can be attended to in the disrupted time/space of energy intensive, extractive capitalism.
Exploring how the climate crisis discloses the symbol deficit in the Christian tradition, this book argues that Christianity is rich in symbols that identify and address the failures of humans and the obstacles that prevent humans from doing well, while positive symbols that can engage people in constructive action seem underdeveloped. Henriksen examines the potential of the Christian tradition to develop symbols that can engage peoples in committed and sustained action to prevent further crisis. To do so, he argues that we need symbols that engage both intellectually and emotionally, and which enhance our perception of belonging in relationships with other humans, be it both in the present and in the future. According to Henriksen, the deficit can only be obliterated if we can develop symbols that have some root or resonance in the Christian tradition, provide concrete and specified guidance of agency, engage people both emotionally and intellectually, and finally open up to visions for a moral agency that provide positive motivations for caring about environmental conditions as a whole.
The Encyclopedia of Martin Luther and the Reformation is a comprehensive global study of the life and work of Martin Luther and the movements that followed him—in history and through today. Organized by a stellar advisory board of Luther and Reformation scholars, the encyclopedia features nearly five hundred entries that examine Luther’s life and impact worldwide. The two-volume set provides overviews of basics such as the 95 Theses as well as more complex topics such as reformational distinctions. Entries explore Luther’s contributions to theology, sacraments, his influence on the church and contemporaries, his character, and more. The work also discusses Luther’s controversies and topics such as gender, sexuality, and race. Publishing at the five hundredth anniversary of the Reformation, this is an essential reference work for understanding the Reformation and its legacy today.