Philosophy of Climate Apocalypticism

Jakub Kowalewski is Research Fellow at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, London. He is also the editor of The Environmental Apocalypse: Interdisciplinary Reflections on the Climate Crisis (Routledge 2023).

• Acknowledgements. Introduction and initial hypotheses. Chapter 1: The answer is ideology!. Chapter 2: The conceptual orbit of apocalypticism. Chapter 3: Why being is on nobody’s side: The politics and ontology of climate apocalypse. Chapter 4: The shapes of eco-apocalyptic time. Chapter 5: A requiem for a world built on sand: Landscapes and the ambivalence of ruins. Chapter 6: When the world ends, I will move to Paris: Anxiety, apathy, and activism. Chapter 7: Antinomianism and spectral laws. Index.

From Noah to Italian Marxism to Planet of the Apes, Kowalewski assembles a dizzying array of philosophical, theological and cultural texts in order to analyse our responses to eco-catastrophes. The resulting argument for an apocalypticism of the everyday contains no easy answers – only challenges to think and act differently.Tommy Lynch, Reader in Political Theology, University of Chichester, UKBacked by a thorough study of the apocalyptic tradition, from Paul through Joachim da Fiore and Taubes to contemporary discourse of eco-apocalypse, Kowalewski proposes an aporetic apocalypticism as the only thought capable of taking us out of the current double bind in which the reproductive means of humankind’s survival begin to endanger this very survival.Agata Bielik-Robson, Professor of Jewish Studies, University of Nottingham, UK Resisting tired tropes and familiar narratives, Kowalewski brings together ancient and contemporary apocalypticisms into an exciting and provocative account of eco-politics in a time of crises.Marika Rose, Senior Lecturer in Philosophical Theology, University of Winchester, UK