Religion in the Anthropocene

Celia Deane-Drummond is Professor of Theology and Director of the Center for Theology, Science and Human Flourishing at the University of Notre Dame. Her recent books include The Wisdom of the Liminal (2014), Technofutures, Nature, and the Sacred (coeditor, 2015) and Ecology in Jurgen Moltmann's Theology.Sigurd Bergmann is Professor of Religious Studies in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway. His recent books include Religion, Space, and the Environment (2014) and Technofutures, Nature, and the Sacred (coeditor, 2015).Markus Vogt is Professor of Christian Social Ethics at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany. His recent books include Prinzip Nachhaltigkeit (3rd ed. 2013) Wo steht die Umweltethik? (coeditor 2013), and Die Welt des Anthropozän (coeditor 2016).

• List of Figures Foreword: The Anthropocene as a Challenge for Public Theology - Heinrich Bedford-StrohmAcknowledgments Contributors The Future of Religion in the Anthropocene Era - Celia Deane-Drummond, Sigurd Bergmann, and Markus VogtPart 1: Setting the Stage1 On Going Gently into the Anthropocene - Michael Northcott2 From the Anthropocene Epoch to a New Axial Age:Using Theory-Fictions to Explore Geo-Spiritual Futures - Bronislaw Szerszynski3 Transformations of Stewardship in the Anthropocene - Christoph Baumgartner4 Religion at Work within Climate Change: Eight Perceptionsabout Its Where and How - Sigurd BergmannPart 2: Historical Matters5 Bridging the Great Divide: The Anthropocene as a Challengeto the Social Sciences and Humanities - Franz Mauelshagen6 Becoming Human in the Anthropocene - Agustín FuentesPart 3: Philosophical Analyses7 De-moralizing and Re-moralizing the Anthropocene - Maria Antonaccio8 Anthropocene Fever: Memory and the Planetary Archive - Stefan Skrimshire9 Reconsidering the Anthropocene as Milieu: William Desmondand the Originary Goodness of Being - Francis Van den NoortgaetePart 4: Theological Trajectories10 Performing the Beginning in the End: A Theological Anthropologyfor the Anthropocene - Celia Deane-Drummond11 Cooled Down Love and an Overheated Atmosphere: René Girardon Ecology and Apocalypticism in the Anthropocene - Petra Steinmair-Pösel12 Beyond Human Exceptionalism: Christology in theAnthropocene - Matthew Eaton13 American Evangelicalism, Apocalypticism, and theAnthropocene - Marisa RonanPart 5: Ethical Deliberations14 Human Ecology as a Key Discipline of Environmental Ethicsin the Anthropocene - Markus Vogt15 Protection of Threatened Species in the Anthropocene:A Theological-Ethical Perspective - Anders MelinPart 6: Sociopolitical Transformations16 Contesting the Good Life of Technological Modernityin the Anthropocene - Ian Barns17 The Anthropocene and the Future of Diplomacy: Religion,Ecology, and Transnational Relations in the Age of HumanResponsibility - David Joseph WellmanBibliography General Index

'Interpreting what it means to live in a time characterized by pervasive human influence throughout Earth's systems involves questions and narratives that appear religious in scope, even while they also challenge conventional religious thought. The essays in this collection, edited well so that they are both coherent and helpfully contradictory with one another, offer readers multiple ways into the conflicts and possibilities in the idea of the Anthropocene.'- Willis Jenkins, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, University of Virginia'This timely book takes the notion of the Anthropocene literally by providing historical, theological, philosophical, and ethical elaborations on what it actually means that humanity has become a dominant force of the earth system. It is a scholarly account of the deeper human dimensions of the Anthropocene, moving beyond its predominating framing as a natural science phenomenon.'- Dieter Gerten, earth system scientist, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, professor, Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin, Geography Department'Religion in the Anthropocene marks the first thorough treatment of religious and quasi-religious dimensions of the Anthropocene from perspectives as diverse as philosophy, theology, anthropology, and history, among others. This impressive collection of international scholarly voices aims not at consensus or easy answers, but fully explores the Anthropocene's profoundly ambivalent implications for humanity's place in nature and deep time, and our responsibilities for nonhuman others. Readers new to the topic, as well as scholars in the field, will come away with fresh--and sometimes disconcerting--insights into what it means to be human in the Age of Humans.'- Lisa H. Sideris, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Indiana University Laudato Si, this document receives a fair bit of attention in this book, which is not surprising given it-s influence, but this widespread attention is a turn of events in the world of scholarship that could not have been predicted a decade ago. This book is an important rejoinder to the scientifically dominant discourse that surrounds the concept of the anthropocene. This book is recommended.-Paul Allen, Corpus Christi College, Vancouver, Canada