EARLY in July, there was a mass lobby of the UK Parliament supported by a number of Christian organisations and churches calling for serious government action on growing climate chaos (Comment, 4 July; News, 11 July). As far as I can discover, it was not mentioned on any national news, and had no report in any national newspaper. Hardly a picture of a major national emergency.
In contrast, this book, with majority input from the Global South, is marked by passion and urgency. It is searching to understand, and to provide ecological and theological perspectives on the growing climate collapse, on loss of biodiversity, on deforestation, on mass extinction of species, the expected growing number of climate refugees, and the call for ecojustice, and the part to be played by the Christian Churches in our current climate chaos.
The book is edited by Luis Martinez Andrade, a sociologist, currently working in Louvain, Belgium, and Seforosa Carroll, who grew up in Fiji, has worked in the United States, and currently teaches theology in Australia. It includes papers from a dozen other scholars currently in Austria, the US, Natal, India, Taiwan, Switzerland, Greece, South Africa, and Brazil. It is the outcome of a DARE conference in Bankok in 2023.
DARE (Discernment and Radical Engagement) seeks to convey the radical discipleship and prophetic spirituality of the CWM (Council for World Mission), a global mission community of 32 predominantly Reformed Protestant churches, formed in the 1970s. Inspired by various strands of liberation theology, DARE 2023, brought together 120 participants from 30 countries predominantly the Global South, to develop resources for theological and biblical education.
It focused on critical concerns related to ecology, economy, development, rituals, slavery, and theology in the context of global crises. It was a stand against such “life-denying” Western powers (colonial, capitalist) that “deny, disable and enslave”, and instead — refusing to see the world “through Western eyes” — determined to create liberation theologies and practices for future education.
The book’s concerns include decolonising Christian philosophical perspectives; gender and health issues; ecofeminist readings of the Old Testament; ecofeminism and “critique of neoliberal economic globalisation”, especially in relation to indigenous knowledge; decolonial thinking; inclusive education; intercultural theology; and concerns such as the legacies of slavery and colonisation.
One significant area of debate in the book is about the use of “Anthropocene”, a term used for the past two decades to name the current geological age, the period of significant global impact that human activities have had on the earth, especially since the Industrial Revolution. Some find this term a useful reminder of human responsibility for much of the ecological chaos many experience. Some parts of humanity are, however, shaping the fate of our planet more than others. Some have power, but many are struggling in poverty.
A much better term, some argue, is the “Capitalocene” — which focuses on the economic-cultural climate in which consumption and acquisitiveness are driven by the interests of corporate investors. Capitalocene, they say, “unmasks the processes of domination” (of the global North over the global South) and recognises the dynamics, systematic relationships, and power of capitalist extraction and exploitation.
The book has three main sections. First, five papers headed “Theology”: hee are fundamental issues for contemporary theological and social thought, ranging from the decolonial turn to anti-war ecofeminism, and the part to be played by the Churches in this climate chaos and in envisaging an alternative future in the face of climate collapse.
Second, three papers headed “Ecology” focus mainly on the ecological dimension of certain currents of theological, philosophical, and socio-anthropological thought: an indigenous feminist perspective from Taiwan, a view from Europe, and one from Greek Orthodox tradition.
Third, three “Voices from the Global South” include a deeply personal theological diary from Suzana Moreira, a socio-environmental activist from Brazil, a nomad theologian who has been learning to “deconstruct the white, cisheteronormative, colonial and Eurocentric Catholic worldview” in which she was born.
Among the numerous quotations, there are many from the liberation theologian Leonardo Boff, and some from the Marxist philosopher and cultural critic Ernst Bloch. I was surprised that there are only two references to Jesus, both quotations, one from Jon Sobrino and the other from Pope Francis.
This is an urgent message for Churches world-wide to re-envision our place in relation to the rest of God’s creation in a rapidly changing world. These papers, some heavily academic, all fully referenced, and mostly clearly presented, are geared to fresh thinking on ecojustice, cooperation, and hope instead of hopelessness.
Dr David Atkinson is an honorary assistant bishop in the diocese of Southwark.
Facing Climate Collapse: Ecology, theology and Capitalocene
Luis Martinez Andrade and Seforosa Carroll, editors
SCM Press £30
(978-0-334-06633-0)
Church Times Bookshop £24
