Global Religion and the Climate Crisis

Overview & Synopsis

The climate crisis is the fundamental litmus test for any theory about the relationship between nature and religion. This conference volume explores the climate crisis as a foundational and cross-cutting challenge for the academic disciplines of practical theology and religious studies. Contributors from around the world address pressing questions related to epistemology and methodology, such as religious anthropocentrism and eco-spirituality. Other topics include religious environmental ethos and its connection to nature experiences, contextual knowledge of nature, the role of religious communities in the face of climate change, and the significance of the environmental crisis for religious education, pastoral care, liturgy, and preaching. As an ambivalent factor, religion can strengthen environmental awareness and activism, but it can also ideologically reinforce human domination and exploitation of nature. The interdisciplinary dialogue between practical theology and religious studies addresses conceptual and action-theoretical questions from a global perspective. Through the comparative analysis of various forms and contexts of religious practice using theoretical and empirical approaches, this volume contributes to the public debate on one of the most pressing challenges facing humanity today from the fields of practical theology and religious studies.