Technofutures, Nature and the Sacred

Technofutures, Nature and the Sacred PDF Author: Celia Deane-Drummond
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 131704648X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
The capacity of human beings to invent, construct and use technical artifacts is a hugely consequential factor in the evolution of society, and in the entangled relations between humans, other creatures and their natural environments. Moving from a critical consideration of theories, to narratives about technology, and then to particular and specific practices, Technofutures, Nature and the Sacred seeks to arrive at a genuinely transdisciplinary perspective focusing attention on the intersection between technology, religion and society and using insights from the environmental humanities. It works from both theoretical and practical contexts by using newly emerging case studies, including geo-engineering and soil carbon technologies, and breaks open new ground by engaging theological, scientific, philosophical and cultural aspects of the technology/religion/nature nexus. Encouraging us to reflect on the significance and place of religious beliefs in dealing with new technologies, and engaging critical theory common in sociological, political and literary discourses, the authors explore the implicit religious claims embedded in technology.

A Theology of Postnatural Right

A Theology of Postnatural Right PDF Author: Peter Manley Scott
Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster
ISBN: 3643910762
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
This study provides a theological and social ethics for an ecological age. It develops a concept of right for an order of creaturely life. This order consists of a "society" that encompasses humans and other creatures. The concept of right presented here is elaborated by reference to a postnatural condition, which rejects claims of a given natural order. Strong contrasts between nature and the human as well as nature and technology are also called into question. A pioneering study, this theory of right faces an ecological horizon, draws on theological resources in the doctrine of creation and proposes an ethics towards a freer social order.

Religion in the Anthropocene

Religion in the Anthropocene PDF Author: Celia Deane-Drummond
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 071889538X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 364

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Book Description
Religion in the Anthropocene charts a new direction in humanities scholarship through serious engagement with the geopolitical concept of the Anthropocene. Drawing on religious studies, theology, social science, history, philosophy, and what can be broadly termed as environmental humanities, this collection represents a groundbreaking critical analysis of diverse narratives on the Anthropocene. The contributors to this volume recognize that the Anthropocene began as a geological concept, the age of the humans, but that its implications are much wider than this. Does the Anthropocene idea challenge the possibility of a sacred Nature, or is it a secularized theological anthropology more properly dealt with through traditional concepts from Roman Catholic social teaching on human ecology? Not all contributors to this volume agree about the answers to these and many more different questions. Readers will be challenged, provoked, and stimulated by this book.

Conversations on Human Nature

Conversations on Human Nature PDF Author: Agustín Fuentes
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315431513
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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Book Description
Recent empirical and philosophical research into the evolutionary history of Homo sapiens, the origins of the mind/brain, and the development of human culture has sparked heated debates about what it means to be human and how knowledge about humans from the sciences and humanities should be understood. Conversations on Human Nature, featuring 20 interviews with leading scholars in biology, psychology, anthropology, philosophy, and theology, brings these debates to life for teachers, students, and general readers. The book-outlines the basic scientific, philosophical and theological issues involved in understanding human nature;-organizes material from the various disciplines under four broad headings: (1) evolution, brains and human nature; (2) biocultural human nature; (3) persons, minds and human nature, (4) religion, theology and human nature; -concludes with Fuentes and Visala's discussion of what researchers into human nature agree on, what they disagree on, and what we need to learn to resolve those differences.

God and the Book of Nature

God and the Book of Nature PDF Author: Mark Harris
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1003809960
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
God and the Book of Nature develops theological views of the natural sciences in light of the recent theological turn in science-and-religion scholarship and the ‘science-engaged theology’ movement. Centered around the Book of Nature metaphor, it brings together contributions by theologians, natural scientists, and philosophers based in Europe and North America. They provide an exploration of complementary (and even contesting) readings of the Book of Nature, particularly in light of the vexing questions that arise around essentialism and unity in the field of science and religion. Taking an experimental and open-ended approach, the volume does not attempt to unify the readings into a single ‘plot’ that defines the Book of Nature, still less a single ‘theology of nature’, but instead it represents a variety of hermeneutical stances. Overall the book embraces a constructive theological attitude toward the modern sciences, and makes significant contributions to the research literature in science and religion.

The Nature of Things

The Nature of Things PDF Author: Graham Buxton
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1498235158
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
In 2015 a conference on "Rediscovering the Spiritual in God's Creation" was held at the Serafino winery complex in the McLaren Vale region of South Australia. The aim of the conference was not to seek consensus but to survey the landscape with a view to intentional responsible action in caring for God's creation. Delegates were challenged to recognize their own worldviews and to widen their horizons to encompass the enormity of the transcendence and immanence of God's presence in all creation. A group of leading international scholars and experts in the fields of science, ecology, theology, and ethics participated in a multidisciplinary conversation on the spiritual in creation, with the aim of discovering fresh horizons with regard to creation care, liturgy, justice, and discipleship within the Christian community. The chapters in this volume reflect the diversity of perspectives summarized in The Serafino Declaration, which was crafted towards the end of the conference. This declaration (which opens the volume) outlines a range of views relating to the presence of the spiritual in creation, views that are both traditional and radical. This volume highlights the current concern over ecological destruction and finds sources of inspiration in the deepest roots of our traditions and forms of spirituality to sustain efforts towards custodianship of the land and care for God's creation. Contributors: David Rhoads Paul Santmire Denis Edwards Bob White Heather Eaton Ernst Conradie Vicky Balabanski Celia Deane-Drummond Mark Worthing Emily Colgan Dianne Rayson Anne Gardner Mark Liederbach Patricia Fox Anne Elvey Mick Pope

Wild

Wild PDF Author: Solveig Bøe
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350099457
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
In this interdisciplinary work, philosophers from different specialisms connect with the notion of the wild today and interrogate how it is mediated through the culture of the Anthropocene. They make use of empirical material like specific artworks, films and other cultural works related to the term 'wild' to consider the aesthetic experience of nature, focusing on the untamed, the boundless, the unwieldy, or the unpredictable; in other words, aspects of nature that are mediated by culture. This book maps out the wide range of ways in which we experience the wildness of nature aesthetically, relating both to immediate experience as well as to experience mediated through cultural expression. A variety of subjects are relevant in this context, including aesthetics, art history, theology, human geography, film studies, and architecture. A theme that is pursued throughout the book is the wild in connection with ecology and its experience of nature as both a constructive and destructive force.

Weather, Religion and Climate Change

Weather, Religion and Climate Change PDF Author: Sigurd Bergmann
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000290751
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
Weather, Religion and Climate Change is the first in-depth exploration of the fascinating way in which the weather impacts on the fields of religion, art, culture, history, science, and architecture. In critical dialogue with meteorology and climate science, this book takes the reader beyond the limits of contemporary thinking about the Anthropocene and explores whether a deeper awareness of weather might impact on the relationship between nature and self. Drawing on a wide range of examples, including paintings by J.M.W. Turner, medieval sacred architecture, and Aristotle’s classical Meteorologica, Bergmann examines a geographically and historically wide range of cultural practices, religious practices, and worldviews in which weather appears as a central, sacred force of life. He also examines the history of scientific meteorology and its ambivalent commodification today, as well as medieval "weather witchery" and biblical perceptions of weather as a kind of "barometer" of God’s love. Overall, this volume explores the notion that a new awareness of weather and its atmospheres can serve as a deep cultural and spiritual driving force that can overcome the limits of the Anthropocene and open a new path to the "Ecocene", the age of nature. Drawing on methodologies from religious studies, cultural studies, art history and architecture, philosophy, environmental ethics and aesthetics, history, and theology, this book will be of great interest to all those concerned with studying the environment from a transdisciplinary perspective on weather and wisdom.

Consecrating Science

Consecrating Science PDF Author: Lisa H. Sideris
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520294971
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
"In Consecrating Science, Lisa Sideris offers a searing critique of 'The New Cosmology,' a complex network of overlapping movements that claim to bring together science and spirituality, all in the name of saving our planet from impending ecological collapse. Highly regarded in many academic circles, these movements have been endorsed by numerous prominent scholars, scientists, historians, and educators. Their express goal--popularized in numerous books, films, TED talks, YouTube videos, podcasts, and even introductory courses at places like Harvard or Washington University--is to instill in readers and audiences a profound sense of being at home in the universe, thereby fostering environmentally responsible behavior. Whether promoted as 'The New Story,' 'The Universe Story,' or 'The Epic of Evolution,' they all offer humanity a new sacred story, a common creation myth for modern times and for all people: the evolutionary unfolding of the universe from the Big Bang to the present. Evolutionary science and religious cosmology--together at last! But as Sideris shows, however, the New Cosmology actually underwrites a staggeringly anthropocentric vision of the world. Instead of cultivating an ethic of respect for nature, the project of 'consecrating science' only increases human arrogance and indifference to nonhuman life. Going back to the work of Rachel Carson and other naturalists, the author shows how a sense of wonder, rooted in the natural world and our own ethical impulses, helps foster environmental attitudes and policies that protect our planet"--Provided by publishe

Spaces in-between

Spaces in-between PDF Author: Mark Luccarelli
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 900429936X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
Spaces in-between goes beyond the emphasis on externalities signalled by the term ‘environment’ to address the isolation of modern technological culture from nature. Solutions require more than an awareness of ‘natural surroundings’ and human destructiveness. We think in terms of the re-conceptualization, re-design and re-negotiation of space. The book is concerned with social practices, belief systems, urban designs, the organization and representation of landscapes and modes of living. These aspects of ‘spatiality’ suggest how to conceive and practice the intermingling of nature and culture and how to develop public commitment to such practices. In the process we show how concern for the environment as an aspect of space helps us to reconceive and reinterpret what it means to be human.