Protecting Nature, Saving Creation: Ecological Conflicts, Religious Passions, and Political Quandaries

317 Pages·2013·2.331 MB·English

by  Pasquale Gagliardi, Anne Marie Reijnen, Philipp Valentini

Protecting Nature, Saving Creation
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Protecting Nature, Saving
Creation
Ecological Conflicts, Religious
Passions, and Political Quandaries
Edited by
Pasquale Gagliardi
Anne Marie Reijnen
Philipp Valentini
PROTECTING NATURE, SAVING CREATION
Copyright © Pasquale Gagliardi, Anne Marie Reijnen, and Philipp Valentini, 2013.
All rights reserved.
First published in 2013 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN: 978–1–137–36175–2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the
Library of Congress.
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: December 2013
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
List of Figures and Table i x
Acknowledgments xi
List of Contributors xiii
Introduction 1
Pasquale Gagliardi
Ariadne and the Minotaur: A Thread Winding through
the Labyrinth (A Guide for Readers) 7
Anne Marie Reijnen
Part I Proceedings of the Dialogue
1 Taking in the Real: Human Beings and the Earth
(Opening Speech) 19
Card. Angelo Scola, Patriarch of Venice
2 Ecological Conflicts and Religious Passions:
A Patchwork of Beliefs 27
3 “Nature” or “Creation”? Difficult Choices of
the Church Fathers 33
Izabela Jurasz
4 “Dame Nature Cares Nothing for Us” 43
Simon Schaffer
5 Creation and Salvation 63
Bruno Latour
6 Harmonious Cosmos and the World of the Fall: Natural
and Counternatural in the Orthodox Christian Tradition 7 7
Elizabeth Theokritoff
7 Seeing the World, Hearing the Word: Cosmos and Creation in
Protestant Theology 101
Anne Marie Reijnen
vi Contents
8 Roman Catholic Contributions to Address the
Current Ecological Crisis 1 13
Andrea Vicini
9 The “Cosmism” of Islam as a Possible Response to
the Current Ecological Crisis 1 39
Eric Geoffroy
10 Economies and Ecologies of the Sacred in Zimbabwe 149
Matthew Engelke
11 E conomic Development, Anthropomorphism, and
the Principle of Reasonable Sufficiency 161
Eduardo Viveiros de Castro
12 Economic and Ecological Challenges: Is There a Role
for Religion? 1 81
Ignazio Musu
13 Modernization as Liberation Theology 1 95
Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus
Part II Afterthoughts
A Preliminary Notice 223
Pasquale Gagliardi
14 Afterthought: Of Maker’s Knowledge 225
Simon Schaffer
15 Thoughts after the Dialogue . . . 233
Izabela Jurasz
16 Mobilizing Religions for the Ecological Crisis:
An Urgent but Difficult Task 237
Ignazio Musu
17 Evolve: Modernization as the Road to Salvation 241
Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus
18 My Manifesto for the Dialogue 249
Bruno Latour
19 Roman Catholic Commitment to Promoting Sustainability 2 53
Andrea Vicini
20 The Balance of Nature. What Can Be Learned from
the History of the Earth and Life 2 59
George Theokritoff
Contents vii
21 What Is My Personal Outcome from This Dialogue? 269
Eric Geoffroy
22 Part of Creation Called to Be Gods: Further Thoughts
on the Place of Humans 2 73
Elizabeth Theokritoff
23 Defining the Commonplace as the Common Place:
Cosmopolitanism and the Cross 281
Anne Marie Reijnen
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Figures and Table
Figures
Cover art N oah sends out the dove from the ark , mosaic, courtesy of
“Procuratoria della Basilica di San Marco,” Venice
2.1 Grayson Perry, Map of Truths and Beliefs 31
5.1 Frontispiece of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley 64
7.1 The Blue Marble 102
7.2 Woman holding globe on her hands 106
13.1 Alps model 199
13.2 Global population and global GDP 201
13.3 Global GDP and global emissions 202
22.1 Fr. Andrew Cuneo throws the cross in the water 276
23.1 Aztec stone calendar 2 84
Table
20.1 The Geological Timescale with summary of climate
changes and major extinction events 264