Contemporary Religious Ecology

doi:10.1017/9781108860666.014

13 - Contemporary Religious Ecology

from Part II - Histories

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 July 2022

Sean J. McGrath

Edited by

Alexander J. B. Hampton and

Douglas Hedley

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Alexander J. B. Hampton: Affiliation:
University of Toronto
Douglas Hedley: Affiliation:
University of Cambridge

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Summary

The landscape of contemporary religious ecology is presented in this article as a variety of responses to disenchantment and what Lynn White identified as the theological roots of environmental ruin (Biblical divine transcendence and human exceptionality). The various positions are mapped in terms of those who deny divine transcendence and make nature, either as actually or only potentially infinite, the highest (pantheists); those who deny divine unicity and return to a pre-Christian, “enchanted” nature (neo-pagans); and those who defend in various ways the ecology of the Biblical account of creation (Jewish, Muslim, and Christian monotheists).

Keywords

Pantheism neo-paganism monotheism disenchantment re-enchantment transcendence immanence ontology stewardship Trinity

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge Companion to Christianity and the Environment , pp. 197 - 214

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108860666.014 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2022

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