Climate Change and the Symbol Deficit in the Christian Tradition

Expanding Gendered Sources

Professor Dr. Jan-Olav Henriksen (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

280 Seiten

2023
T.& T.Clark Ltd (Verlag)
978-0-567-70501-3 (ISBN)

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Exploring how the climate crisis discloses the symbol deficit in the Christian tradition, this book argues that Christianity is rich in symbols that identify and address the failures of humans and the obstacles that prevent humans from doing well, while positive symbols that can engage people in constructive action seem underdeveloped. Henriksen examines the potential of the Christian tradition to develop symbols that can engage peoples in committed and sustained action to prevent further crisis. To do so, he argues that we need symbols that engage both intellectually and emotionally, and which enhance our perception of belonging in relationships with other humans, be it both in the present and in the future.

According to Henriksen, the deficit can only be obliterated if we can develop symbols that have some root or resonance in the Christian tradition, provide concrete and specified guidance of agency, engage people both emotionally and intellectually, and finally open up to visions for a moral agency that provide positive motivations for caring about environmental conditions as a whole.

Jan-Olav Henriksen is Professor of Philosophy of Religion in MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society, Norway.

Introduction: The Deficit Thesis and the Task It Presents

Part 1: Contexts for the Symbol Deficit

Chapter One:
From Acts of God to the Anthropocene

Chapter Two:
Culprits for the Predicament

Chapter Three:
Consumer Idolatry

Chapter Four:
Religion in Denial

Chapter Five:
To Empower Those Who Suffer and Give Voice to Those Who Lack It

Part 2: Conditions for symbolic practices

Chapter Six:
Symbols as Mediating Practice

Chapter Seven:
Conditions for Agency: A Critique of Modernity’s Detached Subject

Chapter Eight:
Symbols for Enhancing Moral Motivation and Avoiding Defection

Chapter Nine:
An Inductive, Experientially Oriented Theology

Part 3: Symbols for Practices

Chapter Ten:
God as Creator - A Critical Symbol?

Chapter Eleven:
From Anthropos to All of Creation

Chapter Twelve:
Symbolic Deficits in Apocalypticism – Towards a Presentist Eschatology

Chapter Thirteen:
Sin

Chapter Fourteen:
Symbols for Hope – A Critical Evaluation

Chapter Fifteen:
Sacrifice, Hope, and Grace

Bibliography
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	07.02.2022
Reihe/Serie	T&T Clark Explorations in Theology, Gender and Ecology
Verlagsort	Edinburgh
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 234 mm
Themenwelt	Religion / Theologie ► Christentum ► Kirchengeschichte
ISBN-10	0-567-70501-3 / 0567705013
ISBN-13	978-0-567-70501-3 / 9780567705013
Zustand	Neuware