Religion in Environmental and Climate Change - Suffering, Values, Lifestyles

Climate change and other global environmental changes deserve attention by the the humanities - they are caused mainly by human attitudes and activities and feed back to human societies. Focussing on religion allows for analysis of various human modes of perception, action and thought in relation to global environmental change. On the one hand, religious organizations are aiming to become "greener"; on the other hand, some religious ideas and practices display fatalism towards impacts of climate change. What might be the fate of different religions in an ever-warming world? This book gathers recent research on functions of religion in climate change from theological, ethical, philosophical, anthropological, historical and earth system analytical perspectives. Charting the spread from regional case studies to global-scale syntheses, the authors demonstrate that world religions and indigenous belief systems are already responding in highly dynamic ways to ongoing and projected climate changes - in theory and practice, for better or for worse. The book establishes the research field "religion in climate change" and identifies avenues for future research across disciplines.Table of ContentPart I: Setting the Stage; 1. Religion in Climate Change: Challenges Ahead Dieter Gerten & Sigurd Bergmann; 2. Global Change and the Need for New Cosmologies Wolfgang Lucht; Part II: Religion and Climate Change: Global Perspectives and Present Trends; 3. Climate Change and the Evolution of Faith Martin Schonfeld; 4. Climate Justice and the Dignity of Creation: The Christian Understanding of Creation and Its Holistic Implications Friedrich Lohmann; 5. Climate Justice from a Christian Point of View: Challenges for a New Definition of Wealth Markus Vogt; 6. Is the Climate Changing? The Religious Climate Toward Global Warming in the US Laurel Kearns; 7. Evangelicals and Climate Change Michael Roberts; Part III: Climate Change, Culture and Development; 8. Religion in the Public Sphere: Understanding Religion in Times of Climate Change and Global Poverty Michael Reder; 9. Global Governance, Values and Lifestyles in a Multipolar World Imme Scholz; 10. Religion and Environmental Change: Perspectives and Aspects from Europe's History Holger Sonnabend; 11. A Case for an Intercultural Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Timothy Leduc; Part IV: Regional Belief Systems in Climate and Environmental Change: Case Studies; 12. Religious Perspectives on Climate Change Impacts Among Indigenous Communities: Questons and Challenges for Ethnographical Research Lioba Rossbach de Olmos; 13. Exploring the Local Effects of Unprecedented Climate Change in the Belief and Cosmology for Sakha of North-Eastern Siberai, Russia Susan Crate; 14. Jaiychylyk: Harmonising People's Needs and the Will of Nature Gulnara Aitpaeva; 15. Indigenous People Under Climate Change: Regions Examples from Indonesia Undine Fromming & Christian Reichel; 16. Belief Systems: The Twin Eye to Science Godfrey Walalaze; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.Review QuoteThe book is well structured and has an easily recognizable line of argument: the indispensable function of religion in facing the challenge of global environmental change as a source for interpretative keys, moral values, and proposals for alternative lifestyles and political solutions ... the book altogether fulfills its goal of "establish[ing] the research field 'religion in climate change' and identify[ing] avenues for future research across disciplines"Biographical NoteSigurd Bergmann is Professor of Religious Studies at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway. Dieter Gerten is Researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Germany.Defining text in this internationally emerging field, raising awareness of alternative (religiously and culturally informed) views to solving the global climate-change dilemma.Examines mitigating role religion can play in climate change and its environmental and social impacts.Reflects varying worldviews, moral systems, practices, aesthetics, and lifestyles relevant to climate change.Includes regional case studies and globally synthesizing approaches from a team of international scholars.