African Perspectives on Religion and Climate Change

This book interrogates the contributions that religious traditions have made to climate change discussions within Africa, whether positive or negative. Drawing on a range of African contexts and religious traditions, the book provides concrete suggestions on how individuals and communities of faith must act in order to address the challenge of climate change.

Despite the fact that Africa has contributed relatively little to historic carbon emissions, the continent will be affected disproportionally by the increasing impact of anthropogenic climate change. Contributors to this book provide a range of rich case studies to investigate how religious traditions such as Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and indigenous faiths influence the worldviews and actions of their adherents. The chapters also interrogate how the moral authority and leadership provided by religion can be used to respond and adapt to the challenges posed by climate change. Topics covered include risk reduction and resilience, youth movements, indigenous knowledge systems, environmental degradation, gender perspectives, ecological theories, and climate change financing.

This book will be of interest to scholars in diverse fields, including religious studies, sociology, political science, climate change and environmental humanities. It may also benefit practitioners involved in solving community challenges related to climate change.

The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license

Ezra Chitando is Professor of History and Phenomenology of Religion at the University of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe and Theology Consultant on HIV in Africa for the World Council of Churches.

Ernst M. Conradie is Senior Professor in the Department of Religion and Theology at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. He is co-editor (with Hilda Koster) of the T&T Clark Handbook of Christian Theology and Climate Change (2019).

Susan M. Kilonzo is Associate Professor at the Department of Religion and Philosophy at Maseno University, Kenya. Her research and publication interests include religion and climate change, gender, development, peace building and, method and theory.