Changing Climate, Changing Religion

This book analyses the wide-ranging changes occurring across Christian theology as religious environmental activists and advocates understand their part in ‘saving the planet’. As the planet’s climate changes, so are the theologies of the Christians working to address it. Among the Christian organisations taking bold action to tackle the climate crisis, creative theological ideas are emerging that motivate their critical environmentalist work.

The volume describes the creative theological thought of six Christian organisations in the United Kingdom, including activist and campaigning groups, an international development agency and Protestant and Catholic church dioceses. The authors identify significant emerging ecotheological themes within Christian environmentalism, including a greater emphasis on the immanence of God in creation, a more egalitarian view of the kinship of all creatures, the influence of notions of land and place from indigenous practice, an ethics of prophetic ministry alongside an ethics of stewardship, increased practice of mystical spirituality and a broadening of eschatology. The chapters outline these views and consider their relevance for the future of climate theology.

Changing Climate, Changing Religion is valuable reading for those across the humanities and social sciences interested in the crucial role that religions occupy in addressing the world’s environmental crises and the creative theological thought that underpins it.

Peter Manley Scott is Samuel Ferguson Professor of Applied Theology and Director of the Lincoln Theological Institute at the University of Manchester, UK.

Celia Deane-Drummond is Director of the Laudato Si' Research Institute and Senior Research Fellow in Theology at Campion Hall, University of Oxford, UK.

Gemma Edwards is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Manchester, UK.

Finlay Malcolm is Research Associate working on the AHRC-funded Religion, Theology and Climate Change project at the University of Manchester, UK.