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Climate change and apocalyptic faith
Author(s) -
Skrimshire Stefan
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
wiley interdisciplinary reviews: climate change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.678
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1757-7799
pISSN - 1757-7780
DOI - 10.1002/wcc.264
Subject(s) - faith , environmentalism , climate change , the arts , discipline , environmental ethics , humanism , representation (politics) , sociology , aesthetics , history , social science , political science , epistemology , art , philosophy , law , ecology , politics , biology
For at least as long as the birth of environmentalism, discourses of ecological crisis have adopted, both consciously and unconsciously, themes and concepts derived from Jewish and Christian Apocalypses. These are ancient texts remembered best for their cosmic and spiritual revelations about the world and the world to come. The scope and methods of this adoption have varied widely: from symbolic representation (images of the Four Horsemen, for instance) to the influence of end‐time belief upon environmental policy. More recently, references to apocalypse have accompanied the study of climate change specifically. However, they have tended to do so without more than a superficial engagement with the theological and philosophical underpinnings of apocalyptic faith. This review article addresses this issue by engaging the meanings of apocalyptic faith within four distinct areas in the interdisciplinary study of climate change: (1) Christian ecotheology; (2) critical and social scientific discourse; (3) policy and media communications; and (4) contemporary philosophy and ethics. WIREs Clim Change 2014, 5:233–246. doi: 10.1002/wcc.264 This article is categorized under: Climate, History, Society, Culture > Ideas and Knowledge Trans‐Disciplinary Perspectives > Humanities and the Creative Arts