Climate Change, Religion, and our Bodily Future

This book investigates the impacts of human-induced global warming on the embodied and performed practices of religion in ecologies of place, advocating for a need to update religious studies theorizes bodies and religion to take climate change seriously. It offers case study examples of how scholars may better engage religious bodies within petrocultures, attending to new materialist posthuman assemblages of religious bodies.

Format: Hardback
Length: 220 pages
Publication date: 13 July 2021
Publisher: Lexington Books

This captivating book delves into the intricate interplay between bodies and religion, shedding light on the profound impacts of human-induced global warming on the embodied and performed practices of religion within diverse ecologies of place. Through a multidisciplinary approach, drawing upon insights from religion and nature theory, posthumanism, queer ecologies, ecological animisms, indigenous knowledges, material feminisms, and performance studies, the author advocates for a crucial need to revise how religious studies theorizes bodies and religion. In the first half of the book, the author compellingly argues for the significance of religious studies as a field and the academy as a whole to take the ongoing and detrimental future impacts of climate change seriously. They remind us that those engaged in religious studies scholarship and the communities they study have always been embodied beings situated within material bio-ecological contexts. This realization should shape the questions religious studies scholars ask, leading to a distinct form of engaged, liberatory scholarship that demands a different approach to research and public advocacy for resilience in the face of climate change.

The second half of the book provides valuable case study examples of how scholars can effectively engage religious bodies within petrocultures, while also attending to the emerging materialist posthuman assemblages of religious bodies. This book appeals to a wide range of scholars, including those in religious studies, the environmental humanities, and those who work at the intersection of the body and the natural world. By exploring the complex dynamics between bodies, religion, and climate change, this book offers valuable insights and perspectives that will contribute to our understanding of these critical issues.

Weight: 481g
Dimension: 228 x 160 x 18 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781498534550