Energy and Change: A New Materialist Cosmotheology

Clayton Crockett's philosophy of energy is an innovative approach that views energy as a material process that spans physics, biology, politics, ecology, and religion. He argues that change is foundational to material reality and that matter and energy are not an oppositional binary but expressions of how change functions in the universe. This book offers compelling new insights into the structure of the cosmos and our place in it, drawing on theorists such as Gilles Deleuze, Catherine Malabou, Slavoj Žižek, Karen Barad, Bruno Latour, and Kojin Karatani as well as ideas about spirituality, society, and nature from Amerindian, Vodou, and Neo-Confucian traditions.

Format: Hardback
Length: 304 pages
Publication date: 27 September 2022
Publisher: Columbia University Press

As humanity continues to consume planetary resources at an unsustainable rate, we urgently need not only new and renewable forms of energy but also a fresh perspective on energy itself. Clayton Crockett presents an innovative philosophy of energy that transcends numerous cutting-edge disciplines. Drawing from contemporary philosophies of New Materialism, non-Western traditions, and the sciences, he develops a comprehensive vision of energy as a material process that encompasses physics, biology, politics, ecology, and religion.

Crockett argues that change is the very essence of material reality, which is constantly self-organizing. We can observe the effects of energy in the operations of natural selection as well as in human societies. Matter and energy are not opposing forces but rather expressions of how change functions in the universe. Ultimately, Crockett proposes that we can conceive of God not as a deity or a being but as the principle of change itself.

Informed by cutting-edge theoretical discourses in thermodynamics, science studies, energy humanities, systems theory, continental philosophy, and radical theology, Energy and Change draws on thinkers such as Gilles Deleuze, Catherine Malabou, Slavoj Žižek, Karen Barad, Bruno Latour, and Kojin Karatani, as well as ideas about spirituality, society, and nature from Amerindian, Vodou, and Neo-Confucian traditions. This groundbreaking work serves as a foundational contribution to New Materialist philosophy of religion, offering profound new insights into the structure of the cosmos and our place within it.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780231206105