ISSUE 7 FALL 2021 MAGAZINE OF THE CENTER OF THEOLOGICAL INQUIRY ART and Environmentthe Meet Our Artist in Residence CTI@COP26 Religion & the EnvironmentNatural
ISSUE 7 FALL 2021 We convene leading thinkers in an interdisciplinary environment where theology makes an impact on global concerns, and we share our research to inform public thinking. OUR MISSION OUR PROGRAM Religion & the Natural Environment 2021-2022 PHOTOGRAPHS: COVER “AN ELSEWHERE WORLD”, OIL ON CANVAS BY ELAINE RUTHERFORD. THIS PAGE, SERGEJSON, ADOBESTOCK.COM 2 Let Glasgow Flourish From the Director A reflection on the contribution of theology to COP26, the UN Conference on Climate Change in Glasgow 4 CTI@COP26 Theologians, religion scholars, and policymakers in CTI’s research network around the world reflect on the UN Conference on Climate Change, COP26 10 Climate Connections Meet the members in CTI’s 2021-22 Research Workshop on Religion & the Natural Environment 14 ART and the Environment An exhibition of art works by Elaine Rutherford, CTI’s Artist in Virtual Residence for Spring 2022 20 Interview with Lisa Sideris William Storrar interviews a leading scholar of religion, science, and environmental issues 22 Colloquy A conversation with David Fergusson on the task and challenge of theology today 26 Fall Books from our CTI Members advancedShowcasingresearch 29 Why ICTISupport 31 PublicSpringEvents 32 Last Word With South African theologian Ernst Conradie SPRING 2021 fresh THINKING 1 CONTENTS DIRECTOR William Storrar ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR Joshua Mauldin DIRECTOR OF PHILANTHROPY Karin Morse ADMINISTRATION Jade Talag DESIGNER Debra Trisler CONTRIBUTORS Ernst Conradie Celia MainaNadiaRudolfLisaSusanElaineJamesDavidDavidDeane-DrummondFergussonHabermanMillerRutherfordSchneiderSiderisvonSinnerSitasTalia MAGAZINE SPONSORS Brian Fix Jay & Harriet Vawter ACADEMIC ADVISORY PANEL John Bowlin Peter LeslieJeremySusanEstherPeterPeterFriederikeIanNicoCathleenJenniferJan-OlavTammyAgustínDavidFrancisCasarellaClooneyFergussonFuentesGaberHenriksenHerdtKavenyKoopmanMcFarlandNüsselOchsParisReedSchneiderWaldronWingard BOARD OF TRUSTEES Roy Lennox, Chair Gayle Robinson, Vice Chair Jon Pott, Secretary Robert Wedeking, Treasurer Fred CharlesJayWilliamJudithDavidDouglasCarterRobertBrianBetteDarrellAndersonArmstrongJane(B.J.)BoothFixGunnKarinsLeonardMarkusMcCartinScheideStorrarVawterWall HONORARY TRUSTEES Craig Barnes Robin KristaRichardLovinMouwTippett EMERITUS/EMERITA TRUSTEES Robert Hendrickson Judy RalphWornatWyman
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Glasgow Sikh Foodbank served over 80,000 meals to the most vulnerable during the lockdown.
GLASGOWFOODBANKSIKHTHEOFCOURTESYPHOTOGRAPHS
Glasgow is a city I know well. I taught at its ancient university, founded by Papal bull in 1451. The city is rightly proud of Glasgow University, where this year’s Nobel Laureate in Chemistry studied. Yet Glasgow is more than a college town. At the turn of the 20th century, it was one of the leading industrial cities of the world. In the opening decades of the 21st century, Glasgow is finally acknowledging the source of so much of its early wealth in the slave economy of the Caribbean. There could not be a more appropriate venue for COP26.
LET GLASGOW FLOURISH
sphere to dangerous levels. Glasgow built its prosperity on exploitation as well as entrepreneurship, leaving the world ill divided as it gathers in the city for COP26. But Glasgow is also home to the kinds of scientific innovation that offer a sustain able future. Will this be enough to avoid climate catastrophe? I think not. Innova tive technology is necessary but not sufficient to avert our environmental fate. There is a missing thread in the story of Glasgow. It is the presence and power of religion.
As you follow media coverage of COP26, you may hear the city’s motto, “Let Glasgow Flourish”. It has its origins in a prayer: “Let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of thy Word and the praising of thy Name.” As the prophet Jeremiah saw, the welfare of the city is inseparable from the spiritual contribution of even the most marginal faith communities to its common life, like the exiles in Bab ylon. Today Glasgow is the most multifaith of Scotland’s cities, with flourishing Jewish, Muslim, and Sikh communities, notable for feeding neighbors in need during COVID. Yet that same welcoming city of many faiths continues to be scarred by religious sectarianism. The story of Glasgow shows religion is central to the flourishing and the failing of our common life.
— FROM THE DIRECTOR —
Global Leaders Gather in Glasgow—that headline will reverberate around the world in November, as government leaders, civil society activists, and environ mental campaigners from every nation on Earth convene in that city for the UN Conference on Climate Change, COP26.
But what of theology? What does it have to say on climate change? Seventy years ago this year, a gentle theologian at Glasgow University called Alan Galloway published a book called The Cosmic Christ, recalling the cosmic vision of redemp tion in the New Testament. CTI’s founder James McCord gave the same title to a lecture series connecting the fate of creation with that of humanity. As you will read here from scholars of Daoism and Hinduism, a cosmic vision of flourishing is shared by many traditions, including those of indigenous peoples. COP26 re minds us of the interdependence of people and planet. The cosmic vision of the world’s religions has the power to move our global leaders to act in concert. Let this Glasgow flourish.
—William Storrar, Director
Glasgow’s story is the story of climate change. The city was at the heart of the industrial revolution that lifted millions out poverty but also heated the Earth’s atmo
Our theological understanding of tuakoi (neighbor) is important in the context of the environmental crisis. From a Pacific perspective, neighborly love is not limited to someone living next door to you; rather, it extends to anyone and anything, human and non-human, that is impacted by human selfish actions. Tuakoi is both an indigenous and theological reference point. It also has a global implication. The Pacific understanding of the environmental crisis is shaped around an understanding of ‘tuakoi’ in the sense of taking care of one’s tuakoi, showing respect and treating tuakoi with love and reverence.
Fresh Thinking invited theologians, religion scholars, and policymakers in CTI’s research network around the world to reflect on the United Nations Conference on Climate Change, COP26 in Glasgow. Their edited reflections are presented here. You can read the full version in our forthcoming Research Report No. 3, CTI@COP26.
There are major outcomes that the Pacific region would like to see. The Paris Rulebook provides strategic guidance, outlining individual country commitments to implement fully the Paris Agreement. It must be fully adopted and operationalized in COP26. The release of the latest Inter governmental Panel on Climate Change Report gives us a clear indica tion that we are moving to the point of no return if no urgent action is taken to limit carbon emissions. Funding should be made available for indigenous communities who are at the frontline of rising sea levels. This kind of funding should come under the UN’s Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples’ Platform.
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GLOBALCTI@COP26VOICES
You will be at the UN Conference on Climate Change in Glasgow this November. What for you are the key issues at stake for the Pacific region in its deliberations and outcomes?
If you had to make a keynote speech at COP26 as a theologian and global voice for local communities and indigenous peoples, what would be your takeaway message?
If I were given the chance to make a speech, the theme of the tuakoi would be the central message for COP26. It might move the hearts of the heartless and stir the hearts of the powerful.
OCEANIAMainaTaliaisatheologian from Tuvalu in the Pacific. He co-chairs the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples’ Platform of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Maina, what is the distinctive contribution of theology to our under standing of the environmental crisis, especially from the perspective of your own Pacific region?
Pacific region leader Maina Talia speaking at the UN Conference on Climate Change in Paris, 2015
Nadia, what is the distinctive contribution of your own field of ecology to our understanding of the environmental crisis, especially from your concern to see science inform public policy?
glaciers, upon which depend the lives of hundreds of millions of people, and 2) how nations that have benefitted economically from the burning of enormous amounts of fossil fuels and concomitant ly contributed hugely to climate change are going to assist nations that have not had this economic advantage make the transition to cleaner energy production.
Classical science posits the environment as something outside our bodies. This makes it difficult for us to understand how we impact the environment and how the environment impacts our health. Daoist thought posits an interrelationship of the landscape outside our bodies with the inner landscape of bones, fluids, and energy flows inside the body. The environmental crisis is thus the product of our failure to imagine how what is inside the body is related to what is outside the body.
While Africa contributes the least to greenhouse gas emissions, it remains the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and many people and ecosystems are already suffering, without sufficient resources to adapt to rapid ecological changes, or mitigate the impacts. African states need to have an equal seat at the table to negotiate climate policies that have direct and indirect impacts on their ecosys tems and the people who rely on nature for their survival. A human rights-based approach, that centers on the rights for current and future generations to have the means to thrive needs to underpin all negotiations. This needs to be matched with resources to ensure that people from the global South have the capacity to respond to climate change without compromising opportunities for a good life.
If you had to make a keynote speech at COP26 as an ecologist and experienced scientific policy advisor on intergovernmental collaboration, what would be your takeaway message?
As we approach the UN Conference on Climate Change this November, what for you are the key issues at stake for China in its deliberations and outcomes?
As we approach the UN Conference on Climate Change this November, what for you are the key issues at stake for Africa in its deliberations and outcomes?
Two issues immediately come to mind: 1) the future of the rapidly melting Himalayan
If you had to make a keynote speech at COP26 as a scholar of religion and environmental concerns in the humanities, what would be your takeaway message? The environmental crisis can be understood through science, but this does not mean that it can be solved through technology.
INDIADavidHaberman is Professor of Religion at Indiana University, Bloomington and a leading scholar of the religions of India and Southeast Asia, with a special interest in religion and ecological issues.
James, what is the distinctive contribution of the study of the Humanities to our under standing of the environmental crisis, especial ly from the perspective of your own work on Daoism?
David, what is the distinctive contribution of the study of religion and ecology to our understanding of the environmental crisis, especially from the perspective of your own research interests in the religious cultures of India?
My takeaway message would be that there can’t be development on a dead planet. The future of humans and nature are intertwined and interdependent. There remain pockets of hope if we take decisive action.
We have never known more about how intricately human lives and livelihoods are reliant on functioning, healthy ecosystems. As made evident by the increas ing number of science-policy assessments, we can say with greater certainty that just and sustainable futures are only possible if we acknowledge the inter connectedness of humans and nature, and we strive to implement policies and interventions that restore ecosystems and address inequality simultaneously. We have overwhelming evidence and recommendations. We just need to start acting on them with urgency.
This is a time to reconsider genuine life values, as so many vital ones seem to have become disallowed by monetary value. Life exists on this planet in glorious di versity and abundance; we need to nurture a more reverential relation ship with all its forms and move forward in a way that is beneficial to everybody.
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CHINAJamesMiller
The question of whether China has a more realistic plan for meeting its emissions targets than other countries.
is Professor of Humanities at Duke Kunshan University, Kunshan, Jiangsu, China, and a leading scholar of Daoism and its view of the relationship between humanity and nature.
What I have learned as a lifelong student of religions is that nothing is naturally anything for humans, but rather is filtered through particular cultural lenses; we expe rience the world we perceive. The implica tions of different cultural lenses, however, are significant. Divinity within many of the religious cultures of India is regarded as present in and as natural entities, such as trees, rivers, and mountains, as well as the landscape itself. Therefore, various forms of pollution—including atmospheric--are understood to be grave mistakes, or even deadly sins. Some of these cultures suggest that such things as particular concepts of self (e.g., separate and competitive) are as much a driver of the environmental crisis as is the burning of fossil fuels.
As we approach the UN Conference on Climate Change this November, what for you are the key issues at stake for the South Asian region in its deliberations and outcomes?
NadiaAFRICASitasisSenior Researcher at the Centre for Sustainability Transitions at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, and an expert on how scientific research can inform public policy.
If you had to make a keynote speech at COP26 as a scholar of religion and ecology, what would be your takeaway message?
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If you had to make a keynote speech at COP26 as the Chair of the Global Network for Public Theology, what would be your takeaway message?
Lisa, what contribution would you like to see theologians making to public debate on the environmental crisis, especially in the USA?
The Bible sees care for creation as a human task. Along with those of other religions and convictions, and with Pope Francis, we must be at the forefront of care for our common home.
EUROPE
The current Brazilian government is failing in its duty to preserve the exu berant nature the country boasts to be its own. Excellent scientists who were co-responsible for the country’s environmental policy were dismissed in favor of the predatory invasion of the Amazon region. Such invasion has increased considerably, destroying huge areas, reinforced by catastrophic droughts because of climate change. Alternative energies are underdeveloped on our continent, as is public and environmentally-friendly transport. A politics that connects the local with the global is needed to force a way forward rather than backward, as we see today in our context.
As we approach the UN Conference on Climate Change this November, what for you are the key issues at stake for Latin America in its delibera tions and outcomes?
AMERICALATINRudolfvonSinner
If you had to make a keynote speech at COP26 as an environmental theologian and advocate of Pope Francis’ urgent call to the world in Laudato Si’, what would be your takeaway message?
AMERICANORTHLisaSideris
For the full interview with Lisa Sideris, see pages 20-21.
is Professor of Environmental Studies, UC Santa Barbara
is Professor of Systematic Theology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná (PUCPR) in Curitibi, Brazil.
I might have answered this question differently before Covid-19. It’s very troubling, how Covid has revealed such an impoverished sense of commu nity or obligation to others, and such bankrupt notions of freedom, particularly, though not exclusively, in the US. These same ideas about individual freedom and disregard for a collective, communal fate don’t bode well for the climate crisis either, which is the paradigmatic collective threat. But as far as I know, most religions speak directly to life in community, common destiny, and caring for one another, particularly those in need. So how have religions gotten so far off message, or why are their adherents unable to take this message in?
Rudolf, what is the distinctive contribution of public theology to our un derstanding of the environmental crisis, especially from your perspective in Brazil?
Celia Deane-Drummond is Director of the Laudato Si’ Research Institute, Oxford, UK, and a leading scholar of theology and science who co-led CTI’s Inquiry on Evolution & Human Nature.
As we approach the UN Conference on Climate Change this November, what for you are the key global issues at stake in its deliberations and outcomes?
International agreement needs to be reached at the political level to enable a just transition to a global zero carbon economy, transform ing the dominant existing market economy. In order for such an agreement to be robust and effective, rather than a weak accord, legal and politically binding measures need to be in place to enforce compliance. The stress on just transition is important, since that means taking account of the needs of those who are most vulnerable and the impact of specific strategic policies and goals on livelihoods and ecologies.
Catholic theology, with its stress on the im portance of human dignity, insists on tackling both social and ecological issues together. Pope Francis recognized, along with the two pre vious Popes, that these interconnected issues require ecological conversion at both the individual and structural levels. His most original contribution in Laudato Si’ is that of integral ecology, by which he means a new socio-economic paradigm, rooted in Biblical teaching and Christian traditions on the worth and dignity of creation, which is an alternative to the technological paradigm. The latter pre sumes technology alone will be sufficient for complex problems and an adequate substitute for genuine human relationships. Pope Francis is not opposed to science or technology but wants them to be put in their proper place. Developing ecological virtues and acting them out is therefore an essential rather than an optional aspect of Christian discipleship.
Future generations and even the current younger generation will look aghast on this generation of decision makers if action remains inward looking rather than globally responsible.
Celia, what is the distinctive contribution of Catholic theology to our understanding of the environmental crisis, especially in light of Pope Francis’ landmark encyclical, Laudato Si?
Public theology seeks to contribute to public discourse from within the convictions of faith. It combines analysis of reality with reflection on the theological resources to be stewards of life on Earth. In the Brazilian con text, this means to stand with indigenous peoples and with all creatures that live in the Amazon Rainforest. This is a responsibility our country holds not only for itself, but for the whole Earth. Brazilian and Latin American churches and theology have had a good track record in this regard in earlier decades but have now too often given in to the logics of power and wealth. A new covenant is necessary that puts people and nature before self-interest.
CONNECTIONSCLIMATE
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Meet the Team on Religion & the EnvironmentNatural
As this is the capstone year in our five-year Inquiry on Religion & Global Issues (2017-22), we are aiming to make climate connections with some of the other global issues in the inquiry. We are fortunate to have some of the leading scholars on migration and on violence in this year’s workshop, along with researchers, policymakers, and practitioners on environmental issues.
Among the latter is Mark Douglas, Professor of Christian Ethics at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia. Over the past decade, Douglas has been writing a three-volume project exploring the impacts of climate change on war from a Christian theological perspective. His first volume has been published by Cambridge Uni versity Press: Christian Pacifism for an Environmental Age (2019), and the second volume on the just war tradition and the environment is now in press with CUP.
LISA SIDERAS
Codi Norred is the executive director of Georgia Interfaith Power & Light, a leading environmental non-profit in Atlanta. Norred holds a Masters of Divinity from Candler School of Theology at Emory University with concentrations in Justice, Peacebuilding, and Conflict Transformation, Theology and Ethics, and Human Rights. Also hold ing a BA in Religion from Samford University, Norred works at the intersection of religion, human rights, ethics, and the environment.
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“Once completed,” Douglas explains, “the trilogy will, I believe, cap a project that reaches a wide academic audience and shapes conver sations for years to come as the need to attend to the intersections of environmental crises, violence, and religion becomes increasingly pressing in the Anthropocene.”
very year, CTI convenes a cohort of scholars in theology and other disciplines from around the world to collaborate on an issue of global concern. During the current academic year, 2021-22, CTI is focused on the issue of the natural environment, exploring how resources from religious and theological traditions might be brought to bear on ecological issues.
Like Sideris, Frederick Simmons joins the workshop this year at CTI after his previous involvement in the Inquiry on the Societal Impli cations of Astrobiology. Simmons is the John Templeton Foundation Research Scholar in Theology and Science at Princeton Theological Seminary and a Research Assistant Professor of Ethics at Boston Uni versity School of Theology. He has written on the natural world’s
FREDERICK SIMMONS
Also in the workshop are two colleagues Douglas has worked with in the metro Atlanta area: Jairo Garcia and Codi Norred. Former Direc tor of Climate Policy with the City of Atlanta and the lead author of
Lisa Sideris returns to CTI this year after her prior participation in our Inquiry on the Societal Implications of Astrobiology. A Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Sideris teaches a variety of courses in environmental ethics, science and religion, and nature spirituality, as well as courses focused on the emerging ethical issues of the Anthropocene. The overarching ques tion that drives her research is how to articulate a vision of the human that is appropriate to the environmental challenges we collectively face. Her major publications on CTI’s research theme include Envi ronmental Science, Ecological Theology, and Natural Selection (Columbia University Press, 2003), and Consecrating Science: Wonder, Knowledge, and the Natural World (University of California Press, 2017).
When the theme for the current academic year at CTI was set some five years ago, we could not have known that COP26, the UN Cli mate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, would coincide with our workshop on religion and the natural environment. But as fate would have it, CTI’s team is grappling with the climate crisis as world leaders gather to work for meaningful change. CTI aims to inform public thinking, through providing fresh insights from theology and religious traditions. The group gathered this year is particularly well situated to do so.
Atlanta’s Climate Action Plan, Garcia is an expert in urban sustainabil ity and climate change. He is currently the CEO of Urban Climate Nexus and teaches classes in urban sustainability and climate change at Johns Hopkins University and The Georgia Institute of Technology.
Central to CTI’s mission is the convening of leading thinkers—and CTI is certainly doing just that to meet the existential challenge of climate change. Just as important, CTI convenes leading thinkers in order to inform the way people think and act, an imperative in the case of the climate crisis. This is a global concern for which theolog ical voices must be brought around the table with policymakers and practitioners. That is precisely what CTI is doing as world leaders gather in Glasgow.
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Peter Scott’s research explores the intersection between ecological the ology and political theology. His CTI project, tentatively entitled Flesh made Word: A Theological Materialism, explores the material pattern or logos of creation for a postnatural condition. The Samuel Ferguson Professor of Applied Theology at the University of Manchester, Scott is also Director of the Lincoln Theological Institute—a research center that has hosted research projects in this area, including “Systematic Theology and Climate Change” (2013). His major publications on CTI’s research theme include A Political Theology of Nature (Cam bridge University Press, 2003), Anti-human Theology: Nature, Technol ogy and the Postnatural (SCM, 2010), and A Theology of Postnatural Right (LIT Verlag, 2019).
A participant in CTI’s 2018-2019 workshop on Religion & Vio lence, Wolfgang Palaver is Professor of Catholic Social Thought at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. He has published books and articles on political theology, violence and religion, Thomas Hobbes, Carl Schmitt, Simone Weil, and René Girard. He recently conduct ed a research project on Gandhi’s concept of nonviolence at The Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (South Africa), alongside fellow CTI members Louise Du Toit and Ed Noort.
Kanan Kitani is an assistant professor of theology at Doshisha Uni versity in Kyoto, Japan. A CTI Member who took part in the 2018 workshop on religion and migration, Kitani focuses in her research on issues of church and state, global migration, and ecumenism. She has contributed chapters to various books, including Latin America be tween Conflict and Reconciliation (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2012), Christianities in Migration: The Global Perspective (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), and Christian Theology in the Age of Migration: Im plications for World Christianity (Lexington Books, 2020). Currently she is pursuing a degree in environmental studies at Kyoto University Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies to prepare her for further research on the topic.
Edwin Turner is a returning CTI member, having participated for several years in CTI’s Inquiry on the Societal Implications of Astrobiology. A Professor of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University, Turner has carried out extensive astronomical observations at Mt. Palomar Observatory, Kitt Peak National Observatory, NRAO’s Very Large Array, Apache Point Observatory, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan’s Subaru Telescope and with the Hubble Space Telescope. Working extensively in both theoreti cal and observational astrophysics, Turner has published more than 240 research papers on topics such as binary galaxies, groups of gal axies, large scale structure, dark matter, quasar populations, grav itational lensing, the cosmic x-ray background, the cosmological constant, exoplanets, astrobiology and the origin of life. Recently he has been an active participant in the Breakthrough Starshot Ini tiative and the YHouse project. Turner is a co-editor of the forth coming volume from CTI’s astrobiology inquiry, Life as a Planetary Phenomenon: Essays in the Astrobiological Humanities.
William Barbieri is a CTI Member who participated in CTI’s work shop on religion and migration in 2018. He teaches in the School of Theology and Religious Studies and directs the Peace and Justice Studies Program at The Catholic University of America in Washing ton, DC. Barbieri has published several books, including Ethics of Cit izenship: Immigration and Group Rights in Germany (Duke University Press, 1998) and Constitutive Justice (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015). His current research addresses ecological ethics, the politics of human dig nity, and the historicity of morals.
WILLIAM BARBIERI
A Professor of Systematic Theology at the Norwegian School of Theology, Religion, and Society, Jan-Olav Henriksen returns to CTI after his earlier participation in the 2012-2013 Inquiry on Evolution and Human Nature. Presently, he has in press a book
significance for Christian social ethics, the new cosmology’s ethical import, Christian environmental ethics in relation to anthropogenic climate change, and the idea of stewardship. As a member of CTI’s workshop on religion and the natural environment, he is writing an article on environmental pessimism and Christian hope and a chap ter on Protestant assessments and uses of nature as a theological resource. He is the editor of the groundbreaking volume on Love and Christian Ethics (Georgetown University Press, 2016), and a co-edi tor of the forthcoming volume from CTI’s astrobiology inquiry, Life as a Planetary Phenomenon: Essays in the Astrobiological Humanities.
with Bloomsbury/T&T Clark on Climate Change and the Sym bol Deficit in the Christian Tradition. He argues in the book that Christianity is rich in symbols that identify and address the fail ures of humans and the obstacles that prevent humans from doing well, while positive symbols that can engage people in constructive action seem underdeveloped. Henriksen is also co-authoring a book for the general public with philosopher Arne Johan Vetlesen on the ethical challenges related to climate change. During CTI’s workshop this year Henriksen is writing a Theological Anthropology for the Anthropocene, which will focus on what the present situation entails for the understanding of humanity’s place and role on the planet.
Rupture. Oil on panel.
The rupture or portal in the middle of the painting, the transitory space of the road and the map overlay give visual form to ideas of movement, migration, and existing in multiple spaces at once.
outside, above or below, small or big. I like to layer imagery that might be incongruous and to create illusory, “portals” into another space. The work reflects on what it is like to exist in the “in between” space, to be somewhere yet never really anywhere in the context of geographic space and also the various physical and psychological spaces we inhabit in our daily existence. The relationships between nostalgia (attachment and longing for homeland) and solastalgia (the anxiety that comes from the loss of homeland due to environmental degradation) are at the core of what I think about as an artist and a scholar as I seek to understand the ways in which landscape painting might serve as a mechanism for contemplating bigger questions in relation to environment, geography, and sustainability.
Elaine Rutherford is CTI’s Artist in Virtual Residence for spring 2022. She grew up in Ayrshire on the west coast of Scotland, and studied drawing and painting at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee before moving to the United States in 1992 to undertake her graduate work at New Mexico State University. The vibrant arts community and support for the arts in Minnesota precipitated her move to Minneapolis in 1996 where she still lives and works. She is a member of Rosalux Gallery in Minneapolis and has exhibited extensively in North America and Europe. Her work is held in various public and private collections. Elaine has been a member of the art faculty at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University since 1998.
Sentiments of loss and longing are common among those whose experiences of belonging are bound up in attachment to homeland. As an immigrant my perception of home is constantly measured against where I am not. Conceptually my work reflects on fragmentation, time and the space between collision and intersection. While my art practice often includes other elements such as video and installation, I consider these as facets of my painting practice. Depictions of sublime spaces such as sea and sky are places in which I explore the relationship between the miniature and the gigantic, places of containment where I can attempt to capture and arrest the expansiveness of such spaces within the frame of the painting. I am exploring questions of position and location or point of view, in other words questions of inside and
VISITING ARTIST: Elaine Rutherford
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Traditions in landscape painting which explore the sublime through depiction of dramatic seas and skies are overlayed with embroidery, a more sedate and traditionally domestic form of expression. This considers the relationship between inside and outside, geographic space and domestic space, and safe and unsafe spaces.
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This piece considers space and depictions of differing spaces within the same frame through slightly different means.
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The Edge of Nowhere. (left and right panels) Oil on three panels. The title refers to the 1937 film, “The Edge of the World”, by director Michael Powell. The film is loosely based on the 1930 evacuation of St. Kilda. The paintings depict several places at once. Roads and bridges act as intermediary spaces, neither here nor there while different geographic locations are juxtaposed and overlayed with maps to suggest movement between locations.
Turbulence. Oil on canvas.
This is problematic in all kinds of ways. It valoriz es or even sanctifies behaviors that have so radically damaged the natural world. It assumes an aggre gate portrait of humanity writ large that many hu manists and environmentalists seek to complicate.
There seems to be a theme developing here in all my comments, regarding a shared sense of destiny that still takes multiplicity and differential obliga tions, and historical injustices, very seriously. This has been a focal point of recent climate talks: how to elicit meaningful cooperation from various na tions and stakeholders without ignoring that some nations bear an outsize responsibility for creating climate disruption, while other low-emitting na tions suffer the most from its impacts.
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The question of how humans fit into some larg er order, vis-à-vis notions of divinity, on the one hand, and in relation to other forms of life, on the other, is fundamentally a religious question. Now we are in an age when that question is more press ing than ever and when some of the answers seem deeply
Theredisturbing.aremany ways that religion scholars ap proach this question. Some endeavor to show that religious values and practices are inclusive of nonhuman life, if interpreted properly. I think there was a first wave of religion and ecology research that sought to make everything cohere—science coheres with re-
You have called on theologians to take seriously the implications of evolution in their understanding of humanity’s relationship to nature. What contribution would you like to see theologians making to scholarship and public debate on the environmental crisis?
If you had to make a keynote speech at COP26 as an environmental scholar, what would be your takeaway message?
So, I’m personally more interested in work that locates religious or religious-like commitments within practices and beliefs that might appear sec ular, or even anti-religious, on the surface. A kind of religious or spiritual regard for the natural world might go unnoticed if we don’t have the proper lens es to look for it in unexpected places. I also think it’s important to recognize that valuing something religiously—say, regarding it as sacred—is not al ways a good thing, in terms of how it plays out in our dealings with the natural world.
My focus hasn’t really changed, but my new position more formally places me in the area of Environmen tal Ethics. I remain very interested in Anthropocene ethics, or what I’ve started thinking of as “unearthly ethics”—that is, ethical issues that are emerging on a planet that is radically transformed by humans, to the point of being scarcely recognizable as Earth. These include issues surrounding extinction and de-extinction technologies, geoengineering strate gies, and other technologies that remake the plan et, or certain species, or seek to create new Earths elsewhere in space. I’m interested in how these projects function religiously, as a performance of a particular understanding of what the human is and how these accounts of the human often gravi tate toward a defining feature as the power to cre ate, recreate, or shape life.
INTERVIEW: CTI’s LisainterviewsWilliamDirectorStorrarSideris , a leading scholar of religion, science, and environmental issues. While Professor of Religion at Indiana University, Lisa participated in CTI’s symposia on comparative religious perspectives on planetary life in our astrobiology Inquiry.
You formerly taught in a university religion department. What does the study of religion offer in illuminating our understanding of the natural world and humanity’s part in it?
Lisa, you have recently taken up a new appointment as Professor of Environmental Studies at UC Santa Barbara. What is the focus of your work now?
One thing I’ve come to understand during the pandemic is that crises doesn’t necessarily unfold in the ways we imagined. The world did not come to an end, even while it changed radically and parts of it shut down. I don’t mean in any way to diminish the suffering and death of this moment. But history is not linear. Sometimes it is in the very nonlinearity of change, the surprising twists and turns, and the sheer ambiguity of change, that we locate hope and our sense of agency.
But ethical policy requires confronting the past, i.e., restorative justice. The message that there’s no justice without accountability is one we’ve heard from many quarters—Black Lives Matter, the #MeToo move ment, and in climate negotiations.
Our evolved tendencies, if that’s what they are, can only get us so far. I think the challenge facing theologians, and all of us, is to foster solidarity with out ignoring the important and valuable differences among individuals and cultures, and the differing levels of culpability for the crises we find ourselves in. Solidarity doesn’t have to presume sameness.
Sorting out what wealthy nations, who are the main drivers of climate change, owe to poorer and less developed countries is critical to the agenda, and some big emitters are resisting those financial—and moral—commitments. Discussion of climate change is often future oriented, how to cap temperature rise in the coming decades, and that is hugely important.
ADOBESTOCK.COMBLENDE11,PHOTOGRAPH:
In some ways my work now at Santa Barbara is a continuation of my last book, Consecrating Science, but with the emphasis on applying some of those themes to particular ethical issues.
As we approach the UN Conference on Climate Change this Fall, what for you are the key issues at stake in its deliberations and outcomes?
ligion; the world religions cohere with environmen tal values; all the religions share ethical principles in common; interconnection is the overriding religious and scientific principle we should live by, and so on. But interconnection has a very dark side! It’s much more complicated than that. The complications are often much more interesting than consonance, and too much agreement should raise suspicion.
I hope theologians can help call people back to a sense of community. Interestingly, some scien tists have already tried to do this. I was just lis tening to an interview with David Sloan Wilson, an evolutionary biologist who argues that religions evolved as cooperative units. That sounds promis ing in some ways. But it doesn’t really work in a global pandemic with a highly transmissible virus, because however cooperative some groups are, the noncooperative groups harm not only themselves but the cooperators.
During our meeting I have the audacity to ask Fergusson what has caused increasing secular ization in many countries. There is some role for intellectual arguments, such as those found among the “New Atheists,” which explains why Fergusson wrote a book in response to these critiques, called Faith and its Critics. But these arguments are nothing new; they are present as early as the eighteenth century in the work of David Hume. A more immediate factor has been societal changes since the 1960s, includ
“The task of theology is multi-religious.”multi-faithincreasinglyand
There are, however, signs of hope. Christianity, as just one example, is actually growing among the global population, even while numbers de crease in many western countries. Fergusson has many students from around the world, who come to the United Kingdom to study theology with the hope to return to their home countries to serve in the church and the theo logical academy. The field of ‘World Christianity’ focuses on these new realities.
D
avid Fergusson and I sat down for a conversation in mid-September in the way that so many meetings happen these days, via Zoom. Fer gusson is now Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge University, having arrived in this position in April 2021, following two decades of distinguished service at the University of Edinburgh in his native Scotland. When we spoke, Fergusson was preparing for the fall term, during which he is teaching a masters level course on the doctrine of God alongside an undergraduate theology course, as well as supervising doctoral students.
Perhaps most importantly, Fergusson is com mitted to the role of theology as an academic discipline that belongs in the university, even while being oriented toward the church and other religious communities. He provides three reasons, meant to respond to critics who would argue that theology should be relegated to pri vate seminaries and religious bodies, seques tered away from the secular activity of the uni versity. First, between 80 and 90 percent of the global population adheres to one of the world’s religious traditions. It would thus be a pro found mistake to leave the study of religion off the university curriculum. Secondly, and fur thermore, we cannot avoid questions of right and wrong, of true and false. These questions will inevitably arise in the study of religious traditions. Therefore, the university needs to include not only the descriptive study of reli gion but also the normative study of theolo gy, in which questions of ethics, metaphysics, and the meaning of religion can be explored in a rigorous way. Finally, third, theology can play and does play a major role in helping faith communities respond to the major crises of our day, including above all the ecological cri sis, which, Fergusson notes, is in many ways a spiritual crisis. The willful destruction of our planetary home is a sign that all is not well with the human community. Theology can provide the spiritual, conceptual and moral tools to respond to such a massive crisis. Given CTI’s current inquiry on the natural environment, and the focus of this issue of Fresh Thinking, that was an appropriate note on which to close our conversation.
—Joshua Mauldin
Theology today faces deep challenges. Con tinued secularization in the West has in many ways weakened theology’s public role, includ ing in the university. Fergusson notes that he and many others thought that secularization would eventually bottom out, but it has con tinued apace now for decades, particularly in Europe, but increasingly elsewhere, too. With declining religious believers there is a concom itant decline in pastoral vocations, and thus students in departments of theology, and the downstream effects are real.
After completing his doctoral degree, Fergusson spent time in pastoral ministry, and has contin ued to see his academic career in theology as a form of service to the church. “Theology,” Fergusson believes, “is about the self-understand ing of the Christian community in relation to the God of Israel and to Jesus.” Fergusson adds, however, that the task of theology is increasing ly multi-faith and multi-religious. It is also in creasingly focused on the Global South, where Christianity is rapidly growing.
During his undergraduate years, Fergusson studied philosophy, turning to theology as a graduate level divinity school student and as a doctoral candidate at the University of Oxford, where his degree was supervised by the philos opher of religion, Basil Mitchell. “It was origi nally my call to ministry which led me to turn from philosophy to theology,” and Fergusson always saw philosophy as a strong foundation for theological studies.
ing higher levels of affluence, simply having more things to do with one’s time, and a general weakening of social institutions and their influ ence on individual lives. It would be a mistake to mount a missional strategy which tried to go back in time, to recreate the world of the 1950s, Fergusson contends. We have to move forward, into the new reality, rather than backward.
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COLLOQUY:Discussion with David Fergusson
The challenge is how to understand theology in an increasingly pluralistic world. Various religious traditions have varied definitions of what theology is. Perhaps rather than trying to establish a universal definition of theology that can encompass the multitude of the world’s religious traditions, we do well to think of the diversity and particularity of how theology is construed in various religious contexts. That is something I took from our conversation, even if it wasn’t stated explicitly.
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Peter Ochs is one of today’s most influential Jewish philosophers and the cofounder of the practice of Scriptural Reasoning. Signs of Salva tion: A Festschrift for Peter Ochs cel ebrates Ochs’ deep and wide-rang ing contributions to theology, philosophy, interreligious dialogue, and conflict resolution studies. The volume offers a rich and rigorous in troduction to Peter Ochs’ extensive body of work and his philosophy of scriptural pragmatism. In addition, it presents engaging essays by Ochs’ colleagues, friends, and former students, who reflect on the impact his work has had on their academic field and their own thought. Con tributors raise questions about the task of philosophy and the nature of reasoning, the appropriate function and limits of the Western academy, the practice of Scriptural Reasoning and its significance for interreligious dialogue, and the future of modern theology.
This thematic introduction to classical Islamic philosophy focuses on the most prevalent philosophical debates of the medieval Islamic world and their importance within the history of philosophy.Approaching the topics in a com prehensive and accessible way in this new volume, CTI Member Luis Xavier Lopez-Farjeat makes classical Islamic philosophy approachable for both the new and returning student of the histo ry of philosophy, medieval philosophy, the history of ideas, classical Islamic intellectual history, and the history of religion. Providing readers with a com plete view of the most hotly contested debates in the Islamic philosophical tradition, Lopez-Farjeat discusses the development of theology (kalām) and philosophy (falsafa) during the Abbāsid period, including the translation of Ar istotle into Arabic, the philosophy and theology of Islamic revelation, logic and philosophy of language, philoso phy of natural science, metaphysics, psychology and cognition, and ethics and political philosophy. This volume serves as an indispensable tool for teachers, students, and indepen dent learners aiming to discover the philosophical problems and ideas that defined the classical Islamic world.
Beyond the Divide explores the mosques of Canada in their diversity, beauty, practicality, and versatility. From east to west and to the north, CTI Member Tammy Gaber visits ninety mosques in more than fifty cities, including Canada’s most northern places of worship in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. For nearly a century, Muslims have made mosques in a variety of spaces, from converted shops and vacated churches to large, purpose-built complexes. Drawing on site photographs, architectural drawings, and interviews, Gaber explores the extraordinary diversity in how these spaces have been designed, built, and used—as places not only of worship, but of community gathering, education, charitable work, and civic engagement. The first comprehensive study of mosque history and architecture in Canada, Beyond the Divide reveals the mosque to be a dynamic building type that adapts to its context, from its climate and physical environment to the community it serves. Above all, mosque designs depend on the people who gather in them, and what those people strive for their mosques to be.
FALL 2021 fresh THINKING 27 1. Pope Francis and the Search for God in América Edited by Maria Clara Bingemer & Peter J. Casarella 2 Imagination in Religion Jan-Olav Henriksen 3. Mordecai Would Not Bow Down Timothy P. Jackson 4. Karl Barth’s Moral Thought Gerald McKenny 5. Post-Systematic Theology I Markus Mühling 6. The Oxford Handbook of The Apocrypha Gerbern S. Oegema 7. From This Broken Hill I Sing to You Marcia Pally 8. Habiter d’autres mondes? Anne Marie Reijnen & Christian Pian 9. Blood Theology Eugene F. Rogers, Jr. 10. Terror und Theologie Ulrich Schmiedel 11. Divine Comedies Ola Sigurdson 12. Simone Weil for the Twenty-First Century Eric O. Springsted The latest books from our scholars, showcasing advanced research
BEYOND THE DIVIDE
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CLASSICAL ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHY
SIGNS OF SALVATION
Edited by CTI members Robin Lovin and Joshua Mauldin, several CTI members contribute chapters to the volume: William Stacy Johnson provides a chapter on Re inhold Niebuhr’s brother and theological dialogue partner, H. Richard Niebuhr; Adam Pryor provides a chapter on Niebuhr’s Union Theological Seminary colleague Paul Tillich; Peter Paris provides a chapter on Martin Luther King, Jr.; Joshua Mauldin provides a chapter on Niebuhr’s interactions with the Swiss theologian Karl Barth; Douglas Ottati writes on Niebuhr’s understanding of God; Frederick Simmons writes on Niebuhr’s understanding of love in relation to justice; Gerald McKenny writes on Niebuhr’s under standing of human nature and moral norms; Robin Lovin writes on Niebuhr’s conception of justice; and William Schweiker writes on Niebuhr’s concept of responsibility.
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Reinhold Niebuhr was a theologian, writ er, and public intellectual who influenced religious leaders and social activists in the United States over four crucial decades in the middle of the twentieth century. The Ox ford Handbook of Reinhold Niebuhr traces the development of his work through those years and provides an introduction to the dialogue partners and intellectual adversaries whom he influenced and who shaped his own thinking. It deals with major topics in theol ogy and ethics, providing systematic focus to Niebuhr's wide-ranging works that were directed to many different audiences. Later chapters examine Niebuhr's contributions to political thinking and policy making on issues including international relations, pacifism and the use of force, racial and economic justice, family life and gender equality, and environ mental concerns. The concluding section examines Niebuhr's legacy and continuing influence.
“Simply put, CTI “walks the walk”, reflecting on the ultimate questions, enriching public life and engaging with global concerns. My time as a residential fellow moved my thinking in new directions, inspiring my work with Congress and research as NASA Chair at the Library of Congress. And now, as I begin to plan an ethics center at my own institution, I am even more appreciative of the unique and magical space they have created.”
Author of Why We Believe: Evolution and the Human Way of Being and Melvin Konner, Professor of Anthropology, Emory University
Beyond the Divide: A Century of Canadian Mosque Design
Architecture and Theology: The Art of Place
CTI has recently launched a new series of Research Reports designed to go public with the latest research from CTI, through an online, open access format. CTI’s Research Reports distill the fresh thinking of our research groups on a range of global concerns. Here you will see theologians taking intellectual risks, building bridges of understanding across disciplines and religious traditions, and renewing our service to the academy and public life.
Architecture After Abraham
FULL DETAILS OF THESE EVENTS AVAILABLE ON OUR WEBSITE AT CTINQUIRY.ORG, INCLUDING WEBINAR REGISTRATION AND RECORDINGS OF THE PUBLIC LECTURES
A Conversation with Tammy Gaber, Associate Professor of Architecture Laurentian University, Canada
J. Kameron Carter Professor of Religious Studies, Indiana University
SPRING PUBLIC CONVERSATIONS
William Scheide Lecture on Religion & Global Concerns Creation Otherwise: Black Religion & Climate Catastrophe
Visit ctinquiry.org to access CTI’s Research Reports.
RESEARCH REPORT 1: &INEQUALITYECONOMICRELIGION RESEARCH REPORT 2:
Kabbalah in Art and Architecture
Authors in Conversation on Jewish, Christian & Muslim Approaches to Design
In Season 5, host Joshua Mauldin will interview CTI Members from last year’s Religion & the Built Environment Workshop, discussing what they learned and how their time at CTI is now making an impact in their research and teaching. & ENVIRONMENTRELIGIONTHEBUILT
The Science of Belief
The first entry in CTI’s new series of Research Reports comes out of our 2019-2020 Research Workshop on Religion & Economic Inequality. Building on previous consultations and seminars on this theme, CTI convened a team of researchers from around the globe to explore the emerging global concern of economic inequality both within and among nations. Research Report #2 synthesizes the work of the eight scholars and practitioners who took part in CTI’s 2020-2021 Research Workshop on Religion & the Built Environment. This program focused on how the built environment is integral to the flourishing of human communities, and explored how religion and theology intersect with the challenges of architecture and urban design.
A Dialogue with Agustín Fuentes, Professor of Anthropology, Princeton University
March2022,1, at atatMarchEastern5:30pm17,2022,7:00pmEasternMarch24,2022,7:00pmEasternMarch8,2022,at5:30pmEasternMarch29,2022,at5:30pmEastern
A Conversation with Alexander Gorlin, Architect Alexander Gorlin Architects, New York City
RELIGION & THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
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Author of Believers: Faith in Human Nature
A Conversation with Murray Rae, Professor of Theology University of Otago, New Zealand
William Witherspoon Lecture on Theology & Science
October–May
This may be counter-intuitive but the first step in finding a way forward to deal with conflicting energy demands in a carbon budget may well be to recognize our limits. Humans, and certainly political leaders, can distort but cannot create, destroy, or save the Earth's climate. Some humility may allow humans to search for a way forward together—and before the face of God.
Ernst M. Conradie is Senior Professor in the Department of Religion and Theology at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. He has published widely on ecological issues and is co-editing a series rethinking the whole of Christian doctrine through an ecological lens.
The first is to acknowledge and radicalize an ecological critique of all aspects of Christianity, including a widespread failure to hold together God's work of creation and salvation, as seen in escapist views of the fate of the Earth and views of humanity that devalue our bodily existence.
As we approach the UN Conference on Climate Change this November, what for you are the key issues at stake for Africa and the planet in its deliberations and outcomes?
Center of Theological Inquiry • Henry R. Luce Hall • 50 Stockton Street Princeton, NJ 08540 ctinquiry.org 2012-13 EVOLUTION & HUMAN NATURE 2014-15 LAW RELIGIOUS&FREEDOM 2017-18 RELIGION MIGRATION& 2019-20 RELIGION INEQUALITYECONOMIC& 2021-22 RELIGION & THE ENVIRONMENTNATURAL 2013-14 EXPERIENCERELIGIOUS & MORAL IDENTITY 2015-17 OFIMPLICATIONSSOCIETALASTROBIOLOGY 2018-19 RELIGION VIOLENCE& 2020-21 RELIGION & THE ENVIRONMENTBUILT RESEARCH TIMELINE
on COP26
I find it helpful to cluster this distinct contribution in terms of four tasks: a twofold critique, and a twofold constructive response.
The second critical task entails a prophetic critique of ecological destruction, acknowledging that scientists have become prophets too—against their own methodological inclinations. Here I think it helps to retrieve the language of sin in the public sphere, namely as a form of collaborative social diagnostics to help assess what has gone so horribly wrong in the world.
Ernst, what is the distinctive contribution of systematic theology to our understanding of the environmental crisis?
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The one constructive task is to contribute to the common good by retrieving a wide array of symbols in conversation with other sectors and disciplines. However, the most significant contribution that Christianity can make in the public sphere may well be to get its own house in order!
It is widely recognized that the impact of climate change will affect Africa disproportionately, although African countries ex cept for South Africa contributed very little to historic carbon emissions. African countries are therefore dependent on finan cial aid and technology transfer for climate adaptation. How ever, the deeper challenge lies in envisaging a more sustainable society for itself, one that will not aspire to become a carbon (!) copy of industrialized countries, whether capitalist or socialist in orientation. This requires a far-reaching rethinking of notions of development, economic growth, aid, welfare, and gender, in the context of decolonial and postcolonial discourse.
The other constructive task is therefore to contribute to Christian authenticity. That entails the ecumenically recognized need for a far-reaching ecological reformation of all aspects of the Christian tradition.
If you had to make a keynote speech at COP26 as a theolo gian, what would be your takeaway message?
Samuel Ferguson Professor
Society
COP26 December 1, 12:30-1:30pm2021Eastern on Zoom Join members of CTI’s research team to discuss their reflections on COP26, from their own scholarly perspectives in theology and environmental studies.
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Jan-Olav Henriksen
Applied Theology University of Manchester Frederick Simmons John Templeton Foundation Research Scholar in Theology and Science Princeton Theological Seminary Reflections
Professor of Environmental Studies of California, Santa Barbara
Professor of Systematic Theology School of Theology, Religion, and
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Lisa Sideris
