Joseph D. Witt
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780813168128
- eISBN:
- 9780813168753
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813168128.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This volume examines the complex roles of religious values and perceptions of place in the efforts of twenty-first-century anti-mountaintop removal activists in Appalachia. Applying theoretical ...
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This volume examines the complex roles of religious values and perceptions of place in the efforts of twenty-first-century anti-mountaintop removal activists in Appalachia. Applying theoretical insights from religious studies, Appalachian studies, and critical regionalism, the work charts how views of Appalachian place were transformed and revised through activism and how different religious threads were involved in that process, weaving together patterns of meaning and significance to help motivate activist efforts and reshape visions of Appalachia. The specific religious threads examined include Catholic and mainline Protestant visions of eco-justice (or religiously inspired arguments in support of social and environmental justice), evangelical Christian views of Creation Care (a term encompassing multiple visions of theocentric stewardship ethics), and forms of nature-venerating spirituality (including spiritual and religious proponents of biocentric ethics and “dark green religion”). These religious perspectives encountered friction with other perspectives, structures, and practices, generating new perspectives on the issue formed from physical interactions between diverse stakeholders as well as new visions for Appalachia in a post-mountaintop removal future. The work points to ways that scholars might continue to analyze the interconnections between local religious values and perceptions of place, influencing further studies in the interdisciplinary field of religion and nature, place studies, and social movements.Less
This volume examines the complex roles of religious values and perceptions of place in the efforts of twenty-first-century anti-mountaintop removal activists in Appalachia. Applying theoretical insights from religious studies, Appalachian studies, and critical regionalism, the work charts how views of Appalachian place were transformed and revised through activism and how different religious threads were involved in that process, weaving together patterns of meaning and significance to help motivate activist efforts and reshape visions of Appalachia. The specific religious threads examined include Catholic and mainline Protestant visions of eco-justice (or religiously inspired arguments in support of social and environmental justice), evangelical Christian views of Creation Care (a term encompassing multiple visions of theocentric stewardship ethics), and forms of nature-venerating spirituality (including spiritual and religious proponents of biocentric ethics and “dark green religion”). These religious perspectives encountered friction with other perspectives, structures, and practices, generating new perspectives on the issue formed from physical interactions between diverse stakeholders as well as new visions for Appalachia in a post-mountaintop removal future. The work points to ways that scholars might continue to analyze the interconnections between local religious values and perceptions of place, influencing further studies in the interdisciplinary field of religion and nature, place studies, and social movements.
Norman Wirzba
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195157161
- eISBN:
- 9780199835270
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195157168.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter charts the development of ecology as a science and then highlights the cultural and educational significance of this way of thinking. The career of Aldo Leopold is considered in order to ...
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This chapter charts the development of ecology as a science and then highlights the cultural and educational significance of this way of thinking. The career of Aldo Leopold is considered in order to show the transformation in thought necessary for a more robust environmentalism. The foundations are also laid for an ecological ethic, a garden aesthetic, and a conversation between religion and ecology around the topic of death.Less
This chapter charts the development of ecology as a science and then highlights the cultural and educational significance of this way of thinking. The career of Aldo Leopold is considered in order to show the transformation in thought necessary for a more robust environmentalism. The foundations are also laid for an ecological ethic, a garden aesthetic, and a conversation between religion and ecology around the topic of death.
Norman Wirzba
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195157161
- eISBN:
- 9780199835270
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195157168.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Given the wholeness of membership that creation itself is, an environmentalism is proposed that does not take us out of nature but places us more responsibly within it. Practical suggestions are ...
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Given the wholeness of membership that creation itself is, an environmentalism is proposed that does not take us out of nature but places us more responsibly within it. Practical suggestions are offered that will strengthen our identities and vocations as creatures made by God to serve the well-being of the whole creation. Our challenge is to design communities and construct built environments that will reflect God’s justice and peace.Less
Given the wholeness of membership that creation itself is, an environmentalism is proposed that does not take us out of nature but places us more responsibly within it. Practical suggestions are offered that will strengthen our identities and vocations as creatures made by God to serve the well-being of the whole creation. Our challenge is to design communities and construct built environments that will reflect God’s justice and peace.
Anna Lora-Wainwright
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780262036320
- eISBN:
- 9780262341097
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262036320.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Environmental Politics
Pollution is one of the most pressing issues facing contemporary China and among the most prominent causes for unrest. Much of industry and mining takes place in rural areas, yet we know little about ...
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Pollution is one of the most pressing issues facing contemporary China and among the most prominent causes for unrest. Much of industry and mining takes place in rural areas, yet we know little about how rural communities affected by severe pollution make sense of it and the diverse form of activism they embrace. This book describes some of these engagements with pollution through three in-depth case studies based on the author’s fieldwork and an analysis of “cancer villages” examined in existing social science accounts. It challenges assumptions that villagers are ignorant about pollution or fully complicit with it and it looks beyond high-profile cases and beyond single strategies. It examines how villagers’ concerns and practices evolve over time and how pollution may become normalised. Through the concept of “resigned activism”, it advocates rethinking conventional approaches to activism to encompass less visible forms of engagement. It offers insights into the complex dynamics of popular contention, environmental movements and their situatedness within local and national political economies. Describing a likely widespread scenario across much of industrialised rural China, this book provides a window onto the staggering human costs of development and the deeply uneven distribution of costs and benefits. It portrays rural environmentalism and its limitations as prisms through which to study key issues surrounding contemporary Chinese culture and society, such as state responsibility, social justice, ambivalence towards development and modernisation and some of the new fault lines of inequality and social conflict which they generate.Less
Pollution is one of the most pressing issues facing contemporary China and among the most prominent causes for unrest. Much of industry and mining takes place in rural areas, yet we know little about how rural communities affected by severe pollution make sense of it and the diverse form of activism they embrace. This book describes some of these engagements with pollution through three in-depth case studies based on the author’s fieldwork and an analysis of “cancer villages” examined in existing social science accounts. It challenges assumptions that villagers are ignorant about pollution or fully complicit with it and it looks beyond high-profile cases and beyond single strategies. It examines how villagers’ concerns and practices evolve over time and how pollution may become normalised. Through the concept of “resigned activism”, it advocates rethinking conventional approaches to activism to encompass less visible forms of engagement. It offers insights into the complex dynamics of popular contention, environmental movements and their situatedness within local and national political economies. Describing a likely widespread scenario across much of industrialised rural China, this book provides a window onto the staggering human costs of development and the deeply uneven distribution of costs and benefits. It portrays rural environmentalism and its limitations as prisms through which to study key issues surrounding contemporary Chinese culture and society, such as state responsibility, social justice, ambivalence towards development and modernisation and some of the new fault lines of inequality and social conflict which they generate.
Jessica Smartt Gullion
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262029766
- eISBN:
- 9780262329798
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262029766.001.0001
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Environmental Studies
When natural gas drilling moves into an urban or a suburban neighborhood, a two-hundred-foot-high drill appears on the other side of a back yard fence and diesel trucks clog a quiet two-lane ...
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When natural gas drilling moves into an urban or a suburban neighborhood, a two-hundred-foot-high drill appears on the other side of a back yard fence and diesel trucks clog a quiet two-lane residential street. Children seem to be having more than the usual number of nosebleeds. There are so many local cases of cancer that the elementary school starts a cancer support group. In this book, Jessica Smartt Gullion examines what happens when natural gas extraction by means of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” takes place not on wide-open rural land but in a densely populated area with homes, schools, hospitals, parks, and businesses. Gullion focuses on fracking in the Barnett Shale, the natural-gas–rich geological formation under the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. She gives voice to the residents—for the most part educated, middle class, and politically conservative—who became reluctant anti-drilling activists in response to perceived environmental and health threats posed by fracking. Gullion offers an overview of oil and gas development and describes the fossil-fuel culture of Texas, the process of fracking, related health concerns, and regulatory issues (including the notorious “Halliburton loophole”). She chronicles the experiences of community activists as they fight to be heard and to get the facts about the safety of fracking. Touted as a greener alternative and a means to reduce dependence on foreign oil, natural gas development is an important part of American energy policy. Yet, as this book shows, it comes at a cost to the local communities who bear the health and environmental burdens.Less
When natural gas drilling moves into an urban or a suburban neighborhood, a two-hundred-foot-high drill appears on the other side of a back yard fence and diesel trucks clog a quiet two-lane residential street. Children seem to be having more than the usual number of nosebleeds. There are so many local cases of cancer that the elementary school starts a cancer support group. In this book, Jessica Smartt Gullion examines what happens when natural gas extraction by means of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” takes place not on wide-open rural land but in a densely populated area with homes, schools, hospitals, parks, and businesses. Gullion focuses on fracking in the Barnett Shale, the natural-gas–rich geological formation under the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. She gives voice to the residents—for the most part educated, middle class, and politically conservative—who became reluctant anti-drilling activists in response to perceived environmental and health threats posed by fracking. Gullion offers an overview of oil and gas development and describes the fossil-fuel culture of Texas, the process of fracking, related health concerns, and regulatory issues (including the notorious “Halliburton loophole”). She chronicles the experiences of community activists as they fight to be heard and to get the facts about the safety of fracking. Touted as a greener alternative and a means to reduce dependence on foreign oil, natural gas development is an important part of American energy policy. Yet, as this book shows, it comes at a cost to the local communities who bear the health and environmental burdens.
Stacy Alaimo
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780816621958
- eISBN:
- 9781452955223
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816621958.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy
Exposed argues for a material feminist posthumanism that departs from the predominant modes of humanist transcendence in theory, science, consumerism, and popular culture. Featuring three sections, ...
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Exposed argues for a material feminist posthumanism that departs from the predominant modes of humanist transcendence in theory, science, consumerism, and popular culture. Featuring three sections, the book calls for an environmental stance in which humanity thinks, feels, and acts as the very stuff of the world. As a work within the environmental humanities, it grapples with climate change, biodiversity, sustainability, ocean conservation, environmental activism, and the depiction of the anthropocene. And as a study in new materialism it focuses on how the materiality of human bodies provoke modes of posthumanist pleasure, environmental protest, and a sense of immersion within the strange agencies that constitute the world.Less
Exposed argues for a material feminist posthumanism that departs from the predominant modes of humanist transcendence in theory, science, consumerism, and popular culture. Featuring three sections, the book calls for an environmental stance in which humanity thinks, feels, and acts as the very stuff of the world. As a work within the environmental humanities, it grapples with climate change, biodiversity, sustainability, ocean conservation, environmental activism, and the depiction of the anthropocene. And as a study in new materialism it focuses on how the materiality of human bodies provoke modes of posthumanist pleasure, environmental protest, and a sense of immersion within the strange agencies that constitute the world.
Anna Lora-Wainwright
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780262036320
- eISBN:
- 9780262341097
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262036320.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Environmental Politics
Chapter 1 situates the book vis-à-vis relevant literature on social movements, environmentalism, environmental health and these areas as they relate to China. In the first part, it suggests that ...
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Chapter 1 situates the book vis-à-vis relevant literature on social movements, environmentalism, environmental health and these areas as they relate to China. In the first part, it suggests that environmentalism may take very diverse forms and it is powerfully shaped by its cultural, social, political and economic contexts. These contexts in turn affect the ways in which locals value environment, health and development and the extent to which they may be uncertain about pollution’s health effects. In light of this, the chapter presents “resigned activism” as a conceptual tool for bridging analyses of activism and resignation, and for showing how they merge across a wide range of villagers’ attitudes and everyday practices. In the second part, it outlines some of China’s environmental challenges and burgeoning environmentalism. It argues in favour of looking beyond the obvious environmental agents (NGOs) and strategies, towards less visible environmental subjectivities.Less
Chapter 1 situates the book vis-à-vis relevant literature on social movements, environmentalism, environmental health and these areas as they relate to China. In the first part, it suggests that environmentalism may take very diverse forms and it is powerfully shaped by its cultural, social, political and economic contexts. These contexts in turn affect the ways in which locals value environment, health and development and the extent to which they may be uncertain about pollution’s health effects. In light of this, the chapter presents “resigned activism” as a conceptual tool for bridging analyses of activism and resignation, and for showing how they merge across a wide range of villagers’ attitudes and everyday practices. In the second part, it outlines some of China’s environmental challenges and burgeoning environmentalism. It argues in favour of looking beyond the obvious environmental agents (NGOs) and strategies, towards less visible environmental subjectivities.
Joseph D. Witt
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780813168128
- eISBN:
- 9780813168753
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813168128.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter examines a third thread of religious resistance to mountaintop removal, a set of perspectives broadly listed under the category of nature-venerating spiritualities. Most basically, these ...
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This chapter examines a third thread of religious resistance to mountaintop removal, a set of perspectives broadly listed under the category of nature-venerating spiritualities. Most basically, these forms of religious responses posit some sort of intrinsic, spiritual value in natural ecosystems. They often share similarities with biocentric arguments, particularly those associated with Deep Ecology and radical environmental movements. Nature-venerating spiritualities take many forms in the Appalachian movement, including the many types of dark green religion as described by Bron Taylor. Nature-venerating spiritualities are also expressed through a vernacular nature religion, or a localized expression of care for place based out of experience and work in Appalachia. The chapter describes several points where nature-venerating spiritualities entered the anti-mountaintop removal movement.Less
This chapter examines a third thread of religious resistance to mountaintop removal, a set of perspectives broadly listed under the category of nature-venerating spiritualities. Most basically, these forms of religious responses posit some sort of intrinsic, spiritual value in natural ecosystems. They often share similarities with biocentric arguments, particularly those associated with Deep Ecology and radical environmental movements. Nature-venerating spiritualities take many forms in the Appalachian movement, including the many types of dark green religion as described by Bron Taylor. Nature-venerating spiritualities are also expressed through a vernacular nature religion, or a localized expression of care for place based out of experience and work in Appalachia. The chapter describes several points where nature-venerating spiritualities entered the anti-mountaintop removal movement.
Carl Death
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780300215830
- eISBN:
- 9780300224894
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300215830.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, African History
This chapter concludes the argument of the book and shows how environmental politics in Africa is central to the production of state effects, and vice versa. The theoretical framework, inspired by ...
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This chapter concludes the argument of the book and shows how environmental politics in Africa is central to the production of state effects, and vice versa. The theoretical framework, inspired by postcolonial approaches, produces a powerful way to categorise and assess African environmental politics in terms of the governance and contestation of land, populations, economies and international relations. Moreover, this chapter argues that green states in Africa are distinctive, compared to those elsewhere, in terms of the centrality of land and conservation, the importance of ‘the peasant question’, the importance of green modernisation and industrialisation strategies, and the assertion of continental solidarity. Based on the analysis of the political implications of these green state effects, the conclusion suggests that political resources should be marshalled in support of hybrid forms of territorialisation, environmental dissidents, radical strategies of green transformation, and relations of critical transnational solidarity. Taking green states in Africa seriously will challenge existing debates in global environmental governance, and encourage them to become more genuinely global than they have been hitherto.Less
This chapter concludes the argument of the book and shows how environmental politics in Africa is central to the production of state effects, and vice versa. The theoretical framework, inspired by postcolonial approaches, produces a powerful way to categorise and assess African environmental politics in terms of the governance and contestation of land, populations, economies and international relations. Moreover, this chapter argues that green states in Africa are distinctive, compared to those elsewhere, in terms of the centrality of land and conservation, the importance of ‘the peasant question’, the importance of green modernisation and industrialisation strategies, and the assertion of continental solidarity. Based on the analysis of the political implications of these green state effects, the conclusion suggests that political resources should be marshalled in support of hybrid forms of territorialisation, environmental dissidents, radical strategies of green transformation, and relations of critical transnational solidarity. Taking green states in Africa seriously will challenge existing debates in global environmental governance, and encourage them to become more genuinely global than they have been hitherto.
Dale B. Martin
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780300222838
- eISBN:
- 9780300227918
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300222838.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
When the subject is the Christian view of the holy spirit, it is even more difficult to find an orthodox doctrine of the spirit if the Bible is read only through the method of modern historical ...
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When the subject is the Christian view of the holy spirit, it is even more difficult to find an orthodox doctrine of the spirit if the Bible is read only through the method of modern historical criticism. Read historically, the Bible does not teach a doctrine of the trinity, and the Greek word for “spirit,” pneuma, refers to many different things in the New Testament. Moreover, the pneuma was considered in the ancient world to be a material substance, though a rarified and thin form of matter. Yet those ancient notions of pneuma may help us reimagine the Christian holy spirit in new, though not at all unorthodox, ways. The spirit may then become the most corporeal person of the trinity; the most present person of the trinity; or alternatively, the most absent. The various ways the New Testament speaks of pneuma—that of the human person, or the church, of God, of Christ, and even of “this cosmos”—may provoke Christian imagination in new ways once the constraints of modernist methods of interpretation are transcended. Even the gender of the spirit becomes a provocative but fruitful meditation for postmodern Christians.Less
When the subject is the Christian view of the holy spirit, it is even more difficult to find an orthodox doctrine of the spirit if the Bible is read only through the method of modern historical criticism. Read historically, the Bible does not teach a doctrine of the trinity, and the Greek word for “spirit,” pneuma, refers to many different things in the New Testament. Moreover, the pneuma was considered in the ancient world to be a material substance, though a rarified and thin form of matter. Yet those ancient notions of pneuma may help us reimagine the Christian holy spirit in new, though not at all unorthodox, ways. The spirit may then become the most corporeal person of the trinity; the most present person of the trinity; or alternatively, the most absent. The various ways the New Testament speaks of pneuma—that of the human person, or the church, of God, of Christ, and even of “this cosmos”—may provoke Christian imagination in new ways once the constraints of modernist methods of interpretation are transcended. Even the gender of the spirit becomes a provocative but fruitful meditation for postmodern Christians.
