In Chapter 6 of ‚Ecocriticism’ called ‚Dwelling’, the term theocentric is used. Instead of an ecocentric or anthrocentric view, this on is focused on theology, mostly christianity and the bible. Of course the question pops up how this is related to pollution. But a closer look into the bible offers a lot of disasters brought to the world by god himself. He sends the great flood, the seven plagues in the book of revelation or the ten plagues of Egypt.
The question is, how can we learn from it? The linking to contemporary toxic discourse is difficult, but if you want to read more about it, search for Stephen Clark, a theologist who deals with it.
Of course, this is a big chapter and whole papers can be written about it. My aim was to simply show, that there is this direction as well, that the bible an theology still play a part in discourse, even though the bible is is quite old from todays perspective.
Many ecocritics challenge Christianity for its decidedly anti-environmental tack. Especially regarding particular evangelical sects and apocalyptic rhetoric in the Bible, Christianity can sanction some fairly unhealthy ways of thinking about the environment. Dispensationalism, for example--the notion that God created the world, God will end it, and there's really not much we can say about it all: that's a pretty damaging ideology to carry into our dealings with nature. It releases its believers from most any responsibility and even invites ecocatastrophe encoded as "The Rapture" or some other version of "The Second Coming."
ReplyDeleteCourse, that's not all Christian sects. It's a religion as diverse as it is popular. Good points, for sure, Timo.