Extinction/Rebellion: Christianity and the Climate Crisis
RELI 303
Spring 2021
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
ENVS 302, SISP 313 |
Although this course is not devoted specifically to the subject of "XR"--the decentralized environmental activist organization and global campaign of civil disobedience--it borrows the movement's self-designation as a point of departure for an exploration of the historical, conceptual, and geopolitical significance of Christianity to the "Anthropocene." How is Christianity entangled among the "historical roots of our ecologic crisis"? What is "eco-theology"? How do ancient narratives of creation and traditional Christian teachings regarding the origin of humankind continue to shape modern, scientific, and popular assumptions about the natural world and our place in it? What does the book of Genesis have to say about commercial agriculture, ethical veganism, and the relation of divinity with the more-than-human, animal-vegetal-mineral web of life? Whence this "planet of slums" and whither Paradise or the Promised Land? Which elements of the Christian imagination enabled colonization of the New World, indigenous displacement and genocide, the transatlantic slave trade, and capitalist globalization? Is another world still possible, and could Christian thought and practice play a pivotal part in actualizing an alternative planetarity today? We will pursue these questions together by way of readings in theology, philosophy, critical science studies, ecology, geography, political economy, Black feminism, queer theory, and Indigenous studies. Ultimately, the course analyzes aspects of Christianity's intimate involvement in the history of climate change and considers how critical attention to this history may contribute to collective acts of rebellion against mass extinction. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS RELI |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (ENVS-MN)(ENVS)(RELI-MN)(RELI) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 75% - 89% |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Lynn White, Jr., "Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis"
Hannah Arendt, THE HUMAN CONDITION
Ivone Gebara, Longing for Running Water: Ecofeminism and Liberation
Pope Francis, Laudato Si
James Cone, "Whose Earth is it Anyway?"
Willie Jennings, THE CHRISTIAN IMAGINATION: THEOLOGY AND THE ORIGINS OF RACE
Catherine Keller, APOCALYPSE NOW AND THEN: A FEMINIST GUIDE TO THE END OF THE WORLD
Mary-Jane Rubenstein, PANTHEOLOGIES: GODS, WORLDS, MONSTERS
Whitney Bauman, MEANINGFUL FLESH: REFLECTIONS ON RELIGION AND NATURE FOR A QUEER PLANET
Donna Haraway, STAYING WITH THE TROUBLE: MAKING KIN IN THE CHTHULUCENE
Deborah Bird Rose, WILD DOG DREAMING: LOVE AND EXTINCTION
Deborah Danowski and Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, THE ENDS OF THE WORLD
Elizabeth Povinelli, GEONTOLOGIES: A REQUIEM TO LATE LIBERALISM
Anna Tsing, THE MUSHROOM AT THE END OF THE WORLD: ON THE POSSIBILITY OF LIFE IN CAPITALIST RUINS
Bruno Latour, DOWN TO EARTH: POLITICS IN THE NEW CLIMATIC REGIME
Sylvia Wynter, "Unparalleled Catastrophe for our Species? Or, to Give Humanness a Different Future"
Kathryn Yusoff, A BILLION BLACK ANTHROPOCENES OR NONE
Tiffany Lethabo King, THE BLACK SHOALS: OFFSHORE FORMATIONS OF BLACK AND NATIVE STUDIES
Jason Moore, CAPITALISM AND THE WEB OF LIFE: ECOLOGY AND THE ACCUMULATION OF CAPITAL.
Timothy Mitchell, CARBON DEMOCRACY: POLITICAL POWER IN THE AGE OF OIL
Dorceta Taylor, TOXIC COMMUNITIES: ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM, INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION, AND RESIDENTIAL MOBILITY
Christian Parenti, TROPIC OF CHAOS: CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE NEW GEOGRAPHY OF VIOLENCE
Mike Davis, PLANET OF SLUMS
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Examinations and Assignments:
weekly reading reflections (1-2p.), seminar presentation paper (5-6p.), final research assignment (~10-12p.) |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
This course fulfills the Thematic Approach requirement for the Religion major and Religion minor |
| Instructor(s): Goodwin,Winfield Times: ..T.R.. 08:50AM-10:10AM; Location: ONLINE; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 19 | | SR major: 6 | JR major: 6 | | |
| Seats Available: 4 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 2 | JR non-major: 2 | SO: 3 | FR: 0 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 4 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 1 | 4th Ranked: 1 | Unranked: 2 |
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