Ecology and Theology in the Ancient World: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives
Ebook
This multi-disciplinary volume brings together the voices of biblical scholars, classicists, philosophers, theologians and political theorists to explore how ecology and theology intersected in ancient thinking, both pagan, Jewish and Christian.
Ecological awareness is by no means purely a modern phenomenon. Of course, melting icecaps and plastic bag charges were of no concern in antiquity: frequently what made examining your relationship with the natural world urgent was the light this shed on human relationships with the divine. For, in the ancient world, to think about ecology was also to think about theology.
This ancient eco-theological thinking - whilst in many ways worlds apart from our own environmental concerns - has also had a surprisingly rich impact on modern responses to our ecological crisis. As such, the voices gathered in this volume also reflect on whether and how these ancient ideas could inform modern responses to our environment and its pressing challenges.
Through multi-disciplinary conversation this volume offers a new and dynamic exploration of the intersection of ecology and theology in ancient thinking, and its living legacy.
This interdisciplinary book puts ancient eco-theological thinking under the spotlight for the first time, and reveals its surprising influence on thinking about our own ecological crisis.
Offers new insights into ancient eco-theological thinking that deepen our understanding of ancient cultures
Engages with an issue of global public concern
An ambitious interdisciplinary project that broadens intellectual horizons
Preface
Abbreviations
Contributors
Introduction (Ailsa Hunt, University of Birmingham, UK & Hilary Marlow (University of Cambridge, UK)
1. Ancient Ideas of Politics: Mediating between Ecology and Theology (Melissa Lane, Princeton University, USA)
2. The Ecology of the Sibylline Oracles (Helen Van Noorden, University of Cambridge, UK)
3. Self-sufficiency as a Divine Attribute in Greek Philosophy(David Sedley, University of Cambridge, UK)
4. A Lighter Shade of Green: Stoic Gods and Environmental Virtue Ethics (Christoph Jedan, University of Groningen, Netherlands)
5. Cosmic Beauty in Stoicism: A Foundation for an Environmental Ethic as Love of the Other? (Jula Wildberger, American University of Paris, France)
6. Some Ancient Philosophical and Religious Roots of Modern Environmentalism (Robin Attfield, Cardiff University, UK)
7. Creatures in Creation: Human Perceptions of the Sea in the Hebrew Bible in Ecological Perspective (Rebecca Watson, University of Cambridge, UK)
8. Reconsidering the Chthonic in Aeschylus' Oresteia: Erinyes, the Earth's Resources, and the Cosmic Order (Emmanuela Bakola, University of Warwick, UK)
9. The Anguish of the Earth: Ecology and Warfare in the First World War and the Bible (Hilary Marlow, University of Cambridge, UK)
10. Pagan Animism: A Modern Myth for a Green Age (Ailsa Hunt, University of Birmingham, UK)
Notes
Bibliography
Index
- Title: Ecology and Theology in the Ancient World: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives
- Authors: Arthur Surridge Hunt, Hilary F. Marlow
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
- Print Publication Date: 2019
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781350004054, 9781350183285, 1350183288, 1350004057
- Resource ID: LLS:9781350004054
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-04-11T01:00:38Z
Ailsa Hunt is a Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Birmingham, UK. Her work on Roman religion and its intersection with the environment includes Reviving Roman Religion: Sacred Trees in the Roman World (2016).
Hilary Marlow is Senior Researcher at the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, University of Cambridge, UK. She has written extensively on the interaction between people and the natural world in Jewish and Christian traditions.