One of the world's leading scholars of religious trends shows how climate change has driven dramatic religious upheavals.
Long before the current era of man-made climate change, the world has suffered repeated, severe climate-driven shocks. These shocks have resulted in famine, disease, violence, social upheaval, and mass migration. But these shocks were also religious events. Dramatic shifts in climate have often been understood in religious terms by the people who experienced them. They were described in the language of apocalypse, millennium, and Judgment. Often, too, the eras in which these shocks occurred have been marked by far-reaching changes in the nature of religion and spirituality. Those changes have varied widely--from growing religious fervor and commitment; to the stirring of mystical and apocalyptic expectations; to waves of religious scapegoating and persecution; or the spawning of new religious movements and revivals. In many cases, such responses have had lasting impacts, fundamentally reshaping particular religious traditions.
In Climate, Catastrophe, and Faith historian Philip Jenkins draws out the complex relationship between religion and climate change. He asserts that the religious movements and ideas that emerge from climate shocks often last for many decades, and even become a familiar part of the religious landscape, even though their origins in particular moments of crisis may be increasingly consigned to remote memory. By stirring conflicts and provoking persecutions that defined themselves in religious terms, changes in climate have redrawn the world's religious maps, and created the global concentrations of believers as we know them today.
This bold new argument will change the way we think about the history of religion, regardless of tradition. And it will demonstrate how our growing climate crisis will likely have a comparable religious impact across the Global South.
Industry Reviews
"Reading Climate, Catastrophe, and Faith can nevertheless be salutary. Jenkins is right in his premise that the book will seem innovative..." -- Willis Jenkins, Journal of the American Academy of Religion
"Jenkins's important study is sobering and summoning. Given the past responses to such crises,he leaves little room for optimism. Jenkins reasons by way of analogue from those earlier crises to our own. Given the hard work to be done, we may be grateful to Jenkins for his helpful articulation" -- Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary Decatur, Georgia, Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology
"This work compels us to consider how climate change matters for religious development and, consequently, for international peace and security. It is a worthy read for those working to build a safer and more sustainable world." -- Anum Farhan, Chatham House, UK, International Affairs
"Philip Jenkins provides a fascinating look into the historical relationship between faith and climate change... The book is a poignant reminder of the role that faith leaders can play in the face of the disruptive impacts of today's climate crisis." -- Mariana Vieira, International Affairs Summer reading list 2022
"This masterpiece of historical scholarship should help policy makers and others transcend temporal myopia. Of special interest to students of climate, history, society, religion, and politics, this book can change the way one thinks about such matters." -- L. E. Sponsel, CHOICE
"Jenkins's bold new argument may change the way we think about the history of religion, but more important, it could remind us that we can imagine a new and better way as we prepare for the consequences of this impending climate crisis." -- Rt. Rev. Mark Van Koevering, The Living Church
"So many books on climate change focus on science and policy. This one offers a refreshing, if sobering, break as it charts the effect that past periods of climate stress have had on the evolution of the world's great faiths." -- Pilita Clark, Financial Times, Best Climate and Environment Books of 2021
"a remarkable overview of climate change and its consequences for religious movements in world history... It is an important book for scholars of religion as well as for those interested in the consequences of climate change." -- Mary Evelyn Tucker, Times Literary Supplement
"This timely and meticulously researched book makes an important contribution to the growing body of literature engaging religion and history with ecology and climate change." -- Ruby Guyat, Times Higher Education
"A hugely ambitious work, such as only a historian of Philip Jenkins's great learning would dare undertake... magisterial study, at once probing and panoramic... The timeliness of this volume hardly needs emphasising." -- John Pridmore, Church Times
"It is fascinating and thought-provoking approach to the climate change which the world now faces." -- Revd Dr Paul Beasley-Murray, Church Matters
Financial Times Best books of 2021: Climate and environment
