Theological Imagination in a Throwaway Society: Contending with Waste

This article treats the topic of consumer waste by beginning with a contemporary story that illustrates the reality and complex dynamics of throwaway culture. Noting the dynamic quality of waste, it offers a brief review of the development of throwaway society. Beginning in a preindustrial world in...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Hearlson, Christy Lang (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Sage Publ. 2021
In: Theology today
Year: 2021, Volume: 78, Issue: 2, Pages: 158-169
IxTheo Classification:NCG Environmental ethics; Creation ethics
Further subjects:B waste
B ecological conversion
B throwaway
B theological imagination
B Bricolage
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:This article treats the topic of consumer waste by beginning with a contemporary story that illustrates the reality and complex dynamics of throwaway culture. Noting the dynamic quality of waste, it offers a brief review of the development of throwaway society. Beginning in a preindustrial world in which the battle against “moth and rust” required habits of reuse and repair, or what cultural historian Susan Strasser refers to as bricolage, it then traces changes in “natural” and “temporal” imaginaries, as well as economic and technological factors, that rendered obsolete the cultural skills and imaginative capacities of bricolage. Having argued that forgetting and loss of imagination are key to waste-making, it offers two Christian responses that schools and faith communities might practice: “material anamnesis” and “redemptive vision.”
ISSN:2044-2556
Contains:Enthalten in: Theology today
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/00405736211004871