Energy and change: a new materialist cosmotheology
"Contemporary western philosophy of religion--at least of the continental sort--has turned sharply away from its roots in Christian theology and embraced New Materialism, non-Western and indigenous spiritual traditions, the Anthropocene, and the insights of epigenetics, quantum theory, and astr...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Print Book |
| Language: | English |
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
New York
Columbia University Press
2022
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| In: | Year: 2022 |
| Series/Journal: | Insurrections critical studies in religion, politics, and culture
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| Further subjects: | B
Religion
Philosophy
B Change B Materialism |
| Online Access: |
Inhaltsverzeichnis (Aggregator) |
| Summary: | "Contemporary western philosophy of religion--at least of the continental sort--has turned sharply away from its roots in Christian theology and embraced New Materialism, non-Western and indigenous spiritual traditions, the Anthropocene, and the insights of epigenetics, quantum theory, and astrophysics. This materialist turn is also deeply political--in this, our only aleatory and contingent world, confronted by a perfect storm of crises and a collective paralysis in the face of change--in the words of another kind of materialist, Vladimir Lenin, what is to be done? In this new formulation, informed by Whitehead, Merleau-Ponty, Althusser, and Deleuze and in contrast to others grounded in the human, matter, with its self-organizing properties interacting with nonlinear causes, capable of unexpected novelty, is foundational. Put differently, nothing more is needed to get change than the chance workings of material reality; difference is integral to identity. Relating this perspective to the intractable global conditions we face, Clayton Crockett suggests that we begin with energy as a material process. We may not know how to define it, but we can describe its effects. Beyond our planet, in the form of dark energy--three-quarters of of the known universe--it becomes expansive rather than entropic; singularities are produced that transform systems. We see this process in the operations of natural selection, and it is also present in human social, economic, and political operations. Everything is at stake, including the affective, ethical, and spiritual forces that can motivate energetic transformation. Many indigenous cultures do not see the world in material and spiritual binaries; matter and energy, as Latour and Barad have argued, have agential power. In our future we may not survive, but energy, in its multiplicity, will endure"-- |
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| Item Description: | Includes bibliographical references and index |
| ISBN: | 0231206100 |