Secular Discourse on Sin in the Anthropocene: What's Wrong with the World?

by Ernst M. Conradie University of the Western Cape (South Africa)

Overview

In Secular Discourse on Sin in the Anthropocene: What’s Wrong with the World, Ernst M. Conradieutilizes a notion of social diagnostics to explore not only the surface-level symptoms of ecological destruction, but also its ultimate causes. Conradie uses two toolkits to review secular literature on the Anthropocene, namely the prophetic and pastoral vocabulary of Christian sin-talk and the theological critique against apartheid in South Africa. Various layers of the underlying problem are uncovered on this bases, including unsustainable “habits of the heart,” structural violence, the ideologies of unlimited economic growth and humanism, quasi-soteriologies such as climate engineering, idolatries such as self-divinization, and heresy. Conradie offers authentic discourse on the Anthropocene from the perspective of the global South, and includes a theological postscript to posit tentative suggestions as to what God may have in store for humanity in this time. Scholars of theology, environmental studies, and history will find this book particularly useful.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781793635075
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	10/13/2020
Series:	Environment and Society
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.33(w) x 8.99(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Ernst M. Conradie is senior professor in the Department of Religion and Theology at University of the Western Cape

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1: A Role for Social Diagnostics?

Chapter 2: A Theological Contribution?

Chapter 3: Unsustainable Habits of the Heart in the Anthropocene?

Chapter 4: Structural Violence in the Anthropocene?

Chapter 5: Distortive Ideologies in the Anthropocene?

Chapter 6: Quasi-Soteriologies in the Anthropocene?

Chapter 7: Idolatry in the Anthropocene?

Chapter 8: Heresy in the Anthropocene?

Chapter 9: An Apocalyptic Theological Postscript

Bibliography

About the author

Editorial Reviews

Conradie develops a tool kit, derived from the theological critique against apartheid in South Africa, to explore how the Global South may contribute to the discussion.

Philosophia Reformata