The Peculiar Agency of People and the Planet: On the Need to Rethink Everything, Including Religion

During the summer of 2020, the Wendland-Cook program hosted a series of webinars under the theme: Liberating People and the Planet: Christian Responses at the Intersection of Economics, Ecology, and Religion. Originally planned as an in-person conference, these webinars featured insights from theologians and scholars of religion reflecting on our climate and economic crisis. The original papers are being prepared for a book to be released in 2021.

In preparation of the book release and to contextualize the webinars, we featured brief overviews of each of the chapters in an Interventions forum. To see the entire forum, click here. This is Joerg Rieger’s contribution to the forum.

THE PECULIAR AGENCY OF PEOPLE AND THE PLANET:
ON THE NEED TO RETHINK EVERYTHING, INCLUDING RELIGION

JOERG RIEGER

September 10, 2020

Climate change entails the diagnosis of a life-threatening condition. What is threatened, to be sure, is not the future of life on planet Earth but the future of human life as we know it, along with the life of many other species. Earth, myriads of bacteria, cockroaches, and perhaps even some humans who have the means for survival will likely be fine for the time being; the majority of humanity, hummingbirds, and koalas probably will not. Inequalities along the lines of race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, nationality, and class further exacerbate this scenario.

Not all is lost just yet, however. As we take a deeper look at the causes of our current condition, a better grasp of possible solutions emerges as well. Social movements and the agency emerging from the majority of humanity—those not benefiting from prevailing developments—have changed the world in the past and may well change it again, and neither should the agency of nature itself be dismissed out of hand. How would another look at problems and solutions impact the work of theologians, economists, and social and natural scientists?

Joerg Rieger is the Distinguished Professor of Theology, Cal Turner Chancellor’s Chair in Wesleyan Studies, and Founder and Director of the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice.