*** DEBUG START ***
*** DEBUG END ***

Time to stop the rich raiding the earth

by
01 August 2014

A powerful argument for future prudence, says David Atkinson

iStock

A Political Theology of Climate Change

Michael S. Northcott

SPCK £19.99

(978-0-281-07232-3)

Church Times Bookshop

£18 (Use code CT643)

THIS is a hugely important book. It is about the end of a habitable earth, and how to avert that.

Why, though many climate scientists use apocalyptic language about dangerous global warming (summer Arctic ice will disappear for the first time in two million years), is climate change such a low political priority?

Why, since burning coal is such a threat to life, and reduction in fossil-fuel dependency so urgent, is humanity planning to build another 2000 coal-power stations?

Why is the UN search for emissions targets so unworkable? Why are governments powerless to take action? Why, though the G20 agreed in 1999 to end fossil-fuel subsidies, has nothing happened?

Michael Northcott addresses such contradictions in the course of his important book on political theology. It is wide-ranging, immensely erudite, and powerfully argued, in conversation with, among others, Francis Bacon, Immanuel Kant,A. N. Whitehead, Alasdair MacIntyre, Augustine, William Blake, and (surprisingly) Carl Schmitt.

Climate change calls in question many assumptions of our post-Enlightenment rationalist culture of scientific materialism and free-market economics, in which body and soul, nature and culture, science and ethics are forced apart. It questions the supposed "objectivity" of science in Bacon's mechanistic world, which leads to a view of humanity detached from nature, and driven to exploit it. Climate change discloses the illusory assumption of (morally blind) neo-liberal capitalism: that human flourishing can be achieved by the "corporately sustained engine of economic growth", when the chief cause of environmental catastrophe is burning fossil fuels: they need to stay in the ground, and low-carbon energy should be developed instead.

Humanity once understood itself as being interdependent with the natural order; now human action is the primary cause of damage to the planet on which all life depends.

Climate change crosses national borders, and so puts questions to unrestrained global corporations. Northcott argues for a recovery of the nation state as the proper authority to regulate extraction and emissions within its borders. The nation state under God needs to acknowledge the stark reality that it is constrained within ecological limits, as well as moral boundaries. Reducing climate damage will require sacrifices of consumption and economic growth.

Northcott has given us the benefit of his life's work so far. It is not easy bed-time reading. The style is dense in places, and it is sometimes repetitive. But its message is vital, and life-giving, and should inform the Archbishops' Council's new environment working group, and the Ethical Investment Advisory Group, as well as individual Christian disciples and local Christian churches and communities - and the UK Environment Secretary, and Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change also.

Northcott has written political theology. Apocalyptic is understood in terms of judgement from God - the unveiling of the true inter-relationship between God, humanity, and the earth. He criticises Locke's political theology for detaching human values from their intrinsic derivation from the Creator. The "end of history" is nature calling time on the freedom of the wealthy to raid the planet for resources to sustain industrial civilisation, while forcing increasing numbers into poverty of diminishing food and water.

The nations are accountable to God for maintaining the connection between nature, society, and the sacred. The fulfilment of history is in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ and the gift of the Spirit. The meaning of nature lies in the messianic gift of suffering love, the recovery of compassion and grace. The vision that drives Northcott's political theology of the present is of the divine future in which ultimately the whole of restored creation worships God - and the centre of that worship is a Lamb on a throne.

 

Dr Atkinson is an assistant bishop in the diocese of Southwark.

Browse Church and Charity jobs on the Church Times jobsite

Church Times Bookshop

Save money on books reviewed or featured in the Church Times. To get your reader discount:

> Click on the “Church Times Bookshop” link at the end of the review.

> Call 0845 017 6965 (Mon-Fri, 9.30am-5pm).

The reader discount is valid for two months after the review publication date. E&OE

Forthcoming Events

Women Mystics: Female Theologians through Christian History

13 January - 19 May 2025

An online evening lecture series, run jointly by Sarum College and The Church Times

tickets available

 

Festival of Faith and Literature

28 February - 2 March 2025

tickets available

 

Visit our Events page for upcoming and past events 

The Church Times Archive

Read reports from issues stretching back to 1863, search for your parish or see if any of the clergy you know get a mention.

FREE for Church Times subscribers.

Explore the archive

Welcome to the Church Times

 

To explore the Church Times website fully, please sign in or subscribe.

Non-subscribers can read four articles for free each month. (You will need to register.)