If We Lose the Earth, We Lose Our Souls

About this book

In this book, Bruno Latour calls upon Christians to join the struggle to avert a climate catastrophe. First and foremost, Christians need to overcome their lack of interest in "earthly things" and pay attention to the Earth at a time when it is being neglected. He also urges Christians to renew their understanding of their faith in the context of the new image of the world that has emerged from earth system science – that of a world in which the myriad of beings that inhabit the world are interdependent and living in close proximity on a slender, fragile membrane on the surface of the planet.

This new image of the world cannot fail to have an impact on the sciences, on politics, and on religion, just as, in earlier centuries, the cosmology of Copernicus and Galileo upset the old order. Latour sees the ecological crisis, and the cosmological mutation that it entails, as an opportunity to convey anew, to the largest possible audience, the tradition of Christianity as it has never been appreciated before, by bringing to bear the lessons of eschatology on the great crisis that looms before us all.

Contents

Foreword by Frederic Louzeau

1. The Great Clamor: Conversation with Antonio Spadaro, SJ
2. Ecological Mutation and Christian Cosmology
3. On a Decisive Overturning of the Schema of the End Times
4. If You Lose the Earth, What Good Will It Do You to Have Saved Your Soul?

Notes

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Biography

Bruno Latour's transdisciplinary work, ranging across philosophy, history, anthropology and sociology, positioned him as one of the world's most influential thinkers. After teaching at the Ecole des Mines in Paris from 1982 to 2006, he was appointed Professor at the Institut d'Études Politiques (Sciences Po), where he served as vice president for research from 2007 to 2013. His many books include Laboratory Life, We Have Never Been Modern, Facing Gaia, Down to Earth and After Lockdown.