The books selected for this forum traverse the fields of environmental studies, Islamic studies, and the philosophy of religion. They…
Nature and normativity: New inquiries into the natural world
This forum follows the format of two previous discussions featured on The Immanent Frame: “Science and the soul: New inquiries into Islamic ethics” (2018) and “Modernity’s resonances: New inquiries into the secular” (2019). Scholars will discuss three recent books that consider how nature and natural processes are understood to mediate normative principles and ethical guidelines. The three books included in this discussion are Black Lives and Sacred Humanity by Carol Wayne White (Fordham University Press, 2016), The Gospel of Climate Skepticism by Robin Globus Veldman (University of California Press, 2019), and Muslim Environmentalisms by Anna M. Gade (Columbia University Press, 2019). Respondents in this forum were asked to reflect on these books and the themes and topics emergent from them.
Begin by reading editorial board member Lisa Sideris’s introduction to the forum, which she cocurated with TIF editor Mona Oraby. Sideris provides an overview of the common themes, questions, narratives, and frames that emerge from the books and essays. Then, check back each week as a new book is featured with essays by the author and two other scholars. These essays will be followed with additional reflection essays from the book authors and a concluding essay.
zzA natural vision of justice amidst the pandemic
Reading Carol Wayne White’s Black Lives and Sacred Humanity: Toward an African American Religious Naturalism during summer 2020 was an…
Black Lives: Triangulations with the natural world
In Black Lives and Sacred Humanity Carol Wayne White accomplishes two important things with regard to querying normativity and the…
Religious naturalism, myriad nature, and justice: A reply to Kahn and Keller
I very much appreciate the scholarship of Jonathon Kahn and Mary Keller, so am particularly grateful for this opportunity to…
Social climates beyond belief and doubt
Robin Globus Veldman’s The Gospel of Climate Skepticism is a timely intervention into longstanding debates about the relationship between religious…
Orders of nature, norms of order
The sentiment that we are in a troubled, uncertain, and unusual period reverberates throughout media think pieces, anodyne corporate advertisements,…
Beyond belief? A reply to Berry and Crockford
One of the most difficult aspects of writing The Gospel of Climate Skepticism for me related to audience. The audience…
Ethical response and the environmental humanities
Gade approaches the question of justice as a scholar of the history of religions and environmental studies. A study of…
Provincializing the environmental humanities: An Islamic view
Every now and then a book comes along, at times from an oblique vantage point or marginalized point of reference,…
Scales of justice for environmental ethics: A reply to Hennessy and Hoesterey
Muslim Environmentalisms claims that the environment is an ethical idea. It is about environmental ethics; it is not a book…