Gaia and God

Gaia and God

Author: Rosemary R. Ruether

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 1994-05-07

Total Pages: 326

ISBN-13: 0060669675

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Internationally acclaimed author and teacher Rosemary Radford Ruether presents a sweeping ecofeminist theology that illuminates a path toward "earth-healing"--a whole relationship between men and women, communities and nations. "This is theology that really matters."--Harvey Cox


God and Gaia

God and Gaia

Author: Michael S Northcott

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-12-22

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 1000816931

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God and Gaia explores the overlap between traditional religious cosmologies and the scientific Gaia theory of James Lovelock. It argues that a Gaian approach to the ecological crisis involves rebalancing human and more-than-human influences on Earth by reviving the ecological agency of local and indigenous human communities, and of nonhuman beings. Present-day human ecological influences on Earth have been growing at pace since the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions, when modern humans adopted a machine cosmology in which humans are the sole intelligent agency. The resultant imbalance between human and Earthly agencies is degrading the species diversity of ecosystems, causing local climate changes, and threatens to destabilise the Earth as a System. Across eight chapters this ambitious text engages with traditional cosmologies from the Indian Vedas and classical Greece to Medieval Christianity, with case material from Southeast Asia, Southern Africa and Great Britain. It discusses concepts such as deep time and ancestral time, the ethics of genetic engineering of foods and viruses, and holistic ecological management. Northcott argues that an ontological turn that honours the differential agency of indigenous humans and other kind, and that draws on sacred traditions, will make it is possible to repair the destabilising impacts of contemporary human activities on the Earth System and its constituent ecosystems. This book will be of considerable interest to students and scholars of the environmental humanities, history, and cultural and religious studies.


Mary, the Feminine Face of the Church

Mary, the Feminine Face of the Church

Author: Rosemary Radford Ruether

Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press

Published: 1977-01-01

Total Pages: 112

ISBN-13: 9780664247591

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Mary Radford Ruether's book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of Mary's role in the vital doctrine of the contemporary church. In this unique study, she brings together much hard-to-find material. Her careful biblical scholarship enables us to reclaim a long-ignored part of our religious tradition. Useful for women's and other adult study groups, this book includes help for study leaders.


Gaia's Gift

Gaia's Gift

Author: Anne Primavesi

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2004-03-01

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 1134442653

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Gaia's Gift, the second of Anne Primavesi's explorations of human relationships with the earth, asks that we complete the ideological revolution set in motion by Copernicus and Darwin concerning human importancene. They challenged the notion of our God-given centrality within the universe and within earth's evolutionary history. Yet as our continuing exploitation of earth's resources and species demonstrates, we remain wedded to the theological assumption that these are there for our sole use and benefit. Now James Lovelock's scientific understanding of the existential reality of Gaia's gift of life again raises the question of our proper place within the universe. It turns us decisively towards an understanding of ourselves as dependent on, rather than in control of, the whole earth community.


Facing Gaia

Facing Gaia

Author: Bruno Latour

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2017-09-05

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 0745684351

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The emergence of modern sciences in the seventeenth century profoundly renewed our understanding of nature. For the last three centuries new ideas of nature have been continually developed by theology, politics, economics, and science, especially the sciences of the material world. The situation is even more unstable today, now that we have entered an ecological mutation of unprecedented scale. Some call it the Anthropocene, but it is best described as a new climatic regime. And a new regime it certainly is, since the many unexpected connections between human activity and the natural world oblige every one of us to reopen the earlier notions of nature and redistribute what had been packed inside. So the question now arises: what will replace the old ways of looking at nature? This book explores a potential candidate proposed by James Lovelock when he chose the name 'Gaia' for the fragile, complex system through which living phenomena modify the Earth. The fact that he was immediately misunderstood proves simply that his readers have tried to fit this new notion into an older frame, transforming Gaia into a single organism, a kind of giant thermostat, some sort of New Age goddess, or even divine Providence. In this series of lectures on 'natural religion,' Bruno Latour argues that the complex and ambiguous figure of Gaia offers, on the contrary, an ideal way to disentangle the ethical, political, theological, and scientific aspects of the now obsolete notion of nature. He lays the groundwork for a future collaboration among scientists, theologians, activists, and artists as they, and we, begin to adjust to the new climatic regime.


The Ages of Gaia

The Ages of Gaia

Author: James Lovelock

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 9780393312393

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James Lovelock proposes that all living species are components of that organism, as cells are components of the human body.


Sacred Gaia

Sacred Gaia

Author: Anne Primavesi

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2002-09-11

Total Pages: 221

ISBN-13: 1136933034

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Gaia, the scientific theory founded by James Lovelock in 1979, embraces the earth as a whole, dynamic entity whose sum is always larger than its parts. While science and theology are often seen as contraries, which negate or dilute one another, Gaia theory harmonizes both systems of thought. Sacred Gaia cogently describes Gaia theory's analysis of human and earthly evolution. Anne Primavesi's remarkable, effortlessly coherent book helps us to recognize the sacredness of our origins and our responsibility for the future.


A Rough Ride to the Future

A Rough Ride to the Future

Author: James Lovelock

Publisher: Abrams

Published: 2015-02-10

Total Pages: 177

ISBN-13: 1468311603

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The great scientific visionary of our age presents a radical vision of humanity’s future as the thinking brain of our Earth-system. A Rough Ride to the Future introduces two new Lovelockian ideas. The first is that three hundred years ago, when Thomas Newcomen invented the steam engine, he was unknowingly beginning what James Lovelock calls “accelerated evolution.” That is a process that is bringing about change on our planet roughly a million times faster than Darwinian evolution. The second idea is that as part of this process, humanity has the capacity to become the intelligent part of Gaia, the self-regulating earth system whose discovery Lovelock first announced nearly fifty years ago. A Rough Ride to theFuture is also an intellectual autobiography, in which Lovelock reflects on his life as a lone scientist and asks—eloquently—whether his career trajectory is possible in an age of increased bureaucratization. We are now changing the atmosphere again, and Lovelock argues that there is little that can be done about this. But instead of feeling guilty, we should recognize what is happening, prepare for change, and ensure that we survive as a species so we can contribute to—perhaps even guide—the next evolution of Gaia. The road will be rough, but if we are smart enough, life will continue on earth in some form far into the future. Praise for A Rought Ride to the Future “Arresting and disturbing . . . Lovelock writes wonderfully well. With the authority of age, his voice is that of an elder statesman . . . The result is mellifluous and fluent.” —Nature “Though the subject matter could scarcely be more discouraging, Lovelock’s fluent prose and vast range of knowledge make it a surprisingly easy read. . . . His writing has enormous warmth and vitality.” —Financial Times “The most important book for me this year . . . Lovelock is the most prescient of scientists. . . . He has given us a handbook for human survival.” —John Gray, The Guardian “Not simply another look at Mother Nature’s uncertain future, but a revealing glimpse at the life of an outspoken and accomplished man of ideas.” —Publishers Weekly


On Gaia

On Gaia

Author: Toby Tyrrell

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2013-07-21

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 1400847915

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A critical examination of James Lovelock's controversial Gaia hypothesis One of the enduring questions about our planet is how it has remained continuously habitable over vast stretches of geological time despite the fact that its atmosphere and climate are potentially unstable. James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis posits that life itself has intervened in the regulation of the planetary environment in order to keep it stable and favorable for life. First proposed in the 1970s, Lovelock's hypothesis remains highly controversial and continues to provoke fierce debate. On Gaia undertakes the first in-depth investigation of the arguments put forward by Lovelock and others—and concludes that the evidence doesn't stack up in support of Gaia. Toby Tyrrell draws on the latest findings in fields as diverse as climate science, oceanography, atmospheric science, geology, ecology, and evolutionary biology. He takes readers to obscure corners of the natural world, from southern Africa where ancient rocks reveal that icebergs were once present near the equator, to mimics of cleaner fish on Indonesian reefs, to blind fish deep in Mexican caves. Tyrrell weaves these and many other intriguing observations into a comprehensive analysis of the major assertions and lines of argument underpinning Gaia, and finds that it is not a credible picture of how life and Earth interact. On Gaia reflects on the scientific evidence indicating that life and environment mutually affect each other, and proposes that feedbacks on Earth do not provide robust protection against the environment becoming uninhabitable—or against poor stewardship by us.