Literature and ecotheology : from chaos to cosmos / George B. Handley.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Handley, George B., 1964- author.

Series:

Routledge environmental humanities

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dillard, Annie. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.

Dillard, Annie.

McCarthy, Cormac, 1933-2023. Crossing.

McCarthy, Cormac.

Robinson, Marilynne. Housekeeping.

Robinson, Marilynne.

Duncan, David James. Sun house.

Duncan, David James.

Ecotheology--In literature.

Ecotheology.

Theodicy in literature.

Genre:

Literary criticism.

Physical Description:

xiii, 233 pages ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2025.

Summary:

"Literature and Ecotheology: From Chaos to Cosmos challenges us in a time of climate crisis to find more common ground between the dual projects of ecocriticism and ecotheology. This book argues that in our postsecular age, literature has become an important repository of theological wisdom that can, like formal work in ecotheology, provide the moral grounds for environmental care. However, for any cosmological understanding to be adequate to the challenges before us, it must be responsive to the often-painful contingencies and uncertainties that inhere in the cosmos, something that both ecocriticism and ecotheology have often neglected. After a treatment of the ecocritical and ecotheological questions that pertain to the religious/secular divide, the study then turns to four contemporary American writers - Annie Dillard, Cormac McCarthy, Marilynne Robinson, and David James Duncan as examples. Each uses the contingency of literary form and its promise of wholeness in order to imagine reasons for hope in light of the unpredictability and untold human and more-than-human suffering that lie at the heart of nature. The book will be of interest to students, scholars and researchers interested in ecotheology, religious studies, environmental literature, the environmental humanities, and environmental studies more broadly. It offers a needed paradigm shift in how Western societies have tended to misuse both secularity and religion"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Why ecocriticism needs to get religion. Literature and ecotheology

Literature as ecotheology

Literature as theodicy

Literary theodicy in four contemporary examples. The duality of cosmos in Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

The tale as cosmos in Cormac McCarthy's The crossing

Imagination as cosmos in Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping

Syncretism as cosmos in David James Duncan's Sun house.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Handley, George B., 1964- Literature and ecotheology

ISBN:

9781032769011

1032769017

9781032769059

103276905X

OCLC:

1435752802