Religion 225AP - Topics in Religion: 'Apocalypse Now? Spiritual Responses to Ecological Catastrophe'

Are societies beyond the turning point of preventing mass ecological collapse? This course explores what it means to live in times of increasing eco-anxiety, with environmental degradation leading to a host of social and economic ills that threaten all life, but especially the most precarious people and other life-forms. Students will analyze climate displacement and migration, mass extinction of species, and the possibility of widespread societal collapse, among other issues. We will then analyze a range of spiritual resources developed within and beyond religious communities to grapple with our collectively uncertain present and future. Can religions help avert a global apocalypse? Or if apocalypse is inevitable, how can our enduring faith traditions help us prepare for mass catastrophes and death? These and other questions will guide our reflections on perhaps the most urgent existential and physical crisis of our time.