Climate, Catastrophe, and Faith: How Changes in Climate Drive Religious Upheaval

by Philip Jenkins

One of the world's leading scholars of religious trends shows how climate change has driven dramatic religious upheavals.

Long before the current era of man-made climate change, the world has suffered repeated, severe climate-driven shocks. These shocks have resulted in famine, disease, violence, social upheaval, and mass migration. But these shocks were also religious events. Dramatic shifts in climate have often been understood in religious terms by the people who experienced them. They were described in the language of apocalypse, millennium, and Judgment. Often, too, the eras in which these shocks occurred have been marked by far-reaching changes in the nature of religion and spirituality. Those changes have varied widely--from growing religious fervor and commitment; to the stirring of mystical and apocalyptic expectations; to waves of religious scapegoating and persecution; or the spawning of new religious movements and revivals. In many cases, such responses have had lasting impacts, fundamentally reshaping particular religious traditions.

In Climate, Catastrophe, and Faith historian Philip Jenkins draws out the complex relationship between religion and climate change. He asserts that the religious movements and ideas that emerge from climate shocks often last for many decades, and even become a familiar part of the religious landscape, even though their origins in particular moments of crisis may be increasingly consigned to remote memory. By stirring conflicts and provoking persecutions that defined themselves in religious terms, changes in climate have redrawn the world's religious maps, and created the global concentrations of believers as we know them today.

This bold new argument will change the way we think about the history of religion, regardless of tradition. And it will demonstrate how our growing climate crisis will likely have a comparable religious impact across the Global South.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, History, Climate Change, Christian

272 pages, Hardcover

First published May 11, 2021

About the author

John Philip Jenkins was born in Wales in 1952. He was educated at Clare College, in the University of Cambridge, where he took a prestigious “Double First” degree—that is, Double First Class Honors. In 1978, he obtained his doctorate in history, also from Cambridge. Since 1980, he has taught at Penn State University, and currently holds the rank of Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of the Humanities. He is also a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion.

Though his original training was in early modern British history, he has since moved to studying a wide range of contemporary topics and issues, especially in the realm of religion.

Jenkins is a well-known commentator on religion, past and present. He has published 24 books, including The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South and God's Continent: Christianity, Islam and Europe's Religious Crisis (Oxford University Press). His latest books, published by HarperOne, are The Lost History of Christianity and Jesus Wars (2010).

His book The Next Christendom in particular won a number of honors. USA Today named it one of the top religion books of 2002; and Christianity Today described The Next Christendom as a “contemporary classic.” An essay based on this book appeared as a cover story in the Atlantic Monthly in October 2002, and this article was much reprinted in North America and around the world, appearing in German, Swiss, and Italian magazines.

His other books have also been consistently well received. Writing in Foreign Affairs in 2003, Sir Lawrence Freedman said Jenkins's Images of Terror was “a brilliant, uncomfortable book, its impact heightened by clear, restrained writing and a stunning range of examples.”

Jenkins has spoken frequently on these diverse themes. Since 2002, he has delivered approximately eighty public lectures just on the theme of global Christianity, and has given numerous presentations on other topics. He has published articles and op-ed pieces in many media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, New Republic, Foreign Policy, First Things, and Christian Century. In the European media, his work has appeared in the Guardian, Rheinischer Merkur, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Welt am Sonntag, and the Kommersant (Moscow). He is often quoted in news stories on religious issues, including global Christianity, as well as on the subject of conflicts within the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion, and controversies concerning cults and new religious movements. The Economist has called him “one of America's best scholars of religion.”

Over the last decade, Jenkins has participated in several hundred interviews with the mass media, newspapers, radio, and television. He has been interviewed on Fox's The Beltway Boys, and has appeared on a number of CNN documentaries and news specials covering a variety of topics, including the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, as well as serial murder and aspects of violent crime. The 2003 television documentary Battle for Souls (Discovery Times Channel) was largely inspired by his work on global Christianity. He also appeared on the History Channel special, Time Machine: 70s Fever (2009).

Jenkins is much heard on talk radio, including multiple appearances on NPR's All Things Considered, and on various BBC and RTE programs. In North America, he has been a guest on the widely syndicated radio programs of Diane Rehm, Michael Medved, and James Kennedy; he has appeared on NPR’s Fresh Air, as well as the nationally broadcast Canadian shows Tapestry and Ideas. His media appearances include newspapers and radio stations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Brazil, as well as in many different regions of the United States.

Because of its relevance to policy issues, Jenkins's work has attracted the attention of gove

Reviews

[B · Rating 4 out of 5]

There has been much discussion about what our current climate crisis will mean for our world in terms of crazy weather (already happening), melting glaciers and rising water (already happening),
human migrations because of instability/drought/famine/pestilence (already happening) but this author focuses on what climate changes have meant for religious/spiritual changes and conflicts over the millenia and what we could expect to see in our current crisis.

Because the author goes into very specific details of certain years where due to high volcanic or el nino activities or other natural weather upheavals, there was much human suffering and thus changes in faith, it is almost mind numbing. But if you stick with it, you will learn a lot about why our world has suffered droughts and famines, how certain religious denominations came to be and that witch trials were much more serious than the jokes we see about them nowadays. And much more. And if you want to study the topic more, there are extensive notes to follow up on.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting read about how throughout history, changes in climate have created religious upheaval. The author gives a history of the past and then by the final chapter discusses current global warming and its impact on political and religious struggles throughout the world.

[Austin Spence · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ever read an old book and it goes something like “I remember the cold winter of 23’ where the crops failed and your mother had to work at the pub.”? I think I get it now.

This makes it more clear tracking the history of climate and its minute (or broad) impacts on the world and culture.

Found it lacking in religious history/implications up until the final chapter.

[Chavi]

This book makes an argument for something that feels obvious in retrospect: that religious movements throughout history were tied to climate-related catastrophes.

Or said in the other direction: the book argues that climate disasters fueled religious evolution, specifically apocalyptic, messianic and conspiratorial religious movements reacting to the immensity of nature's powers and our helplessness before it. This manifested in fundamentalist movements such as the pietists and the crusades, in the rise and fall of particular orthodoxies, and more often in mass auto-da-fes and literal witch hunts—for the other, be it witch or Jew or heretic, must be the cause of god's wrath.

What this book cements more than its own argument is the tie between religion and apocalypse; that one needs the other perhaps. The scale of destruction and natural power is too terrifying to accept as unintentional. Because there is no appeasing an unthinking weather pattern that freezes rivers on one side of the ocean and dries them to dust on the other. Because there is only surrender in front of tsunamis and volcanic explosions and a sun seven times stronger than promised.

The tie between faith and the end-times is not new, but it is stark as laid out in this history.

Elsewhere, in the second part of 'The Story of The Jews' author Simon Schama tells the story of the Jews through a series of messianic episodes. He opens with the tale of a Messiah come from across the mythical river Sambatyon to restore world peace in the early 16th century. The Easterner successfully convinces sages and clergymen, kings and princes, and even the pope, of his mission.

There are more Messianic episodes over the following centuries, in Italy and Istanbul, in Germany and Amsterdam, among the educated and the illiterate, the wealthy and the desperate: merchants sold their fortunes in anticipation of redemption, believers trekked across the continent to Palestine, only to be betrayed and disillusioned—until the next prophet came promising relief. Perhaps it was because the Jews had it bad enough that it didn't take a drought to drive them to delusions of redemption.

Which is to say, religion has always acted as a response to all kinds of human suffering. In my opinion, the book fails to make its case ore explain religious connection to natural disasters in particular. It primarily provides a timeline of climate catastrophes and extended periods of weather extremes, alongside a coinciding timeline of key religious movements and currents. I am not unconvinced that the apocalyptic drove the forces of faith, but I'm not convinced that it was the only force to do so.

Either way, that can be hard to tease apart social and natural mayhem since humans are thoroughly dependent on nature, and in the past, controlled and understood it far less than we do now.

That said, the framing of faith through climate is an interesting shift in perspective, and provides food for thought. Personally, I'm more interested in why religion is tied to apocalypse, and why apocalypse to climate.

[Joseph Sverker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I must say that I was slightly disappointed by this book. With that being said, I had high expectation since it was written by Philip Jenkins, a scholar whom I admire. One should certainly read this book in order to have a better understanding of how closely big cultural and economical changes are linked to climate changes and catastrophes. Jenkins provide a very interesting perspective on history in that way. The down point is that I expected to see more of a causal relationship between climate changes and religious change. Instead the conclusion, as I understand it, is much more, "there were climate change, this lead to societal changes due to overturns of power, or questions being raised, which, in the end, provoked religious change." I am not terribly convinced that climate drives religious upheaval after reading the book. That they correlate in complex ways Jenkins shows well though.

[Beverly Marshall-Goodell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not what I expected

This book is not what I expected. I have been reading a lot on climate change and environmental justice, seeking to create a more just cut. This book is about what we can learn from the impact of past climatic changes and the accompanying impact on the development of religious trends. A challenging and provocative read.

[Oliver Hunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very nice venn diagram of two fascinating subjects (to me at least), climate science and religion. Showing how the history of climate has impacted the spread, or decline, of religions, gives us insights into how that might look heading into the 22nd century with even more rapid shifts in the climate.

[Jacob Pogson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting review of the close relationship between religious expression and climate. The past 150 years is highly unusual in that Western culture has minimal religious and cultural response to climate change and catastrophe.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting material about the role of climatic upheavals in setting the conditions for religious controversies. Some speculation seems to approach determinism, but it's an interesting read.

[John Kuvakas · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read with fascinating and reasonable parallels between significant movements of faith and changes in climate. This is not written from a Christian perspective but Jenkins is informed enough to give an educated perspective on major events in history and how they may be tied to climactic upheaval. There are times when it gets a little repetitive but the listen remains engaging.