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The article examines “sky saviour” themes in a number of sources in the Western cultural domain, from biblical texts to contemporary paranormal fantasy, in contrast with some countercultural and ecocritical reformulations that are earth-centred. I postulate “narratives of empowerment” as representations of humans’ relationships with remembered and imagined landscapes which aim to construct new identities. I apply biosemiotic and relational theoretical approaches to inquire into the evolving nature of these representations, and what they might say about our changing human identity, from “oppressed” humans ascending to the sky to “oppressors” of the earth. Furthermore, I discuss how empowered identities are constructed through sublimated sexualities, as a means of experiencing the sky. In contrast, I show that earth-centred narratives of empowerment in Green Christian contexts reflect a transformed cosmology, with community and creativity leading to salvation. This earth-centred model is also present in popular fiction, as evidenced in my discussion of the new Marvel heroes, suggesting a democratization of the sacred and the paranormal.

How can the humanities contribute to sustainability, whereby ecological health and social equity can be promoted and maintained for future generations? (Philippon 2012) Sustainability and the Human...

The chapter puts forward a model for participatory storytelling, drawing on my ethnographic work with climate activists who were engaged in processes of re-interpreting or at the very least (re)visiting ‘their stories’ or cultural repertoires, in an effort to ‘(re)gain’ an ecological perspective. My informants came from different religious traditions and identified as Buddhists, Christians, Muslims and Contemporary Pagans, as well as ‘spiritual’ and ‘non-religious’—however the ecological rituals they engaged with were often opportunities for inclusive participation. Looking at this process of cultural revision, I put forward a model for participatory storytelling that can enable participants to reflect on ecological relatedness by revisiting old stories or inhabiting new ones. My ‘inside story’ model draws out the most important lessons from my fieldwork, lessons that accord well with theoretical perspectives on the role of imagination, embodied knowing and performance in supporting practices of sustainability. I attempt to tell personal stories from my own participatory explorations in different imaginary ‘story-worlds’, seeking to capture the more ineffable properties that make these practices unique: I argue that they allow for a cathartic transformation that can make an essential contribution to eco-pedagogy.

The article examines the Greenbelt festival in the UK, looking at how Green and Liberal Christians experiment with sacred spaces during worship occasions, talks and workshops. I show that Greenbelt represents a syncretic encounter between the modern festival culture on one hand and Christian community experiments and aspirations on the other, some that can be traced back to the nineteenth century Romantic Movement. I posit that the festival represents a trans-denominational community of choice for a progressive faction within the main Christian congregations in Britain, and in particular the Anglican Church. Furthermore I discuss ways in which participants experiment with cultural change, adopting a circle model of spatial organisation or via artistic expression. I observe relations between speakers and audiences, showing that a discourse of "openness and vulnerability" represents a critique of the "rigidity" of the Church, whilst a discourse of "secret meanings and misunderstandings" functions as a mechanism for revision inside the tradition. I postulate that the multiple outdoor spaces and fields of the modern art and performance festival can better accommodate the wider contemporary "believing and belonging" spectrum.

Chryssides, George D. (ed.) 2019. Minority Religions in Europe and the Middle East: Mapping and Monitoring. Abingdon and New York: Routledge. xiii + 253 pp. ISBN: 978-1-4724-6360-9 £105 (hbk); 978-1-3155-9555-9 £35.99 (e-book).

Four free pop festivals, held in Windsor and Watchfield in 1972-75, attracted significant public attention. This article discusses the aims and ideals of the festivalgoers, the confused reactions of the authorities, the ambivalence of the Anglican Church and the hostility of some conservative groups. We argue that the free festivals mark an important stage in the constitution of the counterculture and that they created a model which later pop festivals (in particular Glastonbury) attempt to emulate. We show that themes relating to a revival of the pilgrimage experience became important markers of this new type of event, shifting the emphasis from political protest to a memorialized and performative activism.

The article investigates discourses of ‘spirituality’ in the field of Health Studies, among scholarly voices and the voices of the practitioners and patients these studies reflect. It examines current trends in contemporary spirituality as well as links with debates involving science, religion and secularisation. The article argues that, in the public domain, ‘spirituality’ is beginning to denote a collective practice rather than an individual search for meaning. Furthermore, the article identifies some common understandings of spirituality in the context of Health Studies and health environments, such as it being a tool that can facilitate closeness and emotional exchanges. Finally, it proposes that the success and, as I will show, elevated status of ‘mindfulness’ in this field points to ‘competing spiritualities’, despite shared understandings.

Cherry, Stephen M., and Helen Rose Ebaugh, eds. 2014. Global Religious Movements across Borders: Sacred Service. Farnham: Ashgate. xiv + 220pp. ISBN 978 1 4094 5687 2. Hbk. £65. ISBN 978 1 4094 5688 9. Pbk. £19.99. Harvey, Sarah, and Suzanne Newcombe, eds. 2013. Prophecy in the New Millennium: When Prophecy Persists. Farnham: Ashgate. xiii + 295pp. ISBN 978 1 4094 4995 9. Hbk. £74.00. ISBN 978 1 4094 4996 6. Pbk. £26.00. Kirkham, David M., ed. 2013. State Responses to Minority Religions. Farnham: Ashgate. xx + 278pp. ISBN 978 1 4724 1646 9. Hbk. £65.00. ISBN 978 1 4094 6579 9. Pbk. £19.99. Miller, Timothy, ed. 2013. Spiritual and Visionary Communities: Out to Save the World. Farnham: Ashgate. x + 248pp. ISBN 978 1 4094 3902 8. Hbk. £68.00. ISBN 978 1 4094 3903 5. Pbk. £17.99.

How do participants in ecological rituals engage with and relate to place? How do they draw on their respective religious traditions and existing green prac tices in their perceptions of sacred space and ritual place? How do religious and non-religious green activists relate to the planet, given its prominence as a central symbol in climate change discourse? The present chapter aims to address these three questions by applying theoretical debates on the concept of sacred space to my own empirical fi ndings from a research project examining the involvement of Christian networks in the climate movement in Britain (2008–2012).

Having agreed a methodology, the next question must be where do we apply it? What exactly do we study and why? Why study an activist network and if we are choosing to study one, an important question is what exactly is a network? The same goes for religious identity and religious practices. To aid my own analysis as well as propose models for future studies in this field, in this chapter, I will develop and discuss three theoretical models for studying Christian environmental networks. First I will propose a model on dynamic countercultural networks, their expansion and organising processes; second, a model based on relational identity theory and the socio-cognitive model of transference that links identity changes with the affective re-engagement that accompanies cognitive and behavioural processes; and, finally, the third a model will discuss ecological ritual as a means of relating to the planet.

In this chapter, I will attempt to profile the Christian networks I have researched making use of my theoretical model for networks, and describe my own participation with them. The networks will be described against the backdrop of the climate and transition movements, which I examined in the previous chapter. I will describe three main networks: Isaiah 58, Christian Ecology Link and the GreenSpirit network, but I will make reference to other Christian grassroots organisations, such as Operation Noah and the Forest Church. Two of the three networks investigated here represent the opposite poles of the wide spectrum in this field, with Isaiah 58 being a Christian Anarchist network centred on protest whilst the GreenSpirit network is oriented towards spirituality and a green lifestyle. Despite their diverse interests and areas of engagement, many of these networks share common concerns, practices and beliefs, and the present chapter will endeavour to identify this common territory as well as what makes these Christian networks distinctive.

The green movement has been dominated by various campaigns over the past four decades, such as anti-nuclear in the 1980s or road protests in the 1990s, and many others, from opposition to GM crops or airport expansion to the present anti-fracking campaign. The climate and transitions movements have many genealogical links with previous campaigns, organisations, ideologies, practices and so on. The climate and transition movements represented the macro level of my research, since the Christian networks I investigated were active within these two movements. The green movement is not only the background of my research but also the historical context for green activism and a sine qua non to understanding Christian environmentalism. Therefore, Christian environmentalism needs to be located and understood inside this bigger movement. Moreover, the two movements, climate and transition, represent an important polarity in the green movement itself, ‘protest’ at one pole and ‘lifestyle’, at the other, as activists often describe their own journeys between these two means of engagement with the environmental crisis.

For the last two chapters I will turn to rituals, performances and worship occasions, the outward expression of environmentalism. Ritual is ubiquitous in the green movement. For many activists direct action has a spiritual dimension and my data indicates that in the climate movement direct action is in fact highly ritualised and perceived as an opportunity to create bonds, much like ritual more generally. On occasions, activists are involved in protest events that seem to have purely a symbolic result rather than a practical one. Attempting to shut down a power station that is surrounded by police would seem like an impossible task. Yet activists will attempt the action, which sometimes becomes a game, possibly a relatively safe frame (in the UK at least) to perform one’s dissent. In this chapter, I will investigate some specific ecological rituals performed by environmental Christians and I will discuss the role of ritual in the context of green Christianity and more generally as a performance of environmentalism. Activists often use animal costumes and masks during protest activities, such as seals, penguins and polar bears costumes, thus distancing themselves from humanity and showing their allegiance with the non-human world. I claim here that protest rituals have a role in stimulating an affective process through which participants can either relate to a given group, community or tradition or form new relationships with the planet or a planetary community.

Although silence is a powerful way of expressing communion with non-humans as I showed in the previous chapters, green prayers are often used in collective worship by green Christians to express anger, despair and hope in the face of the ecological crisis. During my involvement with environmental Christians, I collected numerous green prayers and thought about the different repertoires they belonged to but the real purpose of green prayer became apparent during interviews. Like in the example above, my informants seemed to use green prayer to communicate with other fellow Christians rather than communicate with the divine, as it might be expected in the case of prayer. Whilst green prayers are used in collective worship occasions, often interspersing conferences and workshops, my informants did not tell me they were praying to God about climate change or other green issues, rather they would pray for awareness or ‘to have our eyes opened’, to give thanks, to ask for forgiveness. After all green Christians are of course well versed with the science of climate change and so they are not seeking a divine intervention but a human one. The exciting thing about green prayer is that it is there to communicate with other Christians by providing a familiar and authoritative format in which these difficult subjects can be communicating. When my informant asks her fellow Christians to pray for the environment, ‘if nothing else’, she clearly performs an eco-missionary service by putting climate change in a language that is relevant to fellow Christians and providing the words, as she says, if others feel ‘they didn’t have the words’ to express their emotions vis-a-vis climate.

Given the fact that my research with environmental Christians is based on primary data, I present here a set of methods and models that will help me analyse and discuss the data. I do this in two sections: in the first section, I discuss the research field and its boundaries from an Actor–Network–Theory (ANT) standpoint and I outline my approach to collecting and interpreting data. I start by presenting my reflections from my pilot study, which will help justify my approach to the field. In the second section, I develop three theoretical models for the analysis of my data: (1) a model on dynamic countercultural networks, their expansion and organising processes; (2) a model based on relational identity theory and the socio-cognitive model of transference, a model that links identity changes with the affective re-engagement that accompanies cognitive and behavioural processes; and (3) a model for understanding ecological ritual as a practice of relating to the planet.

In this chapter, I attempt to offer a profile for green Christian activists. My data shows that more than half of climate activists self-identify as ‘non-religious’ and in some cases they are opposed to institutionalised religions, a fact that is recognised by other studies and scholars. By discussing the results of my survey as well as other secondary data from green Christian organisations, I examine what distinguishes green Christian activists from other religious and non-religious activists. Further I discuss the opposition to institutionalised religiosity in the climate and transition movements and examine the identity conflict between activist and faith identities. Using the identity model discussed in Chap. 4, I will investigate some of the processes that enable activists to merge their green and faith identities. Bron Taylor’s thesis (2010a, b) on dark green religion claims that this designates spiritual practices oriented around biocentric, and not anthropocentric, ideas. This distinction might influence the degree to which institutionalised religions, especially Abrahamic religions, can absorb dark green characteristics. I will show in this chapter that the faith groups in my research adopt these dark green elements despite the opposition to institutionalised religion, as well as the conflicts inherent in their multivalent involvement in these groups and their faith/activist identities.

I attempt here to map the field of green Christianity by looking at the larger field of the green movement and progressively narrow the focus to Christian environmentalism, thus providing a solid background for future discussions. The present chapter will thus take turns to examine ecology and the environmental movement, the climate movement, eco-theology and, finally, Christian environmental activism. I will endeavour to show that if we wish to understand Christian environmentalism we must see it in its context the environmental movement, the more recent climate movement and the eco-theological tradition. I will show that Christian environmentalists are facing distinct audiences: politicians who are indifferent to the ecological crisis, the unengaged general public and their own churches. In later chapters it will be important to distinguish who Christian activists are actually addressing during their symbolic and dramatic activities to be able to locate the origin of activist practices and ecological, as well as theological, discourse.

Community building is perhaps an overused notion but it nevertheless represents an important driver in green Christian networks and activist networks more widely. As I have showed in previous chapters, many environmental organisations, like the transition towns movement, are predicated on building sustainable communities. The present chapter will investigate some of the experiments with community building in green Christian circles, and the way these ideals are reflected during collective events. Alongside community building the present chapter will examine a variety of spiritual practices green Christians experiment with, from praying through painting to meditative walks and gardening. I will show here that inside the green movement there has been a departure from a spirituality for the self to a more aggregated spirituality that can (or at least aims to) serve a community. I will show here that environmental Christians who find themselves outside their home own churches and in the green movement must find other models of community, during retreats and festivals. Furthermore, I will investigate artistic and dramatic expression as a common spiritual currency among the networks.