Faith in the End

Advocates for an approach to Christian end-times, not as the anticipation of particular futures, but as a way to inhabit the existential crises of our present, the ‘times of extinction’ in which we live.

Public environmental concern has turned to the so-called “sixth mass extinction event” currently underway. The interdisciplinary field of extinction studies was established to increase our cultural understanding of that phenomenon, but hitherto there has been little engagement with religious faith and practice. This book stages the first conversation between extinction studies, Christian theology, and continental philosophy. It does so by reimagining eschatology - traditionally the study of ‘the last things’ in Christian faith – for times of extinction.

Against an assumption that Christian belief in the end is essentially either about awaiting a final apocalyptic catastrophe or hoping for a final restoration of creation, the book argues that these are in fact the dubious hallmarks of what secular culture offers in precarious times. Christianity, by contrast, can offer plural conceptions of “ends” and “endings” whose purpose is not to exclusively or even primarily to anticipate the future, but rather to heighten the ethical, political and existential significance of the present.

This work of re-imagining eschatology requires engaging some familiar theological sources in new light, ranging from St Augustine to eco-feminist theology. Its philosophical interlocutors are drawn from the continental tradition, bringing the insights of existentialism, phenomenology, and critical theory as indispensable lenses by which to reconceive the meanings of end-times.

The book will be essential reading to those in the environmental humanities and extinction studies curious about theology, and to scholars of theology and religion concerned about extinction, and planetary crises more broadly. It will appeal to those responding to the extinction crisis in different ways – political activists, educators, faith leaders – who wish to explore how religious and secular faith shape our thinking about the multiple crises of our present age.