Hope against Hope: Spirituality & Climate Change Vodcasts for COP26
In this exciting series released during Cop26 in November 2021, academics and artists, poets and activists, joined with faith leaders in discussing how spiritual resources might generate resilience, courage, and real hope in the climate crisis.
List of discussions
31st October: Witnessing to Climate Change.
A conversation between leading climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe and liberation theologian Ruth Padilla DeBorst.
1st November: Hope in the Making
Spiritual reflections on art and hope in the context of deepest loss hosted by UNESCO Professor Alison Phipps with the UNESCO artists and scholars Hannah Thomas and Hyab Yohannes.
2nd November: Reading and Reckoning: The Bible in the Climate Crisis.
Influential and engaged Biblical Scholars John Barclay, Cherryl Hunt and Suzanna Miller present their understandings of the way biblical studies can inform responses to the climate emergency.
3rd November: Creative, Gentle and Strong: Craftivism and Climate Change.
Founder of the Craftivist Collective, Sarah Corbett and feminist theologian, Anna Fisk, join in conversation with Clare Radford to explore spirituality, activism and generative responses to climate change.
4th November: Chaos, Flood and Resilience.
Poet and literary scholar Ariel Zinder speaks South Asianist, Ophira Gamliel, about divine speech in moments of crisis, accounts of disaster in epic literature and disaster survival accounts in performance traditions.
5th November: Age, Activism and Tradition
Renowned climate activist and author Bill McKibben speaks about how the experience of older people and older spiritual traditions can contribute to climate change resistance.
6th November: Ultimacy and Urgency
Catherine Keller discusses how her inspirational constructive theology is crafted in response to the climate emergency and out of a profound sense of relational connection to the natural world.
7th November: Now or Never - Restoring Our Earth through Play
A creative art response to COP26 using song, story, movement and shared silence. We are intimately connected to Our Earth body and any violation hampers the creative spirit in each of us.
Celebrate our sacred belonging and relationship with Earth.
Featuring Prashant Olalekar SJ, Hazel Lobo, Trish Watts - a collaboration of InterPlayers from India and Australia, an international network of spiritually inspired and environmentally concerned artists-activists.
8th November: Theologies of Environmental Justice
Theologians David Clough, Peter Scott discuss the ecological visions that inspire their systematic theological work.
9th November: Jungle Nama: Communicating Traditions of Spiritual Resilience in the Climate Emergency
Award winning author and environmental campaigner, Amitav Ghosh, is joined by his collaborators, the renowned musician Ali Sethi and celebrated artist Salman Toor, to discusses their retelling of a popular legend, circulating amongst inhabitants of the mangrove forests in West Bengal, which has urgent relevance to the current context.
10th November: ‘What a waste’: Japanese spiritual traditions of Mottainai as sustainable environmental practice
Saeko Yazaki explores the Japanese worldview of Mottainai and its deep roots in Shinto and Buddhist traditions that extend reverence towards both living beings and created objects.
11th November: Together for Good: Christian Communities in the Climate Crisis
Representatives of the Iona and Taizé Communities discuss the strength generated by forms of intentional community as a means of generating active hope in the climate crisis.
12th November: Judaism, the Torah, and Responsibility to the Environment
Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg of the New North London Synagogue and Eco-Synagogue discusses Judaism and environmental responsibility.
13th November: Catholic Voices on Climate Change
Julie Clague presents highlights from live conversations amongst Catholic academics and climate activists staged during COP 26.