Within A Political Theology of Climate Change, Michael Northcott, an accomplished Christian ethicist who has published extensively on environmental issues, articulates a political theology which takes seriously the epistemological roots of climate change. For Northcott, it is ultimately the retrieval of ancient understandings of humanity in a dynamic relationship with the cosmos that guides responses of individuals and nations to anthropogenic climate change. This turn to the past provides hope for the future, and maintains Christian faith and hope in light of scientific, philosophical and political insight. Northcott identifies the Enlightenment divide between nature and culture, or between the cosmos and human agency, as a fundamental component of the widening gap between anthropogenic climate change and the slow responses elicited. In Northcott's account, the nature–culture divide obfuscates the dependence of humanity upon the earth. It creates an illusionary one-way relationship in which human dominion of the earth is achieved without negative impact returned from the earth towards humanity. Flooding caused by the destruction of natural barriers, or drought resulting from rising temperatures and a lack of rainfall, are not recognised as the response of the earth to human life, but as yet another challenge to be overcome through human agency. Northcott identifies the Copernican decentring of humanity from the universe, and the subsequent quest for human mastery over the universe inspired by Francis Bacon, as primary culprits in the crisis. He then deftly highlights the ironic tragedy that the very efforts mistakenly believed to save humanity are the same efforts heightening the crisis. More than diagnosing epistemological problems, however, Northcott articulates solutions by reframing humanity's dynamic relationship within and towards the earth. Turning to the nations, Northcott seeks new ways of life which take seriously the challenges of climate change.
Through the course of the book's seven chapters, Northcott draws upon a variety of resources, integrating theology and current climate science, alongside the social sciences, philosophy and literature. The result is a thoroughly researched and pragmatic response to climate change which is nuanced and potent. Northcott builds upon his earlier assertions that climate change is the verdict of the earth against humanity as presented in A Moral Climate, and integrates arguments for the interdependent nature of human existence upon the earth articulated in The Environment and Christian Ethics. While integrating these ideas, this book is far from a restatement. Rather it provides a comprehensive response to climate change which ultimately implicates the nations. Northcott reclaims ancient understandings of the cosmos, and the necessity of nations to act honestly and responsibly within the interconnected universe. He raises pragmatic criticisms of current attempts to curb climate change, such as carbon trading, and grounds his critique in the unrealised falsity of the nature–culture divide. Arguing for the limited extraction of natural resources, Northcott urges nations not merely to view climate change as an issue of redistribution between the nations. Instead, Northcott argues that nations, by the urgency demonstrated in climate change, realise limits to their power, and subsequently determine responses within their borders. He references the Christocene to articulate the era in which humanity can look beyond itself as the creators of their universe, and towards Christ, who will usher in a new awareness. Northcott highlights the Mosaic covenant, and the relationship between God, humanity and land, in order to emphasise the true dynamic relationship which is already, even if not yet fully realised, impacting existence through climate change. This book presents an argument which guides not only Christians, but the nations, and inspires a re-evaluation of current efforts to curb climate change and who we consider as the primary actors for change.
