Christian Climate Activism

The Wisdom of Urgency “In-Between”

Abstract

Facing the human-made climate crisis of the Anthropocene, a new generation of activism emerged with resonance in Christian communities. The paper reflects from a German background the divide of mere individual and mere collective solutions and addresses the in-between of various levels of action and engagement in the Global North. Three local climate movements are described with regard to their Christian entanglement like Last Generation supporter Jesuit Jörg Alt or Christian grassroot activism against coalmining. The last part of the paper is about discovering the theological wisdom of urgency of being in-between. On the one hand, there are many opportunities for theological involvement with ecological and social transformation. On the other hand, there is an open discussion about how it should be done: by fostering at least green capitalism, or by more radical changes of Being-in-the-world toward interconnectedness with non-human agency and critique of Christian anthropocentrism and sovereignty. Even Practical Theology should be “staying with the trouble” (Donna Haraway).