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Profs & Pints: Christianity and Climate Change

Profs and Pints presents: Christianity and Climate Change, with Beth Norcross, adjunct professor at Wesley Theological Seminary and founding director of the Center for Spirituality in Nature.

In a seminal 1967 article, The Historical Roots of our Ecologic Crisis, the prominent American historian Lynn White Jr. seemed to lay much of the blame for environmental destruction on the tenets of Christianity, which he called the most anthropocentric religion the world has seen.

Just over 50 years later, the environmental stakes have risen as we gradually come to grips with the enormity of the impacts of a changing climate on ecological systems and on humans and non-humans alike. Much of Christianity, from evangelical to progressive, is slowly waking up to the theological and social justice implications of the unraveling of our planetary systems.

Join Beth Norcross, who has a long history of involvement in both religion and ecology, as she discusses the complicated historical relationship between Christianity and environmentalism. She will then lead what promises to be a lively conversation about whether Christianity, given its history and underlying theology, has a positive role to play in addressing our most threatening environmental challenge: climate change.

Beth Norcross founded and directs the Center for Spirituality in Nature, which offers experiences in nature that open individuals to a lived, loving connection with the Divine and the natural world. The newest Center program is the Church of the Wild, recently featured in the Washington Post, which gathers monthly in the Metro DC area. Beth also has served as a staff member for the US Senates Parks Subcommittee and as vice president of conservation for American Rivers. She is the co-founder of the Green Seminary Initiative and has written numerous articles and curricula related to ecology and faith.