While considering the themes of sacredness and religious experiences, this volume presents a phenomenological discussion surrounding the climate crisis and current debates in political ecology.

The current ecological crisis ultimately concerns humanity itself and does so with respect to its place in nature and its relation to divinity. Cross-cultural religious experiences, or experiences of sacredness, often manifest in natural phenomena. The relation to that sacred space is often ritually marked, and as such becomes somewhat politically charged by the manner in which a community designates space and territory and by the hierarchical structures of ritual practice.

This volume is oriented around this broad religious and political context of understanding and enacting human relations with and in nature. The first section on political ecology will engage with debates and ideas in feminism, new materialism, science, philosophy of technology, and other such disciplines to explore the critique of modernist notions of objectivity and rationality, as well as understandings of the relation of society and nature. The contributors explore the manner in which agency can be extended beyond human actors, and the consequence this has for our understanding of political representation, social expectations, and human rights.

Felix Ó Murchadha is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Galway, Ireland.
Mary Shanahan is Lecturer in Religious Education at St. Angela's College, Sligo, Ireland.