The Climate Anticipation Project: Recent Episodes
Christopher Fici, PhD
The Climate Anticipation Project gathers existent and emerging anticipatory communities into networks of anticipation for the hard seasons ahead. The Climate Anticipation Project connects anticipatory communities across the spectrum of spirituality, ecological justice, and regenerative ecology. The Christian ethicist and theologian Larry L. Rasmussen describes anticipatory communities as those: ..home places where it is possible to reimagine worlds and reorder possibilities, places where new or renewed practices give focus to an ecological and post-industrial way of life. Such communities have the quality of a haven, a set-apart and safe place yet a place open to creative risk. Here basic moral formation happens by conscious choice and not by default (simply conforming to the ethos and unwritten ethic of the surrounding culture). Here eco-social virtues are consciously cultivated and embodied in community practices. Here the fault lines of modernity are exposed. The anticipators are those who create the prophetic edge against the threats of ecofascism and climate totalitarianism. In anticipatory community the very idea and practice of community is brought to the common tool-shed and repair-table to be fixed up again for the sake of each and everyone's Earthy and spiritual flourishing. The practice of anticipation has an inner flame: think of the anticipation one feels when one is falling in love with someone, or when one is aching deeply for a return to one’s Earthy roots, or when one is aching for a reunion with the divine beloved (these are often one and the same experience). That ache, that sense of devotion, in which prayers for such a reunion rise naturally like incense from the heart, is the inner flame of anticipation which makes the practice of anticipatory community possible. The anticipators are the practitioners of regenerative ecotheology. The anticipator understands that the ecology of our human-being is always already entangled with the ecology of our Earthy-being. To experience regenerative intimacy is to fall in love again with the Earthiness of one’s being. The anticipator always honors and learns from peoples and cultures who have not forgotten this love and intimacy, always foregrounding their knowledge as the keepers of the inner flame of anticipation. This is cutting-edge common sense. The anticipator knows that every element is holy. Every element is full of divinity. Regenerative intimacy is the element which can help us to repair our political and cultural systems and structures, as it also repairs our relationships to the body politic of Earth and allows us to participate with Earth in practices of regeneration. Regenerative intimacy is taking the indigenous worldview, where we understand that, as we learn from one of our dear teachers Robin Wall Kimmerer “the ecosystem is not a machine, but a community of sovereign beings, subjects rather than objects. What if those beings were the drivers?”
The Good Doctor returns with a provocative question: are you practicing dark green religion?
You just might be! And it's a good thing! Don't panic!
In this episode of "What I'm Reading", Dr. Fici shares his thoughts on the wonderful book Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future by Bron Taylor. A classic book in the field of religion and ecology, in which Taylor expands and deepens our understanding of the nature of religion and religion within nature.
Dr. Fici is in his happy place here: taking the whole phenomenon of religion, picking it apart, looking at what's inside and out, and reassembling our understanding so we can better appreciate its wonderful complexity. Especially so in the case of our ever-present relationship with Mother Earth.
What are the types of Dark Green Religion? Where might you find yourself within these types? Join us for a very interesting discussion which helps to bridge the gap between religion and ecology and religion and science.
**"What I'm Reading with Dr. Fici" is part of The Climate Anticipation Podcast series, I share with you the joy and interest which emerges from my ever-so-growing pile of books. Entangled cross-currents of ecological, theological, ethical, practical, and funky wisdom and vision are yours to share with me as we try to figure out our way forward in times of emergency, precarity, and anticipation.
The Climate Anticipation Podcast (audio and video) engages anticipators in intimate conversations concerning the practice of anticipation. The Podcast draws upon the wisdom of anticipators from the directions of religion and ecology, decolonization, ecological justice, futurist studies, cosmology and cosmovisions, and regenerative ecological sciences.
Check out our webpage for more on our networks of anticipation*https://theclimateanticipationproject.squarespace.com* Your host:
Christopher Fici, PhD** is a scholar of theology/religion currently based in New York City
Christopher recently completed his Ph.D with a focus on Eco-Theology and Comparative Theology at Union Theological Seminary in the city of New York. He currently serve as the creative director of The Climate Anticipation Project, which connects anticipatory communities across the spectrum of spirituality, ecological justice, and regenerative ecology.
His research focuses on the question of how we anticipate regenerative pathways forward, rooted in ecological and climate justice, amidst our emerging entangled planetary crises of the 21st Century. He especially focuses on the concept of anticipatory communities as analog and digital spaces of integral ecological well-being. His work as a public intellectual emerges from the fertile creative spaces where nature and culture intersect and interact.
Today we launch the first episode of our new podcast **What I'm Reading with Dr. Fici.
In this new podcast, which is part of The Climate Anticipation Podcast series, I share with you the joy and interest which emerges from my ever-so-growing pile of books. Entangled cross-currents of ecological, theological, ethical, practical, and funky wisdom and vision are yours to share with me as we try to figure out our way forward in times of emergency, precarity, and anticipation.
Today, in our debut episode, I explore the movement and feeling of nature-deficit disorder and the therapeutic balm of erotic ecology. Erotic ecology you say? What ever could that be? Join for me a spell to find out more, as we explore the works of Andreas Weber (*Matter and Desire: An Erotic Ecology) and* Willie James Jennings (*After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging*)
**The Climate Anticipation Podcast (audio and video) engages anticipators in intimate conversations concerning the practice of anticipation. The Podcast draws upon the wisdom of anticipators from the directions of religion and ecology, decolonization, ecological justice, futurist studies, cosmology and cosmovisions, and regenerative ecological sciences.
Check out our webpage for more on our networks of anticipation*https://theclimateanticipationproject.squarespace.com* Your host:
Christopher Fici, PhD** is a scholar of theology/religion currently based in New York City
Christopher recently completed his Ph.D with a focus on Eco-Theology and Comparative Theology at Union Theological Seminary in the city of New York. He currently teaches courses on Religion and the Natural World and The Story of the Universe at Iona College in New Rochelle, NY.
Christopher spent five years studying and living as a monk in Gaudiya Vaishnava communities in West Virginia and in New York City, where remains associated as a Vaishnava scholar-practitioner with The Bhakti Center. At the Bhakti Center he helps to facilitate the Sacred Ecology Forum.
He is a former president of the Mid-Atlantic region of the American Academy of Religion (MAR-AAR), of which he is still actively involved as the co-chair of the Comparative Religion and Ecology section. With his MAR-AAR colleagues he recently published his first edited volume Religious Studies Scholars as Public Intellectuals, published with Routledge.
An avowed follower of Thomas Merton, he also helps to run the NYC Corpus Christi chapter of The International Thomas Merton Society at Corpus Christi Church in Manhattan, where Merton was baptized into the Catholic tradition.
**The Climate Anticipation Podcast (audio and video) engages anticipators in intimate conversations concerning the practice of anticipation. The Podcast draws upon the wisdom of anticipators from the directions of religion and ecology, decolonization, ecological justice, futurist studies, cosmology and cosmovisions, and regenerative ecological sciences.
Check out our webpage for more on our networks of anticipation*https://theclimateanticipationproject.squarespace.com* We are blessed today to be in conversation with Rev. abby mohaupt. Rev. abby mohaupt is a Presbyterian minister and a PhD student at Drew University in climate change and ecofeminist theology. She splits her time between California and New Jersey. She regularly blogs at www.featheology.org*, and her writing on earth care has appeared in* Sojourners*, the* Presbyterian Church USA’s Unbound*, and* Ecclesio****. She continues to serve the church on the board of the Presbyterian Hunger Program and Fossil Free PCUSA.
abby is the Director of Education and Training for GreenFaith****.
In our conversation abby shares her journey as a minister and ecotheologian into the uncertain terrains ahead of us. We discuss the hopelessness of hoping in the face of our climate emergency and what might be better emotional and spiritual pathways to guide our work. abby also shares some wonderful ecotheological realizations from her relationships with the chickens on the farm project she serves in Texas.
Your host:
Christopher Fici, PhD** is a scholar of theology/religion currently based in New York City
Christopher recently completed his Ph.D with a focus on Eco-Theology and Comparative Theology at Union Theological Seminary in the city of New York. He currently teaches courses on Religion and the Natural World and The Story of the Universe at Iona College in New Rochelle, NY.
Christopher spent five years studying and living as a monk in Gaudiya Vaishnava communities in West Virginia and in New York City, where remains associated as a Vaishnava scholar-practitioner with The Bhakti Center. At the Bhakti Center he helps to facilitate the Sacred Ecology Forum.
He is a former president of the Mid-Atlantic region of the American Academy of Religion (MAR-AAR), of which he is still actively involved as the co-chair of the Comparative Religion and Ecology section. With his MAR-AAR colleagues he recently published his first edited volume Religious Studies Scholars as Public Intellectuals, published with Routledge.
An avowed follower of Thomas Merton, he also helps to run the NYC Corpus Christi chapter of The International Thomas Merton Society at Corpus Christi Church in Manhattan, where Merton was baptized into the Catholic tradition.
**The Climate Anticipation Podcast (audio and video) engages anticipators in intimate conversations concerning the practice of anticipation. The Podcast draws upon the wisdom of anticipators from the directions of religion and ecology, decolonization, ecological justice, futurist studies, cosmology and cosmovisions, and regenerative ecological sciences.
Check out our webpage for more on our networks of anticipation*https://theclimateanticipationproject.squarespace.com* We are blessed today to be in conversation with Rev. Fletcher Harper. The Rev. Fletcher Harper is the Executive Director of GreenFaith*. A pioneer of the global religious environmental movement, he helps spearhead the faith-based fossil fuel divestment movement, organizes faith turnouts at major climate mobilizations, and is a co-founder of Shine, an international campaign that supports women and community-led renewable energy access initiatives in Africa and India. He is the author of* GreenFaith: Mobilizing God’s People to Protect the Earth*.* In our conversation we discuss the vision of GreenFaith, and of religious leadership, in our times of climate emergency. Fletcher shares his understanding of the experience of "raw awe" which can guide us into deeper interconnectivity and a more robust commitment to the work of climate justice. How do we utilize the sacred energies of grief and anger to commit ourselves and our anticipatory communities to the essential work of justice-making for all vulnerable peoples and species?
Your host:
Christopher Fici, PhD** is a scholar of theology/religion currently based in New York City
Christopher recently completed his Ph.D with a focus on Eco-Theology and Comparative Theology at Union Theological Seminary in the city of New York. He currently teaches courses on Religion and the Natural World and The Story of the Universe at Iona College in New Rochelle, NY.
Christopher spent five years studying and living as a monk in Gaudiya Vaishnava communities in West Virginia and in New York City, where remains associated as a Vaishnava scholar-practitioner with The Bhakti Center. At the Bhakti Center he helps to facilitate the Sacred Ecology Forum.
He is a former president of the Mid-Atlantic region of the American Academy of Religion (MAR-AAR), of which he is still actively involved as the co-chair of the Comparative Religion and Ecology section. With his MAR-AAR colleagues he recently published his first edited volume Religious Studies Scholars as Public Intellectuals, published with Routledge.
An avowed follower of Thomas Merton, he also helps to run the NYC Corpus Christi chapter of The International Thomas Merton Society at Corpus Christi Church in Manhattan, where Merton was baptized into the Catholic tradition.
**The Climate Anticipation Podcast (audio and video) engages anticipators in intimate conversations concerning the practice of anticipation. The Podcast draws upon the wisdom of anticipators from the directions of religion and ecology, decolonization, ecological justice, futurist studies, cosmology and cosmovisions, and regenerative ecological sciences.
Check out our webpage for more on our networks of anticipation*https://theclimateanticipationproject.squarespace.com* We are blessed today to be in conversation with Rev. Aline (Ah-lee-nee) Silva (she/her/hers) Aline serves as the co-Director of CreatureKind.*https://www.becreaturekind.org* Prior to coming to CreatureKind, Aline served for over a decade as a local parish pastor of rural and farming populations in Kansas, Missouri, and Colorado. Aline shares herself as a queer, Black & Indigenous immigrant of Brasil to the US. Aline chooses not to eat non-human animals, her fellow-worshippers of God. Aline is a pastor, an excellent preacher, and a life coach. You can most often find her laughing out loud, twerking, and sharing her life with her emotional support pup and main squeeze, Paçoca (pah-saw-kah). You can learn about Aline and her work by following CreatureKind on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. She writes today from the unceded lands of the Tequesta, Taino, and Seminole peoples, namedly South Florida, USA.
In our conversation we explore the meaning of sacred animacy and animality as key elements of the practice of Anticipation. We marvel over the implications of the Plant-based food revolution and its connection to food justice. We ponder the challenges of dominion mentality from the Book of Genesis and how to properly understand and translate the problematic language of this text (always an interesting topic!) And we travel with Aline on her journey through ministry and her sacred calling to help us embrace our creaturely selves.
Your host:
Christopher Fici, PhD** is a scholar of theology/religion currently based in New York City
Christopher recently completed his Ph.D with a focus on Eco-Theology and Comparative Theology at Union Theological Seminary in the city of New York. He currently teaches courses on Religion and the Natural World and The Story of the Universe at Iona College in New Rochelle, NY.
Christopher spent five years studying and living as a monk in Gaudiya Vaishnava communities in West Virginia and in New York City, where remains associated as a Vaishnava scholar-practitioner with The Bhakti Center. At the Bhakti Center he helps to facilitate the Sacred Ecology Forum. He is a former president of the Mid-Atlantic region of the American Academy of Religion (MAR-AAR), of which he is still actively involved as the co-chair of the Comparative Religion and Ecology section. With his MAR-AAR colleagues he recently published his first edited volume Religious Studies Scholars as Public Intellectuals, published with Routledge.
An avowed follower of Thomas Merton, he also helps to run the NYC Corpus Christi chapter of The International Thomas Merton Society at Corpus Christi Church in Manhattan, where Merton was baptized into the Catholic tradition.
**The Climate Anticipation Podcast (audio and video) engages anticipators in intimate conversations concerning the practice of anticipation. The Podcast draws upon the wisdom of anticipators from the directions of religion and ecology, decolonization, ecological justice, futurist studies, cosmology and cosmovisions, and regenerative ecological sciences.
Check out our webpage for more on our networks of anticipation*https://theclimateanticipationproject.squarespace.com* We are blessed today to be in conversation with Rev. Sara Jolena Wolcott (she/her/hers), the Founder and Director of the Sequoia Samanvaya Ecotheology community*https://www.sequoiasamanvaya.com* Sequoia Samanvaya emerged from Founder Sara Jolena Wolcott's global odyssey to better understand both the causes of our current intersecting personal, social and ecological crises and what might be possible as move through a climate changed future. She spent nearly three decades gathering ecological and community innovators, indigenous wisdom/narratives from the East to the West, creations mythos, agricultural wisdoms, and origin stories that have become subversive whispers and hidden truths.
In our conversation today we explore the meaning of ecotheology. Just what exactly is an ecotheologian? Listen in and discover your ecotheological calling! Sara and I also demonstrate the art of Anticipation in our discussions on the Earthy languages and practices which bring us back into synergy and intimacy with this planet which gives us survival and quality-of-life. Sara shares a lot more about her journey teaching the art of ReMembering-of re-weaving our selves holistically back into intimate embrace with Earth and the universe.
Your host:
Christopher Fici, PhD** is a scholar of theology/religion currently based in New York City
Christopher recently completed his Ph.D with a focus on Eco-Theology and Comparative Theology at Union Theological Seminary in the city of New York. He currently teaches courses on Religion and the Natural World and The Story of the Universe at Iona College in New Rochelle, NY.
Christopher spent five years studying and living as a monk in Gaudiya Vaishnava communities in West Virginia and in New York City, where remains associated as a Vaishnava scholar-practitioner with The Bhakti Center. At the Bhakti Center he helps to facilitate the Sacred Ecology Forum.
He is a former president of the Mid-Atlantic region of the American Academy of Religion (MAR-AAR), of which he is still actively involved as the co-chair of the Comparative Religion and Ecology section. With his MAR-AAR colleagues he recently published his first edited volume Religious Studies Scholars as Public Intellectuals, published with Routledge.
An avowed follower of Thomas Merton, he also helps to run the NYC Corpus Christi chapter of The International Thomas Merton Society at Corpus Christi Church in Manhattan, where Merton was baptized into the Catholic tradition.