Reading “This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs The Climate” literally changed my life.  I read it as soon as it came out last fall,  and it was during the reading of it that I turned a corner in my heart and mind,  such that I would never again be able to  look at the Climate Crisis in the same relatively detached manner.  It was like I finally “let it in” (I think of the captain of that high tech explorer ship on the movie Titanic (played by Bill Paxton) ,  saying that in all his years in researching and excavating Titanic,  he had “never let it in”.   I often describe this experience I’ve had re: the Climate Crisis as a “Damascus Road” experience for the Climate,  or as Michael Dowd once told me “A come to Jesus moment about the climate”.

This realization has reached deep into my theological experience,  radically altering how I look at everything else.  It is the gravity of the reality that I have never “let in” so that I can re-orient myself to these new realities.  As a Christian and a Communicator by calling,  I cannot escape the implications that this Climate Crisis in which we now find ourselves is inescapably theological and at the heart now of what “Salvation” includes in these times.  The Biblical Apocalyptic writers wrote of that which was inesacapably life altering (centered on the current crises of their day,  and often if not always a case of the suffering caused by Empire).  Today,  the Empire that has extended itself into a “Global Economy” and take the reigns of its operations from pursuing a more just path,  has wreaked its horrific havoc on life as it has been known in human history.  We are already seeing Christian theologians begin to (and in some cases, have been for a while)  speak of a Christian eschatology that reflects upon the state of and direction of the world in the context of its ecological challenges.  Not really “the world/earth’s challenges”, though,  but OUR challenges if we hope to maintain a somewhat workable, sustainable future for human civilization.

So what Naomi Klein did with this book was awaken me to an issue which is as deeply theological and “ultimate” as anything which can be described as “inspired by God”,  as we often speak of regarding the Bible.  Tim DeChristopher posed a question in his statement to me* (see video here on Youtube or see below) concerning how we are now living in the Anthropocene,  and that prior Christian resources have all come out of the Holocene,  and so what does that mean for Christians as we face this future of struggle against the powers intent on keeping us on this destructive road?

* at the”Seizing An Alternative: Toward An Ecological Civilization” in Claremont CA in early June

He asks “How do we maintain our humanity in such a time?”  A very relevant question that reflects the immensity of the “conversion” I have experienced,  and the radical questioning of “Holocene theological assumptions and images”,  suggesting that a process begin to extract the valuable resources from that theological tradition and proceed down the road to a theology and liturgy and discipleship appropriate to the Anthropocene.  Radical re-thinking required.  Intensified activism required.  And commitment to our true theological resources both past and especially present-future.