Witnessing a Wounded World
A Theology of Ecological Trauma
This book can be opened with
A crucial intervention at the intersection of ecotheology and trauma theology
We are in the midst of a global ecological crisis. At times, the scale of the suffering involved can be hard to fully comprehend. The whole planetary ecosystem feels out of kilter. Meanwhile, trauma theorists, and society at large, have become increasingly aware of the incidence of trauma in a growing variety of contexts. In Witnessing a Wounded World, Timothy Middleton asks what might be gained by viewing ecological suffering through the lens of trauma.
By bringing concepts and methodologies from trauma theology to bear on questions that arise within ecotheology, Middleton engages a series of pressing questions. What kind of traumas are being precipitated by anthropogenic climate change and accelerating biodiversity loss? What would it mean to envisage the Earth itself as traumatized? And how might a Christian theologian respond?
From large-scale deforestation and opencast mining to rampaging wildfires and fracturing ice sheets, the Earth itself is subject to intense devastation. Witnessing a Wounded World analyzes such phenomena in terms of three traumatic ruptures—to communication, to flesh, and to time. Drawing on practices of witnessing and the insights of deep incarnation Christologies, Middleton proceeds to offer a theological account of this ecological trauma. For Christians, a model of Christic witnessing can bring the Earth’s suffering to light.
As the first sustained treatment of ecological trauma to address the trauma of the Earth itself, Witnessing a Wounded World makes a profound contribution to discussions of suffering, faith, and the present ecological emergency.
In Witnessing a Wounded World, Tim Middleton integrates new methodologies – deep incarnation, trauma studies, ecotheology, Christian animism and Gaia theory – that renders his book both classically sonorous and bracingly contemporary. His bold aim is to better understand, and hopefully ameliorate, the traumatic ruptures that now define our planetary ecosystem in an advancing state of emergency. Middleton writes that as Jesus suffered at the hands of his executioners, so also is the Earth undergoing its own daily passion at the hands of its abusers. Golgotha is everywhere. But bearing witness to Christ’s and the natural world’s permanently wounded flesh is not reason for despair but the ground of radical hope in solidarity with the suffering of others, human and more-than-human. Carefully researched and superbly written, Middleton compellingly advances the present theological discussion about how to think about and live faithfully on a broken and vulnerable planet.---Mark I. Wallace, James Hormel Professor of Social Justice, Swarthmore College
