Suspended Nature

Integrating theology and critical theory, this book advances a unique approach to human creaturely identity in which the structures of both social and ecological domination are contested.

Using a coordinated reading of Edward Schillebeeckx’s theology of creation and Theodor Adorno’s critical theory, Elizabeth Pyne shows that nature and politics are co-implicated sites of struggle against ideology and domination. It is this ‘suspended’ concept of nature that sets this volume apart from other ecotheological studies. By ‘suspending’ nature, Pyne uncovers exceptionally robust connections between ecological responsibility and liberative social critique. Including chapters on the relation between theological anthropology and political ecology, as well as key concepts drawn from Schillebeeckx and Adorno. Pyne uses these concepts to develop a constructive rendering of human beings as ecopolitical subjects. Taking the work of Edward Schillebeeckx into uncharted territory, this is a valuable resource for students and researchers of systematic theology, political theology and ecotheology.