Praying and Campaigning with Environmental Christians

"Maria Nita's study of environmental Christian networks offers far more than an expert discussion of religious engagements with the vital issues of climate change. By advancing understanding of the discursive, performative, and locative cultures by which people make meaning, she contributes importantly to understanding the rituals, rhetoric, and ecologies of lived religion." (Graham Harvey, Professor of Religious Studies, The Open University, UK) "In this important and fascinating study, Maria Nita skillfully uses original fieldwork to explore a hitherto under-researched area of green religion and the climate protest movement, namely the role of environmentally concerned, committed, campaigning Christians. In particular, Nita's focus on and unpacking of ritual in this context makes a significant contribution to the scholarship of ritual, performance, embodiment, and material religion." (Marion Bowman, Senior Lecturer of Religious Studies, The Open University, UK)

This book presents an ethnographic study of environmental Christian networks involved in the climate and transition towns movements. Maria Nita examines the ways in which green Christians engage with their communities and networks, as well as other activist networks in the broader green movement. This book presents an ethnographic study of environmental Christian networks involved in the climate and transition towns movements. Maria Nita examines the ways in which green Christians engage with their communities and networks, as well as other activist networks in the broader green movement. The book interrogates key categories in the field of religious studies which intersect activist concerns, including spirituality, community, and ritual. In this sociological exploration the author uses existing research tools, such as discourse analysis, and proposes new theoretical models for the investigation of network expansion, religious identity, and relationality through ritual. Nita examines the mechanisms underlying the greening of religion and thus offers an in-depth analysis of prayers, rituals, and religious practices, such as praying through painting, fasting for the planet, and sharing the green Eucharist in or with nature.