Gendering a Sacred Nature: Between Essentialism and Queer; Insights from a Study on Eco-Spiritual Activism in Switzerland

Among eco-spiritual activists in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, gendered notions such as “Mother Earth” or gendered “nature spirits” are ubiquitous. Drawing on an in-depth ethnographic study of this milieu (2015–2020), this article presents some of the ways in which these activists articulate gender issues with reference to nature. The authors discuss the centrality of the notion of the self and ask what outputs emerge from linking environmental with spiritual action. We demonstrate that activists in three milieus—the New Age and holistic milieu, the transition network, and neo-shamanism—handle this link differently and thereby give birth to a variety of emic perspectives upon the nature/culture divide, as well as upon gender—ranging from essentialist and organicist views to queer approaches. The authors also present more recent observations on the increasing visibility of women and feminists as key public speakers. They conclude with the importance of contextualizing imaginaries that circulate as universalistic and planetary and of relating them to individuals’ gendered selves and their social, political, and economic capital.

Michel Henry and the Prospect of a Christian Spiritual Inactivism

Christian spirituality is often “activist.” It consists in the performance of various actions through which a faithful person attempts to secure the presence of God. The argument of the present essay is that spiritual “activism” cannot actually accomplish this goal. For this reason, it is necessary to seek a foundation for all spiritual activism in spiritual “inactivism.” This means that all Christian spiritual activity must be reconceived as a response to and celebration of a prior presence of God that comes before any performance. The phenomenological philosophy of Michel Henry makes it possible to appreciate how God is so present in the very fact of being alive. This can make the whole of Christian spiritual practice a Eucharist—a perpetual thanksgiving.

Shaping the Noosphere: Geoethical values and spiritual resistance in Terres de l’Ebre, Catalonia, Spain

The concept of the Noosphere is of great importance when looking at the values underpinning the technocratic artifacts and technocracies (human physical technological objects and knowledge processes) by which Humans relate to the Geosphere through other human beings. In this sense, the Noosphere may inform geoethics as an environmental, social, and spiritual praxis and thinking aiming at ecological justice. The concept of the Noosphere represents the coexistence and coevolution of Humans and the Geosphere, overcoming the dichotomy between instrumental materialistic and intrinsic ecocentric values but considering the meaning of a constitutive dimension. Thus, the Noosphere becomes a concept for reconnection with the human community, the natural world, and the Divine, and develops into an ecological mysticism that, in turn, unfolds in resistance in hope as a kind of spiritual activism. The theoretical framework is illustrated with the case study of the Terres de L’Ebre in Catalonia (Spain).

Reviving the Heartland

This chapter documents the mission of American ecumenist Stewart Winfield Herman, Jr., in occupied Germany and surveys the American ecumenical effort to spiritually remake the defeated nation in America’s image. It argues that Herman and other leading American ecumenists sought to reform the German churches along American and ecumenical lines in order to establish a new Christian order across the Atlantic. It also shows that the occupation ultimately yielded a spiritual quagmire within the German Protestant church and the transatlantic ecumenical movement, one shaped by fierce historical divisions and animosities. A deep-seated suspicion toward American spiritual activism and imperialism likewise inspired fierce German opposition to American spiritual reforms. Nonetheless, American Protestants still drew inspiration from the occupation to launch much broader spiritual interventions across the entire European continent.

Spiritual Activism. Saving Mother Earth in Sápmi

Arctic Shaman Circle was founded in Oslo in November 2018. This article discusses what the Circle’s founding document refers to as “spiritual activism”, and how this was translated into action over the year that followed. I will follow one case in particular, which concerns plans for a power plant at the base of the mountain Aahkansnjurhtjie in the South Sámi area. Aahkansnjurhtjie is a sacred Sámi mountain, the shamans claim, and should be protected accordingly. My focus is on the learning processes that have emerged as the shamans have explored and argued the case, locally and nationally. I examine the negotiations that have happened along the way, in a political climate that has so far been hostile to religious arguments of any sorts, and in this example, involves a group that is contested among the Sámi. Finally, I look at the role of “indigeneity” in regard to claims, performances and responses to these particular concerns, as these have played out in different parts of the Sámi geography.