God’s Anger and the Demons Within

The first major period of climate shock to be studied was the early fourteenth century, especially the years between 1310 and 1325. This involved a broad and lasting era of climatic change, a time of global cooling that marked the onset of the so-called Little Ice Age. Societies around the world suffered times of shocking paranoia and conspiracy-mongering. They responded with persecutions of minorities and dissidents, leading to purges and expulsions on an appalling scale. Whole populations suffered bitter times of exile and diaspora, and those changes did much to create our familiar maps of the great faiths and their geographical concentrations. In Europe, modern ideas of witchcraft were born.

Conclusion

My own interest in the topics of this book dates back a good many years. In fact, it predates the emergence of the modern field of climate history, or the identification of global warming as an incipient menace. In saying that, I am claiming no status as a prodigy, still less a prophet. Rather, in my teenage years, I read a great deal of speculative fiction, science fiction, in which themes of climate change and cataclysm have long percolated, at least since the latter years of the nineteenth century. We can debate how accurate the scientific analyses or predictions were in many of these works—in many cases, the level of accurate knowledge was minimal—but those works had the inordinate advantage of thinking through the human and cultural consequences of catastrophe, commonly speculating about religious dimensions. Obviously, some works succeeded better than others in that regard, but the essential project was critically important. If we are foretelling that the world will be assailed by lethal menaces, then we cannot fail to go on to imagine what the political or cultural consequences would or should be....

Ages of Gold

One way to appreciate the potential role of climate in human affairs is to observe what happens when—at least from a human-centric perspective—matters are going very well and the heavens appear to be smiling. Despite the occasional emphasis on eras of climate-driven disaster and deprivation, some historical epochs were wonderfully benevolent, times when the Sun’s warmth evidently manifested God’s bounty. One such era was the High Middle Ages, which coincided with a period of warming over large parts of the globe. Trade and commerce flourished, abundant harvests produced generous food supplies, and prosperity was conspicuously manifested in religious experiment and innovation. Such eras are often recalled through legendary and even exalted figures, such as St. Francis or Thomas Aquinas in the medieval European context. Whatever we term them, cultural golden ages have existed, and they have their foundations in climate conditions.

Forcing Climate

This chapter examines the various factors that drive climate, the “forcings.” These include volcanic eruptions, solar energy (as measured by sunspots), and oceanic changes, especially the El Niño–Southern Oscillation. In the Atlantic world, one primary factor is the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Volcanic eruptions in particular have often been implicated in changing climate worldwide, with far-reaching political and religious effects. These different factors are often closely intertwined, influencing each other intimately. This chapter also traces the modern emergence of climate science and the often controversial nature of historical debate over phenomena such as the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age.

A Faded Sun and a Wider World

The period from 1675 through the end of the century constituted one of the very coldest and most ruinous periods of that Little Ice Age. Most writing on the so-called General Crisis of the seventeenth century focus sharply on the parlous decades of the 1640s and 1650s and says little about that later crisis. Yet the religious consequences of those latter years were just as far-reaching, not least in redrawing frontiers between faiths. Unlike in the fourteenth century, Europeans now lived in a world of far-flung sea travel and colonial possessions, and persecuted populations amply exploited these opportunities to seek safe haven. Settlements in foreign lands also offered the prospect of new concepts of religious liberty removed far from the motherland, opening a dramatic new phase in attitudes to religious freedom and spiritual experimentation.

Darkening Heavens and a New World

As the Western economy grew and industrialized, society came to rely less directly on agriculture and the vagaries of the seasons. This is illustrated by tracing a series of major climatic disturbances from the late eighteenth century onward and showing how those natural factors lost much of their impact. In the early part of that era, beginning in the 1780s, volcanic eruptions contributed to an alarming era of climate disruption, and the Tambora blast in particular (1815) sparked new churches and denominations teaching apocalyptic and millenarian doctrines, with dreams of the end times. But as we proceed deeper into the nineteenth century, much of Western humanity, at least, felt ever more detached from the direct impact of climate.

A Warming World

In modern times, climate change has become a central issue in political life. But beyond general prognostications of disaster, we can legitimately ask about the cultural implications, and specifically the religious aspects. As we know from abundant historical experience, apocalyptic changes in climate frequently have reshaped religious thought and life—through mass migrations of particular faiths and sects, through stimulating millenarian and prophetic movements, by stirring revivals and awakenings, and also by inciting groups to demonize and attack perceived enemies. Extreme times bring extreme religion. And if Western nations have, at least in theory, moved far beyond providential interpretations of natural disasters, other societies around the world have not. Whatever other transformations climate change may wreak in coming decades, the world’s spiritual landscape will also take on new forms. This chapter explores those contemporary trends.

From Disaster to Belief

Throughout history, climate-related disasters commonly had wide-ranging religious consequences. As climate conditions have changed over time, they have affected human affairs and shaped attitudes. At times those conditions might have promoted prosperity, abundant food supplies, fertility, and general contentment. Quite frequently, though, we can identify periods of acute harm, either short-lived, such as that of 1739–1742, or much longer-lasting, such as the repeated hammer blows during the prolonged cooling period that has been termed the Little Ice Age. This chapter describes the complex means by which climate affects human societies and thereby drives religious change, often on a revolutionary scale. It especially stresses the “apocalyptic” consequences: famine, plague, war, and death.

Who Can Stand Before His Cold?

The years from 1739 to 1742 were marked by extreme cold across the Atlantic world. State mechanisms were better developed than in earlier centuries, while forms of media and communication were much more sophisticated. This new world allowed the circulation of ideas and beliefs on an international and intercontinental scale. Popular fears were channeled into radical new forms of enthusiastic revivalist religion. New denominations and sects emerged within particular faiths, and many become globally significant in their own right. The result was the Great Awakening.

After Darkness, Light

About 1560, the Little Ice Age entered a new and brutally cold era, when social strains threatened the survival of social and political orders. The resulting unrest and disaffection took multiple forms, but they especially manifested in one notorious form of social paranoia—namely, the witch-hunts, which now reached their peak in Europe. At the same time, the 1560s witnessed a dramatic religious transformation within Christianity, affecting both its Catholic and Protestant dimensions. The fast-growing Calvinist movement represented a revolutionary current that threatened the near-overnight razing of ancient religious ways. On the other side, reformed and restructured Catholicism became quite as hard-edged and confrontational, equally as much a faith of crisis. The Christian world entered a new and much harsher period of polarization, as revolutionary religious change detonated savage wars.