Bernard T. Adeney-Risakotta, Living in a Sacred Cosmos: Indonesia and the Future of Islam

Bernard T. Adeney-Risakotta, Living in a Sacred Cosmos: Indonesia and the Future of Islam (Southeast Asia Studies, 66; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018), xvii + 406 pp., ISBN: 9780985042974 (cloth), $39.00, ISBN: 9780985042967, $28.00 (pbk).

Shai Feraro and Ethan Doyle White (eds.), Magic and Witchery in the Modern West: Celebrating the Twentieth Anniversary of ‘Triumph of the Moon’

Shai Feraro and Ethan Doyle White (eds.), Magic and Witchery in the Modern West: Celebrating the Twentieth Anniversary of ‘Triumph of the Moon’ (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), xiii + 259 pp., $119.99 (hbk), ISBN: 9783030155490.

Sensing ‘Subtle Spirituality’ among Environmentalists

This article examines the emergence, in the Swiss context, of a new category of ecologically oriented ‘spiritual’ activists. The authors look at empirical studies conducted internationally on the link between religion and environmentalism and argue that ‘spiritually oriented activists’ are rarely investigated in quantitative studies. The authors then examine the findings of a case study of local milieus in two Swiss cities and nationwide data collected as part of the Swiss Household Panel (SHP). They close the gap between results coming from case studies, on the one hand, and representative studies, on the other, by introducing the variable of spirituality into quantitative research. The results suggest that an ecological milieu is emerging comprised of people who are located politically on the left, do not self-identify as religious, but nonetheless practice meditation and have holistic feelings. The forms of spirituality practiced by these ecologists are ‘subtle’ in the sense of being adaptable, located in the background, and supportive of sustainability.

Spiritualization of Ecology and (De)politicization

This article examines the political effects of the spiritualization of ecology by considering the theoretical debate opposing ecology as subpolitics (i.e., a vector of new forms of politicization) and ecology as post-politics (i.e., a vector of depoliticization). This debate addresses the links between ecology, spirituality, and politics and hinges on the contrasting ways in which these terms may be understood. This study brings empirical specilcity to this debate by analyzing how it unfolds among environmentalist farmers in France. The lndings show how different views on ecology, spirituality, and politics coexist in one and the same movement depending on the farmers’ backgrounds. This demonstrates the ongoing redelnition of spirituality as a cultural category crosscutting the modern opposition between politics and religion, and highlights an understanding of the spiritualization of ecology as the addition of alternative political perspectives, more or less openly competing, rather than as a one-dimensional process of (de)politicization.

Emily C. Donaldson, Working with the Ancestors: Mana and Place in the Marquesas Islands

Emily C. Donaldson, Working with the Ancestors: Mana and Place in the Marquesas Islands (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2019), 250 pp., $30.00 (pbk), ISBN: 9780295745831.

Brian G. Henning and Zack Walsh, Climate Change Ethics and the Nonhuman World

Brian G. Henning and Zack Walsh, Climate Change Ethics and the Nonhuman World (New York: Routledge, 2020), 226 pp., $160 (hbk), ISBN: 9780367406103.

Matthew Schneider-Mayerson and Brent Ryan Bellamy (eds.), An Ecotopian Lexicon

Matthew Schneider-Mayerson and Brent Ryan Bellamy (eds.), An Ecotopian Lexicon (Foreword by Kim Stanley Robinson; Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2019), xvi + 327 pp., $24.95 (pbk), ISBN: 9781517905903.

Patrick Curry, Enchantment: Wonder in Modern Life

Patrick Curry, Enchantment: Wonder in Modern Life (Edinburgh: Floris Books, 1st edn, 2019), 152 pp., $35 (pbk), ISBN: 9781782506096.

Reimagining Religious Imagination, in Theory and in Practice

Jack Miles, Religion as We Know It: An Origin Story (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2020). T.M. Luhrmann, How God Becomes Real: Kindling the Presence of Invisible Others (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2020). David Morgan, Images at Work: The Material Culture of Enchantment (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018). Jennifer Anna Gosetti-Ferencei, The Life of Imagination: Revealing and Making the World (New York: Columbia University Press, 2018). Jeffrey J. Kripal, The Flip: Epiphanies of Mind and the Future of Knowledge (New York: Bellevue Literary Press, 2019). Jeffrey J. Kripal, Secret Body: Erotic and Esoteric Currents in the History of Religions (University of Chicago Press, 2017). Mary-Jane Rubenstein, Pantheologies: Gods, Worlds, Monsters (New York: Columbia University Press, 2018).

Laura M Hartman (ed.), That All May Flourish: Comparative Religious Environmental Ethics

Laura M Hartman (ed.), That All May Flourish: Comparative Religious Environmental Ethics (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018), 328 pp., $35.00 (pbk), ISBN: 9780100456030.