ABSTRACT

In this paper, I use insights from extensive ethnographic research with evangelicals in Colorado Springs, Colorado to investigate how competing ethical understandings of time and the future underpin conceptions of and responses to ecological collapse. It argues that a dominant apocalyptic chronotope in US evangelicalism makes the future earth redundant, an understanding that Christian Right leaders have linked to decreased interest in environmental issues. This dominant evangelical view looks to the future with anticipation when a promised and ever-close apocalypse and rapture will signal the end of the earth. The temporal structure of climate change clashes with this narrative about time and the future of the planet. In contrast, a new theological understanding is emergent among younger evangelicals, where Christ’s return is understood as involving a remaking of the earth, and not an ejection from it. This contrasting view makes the care of the planet a crucial Christian priority.

摘要

在本文中，我利用科罗拉多州科罗拉多斯普林斯的福音派广泛的民族志研究的见解来调查对时间和未来的竞争伦理理解如何支持生态崩溃的概念和反应。它认为，美国福音派中占主导地位的世界末日时空体使未来的地球变得多余，基督教右翼领导人认为这种理解与人们对环境问题的兴趣下降有关。这种占主导地位的福音派观点满怀期待地展望未来，届时应许的、永远接近的天启和狂喜将标志着地球的末日。气候变化的时间结构与这种关于时间和地球未来的叙述相冲突。相比之下，一种新的神学理解正在年轻的福音派人士中出现，基督的回归被理解为涉及地球的重建，而不是从地球上被驱逐。这种截然不同的观点使保护地球成为基督徒的首要任务。