Christianity and reverential naturalism engage a world in peril: A dialogue between disciplines

Christian theologians and ostensibly secular sociologists of religion rely on different resources to respond to personal, local, or global problems. The environmental crises we see around the world reflect a strict hierarchy between human beings and the natural world. In both the theological and social scientific arenas of the last few decades, however, we see an ‘animal turn’ that exposes the hubris of anthropocentrism and creates opportunities for new ways of writing and teaching about the natural environment. Using the Pacific Northwest’s ‘reverential naturalism’ as a touchstone, the authors reflect on the extent to which their respective fields prepare secular scholars and theologians to address the crises all animals – including humans – now face. Using a dialogue format, they explore whether theological and social scientific regimes of truth and knowledge are incommensurable. What might this mean for the region and the two fields out of which they authors emerge?