Public Theology and Global Catastrophic Risk

Abstract We live, by virtue of an unprecedented interconnectedness driven by massively uneven, wealth-dominated processes of globalisation, in an era of global risk for which human beings must take responsibility and to which they must respond collectively. This article asks whether public theology – which is essentially a process of theologically informed dialogue with different parts of society on matters of shared concern – has a role to play in crafting these responses. It takes the answer to this question to be yes because the alternative – an all-encompassing, thoroughly autonomous humanism – will never on its own be sufficient to deliver us from hubris, violence, and excess. Public theology brings a different tone to these conversations by emphasising the unity of creation and the commonsense virtues of sustainability, stewardship, and the common good without underestimating the strength and persistence of the human drive to survive. It speaks both pragmatically and prophetically to our potentially catastrophic future without sliding into millennialism and draws on its grasp of the more than human reality that encompasses us to reveal a way forward that provides some real measure of relief from humanity’s prevailing materialist paradigm.