Discussion Guide
DESTRUCTION AND RE-CREATION
WAYFINDING IN A CLIMATE APOCALYPSE
J.D. Mechelke and Rev. Talitha Amadea Aho
Without this faith in the future, it will feel like we lost something. We have. This hubris hope is a stumbling block for our imaginations, an obstacle to our flourishing in the apocalypse. So what does this mean? It doesn’t mean that we should scrap hope or that we should get rid of God. But it does mean that there are no guarantees...It means we need to bathe, with Gregory of Nyssa, in the “brilliant darkness” where Moses found God. It means that we need to let the hopelessness in, to be theologians of the cross, to call a thing what it actually is.
SETTING THE TABLE
Before you begin discussing this chapter, spend a few minutes honoring the place you are in. Go outside or go to a window/door where you can see outside. Bless the Earth using this blessing from Ordinary Blessings from Meta Herrick Carlson called “For Earth”
It is good to pause daily
In honor of land that is free
No matter
What we call it,
How we claim it,
Where we draw the lines.
Stop long enough
To consider the ways
Dominion has been defined
On selfish terms, regulating
What is wild and holy.
There is a spirit of resilience
Rumbling in the cracks and crevasses,
Just enough space
For our repentance to flow through
In remembrance of the dignity that was here first.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
- In what ways has the myth of progress seeped into your individual life, in your congregation, in your worldview? Where does the myth of progress catch you up—where is it not working for you?
- We have a big marble statue of our deus ex machina—the god who comes to save us. But we are hitting the road in a camper van. Where can we put this statue? Who needs it? How can its parts be reused and salvaged? In other words – what is it that we believe to be true about God that can accompany and guide us in a time where things are uncertain, unsettled and unpredictable? What beliefs about God have we held that we can leave behind?
- Walk around your home, or around your church buildings. What is essential? If you were flooded or burned out, what would you want to save? What’s in your go-bag? What’s in your church’s go-bag?
- Once you have assembled your go-bag, your essentials, now look at your excess—the things you would be okay without, personally or communally. Let go of the totalizing story of progress/regression, success/failure and consider…What committee of your church could be disbanded? What project could be left undone? What is available for you to give away that you might live more lightly?
- How will you cope without hope? When have you experienced a “world ending” in your own life and what insights can you draw from that experience for our current climate crisis? When a “cure” is not possible for our climate ailment, but “treatment” is necessary, and dependent on our motivation and action – what will you protect, what will you stand up for, what will you commit to?
CLOSING
What is the “low-hanging fruit” step you could take for yourself and/or your congregation in response to this discussion today?
A low hanging fruit is something you could easily do this coming week.
Given this theme and your context; what is one “moonshot” you could imagine?
A moon shot is a giant leap into relationship and connection that would require monumental effort but be totally amazing.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
Talitha Amadea Aho, In Deep Waters: Spiritual Care for Young People in a Climate Crisis (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2022).
Timothy Beal, When Time is Short: Finding Our Way in the Anthropocene (Boston: Beacon Press, 2022).
Philip Clayton and Wm. Andrew Schwartz, What is Ecological Civilization: Crisis, Hope, and the Future of the Planet (Anoka, MN: Process Century Press, 2019).
Pope Francis, Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home, Encyclical Letter (Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 2015).
Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson, eds., All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis (New York: One World, 2021.
Catherine Keller, Facing Apocalypse: Climate, Democracy and Other Last Chances (Mayknoll: Orbis Books, 2021).
Extinction Rebellion, This is Not a Drill: An Extinction Rebellion Handbook (London: Random House, 2019).
David Wallace-Well, The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming (New York: Tim Duggan Books, 2019).