Addressing God with Names of Earth

Abstract

Scientists and leaders from all nations increasingly agree that ecological catastrophe is the overarching crisis of our time, unfolding already in the lives of the poorest human beings. Central for Christian awakening to these concerns are new forms of address to God that reorient worshipers to the divine presence permeating each threatened creature on Earth. Here the author proposes a theologically risky move of “second-naiveté pantheism,†asserting that addressing God by the name “Earth†re-orients Christians’ prayerful attention to this place where divine life is profoundly at risk: the ongoing survival and abundance of the creation’s life.