Table Of ContentTechnofuTures, naTure and The sacred
This page has been left blank intentionally
Technofutures, nature and
the sacred
Transdisciplinary Perspectives
Edited by
celia deane-drummond
University of Notre Dame, USA
sigurd Bergmann
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
Bronislaw szerszynski
University of Lancaster, UK
© celia deane-drummond, sigurd Bergmann and Bronislaw szerszynski 2015
all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
celia deane-drummond, sigurd Bergmann and Bronislaw szerszynski have asserted their
right under the copyright, designs and Patents act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of
this work.
Published by
ashgate Publishing limited ashgate Publishing company
wey court east 110 cherry street
union road suite 3-1
farnham Burlington, VT 05401-3818
surrey, gu9 7PT usa
england
www.ashgate.com
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
a catalogue record for this book is available from the British library
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Technofutures, nature, and the sacred : transdisciplinary perspectives / edited by celia
deane-drummond, sigurd Bergmann and Bronislaw szerszynski.
pages cm
includes bibliographical references and index.
isBn 978-1-4724-4410-3 (hardcover) -- isBn 978-1-4724-4411-0 (ebook)
-- isBn 978-1-4724-4412-7 (epub) 1. Technology--religious aspects. 2. nature. i.
deane-drummond, celia, editor.
Bl265.T4T425 2015
201ʹ66--dc23
2014039117
isBn 9781472444103 (hbk)
isBn 9781472444110 (ebk – Pdf)
isBn 9781472444127 (ebk – ePuB)
Printed in the united kingdom by henry ling limited,
at the dorset Press, dorchester, dT1 1hd
Contents
List of Figures and Tables vii
Notes on Contributors ix
Acknowledgements xv
Introduction 1
Celia Deane-Drummond, Sigurd Bergmann
and Bronislaw Szerszynski
Part I theorIes
1 human responsibility for extra-human Nature: an ethical
approach to technofutures 17
Walther Ch. Zimmerli
2 technology and the humanisation of Nature: New resources
for Critical assessment 31
Maria Antonaccio
3 artefactualising the sacred: restating the Case for Martin
heidegger’s ‘hermeneutical’ Philosophy of technology 47
Fionn Bennett
4 technology in a Postnatural Condition? Concepts of Nature
and Meanings of technology 67
Peter Manley Scott
Part II relIgIous NarratIves
5 Forbidden Fruit: Wonder, religious Narrative and the Quest for
the atomic Bomb 83
Lisa H. Sideris
vi Technofutures, Nature and the Sacred
6 technology and Iconography: Minding the logoi 99
Francis Van den Noortgaete
7 ‘Millions of Machines are already roaring’: Fetishised
technology encountered by the life-giving spirit 115
Sigurd Bergmann
8 The technologisation of life: Theology and the trans-human
and trans-animal Narratives of the Post-animal 139
Celia Deane-Drummond
Part III PraCtICes
9 re-Inventing homemaking: a Necessary and ethical
Means of Production in a Post-growth, ecologically
sustainable economy 159
David Gormley-O’Brien
10 redeeming the Climate: Investigating a Theological Model
of geoengineering 175
Forrest Clingerman
11 resilience techniques: spiritual Practices and Customary
economics within Farming Communities in amanbaev
village, Kyrgyzstan 193
Zemfira Inogamova-Hanbury
12 Miraculous engineering and the Climate emergency:
Climate Modification as Divine economy 219
Matthew Kearnes
Part Iv syNthesIs
13 The twilight of the Machines 241
Bronislaw Szerszynski
Bibliography 259
Index 285
List of Figures and Tables
Figures
3.1 Glimpse into that-which-is’ (Einblick in das was ist) 56
3.2 ‘The Fourfold’ (Das Geviert) 58
7.1 Umberto Boccioni, Visioni simultanee, 1911, oil on canvas,
70 x 70 cm 117
7.2 Hannah Höch, Mechanischer Garten, 1920, watercolour,
73.5 x 46.4 cm 120
7.3 Paul Klee, Die Zwitscher-Maschine (Twittering Machine), 1922,
watercolour and ink, oil transfer on paper with gouache and ink
on border, 63.8 x 48.1 cm 121
7.4 Raoul Hausmann, The Spirit of our Time, 1919, wood and other
materials, 32.5 x 21 x 20 cm 123
7.5 Francis Picabia (1879–1953), Parade amoureuse, 1917,
oil on cardboard 124
11.1 Craftswoman from Kyrgyzstan 197
11.2 Traditional technologies 199
11.3 Food preservation techniques 202
11.4 Well-being of children 204
11.5 Farmers social tools 212
Tables
1.1 Four-level model of ethical assessment 28
1.2 Systematic classification of environmental ethics according to
the agents 29
This page has been left blank intentionally
Notes on Contributors
Maria Antonaccio is Presidential Professor of Religion and an affiliated faculty
member in Environmental Studies at Bucknell University. She is the author of
Picturing the Human: The Moral Thought of Iris Murdoch and A Philosophy to Live
By: Engaging Iris Murdoch, and is an Associate Editor of the forthcoming Wiley-
Blackwell Companion to Religious Ethics, 2nd edition. A long-time teacher of
courses on environmental ethics, the ethics of consumption and postnaturalism,
her current research focuses on the cultural meanings of sustainability in the
context of the Anthropocene.
Fionn Bennett is a philosopher of language at the Université de Reims
(France) specialising in intersemiocity and musica speculativa. Since defending
his thesis on Martin Heidegger’s philosophy of language, his research has
concentrated on the links between language and music. Pursuing a radically
‘Cratylian’ line of thought, he is currently exploring the role music used to
play in assuring that language and the natural world were in a relationship of
‘concinnity’ or ‘co-naturality’. As part of the synthèse he is completing for his
habilitation, he will look at the way the roots of language in musical sound
continues to be a part of the very substance of modern language. This study
will be accompanied by the publication of a monograph entitled Thaumotropic
Hierophonia: The Semantics of Moûsiké in Ancient Greece.
Sigurd Bergmann holds a doctorate in systematic theology from Lund
University and is Professor in Religious Studies at the Department of
Philosophy and Religious Studies at the Norwegian University of Science
and Technology in Trondheim. His previous studies have investigated the
relationship between the image of God and views of nature in late antiquity,
the methodology of contextual theology, visual arts in the indigenous Arctic
and Australia, as well as visual arts, architecture and religion. He has initiated
and chaired the European Forum on the Study of Religion and Environment,
and ongoing projects investigate the relation of space/place and religion
and ‘religion in climatic change’. His main publications are Geist, der Natur
befreit (rev. ed. Creation Set Free); Geist, der lebendig macht; God in Context;
Architecture, Aesth/Ethics and Religion (ed.); Theology in Built Environments
(ed.); In the Beginning is the Icon; Så främmande det lika (‘So Strange, so
Similar’, on Sámi visual arts, globalisation and religion); Raum und Geist:
