RT Article
T1 Shame, Moral Motivation, and Climate Change
JF Worldviews
VO 23
IS 3
SP 230
OP 253
A1 Powell, Russell C.
LA English
YR 2019
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1685402577
AB An emotion like shame is endowed with special motivational force. Drawing on Ralph Waldo Emerson's concept of shame, I develop an account of moral motivation that lends new perspective to the contemporary climate crisis. Whereas religious ethicists often engage the problem of climate change by re-imagining the metaphors, symbols, and values of problematic cosmologies, I focus on some specific moral tactics generated by religious communities who use their traditions to confront climate destruction. In particular, Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries, a Christian non-profit organization that seeks to infuse a renewed commitment in church parishes to bioregions and watersheds, effectively employs shame in the context of its Christian practice and leadership. My analysis of Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries demonstrates both the efficacy of shame to motivate environmentally responsible behavior as well as the advantage to religious ethics of considering contextual practices over abstract cosmologies.
K1 Ralph Waldo Emerson
K1 Climate Change
K1 Religious Ethics
K1 Shame
DO 10.1163/15685357-02302003