Disconnection and the Healing Practice of Imagination for Mormon Environmental Ethics
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3556230 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kristen Blair, Kristen P Blair (0000-0001-8676-2230, Boston University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue | 11 |
| Pages | 948 |
| Publication date | 2021-11-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Religions (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/rel12110948 |
| OpenAlex | W3208667358 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 6 |
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints possesses a subversive and fecund interpretation of the Christian creation narrative. This interpretation, denying creation ex nihilo, bespeaks a particular attention to and care for the living earth. However, Latter-day Saint praxis is wounded by a searing disconnect between the theopoetics of its conceptual creation and its lived practice. I argue that the Church must understand this disconnect as a wound and attend to it as such. I turn to theopoetics, arguing that it is in the lived practices of Latter-day Saints engaging somatically with the Earth that can restore our imaginative potential and move toward healing. I begin by exploring the Christian conception of creation ex nihilo and juxtapose this with the Latter-day Saint understanding of formareex materia. I then explore the implications of such a cosmology for environmental ethics and probe the disconnections between theory and practice in Mormonism broadly construed. I propose that the healing salve for disconnection is imagination, a salve found in the first heartbeat of the Latter-day Saint story. I speak with Latter-day Saint theopoetics and indigenous voices, proposing ultimately that is with them that the healing of theology and praxis must begin
Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Asceticism · Disconnection · Epistemology · Eschatology · Indigenous · Literature · Narrative · Praxis · SAINT · Sociology · Theology · Mormonism, Religion, and History · Philosophy · Religion, Ecology, and Ethics · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices · Ecology
| Citations per year | 0.67 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2023 - 2025 (3) |
| Highly cited | No |