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When Time is Short

When Time is Short

Finding Our Way in the Anthropocene

With faith, hope, and compassion, acclaimed religious scholar Timothy Beal shows us how to navigate the inevitabilities of the climate crisis and the very real - and very near - possibility of human extinction

Product Code: 9304
ISBN: 9780807008256
Format: Paperback / softback
Publisher: Beacon Press
Pages: 168
Published Date: 08/22/2023
Availability:In stock
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Price: $17.00
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What if it’s too late to save ourselves from climate crisis? When Time is Short is a meditation for what may be a finite human future that asks how we got here to help us imagine a different relationship to the natural world.

Modern capitalism, as it emerged, drew heavily upon the Christian belief in human exceptionalism and dominion over the planet, and these ideas still undergird our largely secular society. They justified the pillaging and eradication of indigenous communities and plundering the Earth’s resources in pursuit of capital and lands.

But these aren’t the only models available to us - and they aren’t even the only models to be found in biblical tradition. Beal re-reads key texts to anchor us in other ways of being - in humbler conceptions of humans as earth creatures, bound in ecological interdependence with the world, subjected to its larger reality. Acknowledging that any real hope must first face and grieve the realities of climate crisis, Beal makes space for us to imagine new possibilities and rediscover ancient ones. What matters most when time becomes short, he reminds us, is always what matters most.


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Contents

Introduction with Playlist

1. Soon, All of This Will Be Gone 2. Once We Were Like Gods
3. We Are the Gods Now
4. Gods with Anuses
5. Palliative Hope
6. Back to the Beginnings
7. Humus Being
8. No Hope Without Grief
9. Subsistentialism
Epilogue: Kids These Days

Acknowledgments
Notes
Index

“In this timely book, Timothy Beal invites us to face our collective human finitude. And it guides us to re-encounter biblical sources to find language that allows us to touch our ‘precarious wonder.’ This is a beautiful, courageous, and profound engagement with the most important questions of our times.” - Mayra Rivera, author of The Touch of Transcendence and president of the American Academy of Religion

“Tim Beal is unmistakably among our most discerning public intellectuals, capable of both penetrating critical thought and generative imagination. When Time Is Short is in part a realistic requiem for a long-running indulgent cultural past; in part, it is an honest analysis of our persistent Promethean seduction and, in part, a manifesto for modest hope for responsible courageous living. Honest and hope-filled, it merits wide and sustained attention.” - Walter Brueggemann, author of Sabbath as Resistance

"Timothy Beal’s encouragement for us to accept our death as a species, through rereadings of biblical texts warped by modern capitalism, invites a deeper understanding of ecological interdependence and the instructive power of grief. This deeply spiritual text is much needed." - Emily Raboteau, author of Searching for Zion: The Quest for Home in the African Diaspora

"This book is a poem for the end-times. Beal provokes us to confront the omnicide around us and our finitude as a species. Yet he also offers a palliative vision of care: how to alleviate suffering and find hope, even in the darkest of times." - Kate Crawford, author of Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence
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What if it’s too late to save ourselves from climate crisis? When Time is Short is a meditation for what may be a finite human future that asks how we got here to help us imagine a different relationship to the natural world.

Modern capitalism, as it emerged, drew heavily upon the Christian belief in human exceptionalism and dominion over the planet, and these ideas still undergird our largely secular society. They justified the pillaging and eradication of indigenous communities and plundering the Earth’s resources in pursuit of capital and lands.

But these aren’t the only models available to us - and they aren’t even the only models to be found in biblical tradition. Beal re-reads key texts to anchor us in other ways of being - in humbler conceptions of humans as earth creatures, bound in ecological interdependence with the world, subjected to its larger reality. Acknowledging that any real hope must first face and grieve the realities of climate crisis, Beal makes space for us to imagine new possibilities and rediscover ancient ones. What matters most when time becomes short, he reminds us, is always what matters most.


Bookmark and Share
Contents

Introduction with Playlist

1. Soon, All of This Will Be Gone 2. Once We Were Like Gods
3. We Are the Gods Now
4. Gods with Anuses
5. Palliative Hope
6. Back to the Beginnings
7. Humus Being
8. No Hope Without Grief
9. Subsistentialism
Epilogue: Kids These Days

Acknowledgments
Notes
Index

“In this timely book, Timothy Beal invites us to face our collective human finitude. And it guides us to re-encounter biblical sources to find language that allows us to touch our ‘precarious wonder.’ This is a beautiful, courageous, and profound engagement with the most important questions of our times.” - Mayra Rivera, author of The Touch of Transcendence and president of the American Academy of Religion

“Tim Beal is unmistakably among our most discerning public intellectuals, capable of both penetrating critical thought and generative imagination. When Time Is Short is in part a realistic requiem for a long-running indulgent cultural past; in part, it is an honest analysis of our persistent Promethean seduction and, in part, a manifesto for modest hope for responsible courageous living. Honest and hope-filled, it merits wide and sustained attention.” - Walter Brueggemann, author of Sabbath as Resistance

"Timothy Beal’s encouragement for us to accept our death as a species, through rereadings of biblical texts warped by modern capitalism, invites a deeper understanding of ecological interdependence and the instructive power of grief. This deeply spiritual text is much needed." - Emily Raboteau, author of Searching for Zion: The Quest for Home in the African Diaspora

"This book is a poem for the end-times. Beal provokes us to confront the omnicide around us and our finitude as a species. Yet he also offers a palliative vision of care: how to alleviate suffering and find hope, even in the darkest of times." - Kate Crawford, author of Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence
Be the first to submit a review on this product!
Review and Rate this Item

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