Earthly Understanding
Featured Shmita: A Biblical Vision for Conservation, Environmentalism, and Stewardship
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session David Krantz
At the dawn of the anthropocene, the epoch in which humans have become the most impactful force shaping the Earth, anthropogenic climate change and other forms of environmental destruction may be the biggest challenge ever faced by humanity–a “planetary emergency.” How are we to transition from our present society of over-consumption and over-pollution to a new era of sustainability? Perhaps since the sources of the problem are complex and varied, such as capitalism, population growth, and technology, the sources of the solution also must be complex and varied. And given that the vast majority of people on Earth have a religious affiliation, one might widen one’s perspective to look toward religious concepts for how we can help inspire a sustainability transition. One such concept is the practice of shmita (alternatively spelled shemitah, shemitta, or shmitah), Judaism’s sabbatical year, as delineated in the Hebrew Bible. In this paper, I explore shmita as emblematic of our modern notion of sustainability, encompassing conservation, environmentalism, and stewardship. Just as other Jewish concepts such as Shabbat, the sabbath, have inspired much of the world, shmita too may inspire others to embrace sustainability. Shmita is part of an as-of-yet-unrealized biblical vision for a sustainable future for humanity, a vision that can transcend religious boundaries and, despite being thousands of years old, maybe the inspiration that we now need most.
Medicine, Spirits, and the Socioreligious Organization in the Wind River
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Aaron Atencio
Visions and dreams have played an essential role in socioreligious grouping across the North American Plains and Intermountain West. The distinct Indigenous band would elicit encounters with guardian spirits to gain knowledge and medicine. Power, or puha, as the Eastern Shoshone called it, was an essential cornerstone of the socioreligious organization. Furthermore, puha was much more dynamic than a categorical structuring tool. Puha is scarred upon the landscape. Sandstone outcroppings with dramatic anthropomorphic beings serve as signatures of shamanic rituals, ceremonies, and perceptions of sacred space. The Eastern Shoshone did not utilize religious texts to sustain their religious identity, yet, these images across the Wind River and Big Horn Basins are distilled into the lifeways and worldviews as dynamically as a religious text. They provide orientation and documentation of the Eastern Shoshone's relationship to their natural and spiritual environments. This study explores how these images carved into the landscape can assist in understanding a distinct socioreligious dynamic and how these can be utilized to display the shift and loss of contemporary Eastern Shoshone sociocultural identity.
Extra-special Care: Wes Anderson's "The Grand Budapest Hotel" as Liturgy View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Gabriel Colombo
This paper reads Wes Anderson’s 2014 film "The Grand Budapest Hotel" through the lens of liturgical theology. It proposes that by revivifying collective memory—both its tragedies and joys—in a rhythmic, sensory, spatial, playful, and paradoxical way, the film forms our “social imaginary” for the better. In exploring the resonances between existing Anderson scholarship and liturgical theology, the paper highlights three key facets of the film: its implication of the present through the mythical stylization of the past; the relationship between M. Gustave and Zero, who find their place together as priest and acolyte of the Grand Budapest Hotel, enacting its liturgy of service against the rising tide of barbarism; and Anderson’s formal and aesthetic vision, which curates and elevates “found” objects and spaces, recognizing them as sacramental. Rejecting metaphysical dualism, the film suggests that communion and mystery are embedded in and enlivened by the material world.
