Climate breakdown: Is religion the antidote to the poison? With Bishop Rowan Williams

A symposium celebrating ten years of the LSE Faith Centre

Recorded at LSE on Wednesday 23rd October 2024

Ten years ago, the LSE Faith Centre opened with a dialogue between Bishop Rowan Williams and the late French philosopher Bruno Latour on religion and the environment. In the decade that has passed, political and scientific solutions to the climate emergency have seemed ever more elusive, while faith communities have become increasingly engaged in the task of challenging what Pope Francis describes as “the dominant technocratic paradigm” underlying the crisis. Responding to Latour’s challenge to provide “the antidote to the poison”, LSE Faith Centre now runs a religion and climate change module in its leadership programme, and has conducted research into emerging climate discourses among Christian and Muslim communities in Egypt and Jordan.

Using Latour’s posthumously published If we lose the Earth, we lose our souls as a springboard for discussion, this symposium welcomed Bishop Rowan back to LSE, alongside contributors from a range of faith traditions, to reflect on the nature of the task we are facing, the resources religion brings, and the significance of the legacy Latour has left us.

Chaired by James Walters, Director of the LSE Faith Centre

The LSE Faith Centre opened in the Saw Swee Hock Building in October 2014. To celebrate our tenth birthday, we’re hosting a series of public events, a new blog series, and we’ll be sharing some of our alumni journeys. Find out more at lse.ac.uk/faithcentre