Abstract
The environmental crisis is producing an increasing number of both physical and psychological impacts. This article studies the challenge of eco-anxiety for pastoral care, drawing from both interdisciplinary research and ecological theology. The aim is to help both practitioners and researchers to encounter eco-anxiety more constructively. The rapidly growing research about eco-anxiety and therapy is discussed in relation to pastoral care. The various forms of eco-anxiety are briefly analyzed. The role of the caregivers is discussed by using sources that study the challenges of therapists in relation to eco-anxiety. The existential depths of eco-anxiety are probed in the light of recent research and older existentialist theory. It is pointed out that the political character of ecological issues, especially climate change issues, causes many kinds of challenges for pastoral care. As the constructive conclusion of the article, various possibilities and resources for encountering eco-anxiety in pastoral care are discussed, along with the connections with wider pastoral theology. It is argued that pastoral care providers should engage in self-reflection about their own attitudes and emotions related to ecological issues, preferably with the support of trusted peers or mentors. Various organizational developments are also needed to support caregivers. Dialectical thinking is one tool that can help to navigate the complex dynamics related to environmental responsibility, eco-emotions, and questions of hope or hopelessness.
Highlights
This article studies the challenge of eco-anxiety for pastoral care, drawing from both interdisciplinary research and ecological theology
The existential depths of eco-anxiety are probed in the light of recent research and older existentialist theory
It is argued that pastoral care providers should engage in self-reflection about their own attitudes and emotions related to ecological issues, preferably with the support of trusted peers or mentors
Summary
The term anxiety is notoriously wide-ranging (Barlow 2004; LeDoux 2016). Many health professionals use it in the connotation of anxiety disorders. Existential psychologists, philosophers, and theologians have increasingly written about the dimensions of eco-anxiety that have the characteristics of existential anxiety: people are grappling, for example, with questions of freedom and guilt, and meaning and meaninglessness, in relation to the vast ecological crisis (e.g., Budziszewska and Jonsson 2021; Pihkala 2018a), and in interdisciplinary research, it has been increasingly noticed that eco-anxiety does include the motivational dimension. Using anxiety philosopher Charlie Kurth’s terminology about practical anxiety, Pihkala (2020a, 2020c) has called this dimension “practical eco-anxiety” It is practical and adaptive because it stems from the perception of real problems that need attention. Seeing the fundamental role of eco-anxiety as practical anxiety helps to avoid pathologization and over-therapization, and seeing the possibilities of eco-anxiety to turn into a paralyzing condition helps to understand the importance of providing enough psychosocial and spiritual support for people
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