Introduction: Climate Change and Pacific Christianities

Abstract

ABSTRACT This introduction takes a critical look at the heterogeneous corpus of social science research on climate change and Christian religion. The central concern is to present analytical alternatives to the universalist-essentialising approaches which, on the basis of a supposedly inherent contradiction between science and religion, exclude or devalue Christian contestation and modification of climate change discourse. With reference to the empirical-analytical richness of the contributions on Fiji, Vanuatu and Kiribati, this paper highlights the multiplicity, contrariness and processuality of the religious-political practice of Pacific Islanders in response to climate change as both a scientific narrative and a physical reality. The range of topics of the introduction includes the religious dimensions of blame, transnational networks of Christian actors and institutions as well as Christian framings of the nexus of climate change, mobility and resettlement. In addition, it outlines possible fields of future research such as the media politics of Christian institutions’ representations of climate change and a historical re-examination of missionary work in Oceania from the perspective of the entanglements of carbon and Christianity.