Ethics for the Coming Storm

Climate Change and Jewish Thought

Laurie Zoloth author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc

Published:19th Jun '24

Should be back in stock very soon

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Ethics for the Coming Storm cover

How can we come to understand our existence on this earth, surrounded by air and light and water, while living in a place we deliberately and carelessly abuse, where resources are becoming scarce, and where the well-being and basic health of our neighbors is threatened? In Ethics for the Coming Storm, Laurie Zoloth argues that our debates about environmental issues have largely been driven by the language of economics and political power, and have become both deeply divisive and symbolic, turning our differing truth claims and moral appeals into signs of identity. This discourse has utterly failed to change the human behavior or political and economic structures necessary to face global warming head on. So Zoloth turns to another language, found in the texts and traditions of Jewish thought--the language of Scripture, the Talmud, and philosophy of Judaism--which, she contends, offers a different kind of argument for such a change. In fact, Zoloth claims, the traditions, histories, and texts of Jewish thought address precisely the sort of existential crisis that we now face, and thus deepen and enrich our public discourse about what to do, and who to be. This book uses a careful attention to rabbinic and philosophical sources in Jewish thought to provide a novel framework through which we can reassess the choices we make that affect our climate, our environment, and our social structures.

Zoloth is right to note that religious communities' narratives and ethical traditions are critical to weathering the storm and, simultaneously, the locus of most of what is worth salvaging. * Mara H. Benjamin, JSRNC Vol. 18 *

ISBN: 9780197661352

Dimensions: 160mm x 226mm x 20mm

Weight: 340g

272 pages