Theology, Ecology, and Natural Science

2026 Call for Papers

Katherine Tarrant, University of Virginia (VA)

klt2sdt@virginia.edu 

Abel Aruan, Villanova University (PA)

aaruan@villanova.edu

In light of the larger theme of CTS 2026, the Theology, Ecology, Natural Science section aims to cultivate three panel conversations that grapple with “faith amid Christian nationalism.” Proposals should specify for which of the three panels they would like to be considered. Proposals should be submitted for consideration to the section co-conveners, Katherine Tarrant and Abel Aruan by December 15, 2025. 

1.) The Technocratic Paradigm: How might theologians interpret technologies of extraction, surveillance, and state violence as tools of the Christian nationalist project? What threats do these technologies pose to human dignity and freedom? We invite proposals that consider this question in dialogue with a range of conversations and sources, including but not limited to:

• The technocratic paradigm, technocratic/technofascist projects, and their alternatives.
• The role of AI technologies as tools of nationalism
• Surveillance capitalism as a force to control bodies, lands, and resource consumption
• The military industrial complex in its role as a global consumer and polluter 
• Engagements with Kate Crawford’s The Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence
• Responses to Pope Francis’ Laudate Deum, its framing of emergent technologies and the United States’ unique contributions to the climate crisis
• The biodiversity loss due to territorial control
• The Jefferson Grid system and its surrounding epistemologies
• Nationalism and the energy/resource consumption
• Monocultures and food estate in the context of national food security
• Revisiting Francis Bacon’s writings
• Emerging terms: environmental racism, environmental authoritarianism, extractivism, etc.

2.) Political Ecology: How do the “political ecologies” of/amid Christian Nationalism – its way of imagining lands, communities, power, and belonging – perpetuate social, territorial, and environmental injustice? What are some theological frameworks that offer alternative political ecologies which affirm Christianity’s commitment to a global common good? We invite proposals that consider this question in dialogue with a range of conversations and sources, including but not limited to:

• Theological responses to nationalistic backlash against climate refugees and climate immigration
• Diasporic experiences of connection and disconnection from motherlands

• Political theologies of borderlands, both physical, legal, and imaginative (Ex.: How was the earth perceived after/before The Treaty of Tordesillas, 1494?).
• Engagement with works on political theology of Earth/Nature/Climate (Peter Scott, Catherine Keller, Michael S. Northcott, etc.).
• Engagement with authors like Amitav Ghosh who address connections between climate change and colonial enterprise; or, with texts like S. Lily Mendoza and George Zachariah’s Decolonizing Ecotheology and Daniel Castillo’s An Ecological Theology of Liberation which present intersectional ecotheologies
• Ecologies of fascism and various forms of “ecofacism”
• Differing scales of ecotheological consideration: Should we be thinking globally, bioregionally, or locally? Is there a balance to be found?
• Integral human ecology as a form of resistance to nationalism. 
• The rise of “green imperialism” and its connection to broader neocolonial projects
• Elements of the relationship between Christianity and ecologically-informed Indigenous knowledge systems (comparative/interreligious approaches).
• Key terms related to political ecology: planetarity, archipelago, rhizome, quantum realm, extraterrestrial space, harmony, wilderness, belonging, trickster, etc.

3.) Practices: How can ecologically-conscious liturgical formations, social movements, and pedagogies respond to the challenge of Christian Nationalism? How might educators, spiritual leaders, and social organizers resist nationalist rhetoric through local community formation? We invite proposals that consider this question in dialogue with a range of conversations and sources, including but not limited to:

• Slow pedagogies, place-based education, and nature-based pedagogies
• The role of science and pseudoscience in government–and its funding issues

• Innovative liturgical formations asserting human humility before Creation
• Specific theological or organizational strategies to resist the erasure of academic knowledge
• Works exploring moral formation in nature like Robin Wall Kimmerer’s The Serviceberry
• Interdisciplinarity and collaboration between theology and the social or natural sciences 
• The lives of environmental defenders or ecomartyrs.
• Debate concerning the role of church and state in environmental education
• Distinctive roles of marginalized communities: immigrants, queer people, people of color, women, people with disability, young people, etc.
• Stories of climate refugees and displacements
• Theological implications of “artivism” and climate artworks
• Songs, lyrics, and hymns of creation
• The role of prayers, both private and public, in ecological conversations.