Rights statement: The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Theory, Culture and Society, 34 (2-3), 2017, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2017 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the Theory, Culture and Society page: http://journals.sagepub.com/home/tcs on SAGE Journals Online: http://journals.sagepub.com/
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Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Gods of the Anthropocene
T2 - geo-spiritual formations in the earth’s new epoch
AU - Szerszynski, Bronislaw
N1 - The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Theory, Culture and Society, 34 (2-3), 2017, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2017 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the Theory, Culture and Society page: http://journals.sagepub.com/home/tcs on SAGE Journals Online: http://journals.sagepub.com/
PY - 2017/5/1
Y1 - 2017/5/1
N2 - In this paper I argue that we need not only to ‘decolonise’ the Anthropocene but also to ‘desecularise’ it – to be aware that in the new age of the Earth we may be coeval with gods and spirits. Drawing particularly on the work of Giles Deleuze, Felix Guattari and Georges Bataille, and using concepts from both thermodynamics and fluid dynamics, I start to develop an interdisciplinary theory of planetary spirit, and use this to speak of both the ‘laminar’ high gods of time that are being invoked to summon the story of Earth’s ongoing transformation into a canonical mythos, and the turbulent lower spirits of place which manifest particular, situated dynamics on an Earth crossed by interlocking gradients and flows of energy, value, power and entropy. I suggest that what might once have been distinct territorialised ‘cultures’ or ‘natures’ in which humans engaged in particular situated patterns of interaction with animals, spirits and other beings are increasingly being convened into a global multinatural system, what we might call a ‘combined and uneven geo-spiritual formation’.
AB - In this paper I argue that we need not only to ‘decolonise’ the Anthropocene but also to ‘desecularise’ it – to be aware that in the new age of the Earth we may be coeval with gods and spirits. Drawing particularly on the work of Giles Deleuze, Felix Guattari and Georges Bataille, and using concepts from both thermodynamics and fluid dynamics, I start to develop an interdisciplinary theory of planetary spirit, and use this to speak of both the ‘laminar’ high gods of time that are being invoked to summon the story of Earth’s ongoing transformation into a canonical mythos, and the turbulent lower spirits of place which manifest particular, situated dynamics on an Earth crossed by interlocking gradients and flows of energy, value, power and entropy. I suggest that what might once have been distinct territorialised ‘cultures’ or ‘natures’ in which humans engaged in particular situated patterns of interaction with animals, spirits and other beings are increasingly being convened into a global multinatural system, what we might call a ‘combined and uneven geo-spiritual formation’.
KW - Anthropocene
KW - religion
KW - gods
KW - spirits
KW - thermodynamics
KW - semiotics
U2 - 10.1177/0263276417691102
DO - 10.1177/0263276417691102
M3 - Journal article
VL - 34
SP - 253
EP - 275
JO - Theory, Culture and Society
JF - Theory, Culture and Society
SN - 0263-2764
IS - 2-3
ER -