Caring for the Future Through Ancestral Time: Engaging the Cultural and Spiritual Presence of the Past to Promote a Sustainable Future

这个项目将调查“祖先时间”的短期时间性和长期时间性之间的对比，以了解和修复现代工业社会在减轻人类气候影响方面的失败。在考虑未来的资源分配时，政府和企业通常会从时间和价值两方面考虑投资回报。这在公共生活中产生了一种短期的时间前景，即在未来的成本和当前的消费之间进行权衡。它还促进了一个分散或否认气候和生态成本责任的框架。相比之下，世俗环保主义，如“过渡城镇”运动，主张根据未来戏剧性的气候变化进行保护。然而，“气候末日”带有灾难色彩，并假设现在和不久的将来之间将发生彻底的决裂。社会心理学研究表明，灾难主义可能会抑制积极变化的动力。因此，在当代和未来几代人之间维持一种遗产感方面，气候末日可能并不比经济主义的暂时性更有效。宗教组织，就像关注遗产的文化机构一样，对时间、社区和责任有不同的看法。这是因为他们的使命是把过去的重量放在现在。我们把这种对过去时间的觉知称为现在的‘祖先时代’，这指的是一种灵性倾向，在这种精神倾向中，对人类过去和未来世代的债务是被尊重的。基督教对时间的理解是由一种代际共同体的概念形成的，这种概念被称为“圣徒共融”。在这一思想中，今代人意识到过去的存在以及由此产生的对死者的债务，以及他们对后代的遗产和责任。因此，苏格兰最早的人类建造环境的痕迹是古代的死者纪念碑，例如奥克尼的新石器时代的凯恩斯。该项目团队将通过对同时也是宗教社区成员的气候活动家的动机、做法和价值观的研究来探索祖先时间的可行性。在这个项目中，我们将寻求发现祖先时间是否可以提供经济和气候启示性时间的替代方案，并在今世后代之间保持更大的联系和责任感。该项目研究还将寻求阐明基于信仰的气候激进主义的更深层次的概念框架，正如我们的从业者伙伴所指出的那样，这种激进主义往往表现出一种激情但不明确的“关爱创造”的感觉，可能缺乏结构感、遗产和推动力。该项目汇集了由苏格兰各地280多座教堂组成的普世慈善机构苏格兰生态教会，以及来自爱丁堡大学的跨学科团队。该项目吸收了神学、环境哲学、经济史、地理学和政治理论的见解，将使生态会众能够澄清和重新想象他们对未来的愿景。气候变化的道德悲剧是，它的影响将在导致气候变化的行为几十年后才能感受到：这提出了一种文化上的必要性，即促进对长期的“祖先”因果链条做出反应的行为和实践。苏格兰政府已经认识到精神暂时性的潜力，向苏格兰生态教会提供财政支持，在当地社区和家庭中植入可持续和低碳的行为。对独特的“祖传”时间范围的更清晰的表述可能会进一步活跃宗教气候激进主义，并为世俗气候激进主义和政策制定者提供重要的新资源，因为他们寻求影响企业、住户和当地社区，以尊重当代人未来的生态遗产的方式行事。

This project will investigate the contrast between short term temporalities and the long run temporality of 'ancestral time' in order to understand and repair the failure of modern industrial societies to mitigate human climate impacts. When considering the future allocation of resources it is common practice for government and business to discount returns on investments both with respect to time and value. This produces a short-term temporal outlook in public life that trades future costs against present-day consumption. It also promotes a framework in which responsibility for climate and ecological costs is diffused or denied. By contrast secular environmentalism, such as the 'Transition Towns' movement, advocates for care in the light of dramatic future climate change. However 'climate apocalyptic' has catastrophist overtones and assumes a radical break between the present and the near future. Socio-psychological studies reveal that catastrophism can be demotivating to positive change. Climate apocalyptic may therefore be no more effective than economistic temporalities in sustaining a sense of legacy between present and future generations.Religious organisations, like cultural institutions concerned with heritage, think differently about time, community and responsibility. This is because their mission is to engage the weight of the past in the present. We call this awareness of past time in the present 'ancestral time' and this refers to a spiritual disposition in which debts to past and future generations of humans are honoured. Christian understanding of time is shaped by a conception of intergenerational community, known as the 'communion of saints'. In this idea present generations are conscious of the presence of the past and of their consequent debts both to the dead and of their legacy and responsibilities to future generations. Hence the earliest traces of the human built environment in Scotland are ancient memorials to the dead, such as the neolithic cairns on Orkney. The project team will explore the viability of ancestral time through research into the motives, practices and values of climate activists who are also members of religious communities.In this project we will seek to discover whether ancestral time can offer an alternative to both economistic and climate apocalyptic temporalities and sustain a greater sense of connection and responsibility between present and future generations. The project research will also seek to articulate a deeper conceptual frame for faith-based climate activism, which, as our practitioner partner notes, often manifests a passionate but 'ill-defined feeling of "care for creation" and can lack a sense of structure, legacy and impetus'. The project brings together the ecumenical charity, Eco-Congregation Scotland, consisting of over 280 churches across Scotland, with an interdisciplinary team from the University of Edinburgh. Drawing on insights from theology, environmental philosophy, economic history, geography, and political theory the project will enable eco-congregations to clarify and re-imagine their vision of the future.The moral tragedy of climate change is that its effects will be felt decades after the behaviours that cause it: this presents a cultural imperative to promote behaviours and practices that are responsive to a long term 'ancestral' chain of cause and effect. The Scottish government has recognised the potential offered by spiritual temporality by providing financial support to Eco-Congregation Scotland to embed sustainable and low carbon behaviours in local communities and households. The clearer articulation of a unique 'ancestral' temporal horizon may further invigorate religious climate activism, and provide important new resources for secular climate activism and policy makers as they seek to influence businesses, householders and local communities to act in ways that respect the ecological legacy of present generations in the future.