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

该项目将研究短期时间性和“祖先时间”的长期时间性之间的对比，以理解和修复现代工业社会在减轻人类气候影响方面的失败。在考虑资源的未来分配时，政府和企业通常会根据时间和价值来贴现投资回报。这在公共生活中产生了一种短期的前景，即用未来的成本与当前的消费进行交易。它还促进了一个框架，在这个框架中，气候和生态成本的责任被分散或否认。相比之下，世俗的环境保护主义，如“过渡城镇”运动，倡导在未来剧烈气候变化的情况下进行关注。然而，“气候末日”带有灾难论者的色彩，并假设在现在和不久的将来之间存在根本性的断裂。社会心理学研究表明，灾难主义可能会使积极的改变失去动力。因此，在维持当代和后代之间的遗产意识方面，气候末日可能并不比经济上的暂时性更有效。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。我们把这种对过去的意识称为“祖先的时间”，这指的是一种精神气质，在这种气质中，对过去和未来几代人的债务得到了尊重。基督教对时间的理解是由代际社区的概念塑造的，被称为“圣徒的交流”。在这一观念中，当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，苏格兰人类建筑环境的最早痕迹是对死者的古代纪念，比如奥克尼岛上的新石器时代的石冢。项目组将通过研究宗教团体成员的气候活动家的动机、实践和价值观来探索祖先时间的可行性。在这个项目中，我们将试图发现祖先的时间是否可以提供一种替代经济和气候末日的暂时性，并在当代和后代之间保持更大的联系和责任感。项目研究还将寻求阐明基于信仰的气候行动主义的更深层次的概念框架，正如我们的实践者合作伙伴所指出的那样，这往往表现出一种充满激情但“不明确的‘关心创造物’感觉，可能缺乏结构感、遗产感和推动力”。该项目汇集了由苏格兰280多座教堂组成的普世慈善组织苏格兰生态教会，以及来自爱丁堡大学的跨学科团队。利用神学、环境哲学、经济史、地理学和政治理论的见解，该项目将使生态教会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在于，它的影响将在导致它的行为发生几十年后才会被感受到：这就提出了一种文化上的迫切需要，即促进对长期的“祖先”因果链作出反应的行为和做法。苏格兰政府已经认识到精神暂时性所带来的潜力，为苏格兰生态集会提供财政支持，将可持续和低碳的行为融入当地社区和家庭。对独特的“祖先”时间视界的更清晰的表述可能会进一步激发宗教气候行动主义，并为世俗气候行动主义和政策制定者提供重要的新资源，因为他们试图影响企业、家庭和当地社区，以尊重这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.