1 Beyond Belief
7
case studies, literary analyses, field projects and empirical research, and it deliberates faith-engaged approaches through context, theory, practice, doctrine and
engagement.
Comprising peer-reviewed works by scholars, professionals and practitioners
from across the Pacific region, the book closes a critical gap in the literature as
it aims for scientifically sound, spiritually attuned, locally meaningful, and contextually compelling analysis and synthesis. It seeks to create consilience by integrating
interdisciplinary contributions from the sciences and humanities, including case
studies, literary analyses, field projects and empirical research (Luetz and Nunn
2020); it inquires how positionality affects insider–outsider adaptation discourse,
and probes limitations, opportunities and future prospects; it presents a strong
practice-oriented focus that comprises peer-reviewed works by scholars, professionals and practitioners; it investigates influences on decision-making of tradition,
local precedent, spirituality, indigeneity and connectedness to Nature; it endeavours
to spawn faith-engaged approaches to climate change adaptation that are “more-thanscientific yet not anti-scientific” (Fair 2018, p. 11); it probes locally relevant theological, epistemological, hermeneutical and eschatological perspectives on ecological
meaning-making—or, expressed in simpler language, it seeks to understand how
different interpretations of religious teachings can affect ‘buy-in’ and environmental
outcomes.
Looking Back to the Future: The Clash of Religion
and Secularism
Owing to its geography—what many perceive as a vast empty space rather than a
‘sea of islands’ in Epeli Hau’ofa’s memorable phrase
5 —the Pacific has often been
a zone of conflict, a place across which continental powers battle (or trial future
battles) with little recognition of the effects on island peoples and ecologies. Yet as
explained in Chapter 2 by Clive Ayre and colleagues, people of faith in the Pacific
and beyond can contribute to a more peaceful, reconciliatory and sustainable future
through their engagement on two simultaneous existential dangers—nuclear war and
climate change—that threaten to undermine society’s ability to endure.
A grounded case study from Solomon Islands comprises Chapter 3 in which Zina
Bird and others discuss what changes in the environment and its climatic controls
the people living in subsistence communities in northern Malaita have noticed in
recent years. This chapter gives insights into how many Pacific Island people in such
contexts rationalize and respond to changes that can be attributed to climate change.
5 This phrase was introduced in Epeli’s 1993 book (Hau’ofa 1993) and was conceived to emphasize
the contrast between the common outsider impression of the Pacific as a vast ocean peppered with
small islands and the common insider view of the Pacific as a ‘sea filled with islands’. It is an issue
of perspective that underpins contrasting worldviews. An excellent discussion of the evolution of
the Pacific as ‘Earth’s empty quarter’ was given by Gerard Ward (1989).
7
case studies, literary analyses, field projects and empirical research, and it deliberates faith-engaged approaches through context, theory, practice, doctrine and
engagement.
Comprising peer-reviewed works by scholars, professionals and practitioners
from across the Pacific region, the book closes a critical gap in the literature as
it aims for scientifically sound, spiritually attuned, locally meaningful, and contextually compelling analysis and synthesis. It seeks to create consilience by integrating
interdisciplinary contributions from the sciences and humanities, including case
studies, literary analyses, field projects and empirical research (Luetz and Nunn
2020); it inquires how positionality affects insider–outsider adaptation discourse,
and probes limitations, opportunities and future prospects; it presents a strong
practice-oriented focus that comprises peer-reviewed works by scholars, professionals and practitioners; it investigates influences on decision-making of tradition,
local precedent, spirituality, indigeneity and connectedness to Nature; it endeavours
to spawn faith-engaged approaches to climate change adaptation that are “more-thanscientific yet not anti-scientific” (Fair 2018, p. 11); it probes locally relevant theological, epistemological, hermeneutical and eschatological perspectives on ecological
meaning-making—or, expressed in simpler language, it seeks to understand how
different interpretations of religious teachings can affect ‘buy-in’ and environmental
outcomes.
Looking Back to the Future: The Clash of Religion
and Secularism
Owing to its geography—what many perceive as a vast empty space rather than a
‘sea of islands’ in Epeli Hau’ofa’s memorable phrase
5 —the Pacific has often been
a zone of conflict, a place across which continental powers battle (or trial future
battles) with little recognition of the effects on island peoples and ecologies. Yet as
explained in Chapter 2 by Clive Ayre and colleagues, people of faith in the Pacific
and beyond can contribute to a more peaceful, reconciliatory and sustainable future
through their engagement on two simultaneous existential dangers—nuclear war and
climate change—that threaten to undermine society’s ability to endure.
A grounded case study from Solomon Islands comprises Chapter 3 in which Zina
Bird and others discuss what changes in the environment and its climatic controls
the people living in subsistence communities in northern Malaita have noticed in
recent years. This chapter gives insights into how many Pacific Island people in such
contexts rationalize and respond to changes that can be attributed to climate change.
5 This phrase was introduced in Epeli’s 1993 book (Hau’ofa 1993) and was conceived to emphasize
the contrast between the common outsider impression of the Pacific as a vast ocean peppered with
small islands and the common insider view of the Pacific as a ‘sea filled with islands’. It is an issue
of perspective that underpins contrasting worldviews. An excellent discussion of the evolution of
the Pacific as ‘Earth’s empty quarter’ was given by Gerard Ward (1989).