Protecting Nature or saving creation?

I Dialoghi di San Giorgio
14 - 16 September 2010
Protecting Nature or saving creation?
Ecological Conflicts and religious passions
---------------------------------Biographies and Bibliographies of Participants
Matthew Engelke
Eric Geoffroy
Izabela Jurasz
Bruno Latour
Ignazio Musu
Ted Nordhaus
Anne Marie Reijnen
Simon Schaffer
Michael Shellenberger
Elizabeth Theokritoff
George Theokritoff
Andrea Vicini
Eduardo Viveiros de Castro
Matthew ENGELKE
Department of Anthropology
London School of Economics
Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE (United Kingdom)
http://www2.lse.ac.uk/anthropology/people/engelke.aspx
Matthew Engelke received his PhD at the University of Virginia. He is a specialist on Zimbabwe
and the anthropology of religion. His primary interest in this work is on the role of textual authority
within Christianity, particularly as it relates to theological and philosophical notions of presence,
but he has written as well on ritual, language and material culture, spirit possession, conversion, and
religious history. During his time in Zimbabwe, he became interested in the discourse of human
rights at the local level, and has been actively involved in the LSE's Centre for the Study of Human
Rights. In March 2006, he began a new project, funded by STICERD and the British Academy, on
the British and Foreign Bible Society. Most of this research is on the Society's work in England and
Wales, and focuses on a number of themes, including: Christianity's role in the public sphere; the
dynamics of secularization, and the semiotics of the book. Some of the research has also been
archival in nature, and connected more closely to his training as an Africanist (looking in particular
at Bible Society history in South Africa). Alongside these academic pursuits, Dr Engelke regularly
serves as an expert witness in asylum appeal cases for Zimbabweans in the United Kingdom.
Selected publications:
Forthcoming. ‘Past Pentecostalism: Rupture, Realignment, and Everyday Life in Pentecostal and
African Independent Churches’, Africa 80(2).
2009. ‘Strategic Secularism: Bible Advocacy in England’, Social Analysis 53(1): 39-54.
2009. ‘Reading and time: Two approaches to the materiality of Scripture’, Ethnos 74(2): 151-174.
2009. (editor) ‘The objects of evidence: Anthropological approaches to the production of
knowledge’, Oxford: Blackwell. (Originally published in 2008 as the third special issue of
the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute).
2007. A problem of presence: Beyond scripture in an African church, Berkeley: University of
California Press.
Winner of the 2008 Clifford Geertz Prize, Society for the Anthropology of Religion
Winner of the 2009 Victor Turner Prize for Ethnographic Writing.
2006. (co-editor with Matt Tomlinson) The limits of meaning: Case studies in the anthropology of
Christianity, Oxford: Berghahn Books.
2005. ‘The early days of Johane Masowe: Self-doubt, uncertainty, and religious transformation’,
Comparative Studies in Society and History 47(4): 781-808.
2005. ‘Sticky subjects, sticky objects: The substance of African Christian healing’, in Materiality,
Daniel Miller (ed). Durham: Duke University Press.
2004. “Text and performance in an African church: The Book, ‘live and direct’”, American
Ethnologist 31(1): 76-91.
Eric GEOFFROY
Université de Strasbourg (France)
Département des études arabes et islamiques
Université Ouverte de Catalogne (Barcelone)
http://www.eric-geoffroy.net/
Eric Geoffroy is an Expert in Islam and Professor in Islamic Studies in the Department of Arabic
and Islamic studies at the University of Strasbourg. He also teaches at the Open University of
Catalonia, at the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium) and at the International Institute of
Islamic Thought (Paris). ‎ He is a specialist in the study of Sufism and sanctity in Islam. Among
‎others, his research also extends to a comparison of mysticism, and to issues of ‎spirituality in the
contemporary world (spirituality and globalization; spirituality ‎and ecology). ‎
He gives many lectures in the field of Sufism and more generally of ‎Islamic culture all over the
world (Europe, the Arab world, USA, Indonesia).‎
So far, Eric Geoffroy has had seven books published. He is the author ‎of numerous articles in
magazines specialized in Islamology as well. Besides ‎this, he has also participated in international
conferences and made some ‎contributions to key reference books (Les voies d’Allah, Dictionnaire
critique ‎de l’ésotérisme, Dictionnaire du Coran, histoire de l’Islam et des musulmans en ‎France du
Moyen-Âge à nos jours).
Eric Geoffroy himself works at organizing conferences and seminars (Bibliotheca Alexandrina in
Alexandria, ‎European Council in Strasbourg…). ‎As the official consultant on «Islam» for the
French dictionary Le Petit ‎Larousse, he is at the origins of an itinerant exhibition on Sufism
directed by the ‎Arabic World Institute in Paris.
He has been selected for the Who’s Who in the World 2011.
Selected publications:
L’islam sera spirituel ou ne sera plus, Le Seuil, Paris, 2009.
Le soufisme, voie intérieure de l’Islam, Le Seuil, Paris, 2009.
Une voie soufie dans le monde : la Shâdhiliyya, Maisonneuve et Larose, Paris, 2005.
Jihâd et contemplation: Vie et enseignement d’un soufi au temps des croisades, Albouraq, Paris,
2000.
Izabela JURASZ
Institut Catholique de Paris
Theologicum – Faculté de Théologie et des Sciences Religieuses
21, rue d’Assas
F - 75006 Paris (France)
http://www.icp.fr/fr/Recherche/Les-enseignants-chercheurs-de-l-Institut-Catholique-deParis/Izabela-Maria-Jurasz
Izabela Jurasz is a senior lecturer at the Theologicum – Faculty of Theology and Religious
Sciences. She is specialized in Syrian patristics, Greek patristics and ecumenical theology.
Selected publications and articles in collective works:
F. Cassingena-Trévedy et I. Jurasz (eds.), Les Liturgies syriaques, Paris, Geuther, coll. «Etudes
syriaques», 3, 2006.
«La légende syriaque de l'invention de la Croix (Doctrine d'Addai 16-30). Implication politiques et
théologiques , in F.M. Humann, J.N. Pérès (eds.), Les apocryphes chrétiens des premiers siècles.
Mémoire et tradition, Paris, DDB, coll. « Théologie à l’université », 2009, p. 91-119.
«Le ‘Notre Père’ commenté par Cyrille d’Alexandrie et ses disciples de la tradition nonchalcédonienne», in D. Vigne (ed.), Lire le Notre Père avec les Pères, Paris, Parole et Silence,
2009, p. 319-341.
«Sainte-Sophie de Constantinople dans l’ekphrasis poétique de Paul le Silentiaire: entre l’histoire et
l’idéologie», Art sacré. Cahiers de Rencontre avec le patrimoine religieux, 2008, 26, p. 75-89.
B. Caseau, I. Gazzola, I. Jurasz, «Relectures en herméneutique», in Y.-M. Blanchad, G. Bady
(eds.), De commencement en commencement. Le renouveau patristique dans la théologie
contemporaine, Paris, Bayard (coll. Theologia), 2007, p. 203-209.
"Sophia", "Eusebio di Cesarea", "Giacomo d'Edessa", "Giacomo di Nisibi", "Giacomo di Sarug",
"Giovanni d'Efeso", "Paul Bedjan", "François Nau", "Alfonso Mingana", "IROC" in E. Farrugia
(ed.), Dizionario dell'Oriente cristiano, Roma, Pontificio Istituto Orientale, 2007. 2nde édition
augmentée.
"La figure de la femme de Job selon Grégoire le Grand dans Morales sur Job", in G.-I. Gargano
(dir.), L'eredità spirituale di Gregorio Magno tra Oriente e Occidente. Atti del Simposio
Internazionale Gregorio Magno 604-2004, Roma 10-12 marzo 2004, Roma, Pontificio Ateneo "S.
Anselmo"- Pontificio Orientale, 2005, p. 67-86.
Bruno LATOUR
Sciences Po
27 rue St Guillaume
F - 75007 Paris (France)
www.bruno-latour.fr
Bruno Latour was trained first as a philosopher and then an anthropologist. From 1982 to 2006, he
has been professor at the Centre de sociologie de l'Innovation at the Ecole nationale supérieure des
mines in Paris and, for various periods, visiting professor at UCSD, at the London School of
Economics and in the history of science department of Harvard University. He is now professor and
vice-president for research at Sciences Po Paris.
In addition to work in philosophy, history, sociology and anthropology of science, he has
collaborated into many studies in science policy and research management. Among his many
publications, he has written Laboratory Life (Princeton University Press), Science in Action, We
have never been modern, Politics of Nature (Harvard University Press).
He has been also curator together with Peter Weibel of two major international exhibitions in
Karlsruhe at the ZKM center: Iconoclash. Beyond the image wars in science, religion and art
(2002), and Making Things Public. The atmospheres of democracy which has closed in October
2005 (both catalogues are with MIT Press).
Complete bibliography: http://www.bruno-latour.fr/livres/index.html
Ignazio MUSU
Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia
Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche
Cannaregio, 873 - San Giobbe
I- 30121 Venezia (Italy)
http://www.unive.it/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=415&persona=000052&vista=curr
Ignazio Musu is professor of Political Economy and environmental Economy at the Faculty of
Economy of the University Ca’ Foscari of Venice. He is also President of the Center TEN of the
Venice International University. He is also member of council of the Bank of Italy and various
scientific and cultural foundations as the Foundation of Venice and European Association of
Environmental and Resource Economists.
He published many volumes about the environmental economy, the environmental policies and also
the sustainable development. Since 2003 he specialized in the problems of the sustainable
development in China.
Ted NORDHAUS
The Breakthrough Institute
436 14th Street, Suite 820
Oakland, CA 94612 (USA)
http://www.thebreakthrough.org/staff.shtml
Ted Nordhaus is an author, researcher, and political strategist. He is a widely recognized authority
on climate and energy policy and his work has deeply influenced a new generation of clean energy
advocates. With co-author Michael Shellenberger, he published the seminal essay "The Death of
Environmentalism" in 2004 and the controversial and critically acclaimed Break Through, Why We
Can't Leave Saving The Planet To Environmentalists in 2007. Time Magazine named Ted a "Hero
of the Environment" in 2008, and dubbed his work "prescient”.
His writings have appeared widely in magazines, newspapers, and journals including The New
Republic, The American Prospect, Salon, and The New York Times among many others.
Ted Nordhaus is a founder and chairman of the Breakthrough Institute, a political think tank based
in Oakland, California that works at the nexus of climate, energy, and economic policy. He is also
managing partner of American Environics, a research and consulting firm that brings cutting edge
research and methodologies used to understand the evolution of American social values to
progressive political projects.
Anne Marie REIJNEN
Faculté Universitaire de Théologie Protestante
Rue des Bollandistes, 40
B-1040 Bruxelles (Belgium)
Institut Catholique de Paris
21, rue d'Assas
F- 75006 Paris (France)
http://www.ctinquiry.org/scholars/memberprofile.aspx?id=17
Anne Marie Reijnen is Professor of Theology in Brussels, Chair of Dogmatic Theology, at the
Faculté Universitaire de Théologie Protestante/Faculteit Protestantse Godgeleerdheid. She also
teaches at the Institut Catholique de Paris.
Member of the Center of Theological Inquiry (CTI) in Princeton, N.J (in residence in 2002, 2005
and 2008).
She has been a commissioner of Faith and Order (World Council of Churches) and has been invited
to join the Groupe des Dombes starting from June 2010.
President of the Association Paul Tillich d’Expression française (APTEF).
Her fields are: Tillich studies; African American theology; contemporary visual art and faith;
feminism; relations between Judaism and Christianity; ecology and theology (dignity of non-human
animals).
Selection from her publications:
L’Ombre de Dieu sur terre. Un essai sur l’incarnation, Genève, Labor et Fides, 1998.
L’Ange obstiné. Ténacité de l’imaginaire spirituel, Genève, Labor et Fides, 2000.
«Das Heilige als Kategorie bei Rudolf Otto und Paul Tillich», in G. Hummel & D. Lax (eds),
Mystisches Erbe in Paul Tillich, New York, de Gruyter, 2000.
«Maître ou parasite? Habiter la terre en toute conscience», Revue Théologique de Louvain, 2000/1,
p.169-189.
«L’esprit, l’indignation et le paradoxe. Elie Faure (1873-1937), un libre-protestant», in R. Picon,
Penser le Dieu vivant, Paris, van Dieren, 2003.
«Holy Impatience. Participating in the Redemption of the World», in M. Dumas, F. Nault, L.
Pelletier, Théologie et culture. Hommage à Jean Richard, Laval, Presses de l’Université Laval,
2004.
«Tillich’s Christology», in Russell Re Manning (ed), The Cambridge Companion to Tillich,
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2008.
«Contre Leibowitz: Les origines juives du christianisme», in Cités 34, 2008/4.
«War and Peace Between Theology and Art», Analecta Bruxellensia 13, 2008.
«Le ‘cas’ de l’animal», in A.-M. Dillens (ed), La dignité aujourd’hui, Bruxelles, Publications des
Facultés Universitaires Saint-Louis, 2008.
«Sexes, genres et genre humain: un itinéraire théologique», in Joseph Famerée (ed), Le
Christianisme est-il misogyne? Place et rôle de la femme dans les Eglises, Bruxelles, Lumen Vitae,
2010.
Simon SCHAFFER
Department of History and Philosophy of Science
University of Cambridge
The Old Schools, Trinity Lane
Cambridge CB2 1TN (United Kingdom)
http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/people/schaffer/
Simon Schaffer is Professor of History of Science at the University of Cambridge. He was trained
in natural sciences and history of science at Cambridge and Harvard and has taught at Imperial
College London.
Selected publications:
Leviathan and the air pump: Hobbes, Boyle and the experimental life (with Steven Shapin)
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985).
The Uses of Experiment: studies in the natural sciences (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1989), coeditor and contributor of ‘Glass works: Newton’s prisms and the uses of experiment’, 67104.
William Whewell: a composite portrait (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), coeditor and
contributor of ‘The history and geography of the intellectual world: Whewell’ politics of language’,
201-31.
‘Babbage’s intelligence: calculating engines and the factory system’, Critical Inquiry 21 (1994),
203-27.
‘The Leviathan of Parsonstown: literary technology and scientific representation’, in Timothy
Lenoir, ed., Inscribing science: scientific texts and the materiality of communication (Stanford:
Stanford University Press, 1998), 182-222.
The sciences in enlightened Europe (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1999), coeditor and
contributor of ‘Enlightened automata’, 126-65.
Michael SHELLENBERGER
The Breakthrough Institute
436 14th Street, Suite 820
Oakland, CA 94612, (USA)
http://www.thebreakthrough.org/staff.shtml
Michael Shellenberger is president and co-founder of Breakthrough Institute.
He is co-author with Ted Nordhaus of Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the
Politics of Possibility (Houghton Mifflin 2007). Time magazine called Break Through “prescient”
for its prediction that pollution regulations could not transform the global energy economy, and
Wired magazine said the book “could be the most important thing to happen to environmentalism
since Silent Spring”. The book received the 2007 Green Book Award and a starred review from
Publishers' Weekly, which called the book “Convincing, resonant, and hopeful”. In 2004,
Shellenberger and Nordhaus generated a national debate in the pages of the New York Times and
around the country when they published The Death of Environmentalism, which argued against
apocalyptic climate rhetoric and the regulation-centered policy approach in favor of an aspirational
discourse and an investment and innovation-focused agenda. For their work, Shellenberger and
Nordhaus were named Time magazine “Heroes of the Environment 2008”.
Breakthrough Institute’s strategy to “Make Clean Energy Cheap” was the recent subject of a profile
on NPR's “Morning Edition”. In 2002, Michael Shellenberger co-founded the Apollo Alliance.
Shellenberger has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Republic, the
American Prospect, Salon, Harvard Law and Policy Review, Democracy, Glamour Magazine and
other publications.
Elizabeth THEOKRITOFF
Elizabeth Theokritoff is an Orthodox Christian independent scholar and theological translator from
Greek. She has particular interests in theology of creation and in liturgical theology, which was the
subject of her doctoral thesis at Oxford under the supervision of Bishop Kallistos Ware. She served
as Secretary of the ecumenical Fellowship of St Alban and St Sergius in London 1983-1990, and
was seconded to the Ecumenical Institute, Bossey, Switzerland, as visiting Orthodox Tutor for the
1988 Graduate School on 'Justice, peace and the integrity of creation'.
She has lectured widely, including serving as a visiting lecturer at the Institute for Orthodox
Christian Studies, Cambridge, and has been involved in various conferences and scholarly projects
connected with theology of creation.
Relevant publications include:
'Creation and Priesthood in Modern Orthodox Thinking', Ecotheology 10.3 (December 2005) pp. 344363.
‘A eucharistic and ascetic ethos: Orthodox Christianity and the environment’ for Shap Journal: World
Religions in Education 2008/2009, pp. 25-27.
‘Creator and Creation’ in Mary Cunningham and Elizabeth Theokritoff (ed.s), Cambridge Companion to
Orthodox Christian Theology (Cambridge, 2008).
‘Crise écologique et témoignage chrétien: défi pour l’Église’, Contacts no. 227 (July-September 2009),
pp. 251-268.
Living in God’s creation: The ecological vision of Orthodox Christianity (St Vladimir's Seminary
Press, 2009).
‘Cosmic priesthood and the human animal: Speaking of man and the natural world in a scientific age’
(Paper given at ‘Thinking Modernity’ conference, Balamand, December 2007: in press).
George THEOKRITOFF
George Theokritoff has degrees in Geology and Paleontology from the University of London. His
Master’s thesis was on parts of Galway and Mayo, Ireland, and his doctoral dissertation was on
parts of eastern New York State and west-central Vermont. He has taught at Colleges and
Universities in England, Canada and the United States and retired as Professor Emeritus from
Rutgers University in New Jersey where most of his teaching was concerned with Earth History, the
History of Life, and Paleontology.
He is also author or co-author of many research articles in peer-reviewed journals. More recently,
he has become interested in the interface of science to traditional Christianity.
Andrea VICINI SJ
Gasson Chair
Boston College – Theology Department
21 Campanella Way # 325
140 Commonwealth Ave.
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 (USA)
http://www.bc.edu/schools/stm
Andrea Vicini, SJ, is Associate Professor of Moral Theology and Bioethics at the Faculty of
Theology of Southern Italy: S. Luigi (Naples, Italy) and, currently, Gasson Chair Professor at
Boston College (MA, USA).
Medical doctor and pediatrician, his theological training includes a Bachelor in Theology (Centre
Sèvres, Paris), a Licentiate in Sacred Theology (Weston Jesuit School of Theology), a PhD in
Theological Ethics (Boston College), and a Doctorate in Sacred Theology (Faculty of Theology of
Southern Italy). He has taught in Italy, in Albania, in Mexico, in Chad, in France, and in the USA.
Lecturer and member of important associations of moral theologians and bioethicists (in Italy, in
Europe, and in the USA), his research interests include: biotechnologies, reproductive technologies,
end of life issues, medical ethics, genetics, and environmental issues.
Among his publications in English:
“The Use of Genetic Information: Autonomy and the Common Good”, in Privacy and the
Constitution, Vol. 2: Electronic Speech Rights, M.M. PLASENCIA, ed. (New York: Garland, 1999)
272-280.
“Ethical Debate on Stem Cell Research and Roman Catholic Insights”, in Medicina nei Secoli - Arte
e Scienza/Journal of History of Medicine 15/1 (2003) 71-85.
“Ethical Issues and Approaches in Stem Cell Research: From International Insights to a Proposal”,
in Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, 23/1 (2003) 71-98.
“Human genetic research today and tomorrow: Reflecting on ethical and scientific challenges”, in
Genetics, Theology, Ethics: An Interdisciplinary Conversation, L. SOWLE CAHILL, ed. (New York:
Crossroad, 2005) 164-170.
In Italian, he has recently published: Genetica umana e bene comune (Human Genetics and the
Common Good) (Cinisello Balsamo: San Paolo, 2008), pp. 578.
Eduardo VIVEIROS DE CASTRO
Departamento de Antopologia
Museu Nacional
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
Quinta da Boa Vista
20940-040 Rio de Janeiro RJ (Brasil)
http://www.ppgasmuseu.etc.br/museu/pages/english.htm
Eduardo Viveiros de Castro is an anthropologist that has conducted research in Brazilian Amazonia,
most of it among the Araweté of the Middle Xingu.
He was Simon Bolívar Professor of Latin American Studies in the University of Cambridge (199798) and Directeur de Recherche at the CNRS in Paris (1999-2001).
His publications include From the Enemy's Point of View: Humanity and Divinity in an Amazonian
Society (University of Chicago Press, 1992), A Inconstância da Alma Selvagem e Outros Ensaios
de Antropologia, CosacNaify (São Paulo, 2002) and Métaphysiques cannibales (Presses
Universitaires de France, 2009).