'Salvation, Death, and Nature as Grace'

Davies, Douglas J.

'Salvation, Death, and Nature as Grace'

Davies, Douglas J.

Authors

Professor Douglas Davies douglas.davies@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Contributors

Hannah Bacon
Editor

Wendy Dossett
Editor

Steve Knowles
Editor

Citation

Davies, D. J. (2015). 'Salvation, Death, and Nature as Grace'. In H. Bacon, W. Dossett, & S. Knowles (Eds.), Alternative Salvations: Engaging the Sacred and the Secular (85-96). Bloomsbury

Publication Date	Dec 17, 2015
Deposit Date	May 17, 2025
Publisher	Bloomsbury
Pages	85-96
Book Title	Alternative Salvations: Engaging the Sacred and the Secular
Chapter Number	8
ISBN	9781472579966
Public URL	https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3953464
Publisher URL	https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/alternative-salvations-9781472579966/
Additional Information	By considering transformative ideas and experiences which are explicitly articulated or implicitly structured in languages of religion and spirituality, Alternative Salvations probes concepts including 'religious', 'secular', 'spiritual', 'post-Christian', and 'post-secular', providing a series of studies which question the functionality of these broad categories. Part One draws on contemporary salvation narratives showing how current cultural forms, social practices and secular discourses are influenced by, or are interpreted through, the lens of religious and theological accounts of salvation. Examples include twelve step recovery programs, drug culture, and public policy surrounding HIV-AIDs in Kenya. Although outside traditional religious contexts, the contributors show ways in which they are not free from religious symbolism. Part two explores alternative accounts of salvation rooted in religious traditions. Established orthodoxies are confronted by contemporary critical questions, for example about gender, the status of animals, and the political dimensions of salvation. By contributing new perspectives and unique case studies, Alternative Salvations provides a deliberate challenge to easy binaries which often underpin contemporary and traditional discourses of salvation.