Climate and religion: from meteorological theology to ecological ethics

Introduction: The elements as a message

The connection between climate and religious beliefs is one of the oldest and most fundamental. Climatic phenomena — rain, drought, thunder, flood, and changing seasons — were for ancient people direct manifestations of divine will. Thus, religion formed as a system of interpretation and management of relationships with powerful natural forces on which survival depended. Climate is not just a background, but an active participant in the sacred dialogue, forming pantheons, rituals, ethics, and eschatology.

Climate as the architect of pantheons and mythology

Climatic conditions directly determined which gods were worshipped and how they were depicted.

Agricultural civilizations (Mesopotamia, Egypt, Canaan): In regions where life depended on the flooding of rivers or timely rains, gods of fertility, water, and dying/resurrecting nature became central. Sumerian Dumuzi, Egyptian Osiris, Phoenician Baal — all of them died (symbolizing drought or winter) and resurrected (with the coming of rain or flooding). Their spouses (Inanna/Ishtar, Isis, Anat) as goddesses of the earth and fertility sought and returned them, reflecting the desperate hope for the cyclical nature of nature. Rituals, often orgiastic, were meant to magically stimulate the fertility of the land.

Arid highland civilizations (ancient Greece, Iran): Here, where water was scarce and thunder was a powerful and terrifying phenomenon, the supreme god was a thunder god: the Greek Zeus, the Indo-European Perun, the Hittite Teshub. He controlled rain as a favor and thunder as anger.

Steppes nomads: For them, in the conditions of open, boundless space and dependence on the state of pastures, there developed a monotheistic or genocentric cult of the Sky as the supreme, often impersonal deity (Tengri among the Turks and Mongols). Climate here formed not a god-«manager» of weather, but an abstract supreme beginning, embodying order and destiny.

Interesting fact: Archaeologists and climatologists have discovered a correlation between major climatic disasters and surges in religious activity or changes in cults. For example, the volcanic eruption on the island of Thera (Santorini) in the 17th century BC, causing a tsunami and a «volcanic winter,» could have become the prototype of the myth of Atlantis and influenced religious crises in Minoan Crete and Egypt. And a prolonged drought around 2200 BC could have contributed to the fall of the Old Kingdom in Egypt and the Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia, reflecting in myths of «divine wrath.»

Rituals as climate management

Religious practice was essentially a doctrine of climate management.

Prayers for rain (and its cessation) are present in almost all agrarian cultures. In Judaism, for example, rain in the Land of Israel was directly associated with the piety of the people, while drought — with sins. The insertion of rain (tefilat ha-geshem) and dew (tal) into the daily prayer — the direct inclusion of the climatic factor in liturgy.

Offerings, especially bloody, were often interpreted as «nourishment» for the deity to maintain the world order, including favorable weather. The Aztec sacrifices to the gods of the sun and rain are the ultimate example of such logic.

C calendrical holidays were almost always tied to key points in the agricultural year (solstices, equinoxes) and aimed to ensure the transition of nature to the next phase. Christian Christmas, combined with the winter solstice, and Easter — with the spring equinox and the awakening of nature.

Climatic disasters and theodicy: the question of evil

Natural disasters put the most difficult question before religions: if God (or gods) is benevolent and omnipotent, why does he allow innocent suffering from drought or flood? The answers formed the core of religious worldviews.

Punishment for sins: The most common answer. The Great Flood in the Sumerian-Akkadian epic of Gilgamesh and in the Bible is sent for the moral decline of humanity. This retrograde causality (the cause of the disaster is in the past, this is retribution) became a powerful tool for social control and strengthening morality.

Test of faith: The story of Job in the Old Testament offers a more complex model: suffering — not punishment, but a test sent by Satan with the permission of God. This shifts the focus from collective guilt to individual resilience.

Cyclical and balance: In Eastern religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism), disasters are often incorporated into cosmic cycles (yugas, kalpas) or perceived as a manifestation of the natural dynamic balance of Yin and Yang. They are less personalized and more «natural».

The modern turn: religion in the age of anthropogenic climate change

Today, the connection between climate and religion is experiencing a radical transformation. If before religion explained climate, now it has to respond to a crisis, the cause of which is recognized as human.

«Green» theology and ecological ethics: Movements for reinterpreting traditional texts in an eco-theological key are emerging in all world religions. Christian theologians speak of the «covenant with creation» and stewardship (management, not ownership) of the Earth (Genesis 2:15). In Islam, the concept of caliphate (the delegation of humanity on Earth) is developing. Buddhism and Hinduism emphasize the principle of interconnectedness of all things (pratitia-samutpada, advaita) and ahimsa (non-violence) towards nature.

Religious activism: The papal encyclical «Laudato si’» (2015) of Pope Francis became a manifesto of the Catholic ecological movement, directly linking the protection of nature with social justice and the fight against poverty. Religious leaders participate in climate marches, bring ecological issues to the center of preaching.

Eschatology and climate apocalypse: Climate change provides new food for apocalyptic expectations in some Christian circles (especially evangelical). However, more often today, the focus is not on divine punishment, but on the suicidal path of humanity, from which it is necessary to save through repentance and lifestyle change.

Religion as a resource of sustainability: Traditional practices, often sanctified by religion, such as moderate consumption, fasting, charity, and local solidarity, are re-evaluated as tools for building a sustainable society in the face of climatic disasters.

Conclusion:

The relationship between climate and religion has evolved from direct management (rituals to call rain) through ethical interpretation (disasters as punishment) to modern responsibility (protection of creation as a religious duty).

Today, religion is at a crossroads:

On the one hand, it can conserve climate skepticism, relying on the providence of God or apocalyptic fatalism.

On the other hand, it has a colossal mobilizing, ethical, and semantic potential for an ecological turn. Religious communities are global networks capable of changing the behavior of millions of people at the level of values, not just pragmatism.

The climate crisis, in essence, returns religion to its origins — to questions about the relationships between man, higher powers, and the natural world, but poses these questions with unprecedented urgency: not as asking for mercy from nature, but as saving nature from itself. In this context, the theological search for «ecology of the spirit» and the practice of «green» communities become one of the most important fronts in the fight for the future of the planet.

Permanent link to this publication: