God, nature and society: Views of the tragedies of hurricane katrina and the asian tsunami

Abstract

Religious worldviews are an understudied aspect of natural disasters and they shape our interpretations, responses, and explanations for natural disasters and offer a window into views on the relationship between humans and nature. In this study, post Asian Tsunami and post Hurricane Katrina sermons from four Christian traditions are analyzed in order to identify differing worldview perspectives. These sermons showed significant differences tied to eschatology, to theological conceptual structures that integrate God, nature, and humans, in the types of individual and corporate responses that were called forth from the congregants, and in the distance placed between themselves and those who suffered in these disasters. A possible overarching framework that analyzes religious traditions in terms of their emphases on vertical (individual humans and God) or horizontal (society-nature) linkages arises from this study and provides possibilities for categorizing and understanding other religious traditions.