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Panu Pihkala, Dr. Theol., is a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Helsinki and has worked with A Rocha Finland for years. His book on Eco-anxiety and Hope, published with acclaim in Finland in October 2017, is currently being translated into English.

18th April 2019 | Panu Pihkala | 1 comments

Extinction Rebellion, eco-anxiety and Christian faith

Extinction Rebellion’ (XR) has been getting plenty of media coverage recently. It’s a new nonviolent, direct-action movement aiming to provoke discussion and transform the climate change agenda. In over 80 cities across 33 countries, XR has closed bridges and roads, protested outside fossil fuel companies, and seen hundreds of people arrested. When interviewed, most XR activists have spoken of their fear or eco-anxiety for the future, and their anger at the lack of action.

Categories: News Reflections
Tags: climate change conservation eco-anxiety protests suffering
31st March 2019 | Panu Pihkala | 3 comments

Eco-anxiety: The psychological and spiritual toll of the environmental crisis

How do you feel about environmental problems? In the environmental movement and in natural sciences, people usually ask ‘What do you think?’, but we have reached a time when more attention should be given to emotional resilience, the ways in which we might survive psychologically in the midst of rapidly changing environmental conditions.

Categories: Reflections
Tags: conservation eco-anxiety suffering
15th September 2014 | Panu Pihkala | 0 comments

Places of knowing God and nature

We live in a world where places are less valued than in earlier times. Technology and urbanization lead us away from being connected to places. As bodily creatures, we need bodily connections to places. And nature needs humans who are place-oriented, because such humans take an effort to care for places.

Categories: Reflections
Tags: H. Paul Santmire identity place prayer