Spiritual Practices for Ecological Survival

Rituals of Resistance

Cláudio Carvalhaes

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2026
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9798216449416
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

Carvalhaes invites readers into a spiritual practice of resistance and renewal for our climate-challenged world. At its heart lies a simple yet profound ritual of three gestures-rising, bowing, and prostrating-performed within one's own bioregion as a way to reconnect body, spirit, and land. These embodied actions ground us in our places, teaching us to attend to the skies and trees above, to honor human and nonhuman neighbors around us, and to remember the histories beneath our feet.

Carvalhaes situates this practice within a sweeping analysis of our global crises. He shows how ecological destruction, political violence, economic injustice, and social fragmentation all stem from a deeper spiritual crisis: our captivity to the spirit of capitalism. By tracing the colonial roots of our broken relationship with the earth and naming the ongoing struggles between destructive global forces and local lifegiving spirits, he exposes the urgent need for new forms of ritual and spirituality.

Drawing on theology, philosophy, indigenous wisdom, and ecology, the book develops key concepts such as bioregion, relationality, and "molecular revolutions"-small acts that can spark wide transformation. Alongside theory, Carvalhaes provides practical tools: reflective exercises, a bioregional quiz, and ritual guidance that make the work accessible for both classrooms and communities.

Weaving scholarship and practice, critique and hope, Carvalhaes redefines what it means to live faithfully in our time. With poetic vision and prophetic urgency, he calls us to decolonize ourselves, reorient our desires, and embody gestures that generate new forms of communal life.

This book offers students, professors, clergy, and general readers alike a path toward reconnection with the earth-and with one another-through ritualized practices of care, resistance, and hope.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Series
• Title page
• Imprint page
• Epigraphy
• Dedication
• List of Figures
• Gratitude
• A Preliminary Note
• Introduction
• 1 Rising, Bowing, Prostrating: Spiritual Practices for a Changing Earth—An Overview
• 2 Counteracting a 500-Year-Old Gesture: A New Spirit
• 3 The Spiritual Practices
• 4 The spirit/Spirit/s in the Bioregion
• 5 Global Spirit and Local spirit/Spirit/s
• 6 Discernment of the spirit/Spirit/s
• 7 The Economy of Beatitudes and Shimmering
• 8 The Religiosities That Surround Us
• 9 Why a Ritual?
• 10 An Aesthetic Movement
• 11 Bioregion and Other Terms
• 12 Bioregion: Preparation for the Spiritual Practices
• 13 One More Round
• 14 Understanding Your Bioregion: A Brief Quiz
• 15 Why a Gesture? Why This Gesture?
• 16 Decolonizing Ourselves: The Re(li)gion We Inhabit
• 17 Rituals: Bodies–Territories–Worlds
• 18 Fetishes, Prayers, and Spiritualities
• 19 Molecular Revolutions
• 20 Reorienting Our Common Living
• 21 In Theory and in Practice: Our Spiritual Journey
• 22 Flaco, a Molecular Revolution
• 23 The Power of Ritualized Gestures
• Conclusion: Pay Attention and Tell a Story
• Afterword: “Going Forth with Hope and Determination”
• Endnotes
• Index