The Triumph of Eywa: Avatar, Pantheism, and the Sign of an Ecological Ecumene
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37536/ECOZONA.2011.2.2.418Abstract
In an op-ed piece published in late 2009 in the New York Times, Ross Douthat claimed that James Cameron’s film Avatar was a piece of pantheist propaganda designed to encourage the worship of nature rather than God. In this essay, I critique Douthat’s claims as a misunderstanding of pantheism and a symptom of conservative Christian fear that environmentalism is crypto-paganism. I offer an alternative reading of Eywa, the film’s planetary intelligence, as a creature, a figure of the Christian goddess Natura; a descendant of literary paganism; and a sign of an incipient Christian environmental ecumene.
En un artículo de opinión publicado a finales de 2009 en el New York Times, Ross Douthat afirmó que la película de James Cameron, Avatar, era un ejemplo de propaganda panteísta diseñada para animar a la adoración de la naturaleza en vez de a Dios. En este ensayo, evalúo las afirmaciones de Douthat, clasificándolas como un malentendido sobre el panteísmo y como un síntoma del temor cristiano conservador de que el ambientalismo sea cripto-paganismo. Ofrezco una interpretación alternativa de Eywa, la inteligencia planetaria de la película, como una criatura, una figura de la diosa cristiana Natura, una descendiente del paganismo literario, y un indicio de una incipiente ecúmene ambiental cristiana.
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