Are Ashes All That Is Left? Grace Jantzen’s Aesthetics and the Beauty of Biodiversity

Abstract

As the climate crisis continues to worsen and it becomes apparent that the earth faces its sixth mass extinction event, it is more important than ever to find an alternative to the disordered thinking that prevents meaningful environmental reform in nations of the Global North with large carbon footprints such as the United States. Informed by affect theory, I revisit Grace Jantzen’s late work on death and beauty in the context of biodiversity to develop the beginnings of a theological affect of responsiveness to ecological beauty. Juxtaposing Jantzen’s theory of the displacement of beauty with Kevin O’Brien’s theological ethics of biodiversity, I suggest that biodiversity can be key to an ecotheology that combats human exceptionalism and prioritizes responsiveness to beauty. I contend that an aesthetics of natality requires responsiveness to the beauty of biodiversity in order to combat both human exceptionalism and the culture of necrophilia that Jantzen critiqued. Ultimately, I conclude that beauty, natality, and biodiversity may be able to inform an ecological theology centered on nonexceptional theological affects.