Anvil 

Abstract: Abstract This paper considers the topic of Christian hope in the context of today’s environmental crisis. Christian hope needs to be renewed as the world changes, and it needs to engage with the prevalent secular hopes. We are the first people to live at a time when we face the possibility of an entirely human-caused terminal catastrophe. During the Cold War we had the threat of a nuclear holocaust, and now an ecological disaster. The relationship between ultimate and proximate hopes is investigated. Ultimate hope is the final accomplishment of all God’s purposes for his creation. Proximate hopes are those we have for the temporal future. One difference between ultimate and proximate hope is that the former is unconditional and depends only on God’s transcendent act of re-creation. Proximate hopes depend partly on what humans do, and they can be disappointed. Ultimate hope can support proximate hopes, and enables us to work in the direction of God’s purpose. Faith, hope and love are mutually engaging, and needed for the flourishing of the others. We need to scale down our lifestyles, and limitless growth will not be possible. In this scenario hope will need to be both discerning and imaginative. We will also need endurance to keep going and not to give up in the very difficult situation we are facing this century.

Abstract: Environmentalists and scientists who study the environment often give a pretty bleak picture of the future. Surveys of secular views on the environment suggest that the general public in the developed West are concerned about the state of the environment. After considering all of the environmental problems that are causing scientists to worry, this paper then concentrates on four: climate change; biodiversity loss; global water supply; and the increase in our human population. Finally we will see what scientists have to say about hope in a time of environmental crisis.

Abstract: Introduction To understand the diverse ethno-Muslim communities which have made Britain their home over a period of sixty years requires insights drawn a variety of academic disciplines, especially migration studies, the sociology of religion and history. These studies illuminate the specificities of competing understandings of Islam that migrant communities brought with them from their countries of origin. It is also clear that second and third generation British Muslims have to negotiate relations between three distinct religious and social worlds: traditional Islam imported from their relatives’ homeland; expressions of Islam drawn from across the Muslim world – the umma – now accessible at a click of a mouse; and, Britain itself, where, among a new generation of graduates and professionals, some are seeking new and more expansive readings of Islam to connect with their lived experience, while others, albeit a small minority, are also tapping into ‘shaykh google’ and the social media to embrace violent, jihadist readings of their tradition. There is a wealth of diversity within British Islam and this short article simply gives a brief and sketchy overview of some of the main trends.