%0 Journal Article
%T The Triumph of Eywa: Avatar, Pantheism, and the Sign of a Green Ecumene
%A Anthony Lioi
%J Ecozon@ : European Journal of Literature, Culture and Environment
%D 2011
%I EASLCE & GIECO
%X In an op-ed piece published in late 2009 in the New York Times, Ross Douthat claimedthat James CameronĄ¯s film Avatar was a piece of pantheist propaganda designed toencourage the worship of nature rather than God. In this essay, I critique DouthatĄ¯sclaims as a misunderstanding of pantheism and a symptom of conservative Christianfear that environmentalism is crypto-paganism. I offer an alternative reading of Eywa,the filmĄ¯s planetary intelligence, as a creature, a figure of the Christian goddess Natura; adescendant of literary paganism; and a sign of an incipient Christian environmentalecumene.
%U http://www.ecozona.eu/index.php/journal/article/view/242/404