Cosmic Piety and Ecological Rationality

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Abstract
This article explores the growth of new forms of worship as embodied in the ecological veneration of the cosmos. It shows how cosmic piety is becoming an essential component of modern culture in the current context of globalization, which frequently incorporates some crucial forms of rationality. Very often, the sacralization of nature appears to be a necessary precondition for the practice of ecological rationality given certain cognitive limitations and everyday anxieties of large populations in the contemporary world. The rise and fall of an ecocentric or cosmocentric mythology are considered, together with its consequences for societal adaptation to global environmental change.