Apocalyptic Fantasy vs. Stable Flux

• In humanity's quest for salvation, many arguments have been posed regarding how we inhabit this planet.  Some foresee a rapture and seek affirmation of a perilous end of life on Earth, as evidenced by the existence of such organizations as Rapture Ready News.  Paul Maltby, in an essay discussing these topics, makes note of the popular Left Behind series and their depiction of ecological destruction as being synonymous with the righteous' ascension into heaven (121).  Maltby goes on to explain the rationale for certain "Bible-approved", anti-environmental dominionist theories: he outlines the stance of E. Calvin Beisner which incorporates statements found in Genesis proclaiming, "Man was not made for the Earth, but Earth for man." (122).
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Though there are outliers in both camps--those that encourage the environmental stewardship of God's creations and those that deny any involvement of God in Earthly affairs whatsoever--for the purpose of argument I'd like to point out these two interpretations of human entitlement:
Dominionism and what Maltby calls "Postmodern Ecology"

Since it seems we have all had some sort of contact with and/or knowledge of fundamentalist interpretations of the Bible, I'd like to talk more about this concept of "Postmodern Ecology" and its application in Native American Literature.

The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire, from Sherman Alexie's "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven"

Thomas, during his trial, recites many stories, from the perspective of different characters:

"I was a young pony..."
"My name was Qualchan..."
"My name was Wild Coyote..."

All of these stories exist in a vacuum of linearity.  In this sense, Alexie's prose allows us to explore a broader range of human awareness and timelessness.  Though not particularly addressing the subject of ecology, the destructive nature of some of the battle scenes described by Thomas point to the destructive capabilities of mankind.

Bringing Herzog's "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" back from my last post, I'll end with a couple points about some aboriginal art that I found beautiful and astounding.  1) this art was traditionally viewed by dancing flame, thus giving the painted animals the illusion (or reality) of movement and 2) some of these paintings were collective efforts by peoples existing thousands of years apart.
 

There is no depiction of apocalyptic doom.

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• 1.
• Title: Fundamentalist Dominion, Postmodern Ecology
• Author(s): Paul Maltby
• Source: Ethics and the Environment, Vol. 13, No. 2 (Fall, 2008), pp. 119-141
• Publisher(s): Indiana University Press
• Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40339162
• Abstract: Christian fundamentalist dominionism is susceptible to a conventional ecological critique; that is to say, one framed in scientific-environmentalist terms of its unsustainability as a practice, given nature's finite resources and the fragility of ecosystems. Alternatively, a postmodern ecological critique has the conceptual tools to contest dominionism at the level of its discursive transactions, that is to say, the narrative frames and interpretive methods through which fundamentalists have constructed their understanding of the natural world. I shall suggest how postmodernism enables critical standpoints which, collectively, open a second front in an engagement with the dominionist model of humanity's relationship to nature.