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The importance of religion in shaping volcanic risk perception in Italy, with special reference to Vesuvius and Etna

  • David K. Chester
    ,
  • Angus Duncan
    ,
  • Christopher J.L. Dibben
Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Abstract

With the exception of societies that are relatively untouched by modernism, the academic consensus holds that since the Eighteenth Century Enlightenment popular perception of divine responsibility for disasters has been progressively replaced by a perspective that views losses as resulting from the effects of extreme natural events upon vulnerable human populations. Nature is considered to be de-moralised. By means of examples of volcanic eruptions that have occurred over the past one hundred and fifty years and which transcend place, culture and faith tradition, the present authors have maintained a contrasting position, by arguing that religious perspectives are still important features of the ways in which people in many societies perceive volcanic eruptions. In the present paper it is argued that religious terms of reference have been and remain vital elements in the perceptions held by a significant proportion of the population in southern Italy when confronted by volcanic eruptions, particularly those that have occurred on Vesuvius and Etna. Within the context of what is termed popular Catholicism, the development of distinctive religious responses in pre-industrial times is first described.

Publication Information

Output type

Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Original language

English

Pages from-to (Number of pages)

Pages 216-228

Journal (Volume, Issue Number)

Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (Volume 172, Issue 3-4)

Publication milestones

  • Published - 01/01/2008

Publication status

Published - 01/01/2008

ISSN

0377-0273

External Publication IDs

  • handle.net: 10547/302180
  • Scopus: 43249110947

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