What to do with the monsters?

Dear Faith for the Climate network,

Greetings and welcome to our February update. I’ve been having some very strange dreams recently, and maybe this is why I’ve been thinking about this famous etching, ‘The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters’, by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya. 

The work depicts a man, probably Goya, slumped forward at his desk in slumber, while all around him a dark menagerie of birds, bats, and beasts swirl menacingly. As part of a larger collection published in 1799, this piece has often been interpreted as a defence of the values of the Enlightenment, i.e., without reason, evil and corruption triumph. 

It would be too easy to extrapolate this reading as a commentary on what is going on nationally and internationally now. According to this Western, Enlightenment-centric interpretation, the neglect of science and rationality is what has produced the ‘irrational’ monsters of religion and pseudo-science that are feeding the rise of far-right populism, authoritarianism, genocide, and ecocide that so many parts of the world are currently beset with. 

Yet Goya included a caption that contains much more nuance: ‘Imagination abandoned by reason produces impossible monsters; united with her, she is the mother of the arts and source of their wonders.’ In other words, we need our rational and imaginative faculties to be in balance for a healthy, ethical, and beautiful life to be possible. With Goya, we can understand the word ‘reason’ to encapsulate both rationality and imagination. 

The climate crisis is clearly not caused or exacerbated by a lack of rational facts or scientific evidence for it. Rather, it is a symptom of a failure of imagination – specifically, the ability of rich and powerful institutions and leaders to imagine that we can, together, heal the planet and ourselves, and that we can do this in ways that are equitable, kind, just, and joyful. 

It is partly for this reason that Faith for the Climate’s first webinar of 2026 highlighted Abrahamic perspectives of climate justice and interfaith renewal – more on this below. Basically, we wanted to showcase and celebrate the series of delightful coincidences marking the month of February this year. Christians following the Latin rite will begin the season of Lent on Ash Wednesday, 18 February, which coincides with the start of the holy month of Ramadan for Muslims. The month opened with the Jewish festival of Tu B’Shevat – the Birthday of the Trees – from sundown on Sunday, 1 February to nightfall on Monday, 2 February.

Not only that – 15 February marks Maha Shivaratri, a festival devoted to the Lord Shiva, and Chinese New Year falls on 17 February while the Tibetan Buddhist new year Losar falls on 18 February. 

Our webinar speakers shared intriguing insights about the interfaith and climate justice potential of Tu B’Shevat, Lent, and Ramadan. In relation to the theme of this newsletter, I was particularly struck by how two of our speakers, Bokani Tshidzu and Kamran Shezad, spoke reverentially of Lent and Ramadan as seasons of penitence, fasting, and restraint. On one level, this makes these seasons sound downright countercultural in the face of runaway consumerism and neo-liberal capitalism. On another level, the physical or bodily aspects of Lenten and Ramadan observances are settings for more wondrous, revelatory messages of transformation. It is after fasting for forty days and forty nights that a physically hungry Jesus was tempted by the devil – and yet, spiritually fortified, he resisted. It is during Ramadan that the Night of Power (Laylat al-Qadr) occurs, during which the Qur’an was ‘sent down’ – ‘tanzil’, a term that has sparked much debate about the stages and dynamics of revelation in Islam – and revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. 

Maha Shivaratri is also a solemn observance. Unlike many other Hindu festivals, it is marked not by revelry but is rather celebrated at night and can involve fasting, jagarana (an all-night vigil accompanied by prayers), the recitation of hymns, and meditations on ethical virtues such as honesty, charity, and forgiveness. There are many sacred legends that explain the significance of Maha Shivaratri – my favourite is that this is the night when Lord Shiva performs the heavenly dance of creation, preservation, and destruction. You might recognise this visual depiction of Shiva as Nataraja, the Lord of Dance.