Vol. 7 (2022): Die vier Elemente

"The four elements": earth, fire, water, and air are on the one hand essential for life, on the other hand they can become life-threatening. Various natural disasters make our dependence on the elements tangible: e.g. we need water to live (drought causes us and other creatures to die of thirst), too much water is also not good (floods). Similarly for fire (we need warmth but fear fires), for air (we need clean air to breathe but fear air pollution), and for earth (we need solid ground under our feet but fear erosion and earthquakes). Hope and fear: times four! In the volume "The Four Elements" edited by Joachim Funke and Michael Wink, scientists from different disciplines – theology, biology, medicine, geology, and psychology – deal with the topic and describe their respective specialist perspectives.