Creation Care / Creation Care

The last two decades have seen the emergence of a new field of academic study that examines the interaction between religion and ecology. Theologians from every religious tradition have confronted world religions past attitudes towards nature and acknowledged their own faiths complicity in theenvironmental crisis. Out of this confrontation have been born vital new theologies based in the recovery of marginalized elements of tradition, profound criticisms of the past, and ecologically oriented visions of God, the Sacred, the Earth, and human beings. The proposed handbook will serve as thedefinitive overview of these exciting new developments. Divided into three main sections, the books essays will reflect the three dominant dimensions of the field. Part one will explore traditional religious concepts of and attitudes towards nature and how these have been changed by theenvironmental crisis. Part II looks at larger conceptual issues that transcend individual traditions. Part III will examine religious participation in environmental politics.

Evangelical theology is a burgeoning field. Evangelicals have been growing in numbers and prominence worldwide, and the rise to academic prominence of evangelical historians, scripture scholars, ethicists, and theologians - many of whom have changed the face of their disciplines - hasdemonstrated the growing maturity of this movement's intellectual leaders. This volume surveys the state of the discipline on topics of greatest importance to evangelical theology. Each chapter has been written by a theologian or scholar who is widely recognized for his or her published work and isconsidered a leading thinker on that particular topic. The authors critically assess the state of the question, from both classical and evangelical traditions, and propose a future direction for evangelical thinking on the subject.

The environmental crisis has prompted religious leaders and lay people to look to their traditions for resources to respond to environmental degradation. In this book, Mari Joerstad contributes to this effort by examining an ignored feature of the Hebrew Bible: its attribution of activity and affect to trees, fields, soil, and mountains. The Bible presents a social cosmos, in which humans are one kind of person among many. Using a combination of the tools of biblical studies and anthropological writings on animism, Joerstad traces the activity of non-animal nature through the canon. She shows how biblical writers go beyond sustainable development, asking us to be good neighbors to mountains and trees, and to be generous to our fields and vineyards. They envision human communities that are sources of joy to plants and animals. The Biblical writers' attention to inhabited spaces is particularly salient for contemporary environmental ethics in their insistence that our cities, suburbs, and villages contribute to flourishing landscapes.

Thoughtful observers agree that the planetary crisis we now face - climate change; species extinction; the destruction of entire ecosystems; the urgent need for a more just economic-political order - is pushing human civilization to a radical turning point: change or perish. But precisely howto change remains an open question.In Earth-honoring Faith, Larry Rasmussen answers that question with a dramatically new way of thinking about human society, ethics, and the ongoing health of our planet. Rejecting the modern assumption that morality applies to human society alone, Rasmussen insists that we must derive a spiritualand ecological ethic that accounts for the well-being of all creation, as well as the primal elements upon which it depends: earth, air, fire, water, and sunlight. He argues that good science, necessary as it is, will not be enough to inspire fundamental change. We must draw on religious resourcesas well to make the difficult transition from an industrial-technological age obsessed with consumption to an ecological age that restores wise stewardship of all life. Earth-honoring Faith advocates an alliance of spirituality and ecology, in which the material requirements for planetary life arereconciled with deep traditions of spirituality across religions, traditions that include mysticism, sacramentalism, prophetic practices, asceticism, and the cultivation of wisdom. It is these shared spiritual practices that can produce a chorus of world faiths to counter the consumerism,utilitarianism, alienation, oppression, and folly that have pushed us to the brink.Written with passionate commitment and deep insight, Earth-honoring Faith reminds us that we must live in the present with the knowledge that the eyes of future generations will look back at us.

Just as God loves creation, so are Christians called to care for it. Now, amid the accelerating degradation of our global environment, that task has taken on greater urgency than ever. How should Christians respond to the climate crisis and widespread pollution of earth's shared commons, water and air? How might Christian communities think about human responsibility to other living creatures?  In roundtable format, Richard Bauckham, Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, Stephen Bouma-Prediger, and John F. Haught navigate the layers of what it means for humans to live in right relationship with earth's lifesystems. After each contributor's essay, the other three contributors issue a response--including points of disagreement and questions--thereby modeling for readers productive and respectful dialogue. The ecumenical conversations in Ecotheology represent the diverse viewpoints of contributors' theological and practical commitments, exploring creation care through a variety of frameworks, including natural science, biblical studies, systematic theology, and Christian ethics.

Christianity has often been accused for being complicit in ecological destruction. In response, Christian ecotheology offers both a Christian critique of environmental destruction and an ecological critique of Christianity. It thus encourages an ecological reformation of the Christian tradition for the sake of the whole earth. This volume focuses such a dual critique on the content and significance of the Christian faith in order to confront those aspects that may undermine an environmental praxis, ethos and spirituality. Each of the essays explores one of the core Christian symbols, seeks to capture the current state of the debate in this regard, identifies emerging horizons for such an ecological reformation and invites conversation on the road ahead. This volume includes essays on the trinity, Christology, pneumatology, creation, anthropology, natural suffering, providence, sin and salvation, the nature, governance, ministries and missions of the church, eschatological consummation, a Christian ethos, the role of liturgy, religious plurality andunderlying methodological problems. It thus complements several other discourses in ecotheology on biblical hermeneutics, a retrieval of particular traditions, environmental ethics, animal studies, ecclesial praxis, Christian missions and religion and ecology. The volume captures insights emerging from a collaborative research project on 'Christian Faith and the Earth' in which more than one hundred leading ecotheologians from six continents participated since 2007. It builds on the culminating conference of this project held in Cape Town in August 2012.It extends the conversation on the road ahead through inputs from contributing authors and various respondents.The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollection.com. Open access was funded by Knowledge Unlatched.

"With his characteristic rigor and perceptiveness, Richard Bauckham embarks on a biblical investigation into the relationship between human beings and the rest of creation. Bauckham argues that there is much more to the Bible's understanding of this relationship than the mandate of human dominion given in Genesis 1-2;which, he writes, has too often been used as a justification for domination and exploitation of the earth's resources. Instead, Bauckham considers the ecological perspectives found in the book of Job, the Psalms, and the Gospels, all of which, he determines, require a re-evaluation of the biblical tradition of "dominion" Bauckham discovers a tradition of a community of creation in which human beings are fellow members with God's other creatures and true reconciliation to God involves the entire creation. Short, reliable, and engaging, The Bible and Ecology is essential reading for anyone looking for a biblically grounded approach to ecology." From the Publisher