Here is comprehensive coverage of the rapidly growing field of eco-theology. Eco-Theology evaluates the merits or otherwise of contemporary eco-theologies and introduces readers to critical debates, while tracing trends from around the globe and key theological responses. The emphasis is on the theological aspects of Christian engagement with environmental issues, rather than primarily ethical or spiritual concerns. Included are further reading sections and discussion questions.
What is the relationship between salvation, human liberation, and care for creation? Extending the ideas presented in Gustavo Gutierrez's A Theology of Liberation, Daniel Castillo embraces a green liberation theology that recognizes the need for political and ideological paradigm shifts in relation to globalization.
In the fifty years since its initial publication, Is It Too Late? has proven its prescience in ways both significant and dire. As the first book-length philosophical and theological analysis of the environmental crisis, this work introduced a generation to the key elements of crisis while suggesting ways that religion can be a force for hope rather than an instrument of despair. Covering an ambitious range of issues--from deforestation to abortion, from religious views of the natural world to the need for technological innovation to avoid nature's destruction--John Cobb moves deftly from philosophical to theological to scientific learning and integrates these interdisciplinary insights into a compelling vision for what he calls "a new Christianity." Comprehensive in scope, non-technical in expression, and concise in length, Is It Too Late? provides the scholar and the student alike with a readable and compelling orientation to the philosophical and theological stakes of ecology. This Fortress edition includes a new preface in which Cobb reflects on the current situation, the specific promises and perils we now face, and how his own thinking on matters theological and ecological has evolved in the last half century.
Lisa Sideris proposes a new way of thinking about the natural world, an environmental ethic that incorporates the ideas of natural selection and values the processes rather than the products of nature. Such an approach encourages us to take a minimally interventionist approach to nature. Only when the competitive realities of evolution are faced squarely, Sideris argues, can we generate practical environmental principles to deal with such issues as species extinction and the relationship between suffering and sentience.
Today's church finds itself in a new world, one in which climate change and ecological degradation are front-page news. In the eyes of many, the evangelical community has been slow to take up a call to creation care. How do Christians address this issue in a faithful way? This evangelically centered but ecumenically informed introduction to ecological theology (ecotheology) explores the global dimensions of creation care, calling Christians to meet contemporary ecological challenges with courage and hope. The book provides a biblical, theological, ecological, and historical rationale for earthcare as well as specific practices to engage both individuals and churches. Drawing from a variety of Christian traditions, the book promotes a spirit of hospitality, civility, honesty, and partnership. It includes a foreword by Bill McKibben and an afterword by Matthew Sleeth.
A very distinctive and important new option for Christian theology. McFague proposes in a clear and challenging way a theological program based on what she calls 'the organic model' for conceiving God.
The volume gives thankful resonance to Prof. Sigurd Bergmann, Lund, on the occasion of his 65th birthday. With its 14 contributions it intends to honor Sigurd Bergmann for all his academic and personal efforts in the areas of critical thinking, responsible ethics, and ingenious spirituality in service of the earth as protected habitat. The authors come from Sweden, Finland, Norway, Germany, Montenegro, the UK, South Africa, and Indonesia. The contributions cover a wide range of issues related to eco-theology, namely aesthetics, moral philosophy, theology, history of religion, philosophy of education, history of literature, political theory, and economics.
TRADITIONAL RELIGIONS are everywhere on the decline, and yet interest in "spirituality" is steadily increasing. At the same time, concerns about the environment and the planetary ecosystem are also rising, especially with the growing awareness of the risks of climate change. Thus, it is natural that we look to combine these two areas of interest: the intersection of religion and environmentalism. It was precisely this kind of thinking that led prominent eco-philosopher Henryk Skolimowski to develop, beginning in the 1980s, a new concept that he called "eco-theology." Inspired by the earlier works of Teilhard and Bergson, Skolimowski realized that the idea of evolution was much more far-reaching than merely a theory about biology. Evolution encompassed not only all life, but also the Earth as a whole, the origins of the planets and stars, and indeed the universe as a whole. More to the point, it must encompass all aspects of humanity and human culture, including such traditional concepts as God and religion. Simply stated, if everything evolves, then religious truth must evolve, spirituality must evolve, and even God must evolve. These basic insights have far-reaching consequences. Eco-theology fully integrates humanity into the natural world. We are not some mysterious strangers to the universe, not divinely created with utterly unique properties, not here to exercise our "dominion." We are part and parcel of the world. We came from the Earth, and we belong to the Earth. The cosmos is our home. The world is a sanctuary. There is indeed 'god' and divinity in this evolutionary universe, but such things reside in us; we make them real by manifesting our best and highest qualities. Skolimowski thus offers us something startlingly new: a "religion for our times." This is no New-Age philosophy, no fuzzy-headed wishful thinking. This is serious philosophical innovation by an Oxford-trained philosopher, in an area of gravest concern. Eco-theology is badly needed today; our very survival depends on it.
This book offers a theological reflection on the praxis of struggle for human and ecological liberation. It critically appropriates the framework of the emerging ecological theology of liberation, which expands the notion of the preferential option for the poor--privileging those who suffer from class oppression, racial discrimination, sexist ideologies, and ecological exploitation. With the analytical mediation of the social and ecological sciences, this book investigates the oppressive ideologies that produce poverty and the ecological crisis. It maps out existing advocacies that may awaken a sense of solidarity and serve as embers of hope for a sustainable world.
There has been a proliferation of publications in the field of Christian ecological theology over the last three decades or so. These include a number of recent edited volumes, each covering a range of topics and consolidating many of the emerging insights in ecological theology. The call for Christian churches to respond to the environmental crisis has been reiterated numerous times in this vast corpus of literature, also in South Africa.
