Gods Earth is Sacred: Essays on Eco-Justice

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However, over the last century, the evangelical church has let the value of caring for creation slip away. In this book, author and pastor Tri Robinson makes a compelling case for the biblical precedence behind environmental stewardship and shows the church what it can do about this eroding value.

Serve God, Save the Planet: A Christian Call to Action Author: Matthew Sleeth was living the American dream as a medical chief of staff—until the increasing number of chronic illnesses he was witnessing gave him a new environmental awareness. Seven Songs of Creation: Liturgies for Celebrating and Healing Earth Author: Written by the chief editor of the Earth Bible Project, this resource intends to help worshipping communities develop liturgies to revere, honor, love, and serve Earth.

Christian Practices for Enjoyment Author: David Beckman, President, Bread for the World. Each booklet focuses on a different facet of simple living: The sessions are presented in a context of prayer and ritual, with consideration of both the personal and global effects of our choices. Simpler Living, Compassionate Life: A Christian Perspective An Earth Ministry publication that explores issues of voluntary simplicity from a faith and environmental perspective. This an effective tool for individuals and groups.

The Art of Living Author: Rohr, a Franciscan priest and internationally known speaker, was invited to Germany in to present a series of sermons on the spiritual life. This book is a compilation of some of those talks. Sisters of Dust, Sisters of Spirit: Womanist Wordings on God and Creation. Evinces a strong sense of God in nature.

Discusses environmental racism and a constructive religious vision. Also discusses how migration and urbanization have affected black people and their tie to land. Drawing on information from demographers, economists, ecologists, and sociologists, Bratton argues that individuals should use Christian values when dealing with the regulation of human population.

New Hymns for God and Neighbor Author: The book, Songs of Grace, includes over 70 new hymns written to be sung to the tunes of many well loved and well known hymns. The new words offer expressions of hope, celebration and spiritual enrichment. They hymns are written to celebrate the ministry of a wide range of church activities, from older adult ministries and stewardship to social justice and many other topics in between.

This is the ideal introduction to the life and thought of this modern Catholic mystic whose powerful vision and life-affirming spirituality speak even more vitally to the concerns of our time. A Guide to Reconnecting with Nature Author: An optimistic handbook on how to reconnect with the ancient spiritual ecology of the Earth, foster health, and employ resources practically and effectively to reverse environmental degradation and decline.

Stations of the Banquet Author: A scripture based exploration of the Christian story of salvation as a food story, provides nourishment for those engaged in living out the food and justice challenges of the Gospel. How We should Love Nature Author: McFague further applies her solid theological views to concrete examples of compassionate relationships with Earth and all of its inhabitants.

God's Earth is Sacred

Sustainability, Economics, Ecology, and Justice Author: This book, a collection of essays written over a ten-year period, is an approachable treatment of the economic and environmental linkages explored in For the Common Good. This book is an analysis of the assumptions of the economic theory on which the current global economy is based and of the dramatic increase in poverty for most of the world to which the global economy has led. Essays on the Gospel and the Earth Editor: Rich in biblical insight and creative theological work, the book examines the relationship of God, humanity, and all creation.

Thank God for Evolution: Dowd describes how to view evolution as a divine process; how current science shows that evolution is not meaningless blind chance; practical methods for using evolutionary insights to achieve greater personal fulfillment and thriving relationships; and how aligning with evolutionary trends can guide activists and others hoping to make our world a better place.

The Better World Handbook Authors: The Better World Shopping Guide: Every Dollar Makes a Difference Author: Jones, Ellis The Better World Shopping Guide is the only comprehensive guide for socially and environmentally responsible consumers. Environmental sustainability Human rights Community involvement Animal protection Social justice. About how Christians can achieve personal, ecclesial, and social transformation in the year of the Jubilee. Explores challenges of economic and social justice. The Body of God: An Ecological Theology Author: A Holden Village resource.

While on a nine month sabbatical at Holden Village, Alvin Pitcher, studied the environmental issues of the late s. The Collected Poems of Wendell Berry: God, Job, and the Scale of Creation Author: McKibben, widely respected author and United Methodist Sunday school teacher, shares scientific insights into the crisis of global climate change.

Christianity and the Consumer Culture Editor: The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology and the Scientific Revolution Author: Merchant traces the development of attitudes toward women and nature in Western philosophical and religious traditions. A germinal eco-feminist work. The Divine Milieu Author: A paleontologist and Roman Catholic priest, Teilhard de Chardin skillfully outlines his Catholic, incarnational theology — with Christ transparent in all creation.

A Theology of American Culture Author: William Dyrness, who teaches theology at Fuller Theological Seminary, provides an evangelical, relational, and trinitarian rethinking of divine creation and concepts of culture in response to issues of identity, ecology, and aesthetics. Christians and the Environment Editors: Land and Louis A. Combining the traditionally conservative issue of religion with the traditionally liberal issue of protecting the environment is a difficult task. Land does it well in this book and provides an introduction for those interested in protecting the environment from a Christian standpoint.

The Embers and the Stars: This almost dream-like exploration into the reality of nature including humankind and God is both coherent and moving. The End of Nature Author: This powerfully unsettling book details many of the our current environmental challenges: McKibben, a widely published writer and United Methodist Sunday school teacher, shares his own passionate plea for necessary change in how humans view nature and our actions.

Environmental Task Force, Diocese of Newark. The Episcopal Church in Communion with Creation: Policy and Action Publisher: Episcopal Church Center, The Gift of Good Land: Further Essays Cultural and Agricultural Author: Wendell Berry touches on many topics in this rich book of essays. The Great Unknowing Author: Our Way into the Future Author: Thomas Berry is a visionary and these are books to read and reread, for they stretch vision, imagination, and resolve all at once. Berry is a bridge builder: The Green Sanctuary Handbook: The Seventh Principle Project was established in by a group of Unitarian Universalists committed to finding ways to live their faith in a more ecologically sustainable way.

The Greening of Protestant Thought Author: The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos: Humanity and the New Story Author: Following the most recent scientific discoveries about the birth of the universe, this text shows how these new insights replace outmoded ways of seeing the world, bridging the chasm between science and spirituality, the physical realm and the soul. Church and the New Universe Story Author: Cletus Wessels The Holy Web offers entree to the world revealed by contemporary science and the difference the new models or our life on earth make to understanding Christianity.

The Hymn of the Sun Author: The first illustrated version of St. The Island Within Author: An anthropologist and eloquent writer, Nelson takes readers to Alaska and invites them into his experience with a single island and its animal inhabitants. In this exotic locale, he encourages all readers to see every place as the special place.

Book | Faithful Earth Stewardship

The Living Universe Author: Practical advice on energy efficiency, landscaping and church grounds, and new purchases. Shierry Weber Nicholsen This book is a gathering of meditations and collages. Its evocations of our emotional attachment to the natural world and the emotional impact of environmental deterioration are meant to encourage individual and collective reflection on a difficult dilemma.

Nicholsen draws on work in environmental philosophy and ecopsychology. The Memory of Old Jack Author: The Natural History of the Bible: The Phenomenon of Man Author: The Rebirth of Nature: The Greening of Science and God Author: The Rights of Nature: A History of Environmental Ethics Author: A hopeful historical journey that, over the centuries, traces the notion of rights as extended to larger numbers of groups of people. The Sacred Depths of Nature Author: Goodenough, a leading cell biologist and author of the widely used textbook Genetics, offers this emotionally vibrant work that interweaves modern scientific understandings with ageless spiritual reverence for creation.

An historical overview of the practice of voluntary simplicity in America — with detailed exploration of important spiritual and community dimensions in this practice. By exploring the lives and discoveries of modern archaeologists excavating the site of Tell Makor, Michener vividly re-creates life in and around an ancient city, and traces the history of the Jews, including that of the early Hebrews and their persecution, the impact of Christianity on the Jewish world, the Crusades, and the Spanish Inquisition.

The Spell of the Sensuous: A beautifully rendered analysis of the importance of the development of language in separating human consciousness from the natural world. It illuminates the difference between cultures that live close to the land and the Western consciousness that sees humans as separate from the rest of nature. The book gives suggestions to repair this gulf. The Travail of Nature: In his germinal work, Santmire explores how Christian theologians and church figures, through the centuries, have thought about nature.

This important book, at times heavy theologically, is one of the few books that present a broad historical overview of a Christian theology of nature. A Celebration of Nature Author: Ellen Bernstein founded Shomrei Adamah, the first national Jewish environmental organization. Communicating his ideas in the form of a classical dialogue between a youth and a wise elder, cosmologist Brian Swimme crafts a fascinating exploration into the creativity suffusing the universe.

The Universe Story Author: Swimme, Brian and Berry, Thomas.

Physicist Swimme and cultural historian Berry here examine and synthesize a vast body of knowledge and hypothesis from the fields of astronomy, physics, biology, anthropology, and history. The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture Author: As one of our modern-day prophets, Berry skillfully shows the impact of our current, pervasive disconnections between the land and people. The Violence of the Green Revolution: Shiva, an activist and scientist from India, traces the impacts of corporate agriculture on cultures, small farmers, ecosystems, and on the quality of the food we consume.

In this and other books, Shiva explores issues such as biotechnology, patents on life, the domination of agribusiness, and many others. At a time of growing concern about environmental issues, Benstein explores the relationship Jews have with the natural world and the ways in which Judaism contributes to contemporary social-environmental issues.

Theology and Public Policy: Theology for Earth Community: A Field Guide Editor: Authors assess what various theologians have to offer, and draw implications for reshaping religious and environmental studies, as well as preparing the next generations of church leaders or pastoral workers. Oliver reflects her faith in God and her grief over the death of her longtime partner while still writing poems about nature.

Religion, Nature, Environment Author: Tis a Gift to Be Simple: Embracing the Freedom of Living with Less Authors: To Heal the Earth: A Theology of Ecology Author: Upper Room Books To Heal the Earth sets environmental reflection and ecological concern within the framework of biblical scholarship, drawing from both the Old and New Testaments and the works of early church forebears.

This unique combination of theological underpinning and ecological truth is masterfully interwoven throughout the book as the author shares from his wealth of story and church liturgy. To Till It and Keep it: Torah of the Earth: The relationship between Judaism and concern for the environment is examined in this comprehensive two-volume anthology, which probes the roots of the environmental crisis as a looming catastrophe, especially in Israel, and points to a sustainable future path that requires spiritual healing.

This crucial report showed race to be the most significant factor when siting hazardous waste facilities, nationwide. Troubled Waters provides readers with an appreciation of the central role of religious meanings and ritual practices surrounding water, arriving at creative new ways to approach the growing water crisis worldwide. Unfortunately, It Was Paradise: Considered the Palestinian national poet, Darwish has observed that Palestine is a metaphor for the loss of Eden, for the sorrows of dispossession and exile, for the declining power of the Arab world in its dealings with the West.

Isaiah and Urban Possibility Author: New and different readings of biblical texts are one consequence of a growing awareness of the environmental crisis and how it relates to social relations, especially in urban settings. Brueggemann explores readings from Isaiah an dhow they relate to the environment and urban crisis. He approaches the readings as an artistic-theological history of the city of Jerusalem — a case study of urban environmental crisis that resulted from a lost sense of covenantal neighborliness. This resource is an excellent tool for Bible study groups and pastors who are concerned with our current urban situation.

Through this performance piece the prophetic voice of our children has a chance to be heard by the whole family of God. What Are People For? This more current analysis of American economic and agricultural systems provides a thought- and action-inspiring sequel to his earlier The Unsettling of America. When Corporations Rule the World Author: Korten gives readers crucial insight into the way in which corporations take possession of Earth — its economies, peoples and cultures, ecosystems, and political systems.

Corporations, Korten argues, supplant the power that was once held by the now-in-decline nation-state. This collection of essays on the development of the Western United States is engagingly written by one of the best authors of our day. Stegner clearly demonstrates the interaction of culture and land.

Where the Dragon Meets the Angry River: Who Is the Earth? Who is the Earth? The language starts out very simple, like a seed, and ends up in Part II a bit more complex and erudite, like a tree are trees erudite? Poems of the Natural World Author: An excellent collection of contemporary American nature poetry compiled by the poetry editor of Wilderness magazine. Rosemary Radford Ruether, editor. In Women Healing Earth, noted theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether brings together illuminating writings of fourteen Latin American, Asian, and African women on the meaning of eco-theological issues in their own contexts — and the implications they have for women in teh first world.

Tucker describes how world religions have begun to move from a focus on God-human and human-human relations to encompass human-earth relations. She argues that, in light of the environmental crisis, religion should move from isolated orthodoxy to interrelated dialogue and use its authority for liberation rather than oppression. Mary Evelyn Tucker and John A. The original writings of Worldviews and Ecology creatively present and interpret worldviews of major religious and philosophical traditions on how humans can live more sustainably on a fragile planet. Your Money or Your Life: Produced by the New Road Map Foundation.

If Jesus returned to Earth and paid us a visit, what might he think of the way we live? Would he see us as responsible and compassionate stewards of creation? Contemporary Christians face a major challenge: Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin. Do you spend more than you earn? Does making a living feel more like making a dying? Is money fragmenting your time, your relationships with family and friends? If so, Your Money or Your Life is for you. This guide examines the many ways that our current lifestyle contributes to the global environmental crisis. The first part of this guide explains the greenhouse effect, ozone depletion, and acid rain.

An Action Manual Author: Fritsch, Albert and Angela Ladavaia-Cox. This resource contains helpful audits, suggestions, and resources for individuals and congregations.

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Environmental Stewardship Resource Manual Author: This manual can be used by lay Christians, priests, youth groups, deacons, bishops — in short, by anybody—as an introduction to Christian environmental stewardship and as a source of materials for a wide range of activities. Practical Ideas for Congregations Author: Gershon, David and Robert Gilman. This workbook divides environmental concerns into six areas and recommends that small groups meet regularly over a six-month period to address these areas: Each month, the group can take specific actions in order to implement ideas within a household or church congregation.

These guides encourage participants to explore God in nature and our covenant with the earth. This an effective tool for groups. Let the Earth Bless the Lord: This resource is not a curriculum but has many materials that may be adapted for adult group studies. Materials include articles on sustainable development, international environmental justice, as well as practical hints to implement and sustain parish-based environmental programs. This introductory, six-session curriculum is divided into three groupings: This curriculum also contains an extensive list of other Episcopal, environmental resources.

Renewing the Face of the Earth: A Resource for Parishes Produced by the U. Includes suggestions for initiating parish programs; liturgical, homily, and prayer helps; and background on the connection between the environment and social justice. The Cry of Creation: A Call for Climate Justice An interfaith study guide on global warming. Features theological and spiritual reflections, an overview of the scientific consensus, a spectrum of interfaith voices, action steps, and a bibliography for further study.

In my opinion, if you chose to only read one section of this book, pick this one. To see a general overview of Simpler Living, Compassionate Life click here. In this section Simplicity is Nothing New: A Brief Historical Overview: While this section does not convict readers or give exact action recommendations, it does look back to ways that the Holy Spirit has inspired simplicity in the lives of Christians through the ages. It seems in commitment to simplicity, love is able to be seen more clearly. While not incredibly intersectional, it does help to frame the 21st century pursuit of simplicity in American and Christian history.

To see a general overview of Simpler Living, Compassionate life click here. In this section Social Structures and the Politics of Simplicity: Previous sections have looked specifically at how food consumption impacts the global community and economy. It focuses not only on personal choices, but the necessity of engaged politics and policy. Andrews outlines specific structural changes that could be made in society to bring the kingdom of God ever closer.

Andrews and other authors in this section are under no delusion that these complex societal problems will be easy to fix. They point to our addiction to overconsumption as the primary source of difficulty in our creation of a more just economy and world. The guilt of our addictions and choices must be confronted and surpassed. In this section How Much Is Enough?: Lifestyles, Global Economics, and Justice: For simple living to truly be a meaningful and Christian lifestyle, it must not only serve to restore the ecological creation but also those members of the human creation whose lives are impoverished.

This section begins to tie together the seemingly disparate sections of our own individual choices and their larger impact on human lives and the economy. The section opens quote from Robert Stivers reminding readers that the Bible, in no uncertain terms, calls believers to seek justice and protect the poor.

Any attempt to contextualize global economy could easily become unwieldy and difficult for the average reader. These essays outline how the habits of the biggest consumers have created an economy that has consequences for those who consume significantly less. It argues that both consumption extremes, over-consumption, and poverty are bad and invites readers to consider a middle path of mindful consumption.

Food is introduced as one example of our unjust over-consumption. The supply lines between natural resources to consumer are long. One significant change each of us can make is to commit to shortening the supply lines between us and our food. The section that follows will explore more specific steps that thoughtful consumers may take to disrupt long supply lines.

Many people are uncomfortable talking about money. Discussion of income, savings, or giving often makes people blanche.

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However, McDonald and Stringfellow bring nuanced approaches to bear in this section, which is the first to really analyze our use of money. It believes the non-human nature has rights also and suffers due to human sin Rom 8: Both realms are in need of liberation. Human beings are special partners with God in the tilling and keeping of the land, but also are creatures like any other living thing on this earth Gen 2: Eco-justice envisions a Realm of God where there will be no more bloodshed and we all will live in peace Isa Eco-justice critics feel it is still hierarchical.

In its struggle for justice, it sometimes forgets to see the lilies of the field, or ask the animals for their wisdom Job The realm it envisions is very anthropocentric. In a funny way, its critics ask: Eco-justice struggles to allow itself to be transformed by the world it wants to save, and it struggles to find support in Scripture; not because there is none, but because the church has not caught up with it yet. So it prefers to exist outside of the realm of the church, and at times, it looses its sense of spirituality. Eco-spirituality, as a spiritual practice, moves us to recognize that, although humans have a special mission in the natural world, so does each creature, in ways that no human can duplicate.

As we care for the earth, she ministers to us, and in this relationship we discover the Good News she has been waiting for: We are made of the earth. She is our home and our partner in ministry. Eco-spirituality teaches us that the Spirit of God is immanent in all creation. But defendants of this theology, like Christian eco-theologian Ivone Gebara, [ii] say that Christ is present where there is community, where there is solidarity, where there is any moment of compassion and tenderness.

If creation is capable of healing and teaching, it is because Christ is there. Church representatives in Rio added that they cannot always speak openly about the complexities of these issues; but church leaders, youth, teachers, pastors, community groups, theologians, and NGOs can. We must do it without delay, helped by the fact that, far from inhibiting action, the complexity of these issues gives us plenty of ways and places from where to start.

I will continue supporting our local community-supported farm and will eat organic food as long as my budget allows.

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