The Greening Of Faith

The recent release of Pope Francis's much-discussed encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si': On Care for Our Common Home, has reinforced environmental issues as also moral and spiritual issues. This anthology, twenty years ahead of the encyclical but very much in line with its agenda, offers essays by fifteen philosophers, theologians, and environmentalists who argue for a response to ecology that recognizes the tools of science but includes a more spiritual approach - one with a more humanistic, holistic view based on inherent reverence toward the natural world. Writers whose orientations range from Buddhism to evangelical Christianity to Catholicism to Native American beliefs explore ways to achieve this paradigm shift and suggest that "the environment is not only a spiritual issue, but the spiritual issue of our time."

Faith, Hope, and Sustainability explores the experiences of fifteen faith communities striving to care for the earth and live more sustainably. A church in Maine partners with fishermen to create the first community-supported fishery so they can make a living without overfishing. A Jewish congregation in Illinois raises extra funds to construct a green synagogue that expresses their religious mission to heal the world. Benedictine sisters in Wisconsin adopt caring for the earth as part of their mission and begin restoring one hundred acres of prairie, reviving their community in the process. Presbyterians in Virginia, dismayed by air pollution in Shenandoah National Park, take courage from their conviction that "God does not call us to do little things" and advocate for improved national air pollution policies. Stories such as these highlight the variety of environmental actions that people of faith are enacting through congregational venues. Beyond simply narrating inspiring stories, however, this book compares these case studies to explore in detail the processes through which the communities took action. In addition to examining why faith communities engage in earth care, Cybelle T. Shattuck explores how they put intention into action and how the congregational context affects what they do. She introduces an analytical framework focusing on four domains of activity—champions, faith leaders, congregations, and organizations—to explicate the full range of factors that influence how initiatives develop and whether sustainability becomes embedded in these religious organizations. Both the framework and the information on process presented in this book will be highly useful to scholars and to people of faith interested in implementing an earth-care ethic through sustainability programs.

Discusses religious environmentalism and argues that theologians are recovering nature-honoring elements of traditional religions and forging new theologies connecting devotion to God with love for God's creation and care for the Earth.

Earth’s changing climate is increasingly obvious, and if humans are largely responsible, we all have a part in the solution. The purpose of this book a faith perspective to Earthcare, and in particular to demonstrate how Earthcare is an integral part of the Christian Faith and therefore of Christian mission. It is not a peripheral issue or an optional extra! Moreover, the Christian Faith can interact not only with other faith perspectives, but also with science, and with all who simply care. And in the process of caring for the Earth, we can build bridges of understanding rather than walls of division. “Faith and the Greening of Earth” invites the inquiring reader into realistic scenarios and offers high-value resources with integrity. Rev Dr Wayne Sanderson A well summarised affirmation of Earthcare as an integral part of faith and an important dimension of Christian mission. Dr Kumi Abeysuriya Rev Dr Clive Ayre was ordained in 1967 and is a Minister of the Word in the Uniting Church. With his wife Gail, he has served ecumenically and in Queensland congregations over many years, in addition to a short term in England. Clive has a PhD in Practical Eco-theology and is a Minister-in-Association at Chermside-Kedron Community Church in Brisbane.

The central message of this book is that religion has a special role to play in saving the planet. Religion has the unique power to fire the imagination and empower the will to break the cycle of addiction to nonrenewable energy. The environmental crisis is a crisis not of the head but of the heart. The problem is not that we do not know how to stop climate change but rather that we lack the inner strength to redirect our culture and economy toward a sustainable future. Only a bold and courageous faith can undergird a long-term commitment to change. This book is a call to hope, not despair--a survey of promising directions and a call for readers to discover meaning and purpose in their lives through a spiritually charged commitment to saving the Earth.

This book provides three chapters from Green Discipleship: Catholic Theological Ethics and the Environment, Tobias Winright, editor. Christianity is by no means the only religion with concerns about the current ecological crisis--nor is it the only tradition with ideas for how to resolve it. In The Greening of Faith: Insights from Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism, editor Tobias Winright gathers important reflections on the ecological crisis from leading scholars specializing in different traditions. Drawing on a wide range of Jewish texts and thinkers, historian and Jewish studies professor Hava Tirosh-Samuelson traces the ecological impulse from ancient to modern Jewish thought. June-Ann Greeley, a comparative theologian, uses the rich text of the Qur'an to demonstrate Islam's long-standing commitment to the health of this earth, as well as the Muslim's role in protecting the natural world. Finally, as a scholar of comparative religious ethics, David Clairmont presents a Buddhist case for ecological sensitivity, including some of Buddhism's compelling modern gestures of activism and advocacy. Combined, these selections deftly illustrate the way that such a complex and universal moral issue--global ecological degradation--can urge people to serious, renewed engagement with their own theological traditions. Tobias Winright is an associate professor of theological ethics at Saint Louis University. He writes on theological ethics and just war, pacifism, policing, capital punishment, the environment, and children. Anselm Selections offer compilations of readings from Anselm Academic publications.