Description
Book SynopsisThis book promotes Christian ecology and animal ethics from the perspectives of the Bible, science, and the Judeo-Christian tradition. In an age of climate change, how do we protect species and individual animals? Does it matter how we treat bugs? How does understanding the Trinity and Christ''s self-emptying nature help us to be more responsible earth caretakers? What do Christian ethics have to do with hunting? How do the Foxfire books of Southern Appalachia help us to love a place? Does ecology need a place at the pulpit and in hymns? How do Catholic approaches, past and present, help us appreciate and respond to the created world? Finally, how does Jesus respond to humans, nonhumans, and environmental concerns in the Gospel of Mark?
Trade ReviewThis is a book to put on your ‘must read’ list. Ecotheology and Nonhuman Ethics offers a significant interfaith conversation on living as an integrated and ‘faithful’ part of the earth community. This collection of essays is a stimulating and thought-provoking read for personal or classroom use, designed to promote thoughtful reflection on the intersection between faith, human relatedness to the whole of creation, and the necessity of an intentional, compassionate lifestyle. -- Ginger Hanks Harwood, La Sierra University
Environmentalists have many hangups about religion, which is unfortunate since religion has a depth and richness of ecological insight upon which these thinkers might draw. In bringing these various voices back to the environmentalist's table, Melissa Brotton winsomely reminds us that the various religious traditions so often ignored as the cause of all our ecological woes might just actually contain the resources for viable solutions. -- Doug Sikkema, University of Waterloo
Ecotheology and Nonhuman Ethics in Society provides a map and pathway toward reconciliation with God and a wounded creation. These essays recover and extend conversations in ethics, cultural studies, Christian thought, biblical interpretation, and liturgical studies to show us what ecological stewardship looks like when practiced with humility, repentance, and compassion. The scholars gathered here represent a wide range of academic disciplines and faith communities, but their collective voice is working toward an integrative ecology that would allow all of creation to flourish in worshipful response to the creator. -- Chad Wriglesworth, St. Jerome's University
Table of ContentsForeword David Clough Introduction to Ecotheology and Nonhuman Ethics: A Community of Compassion Melissa J. Brotton Part 1: Ecotheology and Nonhuman Ethics Chapter 1: Animal Rights Revisited Celia Deane-Drummond Chapter 2: Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers: Why it is wrong to harm a fly Jeffrey A. Lockwood Chapter 3: Anthropogenic Climate Change and Animal Welfare Bryan Ness Chapter 4: The Self-emptying Godhead: Perichoresis, Kenosis, and an Ethic for the Anthropocene Mick Pope Part 2: Ecotheology in the South Chapter 5: Loving the Mountains: Cultivating Compassion for Places Andrew R. H. Thompson Chapter 6: An Ecotheology of Hunting Perry Hodgkins Jones Part 3: Liturgical Practices and Hymnody Chapter 7: Singing to Subdue or to Sustain? Looking for an Ethic of Conservation in Christian Liturgical Song and Hymnody David Kendall Chapter 8 Environmental Advocacy and the Absence of the Church The Rev. Jerry Cappel Part 4: Catholic Perspectives Chapter 9: The Ethics of Virtuous Design Robert (Robin) Gottfried Chapter 10: Care and Compassion: The Need for an Integral Ecology Cristina Vanin Part 5: Jesus and the Animals in the Gospel of Mark Chapter 11: Liberating Legion: An Ecocritical, Postcolonial reading of Mark 5:1–20 Kendra Haloviak Valentine Chapter 12: The End of the Road: Jesus, Donkeys, and Galilean Subsistence Farmers Matthew Valdez
