WM 760 Readings in World Missions: Creation Care

The first comprehensive survey of Christian environmental ethics and activism offers a Christian understanding of environmental conservation, protection, and stewardship that speaks directly to ongoing environmental issues. * Case histories of specific faith-based organizations doing conservation work * An extensive bibliography of theological, ethical, historical, biographical, scientific, and popular sources that address the role of Christians and the Christian church in the care of creation

From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible reveals a God whose creative power and loving care embrace all that exists, from earth and sky and sea to every creeping, crawling, swimming, and flying creature. Yet the significance of the Bible's extensive teaching about the natural world is easily overlooked by Christians accustomed to focusing only on what the Bible says about God's interaction with human beings. In Creation Care, part of the Biblical Theology for Life series, father and son team Douglas and Jonathan Moo invite readers to open their Bibles afresh to explore the place of the natural world within God's purposes and to celebrate God's love as displayed in creation and new creation. Following the contours of the biblical storyline, they uncover answers to questions such as: What is the purpose of the non-human creation? Can a world with things like predators, parasites, and natural disasters still be the 'good' world described in Genesis 1? What difference does the narrative of the 'Fall' make for humankind's responsibility to rule over other creatures? Does Israel's experience on the land have anything to teach Christians about their relationship with the earth? What difference does Jesus make for our understanding of the natural world? How does our call to care for creation fit within the hope for a new heaven and a new earth? What is unique about Christian creation care compared with other approaches to 'environmental' issues? How does creation care fit within the charge to proclaim the gospel and care for the poor? In addition to providing a comprehensive biblical theology of creation care, they probe behind the headlines and politicized rhetoric about an 'environmental crisis' and climate change to provide a careful and judicious analysis of the most up-to-date scientific data about the state of our world. They conclude by setting forth a bold framework and practical suggestions for an effective and faithful Christian response to the scriptural teaching about the created world. But rather than merely offering a response to environmental concerns, Creation Care invites readers into a joyful vision of the world as God's creation in which they can rediscover who they truly are as creatures called to love and serve the Creator and to delight in all he has made.

One of the world#146;s most important scientists, Edward O. Wilson is also an abundantly talented writer who has twice won the Pulitzer Prize. In this, his most personal and timely book to date, he assesses the precarious state of our environment, examining the mass extinctions occurring in our time and the natural treasures we are about to lose forever. Yet, rather than eschewing doomsday prophesies, he spells out a specific plan to save our world while there is still time. His vision is a hopeful one, as economically sound as it is environmentally necessary. Eloquent, practical and wise, this book should be read and studied by anyone concerned with the fate of the natural world.

Greening Spaces for Worship and Ministry is a comprehensive guide. The book provides a rationale, strategies, and resources for fulfilling environmental stewardship through the land and buildings of Christian and Jewish congregations. New construction, renovation, and historic preservation projects are addressed. Site development, material choices, energy generation and consumption, water use, interior air quality, green cleaning programs, and beauty are discussed. Ten congregations from across the United States and Canada are featured as e.

#1 New York Times Bestseller from the author of How to Change Your Mind, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and Food Rules  Food. There's plenty of it around, and we all love to eat it. So why should anyone need to defend it? Because in the so-called Western diet, food has been replaced by nutrients, and common sense by confusion--most of what we're consuming today is longer the product of nature but of food science. The result is what Michael Pollan calls the American Paradox: The more we worry about nutrition, the less healthy we see to become. With In Defense of Food, Pollan proposes a new (and very old) answer to the question of what we should eat that comes down to seven simple but liberating words: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Pollan's bracing and eloquent manifesto shows us how we can start making thoughtful food choices that will enrich our lives, enlarge our sense of what it means to be healthy, and bring pleasure back to eating. "Michael Pollan [is the] designated repository for the nation's food conscience."--Frank Bruni, The New York Times " A remarkable volume . . . engrossing . . . [Pollan] offers those prescriptions Americans so desperately crave."--The Washington Post "A tough, witty, cogent rebuttal to the proposition that food can be redced to its nutritional components without the loss of something essential... [a] lively, invaluable book."--Janet Maslin, The New York Times "In Defense of Food is written with Pollan's customary bite, ringing clarity and brilliance at connecting the dots."--The Seattle Times Michael Pollan's most recent food book Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation--the story of our most trusted food expert's culinary education--was published by Penguin Press in April 2013, and in 2016 it served as the inspiration for a four-part docuseries on Netflix by the same name. Pollan is also the author of How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence 

Environmental issues appear deceptively simple: science tells us what the problems are and how to solve them, and, for Christians, the Bible motivates us to care for creation. And yet, both in society in general as well as in the Christian church in particular, we cannot seem to agree on what to do regarding environmental issues. In this book, climate scientist Johnny Wei-Bing Lin argues that determining the content of environmental stewardship, far from being a straightforward exercise, is a difficult and complex endeavor. He sets forth a general taxonomy, drawing from worldviews, ethical theories, science epistemology, science-policy studies, politics, and economics, that can help us better understand what excellent creation care consists of and how to bridge the differences people have regarding environmental issues.

One of the New York Times Book Review's Ten Best Books of the Year Winner of the James Beard Award Author of How to Change Your Mind and the #1 New York Times Bestsellers In Defense of Food and Food Rules What should we have for dinner? Ten years ago, Michael Pollan confronted us with this seemingly simple question and, with The Omnivore's Dilemma, his brilliant and eye-opening exploration of our food choices, demonstrated that how we answer it today may determine not only our health but our survival as a species. In the years since, Pollan's revolutionary examination has changed the way Americans think about food. Bringing wide attention to the little-known but vitally important dimensions of food and agriculture in America, Pollan launched a national conversation about what we eat and the profound consequences that even the simplest everyday food choices have on both ourselves and the natural world. Ten years later, The Omnivore's Dilemma continues to transform the way Americans think about the politics, perils, and pleasures of eating.

I was in the act of throwing away my family's rubbish while holidaying on a beautiful island when I heard God speak. I could easily have missed it, but an inner whisper asked, "How do you think I feel about what you are doing to my world?" Since the day God challenged him, Dave Bookless has been on a mission: to share with others the compelling biblical case for caring for the planet God made for his glory and his people's enjoyment. This is not another book on green issues to make you feel guilty. The message is that there is hope. God can take your small and insignificant efforts and multiply them in his great plan. Dave takes us right into the heart of his family and shows how living simply, besides honouring God, can be an exciting adventure.

Because the Bible describes the second person of the Trinity as the key agent in creation, redemption, and the restoration of all things, it is imperative that Christians seeking conformity to the image of Christ root their understand- ing of, and motivation for, creation care in a theology and ethic that seeks to maximize the worship of Christ throughout all creation. Discussions related to creation care and environmental ethics have become both politically charged and highly controversial. Unfortunately, while a growing number of Christian books address various aspects of creation care that either support or deny the reality of global warming or perhaps advocate various policies and practices, there is very little work available seeking to focus on, clarify, and establish the biblical and theological foundations upon which Christians ought to care for God's world. Even more specifically, there seems to be almost a complete dearth of accessible works in theology or ethics that offers a Christology of creation care. Thus, the purpose of True North is to explore the person and work of Christ in creation, redemption, and the restoration of all things so as to establish the idea that caring for God's creation depends not upon prognostications for or against a global warming crisis. Rather, the motivation for Christians to care for creation flows from the created purposes established in the very fabric of the universe, faithful discipleship in Christ, and the inherent goal to return to God all the glory he is due from every corner and aspect of creation.

A 2003 Templeton Foundation Book of Distinction!"God intends . . . our care of the creation to reflect our love for the Creator," writes John Stott in the foreword to this book. For the theologians and scientists who have contributed to this book, the care of creation is both crucial to human survival and a supreme test of the reality of Christian faith. Their concern reflects not just the selfish interest of the developed North. Nor is it merely a minority enthusiasm, peculiar to bird-watchers and tree-huggers. Rather, it stems from God's creation commands, from Christ's reconciling work, and from what should be a communion of worship between the human and natural worlds. There is now a belated and increasingly evident humility abroad, which recognizes that scientific and political solutions alone are inadequate.The Care of Creation starts from the Evangelical Declaration on the Care of Creation of 1994, which has been endorsed by several hundred church leaders throughout the world. This book is a stimulating and provocative international commentary by leading theologians and environmental practitioners.Contributors include: Richard Bauckham, R. J. Berry, Calvin B. DeWitt, Susan Drake, Timothy Dudley-Smith, Ron Elsdon, John Guillebaud, Peter Harris, John T. Houghton, Alister E. McGrath, I. Howard Marshall, J#65533;rgen Moltmann, Michael S. Northcott, Oliver M. T. O'Donovan, Ghillean T. Prance, Stephen Rand, Ronald J. Sider, Howard J. Van Till, Lynn White, Loren Wilkinson and Richard T. Wright.

A manifesto for a radically different philosophy and practice of manufacture and environmentalism "Reduce, reuse, recycle" urge environmentalists; in other words, do more with less in order to minimize damage. But as this provocative, visionary book argues, this approach perpetuates a one-way, "cradle to grave" manufacturing model that dates to the Industrial Revolution and casts off as much as 90 percent of the materials it uses as waste, much of it toxic. Why not challenge the notion that human industry must inevitably damage the natural world? In fact, why not take nature itself as our model? A tree produces thousands of blossoms in order to create another tree, yet we do not consider its abundance wasteful but safe, beautiful, and highly effective; hence, "waste equals food" is the first principle the book sets forth. Products might be designed so that, after their useful life, they provide nourishment for something new-either as "biological nutrients" that safely re-enter the environment or as "technical nutrients" that circulatewithin closed-loop industrial cycles, without being "downcycled" into low-grade uses (as most "recyclables" now are). Elaborating their principles from experience (re)designing everything from carpeting to corporate campuses, William McDonough and Michael Braungart make an exciting and viable case for change.

Called "one of the greatest men alive" by The Times of London, E. O. Wilson proposes an historic partnership between scientists and religious leaders to preserve Earth's rapidly vanishing biodiversity. E. O. Wilson has written more than twenty books and has received more than one hundred awards, including two Pulitzer Prizes and the National Medal of Science. He lives in Lexington, Massachusetts.

How should Christians react to environmental crisis? Historically, evanglicals have ignored this aspect of living for Christ, so this book aims to reinvigorate and empower Christians across the globe to care for creation.This book collects the work of biblical scholars, theologians, biologists, environmental researchers, and community organizerswho met at "The Global Consultation on Creation Care and the Gospel" in Jamaica in 2012. Participants from 23 countries asdiverse as Argentina, Bangladesh, Benin, and Canada gathered for five days to pray, talk, and reflect on the state of the planet--the home in which we live--and on the role and ministry of the church in caring for God's creation.The book contains biblical and theological affirmations from well-respected scholars and teachers, reminding us that caring forcreation is central to the evangelical faith. It is an integral part of our mission, an expression of our worship of God, and a matter of great joy and hope.

Caring for the environment is a growing interest among evangelicals. This award-winning book provides the most thorough evangelical treatment available on a theology of creation care. "Authentic Christian faith requires ecological obedience," writes Steven Bouma-Prediger. He urges Christians to acknowledge their responsibility and privilege as stewards of the earth. The second edition has been substantially revised and updated with the latest scientific and environmental research.

We are facing planet-sized challenges. Climate change and environmental crises can be pretty immobilizing, and we can fall into the temptation of thinking that we can't make a difference. But it's not just about what we can do on our own to make a difference. It's about what we can do when we mobilize together as a movement and combine for community action.Activist Ben Lowe calls the present generation to come together and care for the earth in a way that recent generations have not. Telling real-life stories of community organizing on college campuses across the nation, Lowe shows us that little things can make a big difference when we all work together. We now have an opportunity to show the world what it looks like when Christians care for the planet God gave us, so that future generations can live sustainably. This is our moment. This is our issue. Come join the green revolution.

Environmentalists have pleaded with Christian leaders to take up the challenge of caring for the environment. How should Christians respond to the environmental crisis? What does the Bible have to say about creation care and the responsibility of Christians? Edward Brown offers a biblical framework for creation care as well as practical steps that ordinary Christians can take to exercise good ecological stewardship. As a pioneering leader of the evangelical creation care movement, Brown provides a new model for "environmental missions," in which Christian organizations respond to ecological crises in ways that transform both the people and the land that sustains them. This book is filled with ideas that students, churches, mission agencies and all concerned Christians can implement at home and around the world.

Brown is president of the Washington, D.C.-based Earth Policy Institute, an organization dedicated to building an eco-economy, and has 50 years of experience working with agricultural and environmental issues. He presents an updated and expanded edition of his 2003 text proposing a new path toward an economy that can sustain economic progress.

a book about the Christian view of environmental problems, pointing out biblical guidelines which would bring healing and restoration

"Preeeeep." The sound of the peepers, tiny frogs an inch or two long, penetrated the dusk. Beneath the jack pines at the edge of a small pond in the northern Michigan woods, the males were calling their mates. A professor and a group of ecology students sat speechless as closer and closer, louder and louder, more and more peepers joined in chorus.There was just light enough to see them, crawling up a bracken fern to find a singing perch, filling their throats with air like tiny balloons about to burst and then giving forth at close range an ear-splitting 'preeeeep.; . . . Now we were immersed in the peepers' lives, not ours. And when the concert ended and the peepers had gone away, we laughed together for the sheer joy and power of life displayed for a moment in the grand efforts of one tiny creature to be fruitful and multiply."Combining compelling stories with both biblical and scientific investigation, Redeeming Creation addresses the ecological crisis we face today.population explosionrain forests stripped baredestruction of animal habitatthe death of entire speciesdepletion of the ozone layerglobal warmingThe authors, four biologists and teachers, believe that we can face these dilemmas with hope. Moving beyond a mere survey of the planet's ills, they bring Scripture into fruitful dialogue with current scientific findings and commitments. They both inspire and inform our individual and corporate response to God's creation.

Why is it that many Christians find a theological-scientific debate about creation's ancient origins far more engaging than a speech about how to live responsibly in the creation today? Are we more fascinated by academic debates that focus our gaze on what happened long ago than by the hands-on discussions that focus our gaze on the world of wonders outside our windows right now? In Remember Creation, Scott Hoezee challenges readers to make today's world more central to the Christian faith by enjoying and preserving God's cosmos as a part of daily discipleship. Solidly grounded in a wealth of Scripture passages, this book reveals God's "ecology of praise," which all Christians should want to explore and preserve. Throughout the book Hoezee also offers suggestions to help congregations, families, and all Christians to take more delight in God's world while working to keep alive the wonders that bring God joy. "Scott Hoezee adds a refreshing new twist to the discussion on the environment: Shouldn't we start by simply enjoying creation and honoring it for what it is? With illustrations both biblical and personal, Hoezee makes a compelling case." - Philip Yancey

Through sharing both his own personal story and the story of his church in response to environmental concerns, Robinson clearly shows how important this value is and how effective it is in showing others the Creator. Not only does Robinson inspire the reader to care for the environment, he reveals a clear pathway to making the value of environmental stewardship real in both the life of the reader and the Christian community in which he or she is involved. Book jacket.

Not long ago, J. Matthew Sleeth had a fantastic life and a great job as chief of the medical staff at a large hospital. He was living the American dream--until he saw an increasing number of his patients suffering from cancer, asthma, and other chronic diseases. He began to suspect that the Earth and its inhabitants were in deep trouble. Turning to Jesus for guidance, Sleeth discovered how the scriptural lessons of personal responsibility, simplicity, and stewardship could be applied to modern life. The Sleeths have since sold their big home and given away more than half of what they once owned. In Serve God, Save the Planet, Sleeth shares the joy of adopting a less materialistic, healthier lifestyle, stronger relationships, and richer spiritual lives. With the storytelling ease of James Herriot and the logical clarity of C. S. Lewis, Sleeth lays out the rationale for environmentally responsible life changes and a how-to guide for making those changes. "Creation is groaning. And Matthew Sleeth has responded. Serve God, Save the Planet is not an alarmist call of despair, but a hopeful invitation to re-imagine the way we live. Sleeth's words have the urgency of an ER crisis coupled with the deep faith that the Church is ready to join God in healing the wounded world." --Shane Claiborne, activist and author of The Irresistible Revolution.

Too often we think stewardship concerns only the money we give to the church. But in the image of the steward, the Bible offers a perspective on our entire relationship with God. Here we have a full and fresh picture of being Jesus' disciples and living life in all its fullness.R. Scott Rodin unpacks what it means for us to be stewards in the kingdom of the triune God of grace. This theology of the abundant life, which encompasses all aspects of our world, our life and our possessions, begins, appropriately, with the very being of our gracious Creator God. From there Rodin dismantles the myth of the two kingdoms, one that is under God's control and one that is not. In so doing he crafts a portrait of faithful stewards who live as God's children in the one reality that is marked by death behind us and life ahead.The book concludes with a discussion of the roles of church and family as stewards while providing a theology for the Christian fundraiser.Here is a unique and much needed book on a neglected biblical theme.