Redeeming the Time: A Political Theology of the Environment

by Stephen Bede Scharper

Overview

"A thoughtful and interesting contribution to environmental theology literature."
--Choice

"Richly informative and provocative."
--Review for Religious

"Stephen Bede Scharper has added a significant new book to the growing collection of Christian ecotheological offerings....an admirable job of summarizing the main strands of Christian environmental theologies and highlighting the most valuable contributions of each....heartfelt...There is much to celebrate in this book!...presents a comprehensible and accessible guide to the major varieties of what Scharper calls 'Christian ecological theology.'...In this book he succeeds not just in coherently summarizing a number of the most important voices in ecotheology, but also in giving us a blueprint for the changed consciousness necessary to motivate a conversion from our destructive earth-damaging behavior to a more earth-friendly way of living."
--Worldviews

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826411358
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	06/01/1998
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	244
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.55(d)

About the Author

Stephen Bede Scharper is co-author, with his wife Hillary Cunningham, of The Green Bible.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Knowing Our Place: Altered Landscapes and Altered Roles1. Christian Theological Responses to the Ecological Crisis: An Overview2. The Gaia Hypothesis: The Earth as a Living Organism3. Process Theology: Intersubjectivity with Nature4. The New Cosmology: The Universe as Context5. Ecofeminism: From Patriarchy to Mutuality6. Liberation Theology: The Greening of Solidarity7. Contouring a Political Theology of the Environment

Editorial Reviews

"Does an admirable job of summarizing the main strands of Christian environmental theologies and highlighting the most valuable contributions of each. There is much to celebrate in this book! Scharper, like all of the best contributors to the conversation on religion and ecology, is motivated by a passionate concern for the "groaning" of creation; no less obvious is his urgent desire to include the downtrodden humans of the earth in his analysis. In this book he suceeds, not just in coherently summarizing a number of the most important voices in ecotheology, but also in giving us a blueprint for the changed consciousness necessary to motivate a conversion from our destructive earth-damaging behavior to a more earth-friendly way of living."--Sanford Lakoff "Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture And Ecology "

"A thoughtful and interesting contribution of environmental theology literature."
Choice

"A valuable survey of current Christian envrionmental thinking."
Publishers Weekly

"Prior to 1970, the Christian community was almost silent with regard to human abuse of the nonhuman world. Since then, there has been an explosion of theological work addressing this question. Scharper provides the most comprehensive guide available to this response. His work is readable and fair-minded."
John B. Cobb

"Reedeming the Time is an important overview of the major expressions of ecological theology today, with an emphasis on the dynamic interrelationships of ecological and liberation theologies."
Rosemary Radford Ruether

"This is an excellent presentation of a liberation theology of the environment with a thorough assessment of its social and economic implications. Such a book has long been needed."
Thomas Berry

From the Publisher

The main premise of Scharper's book is that culture's definition of human nature often has direct effects on humanity's relation to the environment. For example, Enlightenment concepts that stress human independence from and domination over nature have resulted in the misuse and depletion of natural resources. Scharper attempts to demonstrate the ways in which various Christian religious traditions can articulate a view of a more humble, compassionate and interdependent humanity responsible for both environmental destruction and renewal. To do this, the author provides succinct and well-organized summaries of four major trends in Christian ecological thinking-process theology, new cosmology, ecofeminism and liberation theology-and he examines the promises and pitfalls of each approach. Scharper doesn't offer any new, comprehensive environmental theology of his own. But, even though his book offers no galvanizing original thought, it is a valuable survey of current Christian environmental thinking.(May)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly