The Environment and the Christian: What Does the New Testament Say About the Environment

LAND EXPLOITATION, SPECIES EXTINCTION, SOIL, WASTE, This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0801030064
• ISBN13: 9780801030062
• Release Date: July 1991
• Publisher: Baker Pub Group
• Length: 156 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 0.5" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Good Ideas; Weak Writing

This is a good solidly Reformed collection of essays on the importance of the environment for the Christian. It details how the New Testament ethic is one calling us to care for creation, but surprisingly, I found more valuable concrete information in the essay on the Old Testament, included in this collection. That's not surprising in that the Old Testament has more to offer in this area with it's Jubilee Theology- rather that I'd hope for more on the New Testament in a book focused on the New Testament. But I did learn a great deal that I hadn't known before about care of the environment. And the Old Testament review is needed in order to go to the peculiarly Christian ethic, since so much of that is based on what came before. It's still perhaps the best work of it's kind- a relatively ground-breaking look at how the the Christian canon is in league with environmentalism- indeed, that Jesus basically invented the notion. I was particularly impressed with the idea that much of Christianity has replaced the spacial dichotomy with a temporal one- that we look forward to a future paradise, and so no longer need to care for this present Earth. I had not fully realized how much of the Bible, and specifically the New Testament, speaks of humanity's natural home as the New Earth, and not Heaven. And thus, just as our new bodies will be completely new, yet made of the same material, being fully natural as well, so will this new Creation. The Earth will be remade, not replaced- and thus there is an ethical call to care for this creation God has given us. Good information, but the writing quality was poor, and the essays felt linked only as an after-thought. Had the writing style been more engaging, I wouldn't have taken about 10 years to get through this book. But I still recommend it for the ideas within.