Today's church finds itself in a new world, one in which climate change and ecological degradation are front-page news. In the eyes of many, the evangelical community has been slow to take up a call to creation care. How do Christians address this issue in a faithful way? This evangelically centered but ecumenically informed introduction to ecological theology (ecotheology) explores the global dimensions of creation care, calling Christians to meet contemporary ecological challenges with courage and hope. The book provides a biblical, theological, ecological, and historical rationale for earthcare as well as specific practices to engage both individuals and churches. Drawing from a variety of Christian traditions, the book promotes a spirit of hospitality, civility, honesty, and partnership. It includes a foreword by Bill McKibben and an afterword by Matthew Sleeth.

This book serves as an introduction to the burgeoning field of ecothology, illustrating both its variety and its commonality across different Christian theological divides. Some of the questions addressed in this short book include the following: How can the Bible still make sense in the context of climate change and biodiversity loss? Who on earth is Jesus Christ, and what does he mean for us in today’s world? How can Christians be faithful to their traditions while responding to pressing calls to be engaged in environmental activism? What is the relationship between theory and practice, and local as well as global demands, and how is this relationship expressed in different ecclesial settings? How can we encourage each other to develop a sense of the earth as divine gift? Written in clear, accessible style, this book walks readers through difficult concepts and shows the way different sources in Christian theology have responded to one of the most significant cultural issues of our time.

Just as God loves creation, so are Christians called to care for it. Now, amid the accelerating degradation of our global environment, that task has taken on greater urgency than ever. How should Christians respond to the climate crisis and widespread pollution of earth’s shared commons, water and air? How might Christian communities think about human responsibility to other living creatures? In roundtable format, Richard Bauckham, Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, Steven Bouma-Prediger, and John F. Haught navigate the layers of what it means for humans to live in right relationship with earth’s lifesystems. After each contributor’s essay, the other three contributors issue a response—including points of disagreement and questions—thereby modeling for readers productive and respectful dialogue. The ecumenical conversations in Ecotheology represent the diverse viewpoints of contributors’ theological and practical commitments, exploring creation care through a variety of frameworks, including natural science, biblical studies, systematic theology, and Christian ethics.

There has been a proliferation of publications in the field of Christian ecological theology over the last three decades or so. These include a number of recent edited volumes, each covering a range of topics and consolidating many of the emerging insights in ecological theology. The call for Christian churches to respond to the environmental crisis has been reiterated numerous times in this vast corpus of literature, also in South Africa.

In this inaugural volume in the Studies in Christian Doctrine and Scripture, Kevin J. Vanhoozer and Daniel J. Treier set forth a programmatic proposal for evangelical theology, rooted in the claim that the church's vocation is to mirror the witness of Scripture in its doctrine and discipleship.

Introduces the lay reader to the rapidly developing discipline of ecotheology - which covers the wide spectrum of biblical studies, Christian tradition, contemporary sociology and indigenous studies. The book explores these areas and also highlights certain specific responses to the ecological questions that are being debated.

"Let all creation rejoice before the LORD, for he comes." Psalm 96:13 The Bible is bathed with images of God caring for his creation in all its complexity. Yet in the face of climate change and other environmental trends, philosophers, filmmakers, environmentalists, politicians and senior scientists increasingly resort to apocalyptic rhetoric to warn us that a so-called perfect storm of factors threatens the future of life on earth. Jonathan Moo and Robert White ask, "Do these dire predictions amount to nothing more than ideological scaremongering, perhaps hyped-up for political or personal ends? Or are there good reasons for thinking that we may indeed be facing a crisis unprecedented in its scale and in the severity of its effects?" The authors encourage us to assess the evidence for ourselves. Their own conclusion is that there is in fact plenty of cause for concern. Climate change, they suggest, is potentially the most far-reaching threat that our planet faces in the coming decades, and also the most publicized. But there is a wide range of much more obvious, interrelated and damaging effects that a growing number of people, consuming more and more, are having on the planet upon which we all depend. Yet if the Christian gospel fundamentally reorients us in our relationship to God and his world, then there ought to be something radically distinctive about our attitude and approach to such threats. In short, there ought to be a place for hope. And there ought to be a place for Christians to participate in that hope. Moo and White therefore reflect on the difference the Bible's vision of the future of all of creation makes. Why should creation rejoice? Because God loves and cares the world he made.