Environmental issues are an ever-increasing focus of public discourse and have proved concerning to religious groups as well as society more widely. Among biblical scholars, criticism of the Judeo-Christian tradition for its part in the worsening crisis has led to a small but growing field of study on ecology and the Bible. This volume in the Oxford Handbook series makes a significant contribution to this burgeoning interest in ecological hermeneutics, incorporating the best of international scholarship on ecology and the Bible. The Handbook comprises 30 individual essays on a wide range of relevant topics by established and emerging scholars. Arranged in four sections, the volume begins with a historical overview before tackling some key methodological issues. The second, substantial, section comprises thirteen essays offering detailed exegesis from an ecological perspective of selected biblical books. This is followed by a section exploring broader thematic topics such as the Imago Dei and stewardship. Finally, the volume concludes with a number of essays on contemporary perspectives and applications, including political and ethical considerations.
The editors Hilary Marlow and Mark Harris have drawn on their experience in Hebrew Bible and New Testament respectively to bring together a diverse and engaging collection of essays on a subject of immense relevance. Its accessible style, comprehensive scope, and range of material means that the volume is a valuable resource, not only to students and scholars of the Bible but also to religious leaders and practitioners.
Does the Bible have anything to contribute to contemporary concerns about the environment? This collection of essays on the Bible and ecology explores biblical texts and their interpretation in the light of ecological issues. The handbook covers a number of political and ethical issues, as well as offering detailed exploration of individual Bible books. It discusses a number of controversial views, including whether the Judeo-Christian tradition has contributed to the environmental crisis, and how the Bible is used by climate change deniers.
In 1967, the historian Lynn White Jr.charged the Judeo-Christian tradition-fueled by what he saw as the Hebrew Bible's pervasive emphasis on dominion-with special responsibility for the environmental crisis. The essays in this edited volume consider White's catalyzing arguments while moving the conversation about the Bible and ecology forward in creative new ways. The volume coheres around a conviction that in the Bible and in today's world, healthy relations with the natural world are a precondition for thriving communities, and those relations can become tragically perverted, with disastrous and terrifying consequences. Each author reminds us that the Bible is a tremendous resource for those who aspire to more copacetic, reciprocal ways of living with the land, God, and one another.
