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2019 NAUTILUS GOLD WINNER In a time of rapid climate change and
species extinction, what role have the world's religions played in
ameliorating-or causing-the crisis we now face? Religion in
general, and Christianity in particular, appears to bear a
disproportionate burden for creating humankind's exploitative
attitudes toward nature through unearthly theologies that divorce
human beings and their spiritual yearnings from their natural
origins. In this regard, Christianity has become an otherworldly
religion that views the natural world as "fallen," as empty of
signs of God's presence. And yet, buried deep within the Christian
tradition are startling portrayals of God as the beaked and
feathered Holy Spirit - the "animal God," as it were, of historic
Christian witness. Through biblical readings, historical theology,
continental philosophy, and personal stories of sacred nature, this
book recovers the model of God in Christianity as a creaturely,
avian being who signals the presence of spirit in everything, human
and more-than-human alike. Mark Wallace's recovery of the bird-God
of the Bible signals a deep grounding of faith in the natural
world. The moral implications of nature-based Christianity are
profound. All life is deserving of humans' care and protection
insofar as the world is envisioned as alive with sacred animals,
plants, and landscapes. From the perspective of Christian animism,
the Earth is the holy place that God made and that humankind is
enjoined to watch over and cherish in like manner. Saving the
environment, then, is not a political issue on the left or the
right of the ideological spectrum, but, rather, an innermost
passion shared by all people of faith and good will in a world
damaged by anthropogenic warming, massive species extinction, and
the loss of arable land, potable water, and breathable air. To
Wallace, this passion is inviolable and flows directly from the
heart of Christian teaching that God is a carnal, fleshy reality
who is promiscuously incarnated within all things, making the whole
world a sacred embodiment of God's presence, and worthy of our
affectionate concern. This beautifully and accessibly written book
shows that "Christian animism" is not a strange oxymoron, but
Christianity's natural habitat. Challenging traditional
Christianity's self-definition as an other-worldly religion,
Wallace paves the way for a new Earth-loving spirituality grounded
in the ancient image of an animal God.
A diverse collection of essays revolving around the theories of
RenT Girard, whose theory of the scapegoat the marginal person
accused of threatening social order offers vital insight into the
study of religion and society. Early chapters provide general
theoretical perspectives on Girard's work in
2019 NAUTILUS GOLD WINNER In a time of rapid climate change and
species extinction, what role have the world's religions played in
ameliorating-or causing-the crisis we now face? Religion in
general, and Christianity in particular, appears to bear a
disproportionate burden for creating humankind's exploitative
attitudes toward nature through unearthly theologies that divorce
human beings and their spiritual yearnings from their natural
origins. In this regard, Christianity has become an otherworldly
religion that views the natural world as "fallen," as empty of
signs of God's presence. And yet, buried deep within the Christian
tradition are startling portrayals of God as the beaked and
feathered Holy Spirit - the "animal God," as it were, of historic
Christian witness. Through biblical readings, historical theology,
continental philosophy, and personal stories of sacred nature, this
book recovers the model of God in Christianity as a creaturely,
avian being who signals the presence of spirit in everything, human
and more-than-human alike. Mark Wallace's recovery of the bird-God
of the Bible signals a deep grounding of faith in the natural
world. The moral implications of nature-based Christianity are
profound. All life is deserving of humans' care and protection
insofar as the world is envisioned as alive with sacred animals,
plants, and landscapes. From the perspective of Christian animism,
the Earth is the holy place that God made and that humankind is
enjoined to watch over and cherish in like manner. Saving the
environment, then, is not a political issue on the left or the
right of the ideological spectrum, but, rather, an innermost
passion shared by all people of faith and good will in a world
damaged by anthropogenic warming, massive species extinction, and
the loss of arable land, potable water, and breathable air. To
Wallace, this passion is inviolable and flows directly from the
heart of Christian teaching that God is a carnal, fleshy reality
who is promiscuously incarnated within all things, making the whole
world a sacred embodiment of God's presence, and worthy of our
affectionate concern. This beautifully and accessibly written book
shows that "Christian animism" is not a strange oxymoron, but
Christianity's natural habitat. Challenging traditional
Christianity's self-definition as an other-worldly religion,
Wallace paves the way for a new Earth-loving spirituality grounded
in the ancient image of an animal God.
The central message of this book is that religion has a special
role to play in saving the planet. Religion has the unique power to
fire the imagination and empower the will to break the cycle of
addiction to nonrenewable energy. The environmental crisis is a
crisis not of the head but of the heart. The problem is not that we
do not know how to stop climate change but rather that we lack the
inner strength to redirect our culture and economy toward a
sustainable future.
We live in an age of vast and rapid destruction of habitats and
species. Yet Christianity holds great potential for healing this
situation. Indeed, the Bible and Christian tradition are a treasure
trove of rich images and stories about God as an "earthen" being
who sustains the natural world with compassion and thereby models
for humankind environmentally healthy ways of being. Mark Wallace's
stimulating book retrieves a central but often neglected biblical
theme - the idea of God as carnal Spirit who indwells all things -
as the basis for constructing a "green spirituality" responsive to
the environmental needs of our time. In the biblical tradition, he
writes, God as Spirit is an ecological presence that shows itself
to us daily by living in and through the earth. One message of
Christianity, therefore, is celebration of the bodily, material
world - ancient redwoods, vernal springs, broad-winged hawks,
everyday pigweed - as the place that God indwells and cares for in
order to maintain the well-being of our common planetary home.
Alongside his green reading of the Bible and tradition, Wallace
employs the resources of deep ecology, Neopagan spirituality, and
the environmental justice movement to rethink Christianity as an
earth-based, body-loving religion. He also analyzes color images
reproduced in the book. Wallace's bold yet careful work reawakens
our sense of the sacrality of the earth and the life that the
trinitarian God creates there. It also grounds the impulses of New
Age spirituality in a profoundly biblical notion of God's being and
activity.
The thought of Paul Ricoeur continues its profound effect on
theology, religious studies, and biblical interpretation.
Introduced by Mark Wallace, the twenty-one papers collected in this
volume-some familiar, many translated here for the first
time-constitute the most comprehensive anthology of Ricoeur's
writings in religion since 1970. The writings are thematically
divided into five parts: the study of religion philosophers of
religion the Bible and genre theological overtures practical
theology Ricoeur's hermeneutical orientation and his deep
sensitivity to the mystery and power of religious language offer
fresh insight into the transformative potential of sacred
literature, including the Bible.
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