Before Nature caps a set of themes first brought to the fore in Santmire's previous work, most notably the classic Travail of Nature. Here Santmire continues the pursuit of a theology bound up with nature and its condition, especially the fragility and fervent expectation of nature's redemption. Out of this concern, Santmire invites readers on a theological and spiritual journey to a prayerful and contemplative knowledge of the Triune God, in which practitioners are inducted into a bountiful relationship with the cosmic and universal ministry of Christ and the Spirit uniting all of nature in a single vision of hope and anticipation. Scholarly, practical, and accessible.

As the global climate crisis worsens, many churches have sought to respond by instituting a movement to observe a liturgical season of creation. Scholars who have pioneered the connections between biblical scholarship, ecological theology, liturgy, and homiletics provide here a comprehensive resource for preaching and leading worship in this new season. Included are theological and practical introductions to observance of the season, biblical texts for its twelve Sundays in the three-year lectionary cycle, and astute commentary to help preachers and worship leaders guide their congregations into deeper connection with our imperiled planet

Santmire's much-acclaimed The Travail of Nature: The Ambiguous Ecological Promise of Christian Theology documented the unfortunate legacy of many Christian theological notions in the use, abuse, and destruction of the natural world, along with its positive aspects. This new brief, but penetrating, look at Christian theological concepts of nature returns to the fray, this time to reclaim classic, mostly pre-modern Christian themes and re-envision them in light of the global environmental and cultural crisis. This revisionist work-"to revise the classical Christian story in order to identify and to celebrate its ecological and cosmic promise"-mines Christian cosmology (the Great Chain of Being), Christology, Creation, and Eucharist, so that the Christian "story" can be then rediscovered (history), reshaped (theology), re-experienced (spirituality), and re-enacted (ritual).