Environmental Ethics and Christian Theology

Environmental crises may be at the forefront of today’s most pressing issues, but theology’s failure to evaluate the resulting situations and reactions offers little guidance to faith believers inspired to respond. In Ecologies of Grace, Willis Jenkins presents a field-shaping introduction to Christian environmental ethics that offers resources for renewing theology. Observing how religious environmental practices often draw on concepts of grace, Jenkins maps the way Christian environmental strategies draw from traditions of salvation as they engage the problems of environmental ethics. By being particularly sensitive to the ways in which environmental problems are made intelligible to Christian moral experience, Jenkins guides his readers toward a fuller understanding of Christianity and ecology.

PLT Director Charles Marsh reviews:

“Ecologies of Grace is a stunning intellectual achievement and an interdisciplinary tour de force. While offering important conceptual clarifications of the major schools of environmental ethics, and framed within an essential rethinking of the Christian doctrines of salvation, creation and redemption, Willis Jenkins illuminates the promise of creative theological writing for the sake of the common good. This luminous book speaks not only to scholars of religion, students and ethicists, but also to policy makers, activists, clergy, and anyone concerned about the fate of the earth. Not to be overlooked, Jenkins presents his considerations with generous portions of well-crafted narrative.”

Find more information on the book here.

Willis Jenkins is the director of the religious studies graduate program at the University of Virginia and an associate professor of religion, ethics, and environment. Jenkins has authored two award-winning books and has also written a number of papers. He is currently working on three projects: a monograph entitled “The Moral Ecology of Food,” a textbook introducing religion, ethics, and environment, and a handbook to religion and ecology.

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A Memoir

Renowned South African theologian John de Gruchy inspires many through his roles as minister, professor, researcher, and writer. In the newly published I Have Come a Long Way, he reflects on a life lived well, tracing his Viking ancestry through his work as an ecumenical activist for the South African Council of Churches to the present. Rated an A research scholar by the National Research Foundation, De Gruchy specializes in the theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, whose thought undoubtedly influenced the anti-apartheid leader’s own work in local reconciliation. Weaving this foundational thought throughout the autobiography, de Gruchy narrates an inspirational story still in the making.

De Gruchy reflects:

“If my life and experience is of some interest, it is chiefly so because I have lived through interesting times, in an interesting country, traveled to many interesting places, and been accompanied along the way by interesting folk.”

For more information on the book, click here.

John de Gruchy was the Robert Selby Taylor Professor of Christian Studies at the University of Cape Town before he retired in 2003 and was appointed a Senior Research Scholar at UCT and an Extraordinary Professor at the University of Stellenbosch. He remains active in both institutions, engaged in research, publishing and mentoring. His other publications include Confessions of a Christian Humanist (2006).

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Justice, Empowerment, Redemption

While many theological reflections exist on the city, none have recognized the built environment as a whole. In A Theology of the Built Environment, Gorringe examines this valuable dimension. He considers the divine grounding of constructed space, the ownership of land, the issues of housing (both urban and rural), and the built environment in terms of community and art. Drawing on a huge range of theological and social scientific reading, Gorringe places pressing issues surrounding the environment into a larger framework to guide the Church forward.

In an excerpt provided by Cambridge University Press, Gorringe writes:

To be human is to be placed: to be born in this house, hospital, stable (according to Luke), or even, as in the floods in Mozambique in 2000, in a tree. It is to live in this council house, semi-detached, tower block, farmhouse, mansion. It is to go to school through these streets or lanes, to play in this alley, park, garden; to shop in this market, that mall; to work in this factory, mine, office, farm. These facts are banal, but they form the fabric of our everyday lives, structuring our memories, determining our attitudes. How, as Christians, should we think of them? Are they a proper subject for theological reflection? Here and there great theologians, notably Aquinas and Calvin, have glanced in this direction, but the built environment forms no locus in theological ethics except insofar as it has dealt with land and property, and with the city as a metaphor for community, or our final destination. It is in ethics that theology has engaged with the concrete – with war, economics, work, sexuality. Why not, then, with the built environment?

Find more information on the publication here. To continue reading the excerpt, click here.

Timothy Gorringe is working on a two-year AHRC-funded research project on the values which underpin constructive social change, concentrating on the Transition Town Movement. His academic interests focus on the interrelation between theology, social science, art and politics. His most recent books are The Common Good and the Global Emergency (2011) and Earthly Visions: Theology and the Challenges of Art (2011).

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An Alternative Response to World Violence

Churches have long discussed the proper approach to war and peace. While peace churches favor pacifism, others, such as the Catholic church, support the just war theory. In this 2007 publication, PLT contributor Gerald Schlabach reflects on recent events in world history and argues that the time has come to reconsider the Christian response to war. As a middle ground between pacifism and just war, he offers the just policing theory. If the world can address problems of violence through a police model instead of a conventional military model, there may be a role for Christians from all traditions. Including reflections from different thinkers on this just policing theory, the publication offers valuable discussions on the warfare and distress Christians struggle to navigate through in an increasingly-violent world.

In an excerpt provided by Liturgical Press, Schlabach writes:

The concept of just policing clearly places the focus on achieving justice in human society, rather than on simply reacting to war when it breaks out. It is inherently proactive. And it takes seriously the need to have a practical means to respond to injustice when it occurs, as inevitably it will in a world filled with inherited evil…

Just policing’s most hopeful potential as a concept is its ability to provide a common base on which Christians on both sides of the political spectrum can join forces. Just policing is something both liberals and conservatives can support. There will of course be vigorous debates over precisely what constitutes just policing, and how best to carry it out in specific cases, but that is as it should be. We will never have truly just policing on any level in society without the contributions of everyone involved. What is essential is that the need for policing and the need for it to be done justly both be acknowledged.

The new epoch that has opened before us is a major opportunity, one of the most important in all Christian history. Let us accept it as a gift, and move forward in humility and in strength.

To more of the excerpt, click here. Find more information on the publication here.

Gerald Schlabach is a professor in the Department of Theology and past chair of the Department of Justice and Peace Studies at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. A Roman Catholic as of Pentecost 2004, Schlabach is a Benedictine oblate, is deeply involved in the Bridgefolk movement for grassroots dialogue and unity between Mennonites and Catholics, and continues to call himself a “Mennonite Catholic.” His publications include Unlearning Protestantism: Sustaining Christian Community in an Unstable Age (2010) and Sharing Peace: Mennonites and Catholics in Conversation (2013).

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Investigating Churches Among America’s Poorest

America is known as one of the wealthiest countries in the world, enjoying more opportunities and a higher standard of living than many. While even the U.S. is home to poor neighborhoods crippled by poverty and violence, one institution can be found across the country regardless: the church.

In How the Other Half Worships, author Camilo José Vergara explores the conditions, beliefs, and practices that shape the churches and the lives of the nation’s urban poor. A compilation of decades worth of research and field work, this publication includes more than 300 richly textured color photographs and a series of candid interviews with pastors, church officials, and congregation members. Vergara’s work stands as a stark witness to how churches are being rebuilt in the dilapidated streets of America’s cities and how religion is being reinvented by the nation’s poor.

To read more on this publication, click here.

Camilo José Vergara, a 2002 John D. and Katherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellow, is the author and coauthor of numerous books including The New American Ghetto, American Ruins, Silent Cities: The Evolution of the American Cemetery, and Subway Memories. His photography has been exhibited widely and acquired by institutions including the New York Public Library, the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City, and the Getty Center in Los Angeles. He currently resides in Manhattan. Vergara and Charles Marsh were both Fellows at the American Academy in Berlin, in the spring of 2010.

Fellow travelers are scholars, activists, and practitioners that embody the ideals and commitments of the Project on Lived Theology. We admire their work and are grateful to be walking alongside them in the development and dissemination of Lived Theology.

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