Overview

In a time of darkening environmental prospects, frightening religious fundamentalism, and moribund liberalism, the remarkable and historically unprecedented rise of religious environmentalism is a profound source of hope. In A Greener Faith , Roger S. Gottlieb chronicles the promises of this critically important movement, illuminating its principal ideas, leading personalities, and ways of connecting care for the earth with justice for human beings. He also shows how religious environmentalism breaks the customary boundaries of ""religious issues"" in political life. Asserting that environmental degradation is sacrilegious, sinful, and an offense against God catapults religions directly into questions of social policy, economic and moral priorities, and the overall direction of secular society. Gottlieb contends that a spiritual perspective applied to the Earth provides the environmental movement with a uniquely appropriate way to voice its dream of a sustainable and just world. Equally important, it helps develop a world-making political agenda that far exceeds interest group politics applied to forests and toxic incinerators. Rather, religious environmentalism offers an all-inclusive vision of what human beings are and how we should treat each other and the rest of life.Gottlieb deftly analyzes the growing synthesis of the movement's religious, social, and political aspects, as well as the challenges it faces in consumerism, fundamentalism, and globalization. Highly engaging and passionately argued, this book is an indispensable resource for people of faith, environmentalists, scholars, and anyone who is concerned about our planet's future.

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9780195176483

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Reviews

"""Roger S. Gottlieb has written a seminal book examining the emerging debate on environmental ethics among the world's great faith traditions and what that means for the future of environmental stewardship."" --Carl Pope, Executive Director, The Sierra Club ""This should be vital reading for anyone who thinks they know what the future of the environmental movement is. Gottlieb will show many people worlds they didn't even think existed! A timely book; a wonderful collection of stories; and some hard questions. Excellent."" --Martin Palmer, Secretary General of the Alliance of Religions and Conservation ""Roger S. Gottlieb presents a comprehensive view of the nexus of religion and the environment. The specific stories of faith-based environmentalism provide a bright picture of the faith community's capacity for caring for God's creation. If we actively follow his lead, we will go a long way toward being more effective stewards of our fragile planet.""--Dr. Bob Edgar, General Secretary, National Council of Churches USA ""Gottlieb's depiction of globalization as a non-democratic system of commodification of humans and environment is incisive. ...Religious environmentalism needs to face both its profound diversity and the inequality which globalization produces. Eminently readable, this book would make student discussions far more knowlegable and sophisticated. It provides insights to religious environmentalists and helps broaden the views of the despirers of religion. Above all, this is a hopeful and wise book."" --Environmental Ethics ""Roger S. Gottlieb is the foremost voice in joining spirituality, environmentalism, and progressive politics. In this critically important book, he creates a needed sense of community, engenders hope, gives us direction, and impels us to act on behalf of the earth and all its beings.""--David Landis Barnhill, editor of At Home on the Earth: Becoming Native to Our Place ""Roger S. Gottlieb's A Greener Faith: Religious Environmentalism and Our Planet's Future offers a superb insight into the larger issues of an integral Earth-human survival...a most needed guide.""--Father Thomas Berry, author of The Great Work: Our Way into the Future ""Beautifully written, carefully researched, and insightful...A stunning achievement and must read for students and scholars interested in religiously inflected sustainable living in the face of eco-injustice and the loss of hope in our time.""--Mark I. Wallace, author of Finding God in the Singing River: Christianity, Spirit, Nature ""A Greener Gaith does an excellent job of detailing the vast, diverse facets of contemporary religious environmentalism, drawing on the author's extensive knowledge and familiarity of the movement. In so doing, Gottlieb provides some impassioned and well-argued reasons for why religion (of a certain type) should play a prominent role in environmental politics.""--H-Environment"

For those who connect ecological writing with prohecies of doom and gloom, Gottlieb's book A Greener Faith comes as something of a tonic. Tony Hodgson Rural Theology This book provides a valuable review of religious engagement with the environment...This book is written in a lively style, airing counter arguments followed by replies to such arguments in a way that helps build up the position the author is trying to make. Celia Deane-Drummond, Science and Christian Belief nicely produced and attractively priced...A Greener Faith indicates that what is required now is to offer fuller accounts of the practical differences that religious environmentalism might make. That is, we need now to develop the religio-politics of religious environmentalism. That this book manages this double achievement is an indication of its importance and will ensure that is widely read. Peter Scott, Ars Disputandi ...this book is a provocatively useful contribution to the green public square, calling for its denizens to welcome the emergence of religion in their midst, and implicitly notifying religion scholars of its increasing importance. Willis Jenkins, Journal of the American Academy of Religion Gottlieb's beautifully written and carefully researched work is essential reading for people of faith, environmentalists, scholars and anyone who is concerned about our planet's future. Morning Star It is valuable reading for environmentalists, scholars and the many among us who are concerned about the future of our planet. International Journal of Environment and Pollution ...a very hopeful message and puts a whole new slant on the meaning of fundamentalism. Northern Echo

For those who connect ecological writing with prohecies of doom and gloom, Gottlieb's book A Greener Faith comes as something of a tonic. Tony Hodgson Rural Theology This book provides a valuable review of religious engagement with the environment...This book is written in a lively style, airing counter arguments followed by replies to such arguments in a way that helps build up the position the author is trying to make. Celia Deane-Drummond, Science and Christian Belief nicely produced and attractively priced...A Greener Faith indicates that what is required now is to offer fuller accounts of the practical differences that religious environmentalism might make. That is, we need now to develop the religio-politics of religious environmentalism. That this book manages this double achievement is an indication of its importance and will ensure that is widely read. Peter Scott, Ars Disputandi ...this book is a provocatively useful contribution to the green public square, calling for its denizens to welcome the emergence of religion in their midst, and implicitly notifying religion scholars of its increasing importance. Willis Jenkins, Journal of the American Academy of Religion Gottlieb's beautifully written and carefully researched work is essential reading for people of faith, environmentalists, scholars and anyone who is concerned about our planet's future. Morning Star It is valuable reading for environmentalists, scholars and the many among us who are concerned about the future of our planet. International Journal of Environment and Pollution ...a very hopeful message and puts a whole new slant on the meaning of fundamentalism. Northern Echo

This book provides a valuable review of religious engagement with the environment...This book is written in a lively style, airing counter arguments followed by replies to such arguments in a way that helps build up the position the author is trying to make. Celia Deane-Drummond, Science and Christian Belief nicely produced and attractively priced...A Greener Faith indicates that what is required now is to offer fuller accounts of the practical differences that religious environmentalism might make. That is, we need now to develop the religio-politics of religious environmentalism. That this book manages this double achievement is an indication of its importance and will ensure that is widely read. Peter Scott, Ars Disputandi ...this book is a provocatively useful contribution to the green public square, calling for its denizens to welcome the emergence of religion in their midst, and implicitly notifying religion scholars of its increasing importance. Willis Jenkins, Journal of the American Academy of Religion Gottlieb's beautifully written and carefully researched work is essential reading for people of faith, environmentalists, scholars and anyone who is concerned about our planet's future. Morning Star It is valuable reading for environmentalists, scholars and the many among us who are concerned about the future of our planet. International Journal of Environment and Pollution ...a very hopeful message and puts a whole new slant on the meaning of fundamentalism. Northern Echo

Author Information

Roger S. Gottlieb is Professor of Philosophy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, MA. He is the editor of This Sacred Earth: Religion, Nature, and Environment which is now in its Second Edition.

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